A New Reason to Love the Hanover: Complexions Contemporary Ballet Kicks Off the Start of Worcester’s Next Big Thing
Out on the Town With What’s Up Worcester shines a light on Hanover Theatre’s new dance series with Complexions Contemporary Ballet. We attended their very first show on Friday, November 7, 2025.
It was a joy to upgrade our Youth Spotlight Ariihanna McCoy to VIP status at this incredible show of athleticism and art in motion. The Complexions company wowed us with their unique blend of classical ballet and hyper-gymnastic modern choreography, not to mention the music was fantastic, including a tribute to Lenny Kravitz.
November 7, 2025– What’s Up Worcester attended the Hanover Theatre‘s very first Dance Series show with our VIP Experience Contest winner on a beautiful fall evening in the Woo. It was a joy to upgrade our Youth Spotlight Ariihanna McCoy’s night at this incredible show of athleticism and art in motion. The Complexions company wowed us with their unique blend of classical ballet and hyper-gymnastic modern choreography and ability to convey emotion1 without words. Music fans also got the best of both worlds, because the second half called Love Rocks was a tribute to Lenny Kravitz. The resounding message was:
“We’re not here to judge. We are here to love. There’s no room to hate. We are just one human race.” (Lenny Kravitz)
This diverse group of dancers gave us a new reason to love the Hanover. This is just the the beginning of an exciting dance series, and the Hanover is poised to be next center of cultural entertainment in the Northeast.
Worcester should get excited about dance because it is an expressive art that has the power to change our views on athleticism, wellness, art and culture. Dance, or “art in motion”, has the power to heal us and to take us temporarily away from external noise, focusing us on the connections between music, movement, and emotion. Dance and music cross cultural divides and provide endless opportunites for interpretation: Anyone of any age, gender or belief system can take from it their own experience. What Worcester gets from the Hanover, including their commitment to the arts and their community-focused efforts, we give back with our attendance and our love for the arts. So, What’s Up Worcester is paying attention as dance takes off in our city. Move over Boston Ballet; Go see the Nutcracker here in Worcester!
Why Worcester Should Love Dance at the Hanover
Ballet? Period. Exclamation!
This is not the Nutcracker, with sugar plum fairies and tutus: Complexions is dance at it’s most athletic. If anyone expected Complexions Contemporary Ballet to be demure, contained, precise and slow, they were in for a shock when the curtain rose and the dancers turned the stage to a colorful explosion of beauty and raw power. They wore their hair loose (a classical ballet no-no) and bent their bodies in angles and curves in ways only a contortionist could imagine, and elegantly. One presumption would have been correct: precision. This is ballet, after all.
But the similarities to classical ballet end with mastery of the foundational ballet movements and pointe shoes. There are no buns and no tutus. This is modern, hip hop, contemporary, lyrical, funk and ballet all in one. It is far from boring. What’s Up Worcester spoke with Hanover theater CEO Alan Seiffert, Worcester Business Journal (WBJ) Power 100: 2025 class act and dance enthusiast after the performance who said, “One gentleman leaving the theater said his wife ‘made him come’ and he was surprised how much he enjoyed the show!” Strong men do ballet, ask the NFL.
Seiffert said he has a personal mission to bring elite dance to Worcester and this is the first of many dance engagements to come.
The turnout was lower than WUW expected, particularly with the many local competitive dance studios in the city, but we expect that to change. This performance was electrifying and thought-provoking and pushed the boundaries of what one expects to see at “the ballet.” Imagine leaping and dancing in jeans; Complexions did that, literally. While the dancers are clearly highly trained in ballet and other styles of dance, they are also acrobatic and seem to defy gravity and the bounds of human strength. Their execution and timing are flawless.
Dance is Inclusive: Diversity is Encouraged
A move not seen in typical ballet is sliding a partner across the floor on the “box” (or tip) of their pointe shoes, typically in second position (eg a sustained squat). Also not typical in classical ballet is same sex partnering, of which there was plenty, and simply highlighted the strength and adaptability of this company, as well as their diversity. Co-artistic directors Dwight Rhoden, globally celebrated cutting edge choreographer, and Desmond Richardson, Iconic American dancer and first African American Principal dancer of American Ballet Theater, founded Complexions Contemporary Ballet in 1994 with a mission to captivate audiences with innovative movement while celebrating the individuality of each dancer. Simply put, they aimed for inclusivity, and 30 years later, the company thrives on diversity, seemingly limitless ability and ground-breaking choreography that wows even those who typically aren’t ballet-goers.
In classical ballet, it is proper to look uniform and not stand out in appearance or movements. Typically the prima ballerina has the more colorful costume or the largest tutu and the biggest repertoire of moves. Complexions Contempory Ballet celebrates diversity by allowing each dancer to stand out and breaking down traditional dance norms and gender roles. A great example was the evocative trio Deeply (excerpt) featuring Jillian Davis, Massachusetts native Joe Gonzalez and Vincenzo Di Primo set to the hauntingly emotional Arvo Part (Spiegel im Speigel). It appears to be a push and pull love triangle in which Davis threads her statuesque body like a beautifully bent needle through the arms of competing lovers. This was a love story wherer no one was injured, despite featuring two men and one woman in different pairings. Love conquers all.
Dance is Health Forward: Start Young
It isn’t new information that dancing is good for your health. Dancing, in any style, is a fun way to improve cardiovascular fitness, but studies also show that dancing is good for your brain. The stepwork required to achieve Complexions’ level of precision and speed in time with is certainly a mental However, the sheer athleticism of the Complexions company is mind-blowing. Their physical condition can most closely be described as; professional bodybuilder muscularity, marathon cardiovascular endurance, and gymnastic capabilities combined. The company is onstage for 90 minutes of awe-dropping jetes, arabesques, duos, lifts and fast movement that seem humanly impossible. What’s up Worcester caught two of the dancers hailing their Uber after the show and asked them what they eat to maintain that level of endurance and muscle. They laughed and said, “A LOT of food!” Granted, they must’ve been exhausted after this show, having traveled from LA the night before, so we forgive them for not detailing the specifics of their diet. One thing is clear: This company works hard to maintain their health.
Exposing Worcester’s youth to dance allows them an opportunity to become interested in a health-forward activity that costs little but the price of a Spotify download or two. Half of the Complexions Company is male and they range in culture and nationality. Anyone can dance, perhaps not as well as this highly trained group from NYC assembled by co-founders, and dance gurus, Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, but everyone must start somewhere.
Worcester kids can start young with myriad studios all over the city (including at Hanover’s own Conservatory) and opportunties to compete at a National level or go on to Boston Ballet, Juilliard or Parsons. College scholarships abound! There are few ways to engage the body as well as letting go to music and Complexions exhibits this so well. They are in peak physical condition, role modeling for our youth that health, hard work and fitness can really take you somewhere!
The Perfomance and Location
In sum, what people got at the Hanover Theatre on November 7 was a bright and exciting night watching very talented athetes sweep across the stage with a range of emotion and technique that stunned even the harshest critic. Further than that, however, Worcester got a taste of the best our city has to offer: An opportunity for anyone from any neighborhood to come together as a community and take in a cultural experience that is more than art. It is Love. We felt that and we used that energy in Ariihanna’s personal photo shoot right outside the Hanover, with the perfect lighting and theatre district energy.
The Hanover wants young people like our VIP Ariihanna to enjoy a variety of communal cultural experiences and for all of Worcester to have access to the performing arts. They continue to diversy to meet community interest and assemble great programs for all ages. Complexions, with their message of inclusion, was a wonderful starting point for ther inaugural dance series, because it was truly an event that every audience member truly enjoyed, or at least admired.
What’s Up Worcester recommends you join in the dance fun and check out one of the next three dance performance of the 2025-26 season: Cirque Kalabante, Parsons, Dance Theatre of Harlem. You, too, will fall in love with the diversity, music and energy of contemporary dance. Give The Hanover Theatre some Worcester love. Encore!
Show Program– Act 1: Beethoven Concerto, Deeply, Gone, Star Dust Suite: A Ballet Tribute to David Bowie. Act 2: Love Rocks, a Tribute to Lenny Kravitz, all choreographed by Dwight Rhoden.
Betsey Taft Kennedy, Managing Editor, What’s Up Worcester, betsey@whatsupworcester.com
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- Hear Choreographer extraordinaire Dwight Rhoden describe how he pairs music with dance and emotion. ↩︎
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