This review by longtime Charlotte arts critic Lawrence Toppman was published by The Charlotte Ledger on October 9, 2026. You can find out more about The Charlotte Ledger’s commitment to smart local news and information and sign up for our newsletter for free here. Ledger subscribers can add the Toppman on the Arts newsletter on their “My Account” page.
Today’s Toppman on the Arts is sponsored by The Mint Museum. “Caravaggio | Revolution: Baroque Masterpieces from the Roberto Longhi Foundation” offers a rare opportunity to see an original Caravaggio painting in Charlotte. On view through Oct. 25 at Mint Museum Uptown.
Review: Charlotte Ballet’s ‘Black Box Series’ showcases the company’s impressive talent with two dazzling returning works and a less compelling world premiere
Dancers perform in Charlotte Ballet’s “Black Box Series,” running through Oct. 24 at the McBride-Bonnefoux Center for Dance. (Photo by Taylor Jones)
by Lawrence Toppman
Sometimes a small budget can be a virtue: Having paid for a new piece, a dance company will reprise it soon after its creation to get more mileage for the money. That happens twice in Charlotte Ballet’s “Black Box Series,” running through Oct. 24 at McBride-Bonnefoux Center for Dance. In this case, familiarity breeds not contempt but deeper understanding and joy.
The marquee event is “Phoenix,” a world premiere by the German-American choreographic team Flock. It’s been sandwiched between two richer works premiered within the last three years, “Dos y Dos y Dos” by CB artistic director Alejandro Cerrudo and “From Africa with Love” by Mthuthuzeli November. In order, they leave you beaming, mystified and electrified.
I stand by my previous Ledger review of the flowing, sensuous “Dos,” except to add that a new dimension emerged for me Thursday night: I was taken by how much the dance reflected how differently we behave in private and public lives.
In the ensembles, men and especially women seemed to comply with others’ expectations, mirroring their gestures. Left in pairs with partners, they became equals: asserting their personalities, relinquishing control but not independence, finding unity in mutual respect.
Dancers mimic ostriches in “From Africa With Love,” inspired by choreographer Mthuthuzeli November’s travels across his native South Africa, where he encountered the birds. (Photo by Taylor Jones)
My initial Ledger take on “Africa” also feels valid — except for thinking ostriches were flamingos or another exotic bird — yet that, too, has deepened. The exoticism absorbed on first viewing still has power, yet the moves themselves emerged more clearly.
As the dancers changed back and forth between human and animal behavior, I took in the beauty and savagery of the actual steps. Six women stabbed fiercely at the stage with their feet en pointe — toes of steel! — to a heavy martial beat and spooky chants. The male ensemble followed and shook the earth with what could have been a celebration or a declaration of war.
And I realized two things about Charlotte Ballet that had been hovering at the edge of my awareness. First, the dancers have more unanimity of purpose than I’ve seen here — not just clean, unified execution, but the ability to think as if with a single mind.
Second, the company has no weak links, or showed none Thursday. Under previous leadership, there often seemed to a front line (so to speak) and competent dancers who could back them up. No longer. Karsen Gresham and Luke Csordas commanded the stage in the only extended duet from “Africa,” yet others could have made an equally strong impression. (Two other couples dance it at different performances.)
About “Phoenix,” I have less to say. If choreographers relate in a program note that “all our work is otherworldly but rooted in timeless truths” and title a piece after the immortal bird that burns to death and rises whole from its own ashes, ought we to find this narrative in the dance? I barely could, even leaving aside the Christian allegory linked to the myth in later years. (We die, turn to dust and are reborn eternally through the Savior’s intercession.)
Birds aplenty I saw, from the opening scene where dancers fluttered and darted with beautiful agility. The dimmed lighting, lending a smoky haze to the stage, suggested the beginnings of a conflagration. But were the dancers, dressed in loose earth-hued clothing varying from dun to red, all supposed to be phoenixes? Were they embodiments of flame, as the last scene suggests, where all but one are swooningly overcome by the lone miraculous bird?
Flock (the team of Florian Lochner and Alice Klock) don’t always keep the bird/fire motifs clearly in sight, which made the rest of the choreography difficult for me to assimilate into the theme. “Phoenix” wasn’t abstract enough to be plotless, like “Dos,” or representative of identifiable ideas and actions, like “Africa.” By the end, it had flown out of my grasp.
IF YOU’RE GOING
“Black Box Series” runs at McBride-Bonnefoux Center for Dance, 701 N. Tryon Street, through Oct. 24. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday through Oct. 17. There’s also a 2 p.m. matinee on Oct. 10 and an added show at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24.
Lawrence Toppman covered the arts for 40 years at The Charlotte Observer before retiring in 2020. Now, he’s back in the critic’s chair for the Charlotte Ledger — look for his reviews several times each month in the Charlotte Ledger.
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