If Ever, choreographed by Sophie Gray-Gaillaird and Olivia Passarelli for five two dance company, is a testament to the effortlessness and inevitability of falling: into someone, away from someone, through the mess of romantic and platonic love.
Utilizing an eclectic music lineup from Chopin to Patsy Cline to Nat King Cole to Debussy and, eventually, the haunting I Only Have Eyes for You by The Flamingos, Gray-Gaillaird and Passarelli transport themselves (they are both choreographers and dancers for this work) and three additional performers—dancers Daniel Ricardo Rocha, Vivianna DeSantiago, Nolan Eisenhaur—somewhere timeless. It’s a place where maybe, just maybe, they’ll run into someone who changes their lives. A single hightop table is nestled in the corner where dancers quietly chat as though at a bar; they wait to see who enters next.
The company’s prowess with weight sharing and rapid partnering sequences rises to the top of their work: they make gorgeous, daringly physical choices to run, plunge, lift, whirl, torpedo, collide, arc, invert, jackknife, and layout The most human and striking moments are when they slow down: a hand on a sternum, eyes traveling up to meet and hold steady, an instance of meeting ever so tenderly, palm to palm.
Now in their sixth season, five two dance company has reached a place of self-assurance. It’s pristinely clear that the performers trust one another completely; they fling themselves with abandon without batting an eyelash. Although one of the dancers, Rachel Ha-Eun Lee, was unable to perform this evening, her absence added an intriguing tension to the work rather than feeling like impediment.
A section of If Ever includes disrobing. Each dancer peels off their modest cotton layers to bare chests and thighs, but the moment transpires so quickly it gets lost. More tension could be built with a slower, deliberate choice to discard a top, unbutton a blouse, unzip a skirt, pull down a pair of pants with eye contact and vulnerability. Is this the first time they’re seeing one another this way? The clothes come back on.
The ending number is a dizzying, abundant waterfall of lifts, rotations, catapults, cradles, and more: torsos drape over shoulders, legs wrap around hips, feet balance on backs, all with a sense of fate. If love feels like being swept up in a current, then the people in the world of If Ever are floating on their backs, surrendering to the rush.
five two is a dance company of quiet, strong bones. They’ve built a foundation of endurance, and it’s exciting to anticipate how they will push themselves next.
If Ever, five two dance company, Icebox Performance Space, Cannonball, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, September 18-19, 2026
