Stephanie Silva, who writes about dance for the Journal, was able to watch the Trey McIntyre Project dancers rehearsing and performing on Wednesday, Nov. 9. She writes:

For decades, contemporary dance has favored a high-tech, high-gloss style, with astonishingly athletic dancers performing lightning quick choreography, filled with Olympian jumps and daring lifts. The Trey McIntyre Project is fully capable of that. But refreshingly, technique is not the end but the means for this contemporary ballet company from Boise, Idaho.

Last week at the Van Duzer Theater, the group performed In Dreams, a series of dances set to a handful of Roy Orbison songs, sandwiched between two other works, Oh! Invented World and The Sweeter End.

In Dreams was especially satisfying. We know the distinctive voice and the dark ballads; we sense the era. The dancers didn’t reflect the music, they inhabited the world of Orbison’s music. McIntyre effectively used solos interrupted by group sections, then returned to the solos. Among the articulate dancers, Laura Edson stood out, captivating as the outsider.