Given that the theme is handed to them in its title, choreographers often feel compelled to make a ballet of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Just as often, the music defeats them. Maybe the Venetian’s idea of weather is too courtly or maybe there are simply too many violins. Whatever the reason, BalletX did well to ditch the famous music for an original score by Dan Deacon, whose allover electronic anthems Justin Peck deployed for his melancholic everyman epic The Times Are Racing. Four choreographers—one per season—have written this “love letter to Mother Nature”: the Ailey-bred Jamar Roberts, who grounds his evocative, socially vibrant work in sensuality and the music; Trey McIntyre, contemporary ballet’s endearing answer to scrappy indie rock; the Brit Morgann Runacre-Temple, half of the much-in-demand duo Jess and Morgs, whose exceptional integration of livestream video into the onstage drama has got ballet directors calling; and Penny Saunders, that rare thing in contemporary ballet—a storyteller. The Four Seasons Reimagined is one of 30 commissions for What Now, a six-week Philadelphia-wide arts festival leading up to our nation’s 250th birthday. In short, it’s a big deal. —Apollinaire Scherr

BalletX reprises The Four Seasons Reimagined at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center on June 11