Compagnie Thor’s “To the Ones I Love” at the Next Wave Fest

It may not exactly be the kick-off of the 2011 Next Wave Festival at BAM (that was a couple weeks ago, depending on which part of the programming you’re referring to), but tonight is Culturebot’s first foray into it, with Belgian choreographer Thierry Smits’ Compagnie Thor presenting To the Ones I Love (through Oct. 1; tickets $40). It’s a tricky piece: using a score by Johann Sebastian Bach and extrapolating from balletic technique, Smits presents a work featuring nine black dancers that plays on references both to Africa and the Western tradition while claiming to avoid exoticism in favor of something that explores “the body in movement, the pleasure of dancing, and wants to share loving energy to the spectator.”