Young Lovers is a deeply reflective work by choreographer Houston Thomas, created for Complexions Contemporary Ballet as he approached the end of his third decade. The ballet explores his evolving relationship with love, especially the tender, thrilling, and complicated experience of young love. Looking back over the last ten years, Thomas revisits the naivety, excitement, and emotional risks that shaped his earliest connections, and considers how, in an increasingly uncertain world, love remains something fragile yet worth protecting, cultivating, and fighting for.

Set to the evocative music of Jeff Buckley, Tarika Blue, and MAW India, the work intertwines memory, movement, and emotion to illuminate love’s vulnerability, adventure, and enduring hope. Premiering at the iconic Joyce Theater, Young Lovers marks Thomas’s first presentation on that historic stage.

At its core, the ballet reminds us of the preciousness of connection.