New York's Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet to close

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Plans to Close
by Michael Cooper, The New York Times, March 20, 2015

Alexandra Damiani named new Cedar Lake AD

Artistic Director Named for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet
by Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times, April 7. 2014

Benoit-Swan Pouffer leaves Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Artistic Director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Steps Down
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, May 30, 2013

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet at The Joyce Theater

Read my Dance Magazine review of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet here.

Gaga over Naharin

On Thursday, April 30 (8pm), 92YTribeca will host veteran Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heyman for a presentation of his 2007 documentary, Out of Focus, a "a candid portrait of Israel’s 'rock star' choreographer, Ohad Naharin, through an in-depth look at his rehearsal process with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet." Tickets: $12.

92YTribeca
200 Hudson Street, Ground Floor
Manhattan
212-601-1000

Fresh "Lake" in Chelsea

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, headed by Benoit-Swan Pouffer, is a mighty instrument, sharper than ever in this Winter 2009 season. I will underscore fierce, standout performances by Jon Bond and Jubal Battisti in Luca Veggetti's premiere, memory/measure, and Crystal Pite's Ten Duets on A Theme of Rescue (from 2008), and by Jason Kittelberger, who gives Didy Veldman's premiere, frame of view, two of its few compelling passages of dancing. Unlike the Veggetti and Pite works, the Veldman piece--despite its inspired visual and sonic wonders--seems disconnected from these dancers or, perhaps, bluntly applied to their bodies. Even so, they step up with full attention and strength. As we've come to expect, the technical capability, crisp timing, sensitive coordination with one another and willingness to push through challenges makes CLCB dancers consistently rewarding to watch, even if not every meeting of dancer and dance clicks.

The run, at the company's headquarters in Chelsea, concludes on January 18. Click here for program details and ticketing.

Cedar Lake previews

Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman rehearses with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Italian choreographer Luca Veggetti rehearses with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cedar Lake: Copy this

In ‘The Copier,’ Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Moves and Invites the Audience to Follow
by Claudia La Rocco, The New York Times, August 21, 2008

Jill Johnson: Body and Soul podcast

Choreographer Jill Johnson talks with Eva about her residency with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and her new dance installation, The Copier. Program notes--http://infinitebody.blogspot.com. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet info at www.cedarlakedance.com. (c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

MP3 File

Podcast Notes: Upcoming on "Body and Soul"

My next guest on Body and Soul podcast will be dancer-choreographer Jill Johnson, a protégé of Ballet Frankfurt's William Forsythe. Johnson will soon conclude a residency with New York's acclaimed Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. The 15-member troupe, led by Artistic Director Benoit-Swan Pouffer, is preparing to perform Johnson's dance installation, The Copier, next week (Wednesday, August 20 through Saturday, August 23) at the company's spacious headquarters in Chelsea. We met after a rehearsal to chat about the development of this piece and the excitement of dancers performing at close quarters with their audience.

Dancer Jill Johnson’s fusion of classical purity with modern physical grace has brought her to stages around the globe. A graduate of the National Ballet School, Ms. Johnson was a soloist with The National Ballet of Canada and principal dancer with Ballet Frankfurt. She has staged William Forsythe’s ballets for companies worldwide, including The Norwegian National Ballet, State Opera Ballet Munich, Paris Opera Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Italy's Alterballetto, Netherlands Dans Theater, Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company, The National Ballet of Canada and American Ballet Theatre. Recently commissioned to design and lead a dance workshop series at the Baryshnikov Center, Ms. Johnson has a residency teaching monthly master workshops at Cedar Lake in New York City. Ms. Johnson is adjunct faculty at the Juilliard School, has taught master classes at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and The Alvin Ailey School and choreographs for television and film. She lives in New York City.

Schedule and ticketing for CLCB's The Copier: SmartTix.com

More about CLCB's installation series

Find out more in my upcoming episode of Body and Soul podcast and on Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet's site.

Essence of Cedar Lake

Got pulse? Glassy Essence--the latest installation from Benoit-Swan Pouffer and his talented team at Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet--will surely quicken it, but only if you don't much prefer to be sedately stationary, safely gazing front and center from your seat of judgment.

All of CLCB's theater seats have been removed. To watch Glassy Essence, you must stand for 45 minutes. But you should also have eyes at the back of your head and--like the dancers--be quick on your feet, trotting to a new spot to catch action popping up around the perimeter of the space. And that action will suddenly pick up and dash to a new location. Multiple actions break out at once. Where to look?

You and your fellow audience members, herded into the center of the theater, must contend with sixteen dancers unpredictably drifting or barreling through that unstructured, unprotected space, indenting and slicing the crowd. I had an embarrassing moment when Jason Kittelberger approached from behind me, and I could not react quickly enough to prevent my shoulder bag from briefly ensnaring him. Push came to shove.

Glassy Essence, like other installations by Cedar Lake, is a phenomenon expressly designed to draw the young Chelsea art crowd who might not normally give dance a thought. I cannot imagine that its vertiginous staging, intense energies and whiff of divine decadence--that dark and steamy section where dancers pose and interact for our voyeuristic pleasure among a wall of blocks--would not wow the Chelsea folk and more. None of it makes a whole lot of sense, but it is a whole lot of sensation. Relax. Let go. It's a show.

I loved Alexander Dodge's set--the relatively narrow rim of dance space surrounding us, the wall of blocks, the platform rising from a darkened floor. The dancers--trained and coached to a high polish--gave it their CLCB all, as I've come to expect. For my money, though, Kittelberger's the star of Glassy Essence, and the only one who makes the intermittent aerial work look eerily unworldly, edgy and ominous. See this, if for no other reason, to see him.

There's all sorts of fun stuff--a blog, videos, podcasts and more--accessible from the dedicated Glassy Essence site. If you'd like, you can take non-flash photos and upload them to this site. If you were one of the lucky ones at opening night's 9pm show, you took home a flash drive bracelet with video excerpts. Gimmicks? Playthings of a wealthy organization? At least Pouffer's upfront about why he's doing this, and it will probably pay off.

Two shows per night (8pm and 9pm), Thursday-Saturday through May 3.
Ticketing at SmartTix

Cedar Lake, again

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet continues to make a strong case for becoming my favorite contemporary ballet company. I'll admit that I'm rarely a fan of contemporary ballet, but this sexy troupe is growing on me. I love its cultural diversity, its in-your-face, fresh spirit and the radiant, confident stage presence of its dancers. I look forward to seeing what performers like Jon Bond--I call him "the Joy of Dancing dancer"--and the fiercely interesting Acacia Schachte and Jason Kittelberger will do with the physical and dramatic challenges that choreographers throw their way. I've even started to cheer them on as they sit there on their pot of gold, enjoying a level of abundance that most U.S. dance companies can only fantasize about. (Enjoy it, kids!) So, my hat's off to Benoit-Swan Pouffer for making this doubter sit up and take notice.

Their current program opens with Jacopo Godani's Symptoms of Development--premiered by CLCB last January--which looks and sounds like a video game and has some wicked, terrifying dancing. It concludes, unfortunately, with the company premiere of Stijn Celis's Rite, set to a recorded performance of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps by pianist Fasil Say. This incomprehensible and interminable piece made my Inner Child fidgety, sleepy and unamused. The Times's Alastair Macaulay got Rite right--see his Rituals and Symptoms in a Triple Bill of Movement online today--although, when it comes to Symptoms of Development, I'd give Godani more credit and not blame the messenger for the uncomfortable message. But Macaulay and I agree on Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite and her Ten Duets on A Theme of Rescue which underscores not only the forceful physicality of the CLCB dancers but also their sinuous musicality. And I want to see more of her work, too.

The current season concludes on the 19th. For information and tickets, visit http://www.cedarlake.com or http://smarttix.com.