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, 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.