Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet: Winter Season January 8-18th

Matthew Neff | Jan 12, 2009 | 0

frame of view by Didy Veldman Photo: Julieta Cervantes Dancers: Nickemil Concepcion, Golan Yosef, Jubal Battisti, Marina Mascarell, Soojin Choi, Acacia Schachte

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet has kicked off it's new winter season this past week. If you have never seen Cedar Lake perform, never seen European contemporary choreography in action, or if you're itching to get out of the house then go pick up a ticket. More info after the jump -- plus my super non-opinionated review of the performance. Ok I will admit it. It's opinionated.

The winter season consisted of memory/measure by Luca Veggetti, TEN DUETS ON A THEME OF RESCUE by Crystal Pite and frame of view by Didy Veldman. Most of you will be scratching your head wondering who these people are. While I sat through the show, I didn't worry about the pieces names or the choreographers. Cedar Lake primarily consists of importing choreography from other countries. Their rep is like riding It's A Small World at Disney World. It's intended to showcase works that American's normally wouldn't get to see. (Don't worry folks there is a punchline coming soon)

The evening started off with a bang as I was invited to sit through a Q&A moderated by New York Times chief dance critic Anna Kisselgoff with Didy Veldman and Cedar Lake's Artistic Director Benoit-Swan Pouffer. Now as I sat down waiting for the Q&A to start, I saw a man that I knew was going to ask a question. We all know the type. The people that are in love with themselves, love hearing their own voice and think any question they ask isn't stupid. Of course when Anna Kisselgoff asked the audience if they had any questions, his hand shoots toward the sky. His question consisted of a monologue about famine, a song about tuna fish, and Obama's YES WE CAN speech. (Of course that's a lie but it would have been more interesting and entertaining than his real question about the differences between America and Europe. Seriously? Does this guy not get BBC America? It's different. Next question. Didy Veldman answered his question as politely as she could with the expression on her face like she smelt someone's gas. I wanted to throw my shoe at him but my shoes are new. The Q&A was interesting overall. Veldman talked about her early training and how diverse of a background she had in different styles of dance. The highlight of the Q&A had to be Kisselgoff herself. One day I will write a blog or even a book about this woman. Who knew she was so funny?

After the Q&A i had to return to my seat. Front row all the way on the side of house left. If you have never been to Cedar Lake's theater then you should be warned about the dimensions of the space. It is very wide. The audience's seating is also very wide but not very deep. At first in my seat I felt like I had been punished for being a nasty blogger that never likes anything. I was seriously screaming about how awful my seat was in my head. Literally seconds after screaming at myself for my seat along came Caleb. He told me that he had sat there the previous night and it was a great view of the action. Long story not short enough- The seat is probably one of the better seats in the house. The last time I went to a performance there, I felt like I was at the US Open watching a tennis ball fly back and forth. Sitting on the side caused the super wide stage to be completely visible without moving my neck back and forth like Stevie Wonder. So when you order tickets, make sure you pick up Seat AA-7. The best part of the seat is that when the show is over, you can just leave. You don't have to wait behind old and slow people.

The first piece memory/measure by Luca Veggetti is the weakest out of the three works. You might like it. I didn't. I didn't feel it had an original thought about it. The movement is your standard quirky ballet based contemporary vernacular. The slow motion running around the the dimensions of the floor didn't exactly scream bad college choreography, but it came close. I wondered the whole time why Cedar Lake had brought this Italian choreographer to show in America if the work is just standard. There are numerous credible American ballet based contemporary companies that are pushing the mold of what the genre is. To import works, I would expect that they should reflect a different ideology than what can be found in America. I wanted to be taught new things. I go to the theater to experience new things. If it's the same old steps then why bother. Luca Veggetii said in the program that his dance was partly about "....an obsessive search for an inattainable perfection." If he means that his work isn't perfect then he is 100% correct however "inattainable" isnt actually a word. I checked. Here is footage of his rehearsal: http://vimeo.com/1958029

The next two pieces for Cedar Lake's season proved to hold the same flaw. They looked like most other works. In fact, all three pieces could have easily been mistaken as coming from the same choreographer. The purpose of a repertoire company is to present works that come from different view points. Even though this season brings works from Italy, Canada, and the Netherlands, to me it seemed a bit repetitive. I don't think the pieces themselves looked identical but I thought that they all had borrowed from the same box of steps.

TEN DUETS ON A THEME OF RESCUE was choreographed by Canadian Crystal Pite. I wish I could tell you more about the piece but I had one of those moments where you watch a dancer perform and you get completely lost in their movement. I know other people were on the stage with her but I don't remember their performances. Cedar Lake's dancers are probably the most talented young group of dancers this city is currently offering. Now that I said that, let me be the first to tell you that I want to start a new fan club. It's going to be called I HEART EBONY WILLIAMS. If Tina Turner and Judith Jamison could spawn a dancer then that would be Ebony. She is a powerhouse. I am immediately attracted to her because she doesn't dance like a girl and she doesn't dance like a boy. She has a strong presence on stage that is pure power and raw emotion.

She has been featured twice in Cedar Lake's video series entitled project 52. In case you don't know about it, here is a quick summary of what it is:

project52 is a year-long documentary in 52 one-minute segments. Featuring the dancers and collaborators at Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, project52 creates intimate vignettes of the lives of performers and artists. The documentary focuses on human stories and the intersection of life and dance.

project52: http://vimeo.com/project52
Concept and Production by Caleb Custer
Artistic Direction by Benoit-Swan Pouffer
Music by Stefano Zazzera

Here is Ebony's two videos from the series:
http://vimeo.com/2657127
http://vimeo.com/2460013

She is amazing. She is either dancing in one piece or two pieces each night during this season. I would go back again to see her in the other pieces but I got some stuff to do. Go see Cedar Lake to watch Ebony. She is worth any ticket price.

The last piece, frame of view by Didy Veldman, is good. Good. Not amazing, but I sat and enjoyed it. I sat in the house while they were building the set instead of getting the free champagne. It's always funny when people figure out there is free booze at a show. They try to act cool about it but they always freak and end up running toward the bar.

The set and costumes are a fun addition to the narrative. It's very similar to the feeling of Graham's Appalachian Spring set. The yellow 3-D frame and doors are the main components that allow the multiple narratives to take place and interact. The costumes look like they came out of my closet. If you go see this piece please note that I want the checkered suit as an alternative to my striped suit.

Anna Kisselgoff commented during the Q&A that she found Didy's use of facial expressions to have pushed the dancer's beyond their normal serious expression. Having heard this I was ready for something unusual. I guess Kisselgoff has to go see some theater because I thought her compliment was weak. You won't think that there is anything out of average range of expressions taught in a Theater 101 class. There are parts that are funny. There are parts that are sweet. There is a part borrowed from Blue Man Group. There are parts that are mindless dance phrases. Overall, I didn't feel there was a cohesive motif that tied the whole piece together. Like I said before, the choreography was flawed because the piece didn't have it's own movement. It consisted of fragments of phrases that have been recycled over and over again. I learned during the Q&A that the rehearsal process for this piece was 6 weeks. ???? I can't even fathom what took that long to create this work unless they were weaving the cotton used for their costumes. Maybe they were shredding the confetti used in the piece. To summarize the whole piece for you: It's a world of laughter, a world or tears Its a world of hopes, its a world of fear There's so much that we share That its time we're aware Its a small world after all CHORUS (Everyone join in): Its a small world after all Its a small world after all Its a small world after all Its a small, small world

If you need a good dance education go see the season at Cedar Lake. If you do, make sure you bundle up because it's a long walk from the subway.

Cedar Lake
547 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001-5504
(Btwn 10th and 11th Ave)
http://cedarlakedance.com/

Thursday, January 08, 2009 through Sunday, January 18, 2009

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Ballet, Enthusiast, Performance, Cedar, Ebony, Lake, Williams (all tags)