Gloomy Cedar Lakers Leap Into Silly Stratosphere

This article originally appeared in the Culture section of Bloomberg News on January 9, 2009.

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- What can money buy? Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet offers its 15 dancers most poverty-stricken artists' dream: steady employment and health insurance, a rare luxury for American artists.

The trendy young company is performing through Jan. 18 at its own theater in Manhattan's Chelsea district. Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Laurie, whose wealth makes the group possible, and Benoit- Swan Pouffer, its artistic director, are building a repertory dominated by foreign choreographers that lends the company an avant-garde air. In truth, Western concert dance has gone global, but audiences still enjoy the myth of exotica.

The dancers, who range from good to very good, are set in motion more in the vein of postmodern dance than classical ballet, though ballet training contributes to their virtuosity. The choreography is mainly dreadful -- pretentious and often unfathomable. Typically, it bombards the stage with ferocious non-stop action, athletically and sometimes erotically charged, unrelieved by contrasting repose other than a glum catatonia. What ever happened to delight?

'memory/measure'

Dancers Jon Bond, left, and Acacia Schachte take part in the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet performance "memory/measure" by Luca Veggetti in New York on Dec. 13, 2008. The company is performing through Jan. 18, 2009 at its own theater in Manhattan's Chelsea district. Photographer: Julieta Cervantes/Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet via Bloomberg News

One of the two world premieres on the program fulfills this description perfectly. The Italian Luca Veggetti's "memory/measure," scored for voice and electronic cacophony by Paolo Aralla, places two couples in funereal black practice clothes on a chalk-white floor cloth and has them illustrate alienation. Their isolation, despite moments of physical contact, neither holds nor projects emotion. They accept their doom without comment, like citizens of a country subject to perennially gray weather. The action of the piece goes nowhere, as if feeling, or even the passage of time, didn't exist.

Maybe someone whispered in Nancy's or Benoit-Swan's ear, "Lighten up." The second world premiere on this season's program, Didy Veldman's "frame of view," moves from the usual grim postmodern news Cedar Lake delivers to tame attempts at silliness. The juxtaposition is confusing and becomes increasingly so as the piece goes on and on and on.

It has a terrific set, by Miriam Buether, that uses frames to create the illusion of translucent black walls punctuated by three solid doors that suggest French bedroom farce. But no such luck: A couple making out on opposite sides of a stretch panel in one of the doors is less amusing than faux-surreal.

The denizens of Cedar Lake are not destined for frivolous gaiety. A fellow hides behind a door, presumably to his home, besieged by a bunch of light-hearted confetti-tossing celebrants, refusing to admit them to a party to which he's presumably invited them. A moment later, still in his living room, he's sprinkling his own tiny showers of confetti at a gargoylish man who's captured a terrified maiden.

This piece doesn't know its own mind and is far too long. The finale is the last straw. The dancers parade around the perimeters of the set as a litany of their fears is heard on tape.

My favorite: "I'm afraid of dancing."

Through Jan. 18 at the Cedar Lake Theater, 547 W. 26th St. Information: +1-212-868-4444; http://www.cedarlakedance.com.

© 2009 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.