Saturday January 9, 2010 - We finished this day full of dance down at Cedar Lake' Contemporary Ballet's theatre on West 26th where Benoit-Swan Pouffer was presenting his latest installation. The Cedar Lake dancers are are among the most powerful and intense on the current Gotham dance scene. Watching them in action is addictive and I was past due for a fix. Evan has written her impressions of the evening here.
Above: Jason Kittelberger. Kokyat was intrigued by the venue which was formerly the studio of photographer Annie Leibovitz. Since photography at Cedar Lake's installations is not merely permitted but encouraged, he was soon wandering the playing area taking his best shots. Installations can be frustrating: you often feel that while you are watching one aspect of the performance you are missing something equally interesting in another part of the space. But as Swan once said, that's the whole idea: you're not supposed to see everything. By the end of the performance though I was wishing I'd booked for two nights so as to see more of what was happening.
Stefano Zazzera mixed a soundtrack that ranged from classical to cutting edge; lighting by Jim French with projections by Adam Larsen set the scene and sexy costuming by Nancy Haeyung Bae tantalizingly showed off the magnificent bodies of the Cedar Lake dancers. Above: Matthew Rich, Jon Bond and Oscar Ramos.
Above, entrechats from Ebony Williams. My feeling as the installation progressed was of being in the middle of a nightmare. As massive projections of images sacred and profane flashed on the wall - everything from saints to static, botanicals to grinning ghouls - smoke and mist and occasional immersions in red light gave the playing space a hellish feeling.
A starkly lit central raised platform sometimes seemed to be the setting of a daemonic Last Supper with Jason Kittelberger as a rather ominous host.
Later Jason and Nickemil Concepcion scaled the high brick wall and leered down at us like gargoyles.
Jon Bond writhed on another wall in blood-tinged light as a tormented soul.
Around the perimeter of the room the dancers appeared in brief vignettes....
...sometimes suspended (Jason, above)...
...or sometimes clambering up onto black set-pieces in the corners (Manuel Vignoulle, Oscar Ramos and Harumi Terayama).
Moments of repose alternated with undercurrents of violence and angst.
At one point several dancers appeared with their mouths wired open into agonized grimaces that were also oddly comic.
In my favorite 'episode', the girls donned ragged, cobwebby old tutus...
...and scrambled up onto the table to dance in tortured motifs like a corps of lost Wilis. In the upper photo: Harumi, Ebony and Gwynenn Taylor Jones. Immediately above: Ana-Maria Lucaciu, Soojin Choi & Ebony.
As always at Cedar Lake, the dancers brought their personal commitment and powerfully diverse personalities into play, drawing the elements into a cohesive whole. Despite feeling that I probably missed certain things in the installation, the performance sped by all too quickly and the dancers were called out twice to ardent applause.
All photos: Kokyat. Most of the images will enlarge if clicked on.
A gallery of more photographs will appear here soon.
Gorgeous photos, and beautiful writeup! It made me think of several things - odd how a writeup can make me think of such things, even when I wasn't there.
It reminded me of certain elements that are present in psychiatric diseases. Oddly, a huge percentage of schizophrenic patients possess hallucinations of religious symbols and figures (Satan, Jesus, the Last Supper, etc.). This piece somehow reminded me of that. Is it hell, or is it all in our minds waiting to be unleashed? I apologize for such heavy thoughts on a Monday morning, but it is a testament to these beautiful photos to inspire such crazy thoughts so early in the week.
Posted by: jolene | January 11, 2010 at 12:05 PM
Beautiful photos and a lovely review, Philip.
Jolene, very astute remarks. It's too bad that you couldn't be here to see it in person.
Posted by: Evan | January 11, 2010 at 02:38 PM