Leigh Donlan reports from Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley:
Dancers of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in Crystal Pite’s TEN DUETS ON A THEME OF RESCUE (Photo: Paula Lobo)
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet performed three dramatically different works at Zellerbach Hall on Saturday evening. Currently under the interim artistic direction of Alexandra Damiani, the company’s long-time ballet mistress, the New York City based company, with its daring repertoire, artistic and technical prowess, became an American dance phenomenon at its founding ten years ago, and this evening’s performance proved their staying power.
Jiří Kylián created Indigo Rose in 1998 as a tribute to the transient nature of youth and human relationships. Stark lighting and a grand diagonal curtain that billowed like a sail split the stage into black and white. The four dances progressed from playful to highly volatile and ended abruptly with all nine dancers frozen in their last motions of a dance. A video projected the dancers’ prerecorded emotional states, alone and in relationships, perhaps for them to reflect on, or for us. Though physically challenging, with technique often upstaging narrative, the results were polished, classical Kylián elegance.
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in Jo Strømgren’s NECESSITY, AGAIN (Photo: Paula Lobo)
The most impressive work of the evening was Crystal Pite’s Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue. The company seems to have thoroughly conquered this piece, set on them in 2007, which made them sensitive to every nuance. Couples roamed the foggy stage, one individual in a state of psychological unravel and the other rescuing them by simply being there, breaking their falls, extending a hand, soothing their trembles. The onstage standing spotlights were maneuvered by the dancers, backlighting the couples and occasionally turning toward the audience, reminding us that the observer is also the observed.
The poetic movements were intrinsic to each dancer, particularly those of Matthew Rich whose psychosis seemed dreamlike, with his far-away eyes and silent landings from jumps. He looked like he had slipped through a crack in time and wasn’t sure how to get back. Jason Kittelberger’s gentle lifts of the women, using only his bowed head and the nape of his neck to lift and carry them, were tenderly surreal and Acacia Schachte’s solo conveyed the strength of a maternal woman. The dance closed poignantly with Joseph Kudra frantically running almost in place towards a slowly walking Navarra Novy-Williams, who constantly maintained her outstretched arm to him. After many failed attempts to grab hold of her hand, he succeeded and they retreated into darkness together. Pite is a brilliant and much sought after choreographer who extracts thrilling technical and emotional feats from her dancers, and whose work stands apart from her contemporaries in its lack of pretentiousness.
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in Jiří Kylián’s INDIGO ROSE (Photo: Paula Lobo)
Jo Strømgren’s Necessity, Again is an homage to the essential moments of emotion and irrationality that occur between words. A chair and table set the stage as the dancers, costumed in drably colored sixties dresses for women, shirts and ties for men, laboriously dragged out a clothesline weighted with pages as we hear the voice of French philosopher Jacques Derrida explaining the nature of his deconstruction theory. His pontifications go on and on as disgruntled dancers drag out another clothesline of pages. Silence strikes, the lights warm and the romantic French love songs of Charles Aznavour begin to play, igniting the stage with carefree dance. As Derrida’s lecture starts again, a look of despondency comes over their faces and they humorously start dropping to the floor in bored protest, awaiting the return of music. The dancing in this work is theatrical and comical, with Matthew Rich stealing the show again as a man momentarily overcome by his primal tendencies, his pelvis thrusting uncontrollably, forcing the women into hiding, and Joaquim de Santana attempting to maintain his serious Derrida-ness in between the love songs, with hilarious results. With the stage littered with pages and the dancing heated, Derrida’s voice begins again, but this time the music continues to play, and as the curtain falls, the dancers are exuberant, even skipping rope with one of the clotheslines.
While these dancers gave a polished performance of Indigo Rose, the works of Pite and Strømgren proved more powerful. Will the company’s next artistic director continue to diversify Cedar Lake’s repertoire, or champion specific choreographers? Lesser known choreographers can be a risk, but probably a risk worth taking by this dexterous company.
