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Cedar Lake Swan extends his reach within Chelsea’s Cedar Lake
By Lori Ortiz Benoit-Swan Pouffer was born in France, giving him an edge on networking within the European dance community. Swan, as he’s known, artistic director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, has widened the parameters of his evolving mission for the company by looking at what’s on European ballet stages. Swan and Italian-born choreographer Jacopo Godani share an experimental nature and sought each other out. Godani’s 2006 “Symptoms of Development,” made for Nederlands Dans Theatre, is one of three works is being presented in Cedar Lake’s winter season they call 3X3. The multi-talented Godani likes total control of the spectacle and designs everything himself—text, décor, lighting, and sound score with music by Munich experimental duo 48 Nord (Siegfried Rössert and Ulrich Müller). Godani rehearsed Cedar Lake in the fall, tweaking the choreography to fit. The cast of eight includes two lithe women who joined the company this past year. Romanian born Ana Maria Lucaciu trained and danced with the National Ballet of Canada and comes to Cedar Lake after a time with Lisbon’s Contemporary Portuguese Dance Company. Canadian Acacia Schachte danced seven seasons with Ballet British Columbia and appeared in the Canadian film “The Fairie Queen.” Cedar Lake favorites from past seasons—to single out mine, Roderick George and Nickemil Concepcion—are also learning “Symptoms.” To narrated text about the pace of contemporary urban life, about how we move so fast that our souls cannot keep up, the dancers movement is a collage of animal behavior. “It comes from a state of being,” said Godani in rehearsal. He stresses a body-mind connection—they are not to distractedly gaze anywhere but where their limbs lead. The idea of audience as mirror is disallowed. Like a flock of birds they scatter after a disturbance, the first gunshot. The hunted become hunters, moving like tigers with a sexual swagger, and groundedness. Wearing socks they are better able to slide and drag each other across the stage. A black bench is also a microphone and the dancers carry portable mikes. Godani gets them thinking, “How often do we really connect with another human being… when was the last time YOU did?” The dance is about timing, requiring very precise connections—and near misses. To the electronic sound, their moves can be short, sharp, robotic. The conflation of tiger-after-his-prey and conscience-driven pulsing tron results in a work that is both futuristic and atavistic. Ebony Williams adds the elements and comes up with wounded in a solo that magnificently renders Godani’s unfolding vision viscerally intelligible. After a week’s rehearsal Godani guides them, head in hand. “Oxygenated brains!” He’s tough but Swan notices the dancers have grown from working with him. Godani was a soloist with William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt for nine earlier years, collaborating with Forsythe when his choreography was more organic. Godani has been creating for his own Brussels based company since 1990. He has choreographed for almost every major European ballet company but is little known here. Godani’s “Life Forms” was created on Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and premiered in Colorado in January 2004. This, his first and only previous U.S. engagement, was accomplished at a time when artists work visas were not given freely and in a state that ranked near the bottom in funding for the arts. Finally, New Yorkers will see what he’s about at Cedar Lake Theater, in the new “Symptoms” reworked for the company. The winter program also includes “Rastay” by Mexican choreographer Edgar Zendejas, about relationships in flux. That work premiered in November in New Jersey. Zendejas is apprentice choreographer for Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal. A work by Swan completes the program. Arranged and other marriage rituals inspired his “Vastav” to Croatian vocals and electronic sound. Swan’s strong 2005 “Hammer” stood out in his last winter’s Cedar Lake program “Dream Collaborations.” Packaging his own new works with works by his contemporaries is brave. Now finding curating by theme a bit restrictive, he has opened it up to what’s out there that interests him. The former Ailey dancer is among several working today who make Ailey’s mission—that dance is to be given back to the people—a cornerstone. Swan was encouraged by the success of his Free Thursday series and is offering short, free previews in the lobby on the weekend in hopes that the curious will decide to stay for the show. In early March the world-famous choreographer Ohad Naharin, of the Israeli modern company Batsheva, will be in residence at Cedar Lake Theater. He will give open workshops in his method called “gaga” for dancers and non-dancers. Naharin will also set a full-length work, “Decadance” on Cedar Lake to premiere in June. In addition to guest choreographers from the world over, the company has its pick of collaborators, Rehearsal Director Alexandra Damiani, and company class teachers Janet Panetta, Charla Glenn, Jeanne Solan of Netherlands Dans Theatre, and Alexandra Wells, Ballet National de Nancy étoile and Juilliard teacher. Dancers want to audition. Everyone benefits from Swan’s global reach.
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