The New York ballet company Cedar Lake was founded ten years ago, specialising in new work commissioned from world renowned choreographers as well as reviving modern classics.
For their Scottish debut, Edinburgh audiences were treated to a glorious triple bill to show off their exquisite talent.
"Indigo Rose" was first created by Jiri Kylian in 1998 for the young dancers of NDT 2. This is seriously complex choreography set to a soundtrack from Robert Ashley, Couperin, Mozart and Cage.
Starting slowly, three men in turn bound onto the stage, jumping and high kicking in perfect unison. Three girls join in with energetic freedom until the musical tempo slows down into a courtly dance.
A huge silk curtain is unfurled across the stage. With clever lighting we observe the dancers’ silhouettes through the billowing sail.
The final section is on film - sombre portraits of bare breasted women exploring the sense of touch and facial gesture. Meanwhile the dancers on stage stand like statues, watching the screen.
Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite was commissioned to create "Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue" for Cedar Lake in 2008. The haunting music from the film Solaris by Cliff Martinez sets the dramatic tone.
A dark, menacing mood is immediately felt as a back stage row of city street lamps create a shadowy glow. A sequence of intimate duets show couples in various modes of brief encounter - threatening combat, entrapment and dangerous, seductive embrace.
A beautifully filmic scene shows a man desperately trying to run and reach out to a woman leading the way. This richly emotional dance-drama is performed with such cool control, the vision lingering in my mind days later.
"Necessity, Again" can scarcely be described as contemporary ballet at all. Norwegian choreographer Jo Stromgren is also a theatre director who specialises in Ibsen as well as devising non-verbal productions combining live music, film and puppetry.
The inspiration for this new piece is academic texts by philosopher Jacques Derrida who studied the deconstruction of language:
“I believe in the value of the book which keeps something irreplaceable .. What cannot be said above all must not be silenced but written.”
The ensemble march on to the stage dragging “washing lines” on which are hung pieces of paper. The 1960s period setting is captured through costumes and Charles Aznavour songs, interspersed with quotations by Derrida.
As Stromgren explains:
“I wanted a contrast between something extremely dry and intellectual with something very emotional. There is nothing to understand; relax, and let your imagination roam.”
So what evolves is a crazy, dreamlike cabaret of music, dance, words and hundreds of pieces of paper thrown up in the air until it completely covers the stage. With no narrative, this is about the space between words, the absence of language.
These three totally diverse, stylistic works individually push the boundaries of modern dance to the limit. With a blend of balletic grace, bold athleticism and dramatic expression, these dancers create pure poetry in motion.
The Edinburgh International Festival should invite Cedar Lake back soon.
Show times
11-12 October, 2013
UK tour until 19th October. www.danceconsortium.com