Cedar Lake's CEDEAR LAB Choreographic Initiative Kicks Off Today

For her first programming initiative as Artistic Director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Alexandra Damiani is offering the company's dancers a platform to exercise their unique artistic voices with Cedar Lab, a three-week workshop and two-day showcase of choreographic works-in-progress. Cedar Lab, which will have its showing today and tomorrow, July 29-30 at the Cedar Lake Theater, allows company members to take on the role of choreographer, creating works on their fellow dancers with artistic advising and technical support from Cedar Lake's staff. Performances begin at 7:00pm and again at 8:30pm and are free and open to the public.

Damiani, who was appointed Artistic Director in April 2014, designed the Cedar Lab program as a celebration of the many talented individuals who make up Cedar Lake. These dancers are internationally recognized for their chameleon-like ability to perform the company's diverse repertoire, and Cedar Lab is another opportunity for the dancers to learn and grow as performers and artists in a supportive, peer-driven environment. These choreographers likewise will have the opportunity to explore the many additional components that contribute to a finished dance work, including lighting, set design, music and sound design, and costuming.

Damiani said, "As we reach our 10-year anniversary, this is an opportune time for Cedar Lake to consider where we would like to go in the next decade. By investing in the talent of our dancers, who have time and again proven themselves to be insatiably gifted individuals, I hope that Cedar Lab will open new creative doors for our dancers and reinforce our position as a leading voice in the creation and performance of contemporary dance."

The 2014 Cedar Lab season will feature the works of five dancers: Jon Bond, Navarra Novy-Williams, Matthew Rich, Joaquim de Santana, and Vânia Doutel Vaz. Each choreographer will explore their artistic vision over a multi-week workshop period in July, concluding with the works-in-progress showing at the end of the month.

In an ambitious piece for ten dancers, Jon Bond will expand upon his existing work, The Devil Was Me, to tell a dramatic story of struggle and growth, exploring the nature of sin and forgiveness.

Navarra Novy-Williams will create three solos for women that tackle the voyeurism inherent in the image of the dancing body as a muse, while also examining the roles and stereotypes in which women (and dancers) are frequently placed.

Combining his interest in fashion with his choreographic voice, Matthew Rich will create a dance film that shows how dance and fashion can support each other as artistic mediums to reach new audiences.

Joaquim de Santana's new duet explores the intimacy of relationship through abstract forms that create a human story. He is particularly interested in creating new means of partnering that defy the traditional gender roles in a danced duet.

The theme of communication is at the heart of a new work for seven dancers by Vânia Doutel Vaz. Her piece will explore the internal and external challenges that affect our ability to clearly and truthfully express ourselves.

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