Jessica Koslow

Cedar Lake performs “Orbo Novo,” choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. ©Julieta Cervantes

Two days before the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet performs, I am opposite Artistic Director Benoit-Swan Pouffer at l’Agora, cité internationale de la danse in the charming French city of Montpellier. We are sitting in a corner of the courtyard on a warm July afternoon, and Pouffer is visibly amped that his company is touring in Europe. The renovated 14th-century monastery is the headquarters for the 2012 Montpellier Danse festival, and its five studios and outdoor amphitheatre serve as venues for many of its performances.

Pouffer, who’s been dancing since age 6, is Parisian, but he has spent equal time (18 years) in New York. After studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse, he moved to the Big Apple to follow his dream of joining Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where he remained for seven years.

“It went so fast,” Pouffer says. “From Ailey, I took one day off and went to Cedar Lake as a resident choreographer. I stayed there for nine months. …

Read full article at Artillery Magazine

Wadada Leo Smith and Oguri in “Notaway: A Quest for Freedom.” Photo by Roger Burns.

March begins on Friday. Cue another round of the popular block party in Venice called First Fridays. This month, besides mingling in a stylish crowd and eating from a flurry of food trucks or high-end restuarants, jazz and dance fans may want to walk half a block east of Abbot Kinney Boulevard. At the solar-powered Electric Lodge, longtime collaborators dancer/choreographer Oguri and composer/trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith present the premiere of Notaway: Quest for Freedom.

Joining the duo for the weekend run are Japanese choreographer Yasunari Tamai and Smith’s Golden Quartet, featuring Anthony Davis on piano, John Lindberg on bass and Pheeroan akLaff on drums. Notaway: Quest for Freedom is part of the Flower of the Season 2013 series, produced by Arcane Collective and Body Weather Laboratory (BWL), a forum Oguri uses to teach contemporary movement known as Butoh, which utilizes the study of nature as source material for dance. BWL planted roots at Electric Lodge in 1997 and has continued to host workshops and productions there.

The Notaway cast has been consumed with rehearsals since Saturday. That was the first day the Japanese dancers heard Smith’s compositions. …

Read full article at LA Stage Times

Arcosm Co. presented “Traverse” at Theatre Raymond Kabbaz on Feb. 1. / Photo courtesy of Arcosm

When the lights go up at Theatre Raymond Kabbaz for the French performance company Arcosm’s “Traverse,” lead Emilien Gobard is slumping in his recliner. He rises and repeats a seemingly uneventful daily routine again and again. He lives a ho-hum life, complacently lulled by its monotony. Yet his humdrum existence is the audience’s delight. His movements are graceful and precise; his body control impeccable. Gobard is a mime. Watching him do even the simplest acts is enjoyable. Surprisingly, there is also something amusing about the process of repetition when enacted poetically by a mime.

For the next hour, visitors pop in on Gobard unexpectedly: one beautiful woman who enters and exits, wrapped in a skin-tight dress, and two frenzied guys, who also come and go sporadically. They inject chaos into Gobard’s world, pushing him out of his comfort zone. It’s easy to lose yourself within Gobard’s disquieting journey, and feel the discomfort of the shove.

Read full article at Culture Spot LA

Meredith Monk in “On Behalf of Nature”/Photo by Spencer Davis

Fifteen students in wonderfully white outfits are strewn about the courtyard next to Freud Playhouse. Each one embodies a character of his or her own choosing. One woman’s hand is lightly pounding on a door she leans on. A few stragglers crouch just outside the entrance. Sounds erupt sporadically, sometimes simultaneously. It’s Tuesday evening, and the group is holding its third and final rehearsal for a pre-performance installation before the premiere of Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble’s On Behalf of Nature, this weekend as part of the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (CAP UCLA) season.

Despite the 47-degree temperature, Monk and vocal ensemble member Ellen Fisher walk around slowly, offering individuals notes on movement and sound. Monk appears to be floating in her colorful, quilted, floor-length coat with images of clouds around her shoulders.

“Keep your ears open,” says Monk. “That’s the fun of it. Knowing what’s going on around you and seeing where you can fit in.”

Full article at LA Stage Times