Showing @ Festival Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat 12 Oct @ 19:30
Founded 10 years ago, Cedar Lake are very much a New World company, with seemingly endless energy. Despite working with a host of European choreographers, everything has a distinctly urban American taste – sets convey a flavour of West Side Story, a distinct sense of grime and grit. The company lives in New York, a location which provides much more than mere studio space; the soul of the city is evident throughout proceedings.
Eschewing the elegant waif look often favoured by other companies, we see the raw power of the dancer’s bodies, with formidable muscles on display at every turn. The skill is equally breathtaking, as is the sheer force of each unique physical presence: it’s like watching gods come to earth.
Therefore, small faults that exist in the performance lie not with the dancers or the choreography, but with some of the music. This is only really notable in Indigo Rose: stunning footwork and an impressive display of shadow puppetry is let down by wholly different musical styles, some of which are very jarring. A small piece of video installation also adds little to the close.
Happily, such things are ironed out when the audience return after the first interval. Three separate ballets are exhibited, and so a different mood is struck at each curtain raise. Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue gives us a series of beautiful partnerships danced to a single haunting melody, which meander between love and violence and everything in between.
And then to the glorious final act. Necessity Again features a cheesy French crooner and a stage littered with paper, all of which meshes beautifully with the sheer joy on display. The dancers fling themselves around with wild abandon, each taking a turn to wow with a mixture of acrobatics, elegance and impressively well-defined characters. When the final curtain falls, the feet are still twirling – and only the most hard hearted would wish them to stop.