Cedar Lake Ballet

Last night I left the Gibney Dance Center elated and honored. I had just come from an almost private Gaga class with 4 of the Cedar Lake dancers, lead by Navarra Novy-Williams. By the time I came home, it was announced that the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was to be no more. I was heartbroken and saddened by the loss of such an influential American dance company, one of the few of it's kind. Funded by a Walmart Heiress, and housed in a larger than life space, it was an icon of dance, which I wrote about in Lonny just recently. It also had it's share of problems, run like a corporation with unreasonable demands on it's dancers.

Still what impressed me last night, as we moved together for one hour sensing our bodies in space, was the connection of dance. How it bridges the gap between age and skill, touching and unifying in both a very personal and communal way. They held their emotions in check beyond a weary look in their eyes, like the good dancers that they are. To them I wish a fruitful future, and as Mr. Gaga, Ohad Naharin, always instructs one must keep moving, never stop moving!

Please support them on their last performance this June at the BAM!

photos by Carolyn and Äya Veith Krienke at the Cedar Lake's Installations on Feb 7, 2015