Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's 'Orbo Novo' Premieres 10/20 At The Joyce

Benoit-Swan Pouffer, Artistic Director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, announced the New York premiere of "Orbo Novo" ("The New World"), a full-length dance work by Belgian choreographer and theater artist Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. In a first for the troupe, Cedar Lake will take a leave from its 170-seat Chelsea home theater and offer the work's New York premiere at The Joyce Theater Tuesday October 20, 2009.

Linda Shelton, Executive Director of The Joyce Theater, remarks, "We are thrilled to co-present this work with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Performed by such fabulously talented dancers, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's piece is certain to be a rare treat for New York audiences to discover." "Orbo Novo" had its World Premiere earlier this year at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival July 8, 2009.

Hailed in anticipation by The New York Times as a "coup," "compelling prospect," and "one of the most exciting events of the new season," "Orbo Novo" is the first work created by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui for an American dance company. With his invitation to Cherkaoui, Pouffer continues to introduce Cedar Lake audiences to the work of vanguard choreographers working internationally. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui was voted "Choreographer of the Year" for 2008 by Europe's leading dance magazine, Ballet-Tanz.

"Three years ago I did not know Cherkaoui's work firsthand," says Pouffer, "but through my network of friends and colleagues I had heard his name again and again. In July 2007 I traveled to see his "Myth" at JuliDans in Amsterdam and it was a revelation to me. I simply had to meet this artist. Within a short time we were discussing a Cedar Lake collaboration, and during our meetings I was overwhelmed by his generosity and openness. I've since learned that almost everyone who has worked with him has felt this special connection. I wanted this experience for Cedar Lake. "Larbi's almost untamed eclecticism of movement and his incorporation of spoken words were elements that I'm excited to introduce to our company. Our dancers are extremely athletic and I know they will find qualities of his movement vocabulary that fit them well, but also challenge them. When I asked Larbi to come to Cedar Lake to create a new work he accepted quite quickly and told me it would be a welcome change from the pressures he's been feeling working in Europe, where he has a very full and demanding schedule."

Commenting on the collaboration, Cherkaoui asserts, "The key words in my encounter with Cedar Lake are newness and discovery. For me it is a long journey -- both physically and mentally -- from the ancient land of China, where I recently spent three months creating a piece with the warrior monks of the Shaolin Temple of Henan, to the lungs of the New World, New York, the city that has generated some of the seminal movements of contemporary dance.

"There is the excitement of working with a talented and relatively young American company pluckily exploring different styles of dance, has been a novel experience after my years of working with Europe's more established companies. It has been, for me, as much about learning as about creating -- learning from the resolve of this company, from the spirit of this great city and also from the contradictions that drive it. Legend has it that the first reference to North America as the New World came in a letter in 1493 from Pietro Martire d'Anghiera, the Italian-born historian from Spain in the Age of Exploration. He called it the ‘Orbo Novo' or ‘Orbe Novo,' and some years later, he published a book entitled ‘De orbe novo.'

‘Orbo Novo' - the New World - explores a construct of the mind. Inspired by Jill Bolte Taylor's Stroke of Insight, a book in which she expresses her experience of having a stroke, ‘Orbo Novo' tries to create a universe where past and future meet. The stage is a place of borders and limits: the set design by Alexander Dodge creates a limitless potential for moving these walls, without ever the possibility of getting rid of them... The Cedar Lake dancers explore the movements inside and outside their bodies, trapped in this labyrinth without an obvious exit. They seem out of place and out of time. Prisoners and visitors by turn, they are as much prey as hunter, as much animal as man; like birds in a morphing cage, they seem trapped in their bodies, trapped in reality, trapped in the flow of life...

Szymon Brzoska's live music inspires the piece by giving direction and rhythm, emotion and thought. The soundtrack is like flowing blood; it keeps the piece and its dancers alive to continue their transformations. The piece tackles issues of freedom, contamination, perspective, loneliness and enlightenment. Searching for the perfect balance between left and right, between heaven and earth, ‘Orbo Novo' is in a way an exploration of the present moment, the now, by trying to untangle the future from the past. I see it not so much as choosing to hope, but more as hoping for the ability and insight to choose.

Or to quote Jill Bolte Taylor, ‘I believe, that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner peace circuitry of our right brain hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world, and the more peaceful our planet will be, and I thought that was an idea worth spreading.'"

Cherkaoui created "Orbo Novo" at Cedar Lake's West Chelsea studios during a residency, which began in February 2009. The new work features an original score by Polish composer Szymon Brzoska performed live at each show. Mr. Brzóska is particularly interested in the synergy between music and other arts, such as contemporary dance, theatre and cinema, and at a young age has already contributed works of distinction in these varied media. Costumes for "Orbo Novo" are the design work of Isabelle Lhoas. Her costumes have been seen in the repertoires of Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve, Ballet de Nancy, Cullberg Ballet, as well as Guy Cassiers' opera "Rage d'amour" for Nederlands Opera Festival and Richard Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" for La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels. Sets for "Orbo Novo" feature a towering 12' grid of movable walls designed by Alexander Dodge.

Roslyn Sulcas, writing for the New York Times, has referred to previous Cherkaoui works as possessing "A strange and compelling mix of dance, speech and song, with elements of different historical ages and cultures. 'Loin' ('far') is set to the glorious 17th- century 'Mystery Sonatas' by Biber, and its set suggests Arab latticework and veils. But Mr. Cherkaoui's physical vocabulary is contemporary in its supple, back-bending deployment of the upper body and the extraordinarily fluid transitions between vertical and horizontal, the ground and the air, that can suggest a kind of transcendental break dance. Like Pina Bausch, he likes to take elements of the dancers' everyday experiences and transform them into stylized vignettes.... For Mr. Cherkaoui, ordinary life is the stuff of art, and art is where individuals can escape the constraints -- physical, religious, cultural -- of ordinary life."

Dancer and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui was born in Antwerp in 1976, the son of a Flemish mother and a Moroccan father. As a child, he wanted to draw people, clouds and everything associated with reality. Yet these drawings always conveyed more than just the bare facts. When the two dimensions of pen and paper no longer satisfied him, Cherkaoui began to dance. Dance is a temporary sketch of reality: the drawing disappears when the movement ends. Consequently, Cherkaoui's productions are also storybooks in motion, which indirectly tell the audience about the world around them - the nearby world and the distant world, and preferably both at once. Each work builds a bridge between different worlds and cultures. Moreover, Cherkaoui is deliberately eclectic in his use of dance styles. This approach is the formal rendition of his central theme: the equality of individuals, cultures, languages and means of expression. The stories that take shape in this way on stage are accessible, universal and complex. Cherkaoui has created works for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and Belgium's Les Ballets C. de la B. and has collaborated with dancer and choreographer Akram Kahn. "Zero Degrees," a collaboration with Kahn, was presented at New York's City Center in 2008. Cherkaoui is currently based at Antwerp's Toneelhuis, Flanders' largest municipal theatre.

Founded in 2003, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet has swiftly established itself at the forefront of contemporary American dance companies. At their home in Manhattan's West Cheslsea Gallery District, Cedar Lake provides choreographers a comprehensive environment for the creation and curating of dance for presentation to a worldwide audience. The Cedar Lake repertoire currently includes works by Ohad Naharan, Jill Johnson, Stijn Celis, Nicolo Fonte, Crystal Pite, Jacopo Godani, Jo Strømgren, Angelin Preljocaj, Luca Veggetti, Didy Veldman and Artistic Director, Benoit-Swan Pouffer. 

‘Orbo Novo' will be presented at The Joyce Theater, Tuesday October 20 - Sunday October 25. Tue-Wed 7:30pm; Thu-Fri 8pm; Sat 2pm & 8pm; Sun 2pm & 7:30pm. Ticket Prices: $49, $35, $19, and $10. Joyce Members: $37 & $26. (Ticket prices subject to change)

For single tickets call JoyceCharge (212-242-0800); visit the Box Office (Monday-Friday, 12:00-6:00pm); or charge online at www.Joyce.org. For more information on becoming a Joyce Member, or for season ticket purchases visit www.Joyce.org or call JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street.

A free post-performance "Dance Chat" dialogue will follow the Wednesday performance.

Join writer and dance historian Linda Szmyd Monich in discussing the creative process and challenges faced by the dancers in creating "Orbo Novo". Alexandra Damiani, Cedar Lake's Assistant to the Artistic Director and Ballet Mistress, along with two Cedar Lake dancers, will participate in this video-illustrated talk. They discuss both movement and text elements in the new work and how the work evolved over the eight-week rehearsal period. "Dance Talks" are free and take place at Joyce SoHo (155 Mercer Street, between Houston and Prince). Reservations are required: 646-792-8377.

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its audiences since 1982. The founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce is named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to establish the theater. One of the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an intimate and elegant New York home for more than 300 domestic and international companies. The Joyce has also commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. In 1996, The Joyce created Joyce SoHo, a dance center providing highly subsidized rehearsal and performance space to hundreds of dance artists. New York City public school students and teachers annually benefit from The Joyce's Dance Education Program, and adult audiences get closer to dance through pre-engagement Dance Talks and post-performance "Dance Chat" discussions. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000. Additionally, for the last six years The Joyce has co-produced Evening Stars as part of the River To River Festival in Lower Manhattan.

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