Although this New York company has visited us before, in 2004 as the Cedar Lake Ensemble, last weekend’s pair of shows at the Auditorium were a first look at the identity into which Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet is settling under Benoit-Swan Pouffer, with whom I spoke last week. (His predecessor L. Jen Ballard’s brief and rocky tenure as artistic director is viewed by many, including myself, as something of a beta test.) They brought fifteen dancers and three one-act pieces for a program as strong as any of the incredible shows that have been seen here this year.

Opener Sunday, Again, by Jo Strømgren, worms its way into more emotional environments than the WASPy white costumes and prim Bach mixtape let on. Its first scene, a duet between Jason Kittelberger and Acacia Schachte, is peppered with abstract sight gags and tragicomic bits of nastiness, but also surprise poetry: the ripple of the back scrim as each in turn storms over to punch it was as moving as it was simple. The town-and-country ensemble appears in white...

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