New York-based Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet company is bound to please

Contortionists, yogis and modern dancers will take the stage of Memorial Hall tonight—all within the confines of a 15-person ballet company.

All 15 dancers of the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet are formally trained in classical ballet, but the company explores movement beyond traditional dance.

“Cedar Lake is one of the hot, young darlings of contemporary ballet,” said Sean McKeithan, marketing and communications coordinator for Carolina Performing Arts.

Tonight’s performance will feature one world premiere, one U.S. premiere and one of the company’s favorite repertory dances.

“Arts get life from new works, like these of Cedar Lake, being shown to the public,” McKeithan said. “It is a big artistic achievement for us to show them on campus.”

Since its creation in 2003 and after the 2005 appointment of artistic director Benoit-Swan Pouffer, the New York-based company has commissioned athletic, original and diverse dances by the world’s most sought-after choreographers.

Pouffer is also a member of the company he directs, leading master classes and creating performances for the ensemble. Pouffer led a master class in Gerrard Hall on Thursday for students and dancers from the Triangle.

The three performances for Friday are stylistically diverse, and two of the three will highlight every member in the company.

The first dance, “Sunday, Again” by Jo Stromgren, was first performed by the company in 2008. It uses badminton as a metaphor for the back-and-forth battle of the sexes as they attempt to coexist on a Sunday morning.

Fifth-season Cedar Lake dancer Jubal Battisti said it is the most formal piece of the evening.

The second piece, Hofesh Shechter’s “The Fools,” depicts an encounter between seven dancers and their shadows. Shechter also composed the score for the dance.

“It’s really a nice combination of his dancing style and his rhythms and musical quality,” said fifth-season Cedar Lake dancer Ana-Maria Lucaciu.

The final piece of the night will be the world premiere of “Hubbub” by Alexander Ekman.

The work combines new material and material from a different Ekman piece. Members say the piece experiments with sound and rhythm.

Lucaciu said she is most looking forward to performing in “Hubbub.” Like most of the performers in the small company, she and Battisti will dance in all three.

“Having a piece we haven’t performed yet is very exciting for us,” Lucaciu said. “We have had a steady repertory for the past year.”

The company just finished a tour in Providence, R.I., where they danced an entirely different repertoire.

“It takes some time to get into the style again,” Battisti said.

Dancers said they have been practicing yoga regularly to twist back into condition for the modern movement required for Friday’s performance.

“The styles are so different that it actually makes it easier to differentiate once you start a piece,” Lucaciu said.

The evening promises to be rewarding for dancers and audience members alike, members said.

McKeithan, who saw the company perform in 2009 at Durham’s American Dance Festival, said that regardless of the audience’s acquaintance with dance, anyone can appreciate the art on the stage.

“Everyone left with their jaws on the ground,” he said.

The performance begins at 8 p.m. in Memorial Hall. Tickets are $10 for students and range from $30 to $85 for the general public.

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