The other sources ofprogramming inspiration are Artistic Director Kevin Stalheim’s extensiveknowledge of contemporary music and the group’s commitment to sharing concertswith local artists. This time, the featured composer, duYun, accompanyingherself on laptop, will perform a set of original songs and join the PresentMusic ensemble in two of her longer works. Stalheimdescribed her music as very complex, precise, gestural and unique, a kind ofmoody, alternative pop; hence the diva assignation. Stalheim invitedchoreographer-dancer Kelly Anderson and singer Robin Pluer to represent the“divas” of Milwaukee, and enlisted three local “dudes” to complete the bill: composerChris Burns, choreographer Luc Vanier and accordionist Stas Venglevski.
Dancers Jaimi Pattersonand Steven Moses will perform Vanier's new duet, titled Love’s Fodder, to electronic music Burns created with computerprograms and files of his own design. Vanier’spiece for the Milwaukee Ballet this season impressed me with its beauty andsearching spirit. He described the subject here as “intimacy and repetition.” When a pas de deux in any style works, he said, it’s because both dancersgive up their egos, their habitual ways of interfacing with the world that, ifclung to, limit them. He means this as a metaphor for all our relationships.The dancers must pay attention to one another to solve each choreographicproblem and dance the dance, over and over and always anew.
Anderson, a member andresident choreographer of Danceworks Performance Company who is known for herpop aesthetic and vaudeville approach, will dance her own work. Sebben Crudele was originally createdfor the recent Milwaukee Opera Theatre production 26. She described the dance as a “tasteful burlesque,” asoul-bearing striptease to a slip performed for an unseen lover before whom shefeels vulnerable. In 26, it occurredbefore any narrative framework emerged, and it needs no other context than thisthoughtful Present Music nightclub entertainment.
