CONTINUING
Springdances: Alchemy (student production)
UW-Milwaukee Dance Department
Through May 1
Back to Spring Arts Guide 2017
OPENING
“Wild at 30” (world premiere)
Wild Space Dance Company
Next Act Theatre
May 4-6
For her company’s 30th-anniversary performance, Debra Loewen will juxtapose full-blown dances on the Next Act main stage with site-specific vignettes in the parking lot, lobby, hallways, stairwells and rehearsal rooms. Special treats: Alumna Cate Deicher will set a duet on founding members Jennifer Goetzinger and David Figueroa; recent alumni (and now affiliates) Dan Schuchart and Mariah Kraker will offer new dances; and new and ongoing company members will dance old and new works. Hats off to Debra! (John Schneider)
“First Friday Series”
Real Time
May 5
“Celebrate: Spring Dance Showcase” (student production)
Marquette University Performing Arts Department
May 7
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts
May 12
As Newsweek once observed, Martha Graham “changed the face of an art form and discovered a new world,” Merce Cunningham “stripped away the externals and showed us the heart of movement,” and “Paul Taylor let the Sun shine in.” Brookfield’s Wilson Center hosts the travelling Paul Taylor Dance Company—formed by the eponymous choreographer in 1954 and a troupe that has performed in more than 500 cities around the world through the ensuing decades. They’ve appeared on PBS nine times and were the subject of the Oscar-nominated 1999 documentary, Dancemaker. American modern dance has no better champions than the members of this legendary troupe. (John Jahn)
“Hyperlocal MKE #13—Easement”
Hyperlocal MKE
Lynden Sculpture Garden
May 14
Composer Tim Russell and choreographer Maria Gillespie assemble Milwaukee-based musicians and dancers to engage in a sustained improvisation for about one hour. Responding freely to a word prompt—in this case, “easement”—the artists use their individual sensibilities to create a coherent performance, responding moment-by-moment to what they hear, see and sense from one another and the space they’re using: This time, that space is Cecelia Condit’s exhibition “Women, Nature, Science” at the Lynden Sculpture Garden. (John Schneider)
Latin Fridays
Daync Studio
May 19
“Choreographer’s Carnival”
SueMo: A Dance Experience
May 20
