Milwaukee Ballet opens its season this weekend at the Marcus Center with Artistic Director Michael Pink’s rethinking of the 19th-century classic Don Quixote , the kind of colossal theatrical extravaganza other companies might save for their season’s climax. Simultaneously, Danceworks Performance Company opens its season at Next Act Theatre with the world premiere of Paleontology of a Woman , a performance created with the fiber artist Timothy Westbrook of “Project Runway” fame, Milwaukee composer Allen Russell and the Tontine Ensemble, four professional runway models and eight dancers choreographed by DPC’s Artistic Director Dani Kuepper. For Milwaukee dance fans, it amounts to a first-rate festival.
‘Don Quixote’
He’s the Man of La Mancha, the impossible dreamer of Miguel de Cervantes’ 1605 masterpiece, the reader of chivalric romances, questing for righteousness and the chaste love of his imaginary Dulcinea. With his acquisitive squire Sancho Panza helping him through various deliriums, he tangles with a cross-section of his society and its outcasts.
Pink was commissioned in 1987 by England’s Northern Ballet to create a fresh version of the classic. Modern productions are descended from choreographer Marius Petipa’s original 1869 staging and its several revisions for the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. They focus on one episode from Cervantes’ novel: Kitri, an innkeeper’s daughter, and the barber Basilio are in love but Kitri’s father is determined she’ll marry a foppish nobleman. Don Quixote arrives at the inn, sees Kitri as fair Dulcinea, challenges the nobleman (and a windmill) to a swordfight and unites the lovers. Traditional productions are filled out with specialty dances, fire-eaters, jugglers and whatever is available to dazzle.
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A master storyteller, for whom every gesture counts, Pink tells Kitri’s tale in Act One and stages further chapters from the novel in succeeding acts. More tales mean more good roles. Pink reworked his successful English version for Milwaukee Ballet in 2007 and rethought it again for the company’s current dancers. “There’s almost an excess of dance in it,” he says. “The wealth of roles is shared among the whole company including the next generation. You need that breadth of age.”
As in traditional versions, Act Three includes the famously challenging grand pas de deux descended from Petipa. Alexandre Ferreira will partner Annia Hildago, and Davit Hovhannisyan will partner Luz San Miguel, in alternate performances. Ballet Master Denis Malinkine will dance the Don. Marc Petrocci and Ryan Martin alternate as Panza. Andrews Sill will conduct the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra.
“This is a family event,” Pink emphasizes. “I hope people who don’t know the ballet or its connection to Cervantes’ great work will trust the quality of the company and see it.” There’s every reason to do so.
Performances are Oct. 30-Nov. 2 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, 929 N. Water St. Call 414-902-2103 or visit milwaukeeballet.org.
‘Paleontology of a Woman’
“If New York City and the Wizard of Oz had a baby, it would be Milwaukee Ballet,” says Timothy Westbrook, paying high compliment to the company for which he works as part-time stitcher and assistant wardrobe master. As the designer of the Danceworks premiere, he’ll somehow be at both shows in the run-up to opening night.
Paleontology of a Woman was born from Westbrook’s recent installation of one-of-a-kind, sustainability-driven, dinosaur-inspired pieces of wearable art at the Milwaukee Public Museum. “Dinosaurs are cool because they’re not fossil fuel,” says Westbrook. He freely admits to a crush on Danceworks and, knowing that, his composer friend Allen Russell undertook the role of matchmaker.
It was an easy task. “I’m a fan of ‘Project Runway,’” says Dani Kuepper. “I appreciate it as a show about creative problem-solving, about trying to discover something new based on a set of restrictions you’ve been handed.” She responded strongly to Westbrook’s commitment to “zero-impact art” and welcomed the chance to make this show with him.
“The world doesn’t need another sustainable-fashion designer,” Westbrook says. “We have Goodwill.” Of the 30 pieces of wearable art in the dance, 19 are new and the rest, he said, “will get the volume turned up.” The deep three-sided Next Act Theatre space will serve as both runway and dance floor. After performances, audiences can speak with Westbrook and cast in the lobby and see the masks and costumes, many made from plastic bags and cassette tape, up close.
There’s nothing quixotic in the 25-year-old Westbrook’s devotion to environmental sustainability and equality in matters of race, gender and sexual orientation. These form the subjects of the dance. The choreography does not distinguish gender. Nothing leaves a carbon footprint. “What is fashion?” Kuepper asks. “For me, it’s about perception. How do I extend myself into the world? How am I perceived? I have to be OK with that.”
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Performances are Oct. 30-Nov. 1 at Next Act Theatre, 225 W. Water St. Call 414-277-8480 or visit danceworksmke.org.
