Let’s imagine a view from the rafters of the industrial-size room atop UW-Milwaukee’s Kenilworth Square East where Wild Space Dance Company presented an intricate three-ring show last weekend called Fresh Tracks.
At the center, spectators sit in a sweeping semicircle to watch 10 strong dancers create evocative abstract scenes before a warmly lighted backdrop of strung-together clothes, the mass-produced relics of individual histories. Characters enter and leave frequently so new relationships keep developing, new vocabularies emerge, everything is nicely complicated and everyone is interesting. In the dark corner, shadowy composer Tim Russell creates an emotionally powerful percussive soundtrack with shoes, corduroy pants, knitting needles, pots and pans, and high-tech gadgetry. Across the room, behind the viewers, is an almost vacant makeshift bar; clearly, this is not a drinking audience.
Looking north, beyond a veil of nylon curtains, is a kitchen where another group of viewers is absorbed in the lives of a pensive couple (Jennifer Goetzinger and Daniel Burkholder). Within the confines of this small, low-ceilinged, somehow holy space, they’re terribly aware of one another. She makes and serves coffee and food and reads a paper at the counter; he sits at the table with paper and pen and sometimes writes. Two girls (Lindsey Krygowski and Molly Mingey)—daughters, perhaps—burst in with a live dachshund (Olive) to peel, chop and chomp on fresh carrots. Troubled women (Yeng Vang-Strath and Mauriah Kraker) enter briefly, fleeing the center’s public space, one haunted, one anorexic. Russell’s stirring soundscape and occasional startling noises from performers in distant areas become especially provocative.
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“Green room” is argot for a performers’ offstage hangout. The main room’s isolated southwest corner is such a space but with benches for viewers. Dancers exit the central space to collapse in its green couch and chairs. They play bizarre cassette tapes, party, goof or get moody, bossy, silly or tragic. The dancers are especially transparent here, even as they listen for cues to return to center stage.
The performances in each area repeat three times but with differences. Spectators visit in different sequences so everyone sees a different show. I wish the run were longer. I would see it again and again. The fascinating choreography was by Mauriah Kraker, Kelly Radermacher Butts, Debra Loewen, Monica Rodero and Dan Schuchart in collaboration with dancer-actors Jade Jablonski, Danielle Lohuis, Maggie Seer, Maria Tordoff, Vang-Strath and Bonnie Watson, all under Loewen’s guidance.
