Milwaukee Ballet 'Genesis' banner
Milwaukee Ballet’s biennial choreographic competition, “Genesis,” is, once again, international. With Covid a factor two years ago, the contest was restricted to choreographers living in the U.S. This year, a whopping 70+ choreographers from 11 countries submitted applications to be one of three contenders. The winner will return in 2025 to create a major work for the company.
The competitors are chosen by Artistic Director Michael Pink. In addition to resumes, artists submit clips of their current work. “I look for what I deem as craft,” Pink says. “How are they using the space and the dancers? How do they respond to music? What kind of music are they using? I also ask them for an idea of the piece they might like to create, although they won’t be held to it. And they must have experience with professional dancers because that’s who we are, and we’ve guaranteed our audience that we’ll provide them with incredible, exciting new work.”
Each choreographer works with eight dancers whose name they’ve drawn from a hat. They’ve got just three weeks to make a 20-25-minute piece. I spoke with them during the second week.
Lorenzo di Loreto
Photo via Milwaukee Ballet
Lorenzo di Loreto
Lorenzo di Loreto
Lorenzo di Loreto from Italy is a seasoned dancer and emerging choreographer for the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen. His new piece for that company premieres this spring. Milwaukee Ballet Leading Artist Alana Griffith, who trained with him in England, urged him to apply for Genesis.
“I’m kind of new in the world of choreography,” he tells me, “so I thought it was a great opportunity to gain experience, to work with different dancers, and to learn more about myself. It’s important to step out of the comfort zones.”
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The music of Bach and Vivaldi inspires his piece. “Baroque music is quite grandiose, quite opulent,” he says. “It has a lot of dramatic intonations and tempos, so it’s interesting to work with. Ballet originated in the Paris courts in the Baroque era with the power dynamics and psychological dynamics that are still very present in our society. Behavior patterns of humankind don’t change that much. I’m playing with that in a light-hearted way, trying to keep a more sparkling energy, then calming into something deeper, and resolving with something virtuoso. With just three weeks, why not create a piece that’s fun and open-hearted?”
Tsai Hsi Hung
Photo via Milwaukee Ballet
Tsai Hsi Hung
Tsai Hsi Hung
When the Taiwanese choreographer Tsai Hsi Hung got Pink’s email invitation to compete, she feared it was a scam. “I love ballet so much,” she says. “I keep looking to work with any ballet company. I thought, oh my god, is this real?”
Hung has choreographed for contemporary and educational dance companies in Asia, Australia and the U.S. She’s just made a dance for the South Chicago Dance Company. But only Philadelphia’s BalletX has ever asked her for a ballet.
She’s also a visual artist, a painter. The living quality, her piece for “Genesis,” shares its title with its inspiration, a collection of self-portraits by the 20th century artist Francis Bacon. At the first rehearsal, she presented her cast with a collection of her own self-portraits, asked each dancer to choose one and express in movement what it made them feel. The resulting solos, she says, helped her “know what style each person gives, so we can yin and yang and find a balance.”
Her own life journey is a reference. She calls the piece “a kind of ritual ceremony in which your monster inside becomes a beautiful human soul. Everybody in the world is working hard. Your mental state is maybe not so healthy. I want an audience to watch and feel relief—like wow, there’s hope! Maybe just a little bit, you know?”
Jack Lister
Photo via Milwaukee Ballet
Jack Lister
Jack Lister
Jack Lister is from Brisbane, Australia, home to Milwaukee Ballet’s former managing director, Anne Metcalf, who suggested he apply. He’s an associate artistic director of Brisbane’s boundary-pushing Australasian Dance Collective and Associate Choreographer for Australia’s Queensland Ballet. He’s choreographed in England, Germany and China, working for ballet companies, contemporary companies, theater and screen.
“I’m here for a competition, but I’m really here to work with other dancers,” he says. “Ballet is my lineage and best language. I can speak it with the dancers, then together we find something that’s new, that’s off, that’s different, that’s more my sensibility.”
His piece is titled Mister Sheen, named for an Australian cleaning product. “Mister Sheen is a façade, a veneer, a posturing,” he explains. “What is it about human nature that you go ‘ah, I trust that person more,’ or someone is idolized more, when they’re really just wearing another mask? I’m looking at fame in its broadest spectrum, and why we’re attracted to the bright shiny thing. Mister Sheen, as precise and beautiful and wonderful and charismatic as he is, is also kind of messed up. And that’s OK, so am I.”
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Professional judges determine the winner. Audiences are invited to vote their favorite. Performances are February 8-11 at the Pabst Theatre.
