Milwaukee Ballet II Gives Young Dancers ‘Momentum’

by

“Momentum” has become the catch-all title for the annual showcase of Milwaukee Ballet Two (MBII), the company’s younger second company.  On the verge of professional careers, these dances take smaller roles in the main company’s season. As positions open in the main company, some are hired. Over half of Milwaukee Ballet’s current main company came through MBII. Others will work in professional companies around the world. “Momentum” brings them into full view at this moment in their lives.

Last season, the pandemic forced “Momentum’s” cancellation along with the outreach work MBII dancers do annually. Some of the group stayed in town, dancing with the main company as those performances returned. Perhaps this helped to strengthen “Momentum” 2022. The dancing was outstanding in every aspect. Over and over, the audience at Milwaukee Ballet’s Third Ward studio theater shouted their approval and gratitude.

I was able to see the last of three performances. Excerpts from the ballet Sylvia opened the show. Staged by MBII Artistic Director Mireille Favarel, the style was a modernized classical with all the virtuosity and none of the clichés. Men and women partnered as trusting teams, equal in ability and accomplishment. The staging was a spot-on match for Léo Delibes’ charming score. Sophie Graham, Jack Kadzis, Alyssa Schilke, Logan O’Neal, Jacqueline Bertault and Sage Simons danced.

Children of the Wall, a contemporary showpiece by MBII Rehearsal Director and Milwaukee Ballet Resident Choreographer Timothy O’Donnell, came next. Dancers Lucy Pudner and Amanda Lewis danced their powerful characters with immense flexibility and perfect control to a score by French DJ Wax Tailor. It all felt timely and true.

email newsletter iconStay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.

SIGN UP

Calvin Hilpert looked beyond time in his mysterious, ambitious, often trilling one-act dance theatre piece, a long stretch of night. Hilpert is a young choreographer and a new member of the faculty of the Milwaukee Ballet School and Academy. His international dance career was cut short by injury. This piece might be about that. It’s set in an imagined space/time between death and “what lies beyond.”

The dance began in silence as the entire company of 18, dressed casually but with a band of white make-up across their eyes, walked separately into a thin band of white light. It’s frightening to think what could have brought them simultaneously to this space between life and death.

One of two haunted duets, for a contemporary woman and a shadowy dance partner covered in black from head to toe, was set to Barbra Streisand’s recording of “The Way We Were”; the other to Tom Rosenthals’ “A Thousand Years.” Some searching scenes were set to recorded poetry by Mary Oliver.

The ensemble dancing was spectacular. Group work gave rise to solo explorations within a circle of dancers. As dance, the piece was always fascinating. As theatr,r it could use some clarifying. One thing is sure: these young dancers are the future.

O’Donnell’s Chopin Etudes closed the evening. Although two of its “lessons” were presented several years ago, this completed work was a second world premiere, also made for the full MBII ensemble. In an awesome onstage performance, Steven Ayers played, by heart, a string of Chopin’s ravishing works for solo piano. The expansive choreography and heartfelt dancing met the music well. Never dull, never pretentious, O’Donnell deployed classical steps and technique to present up-to-the-moment looks at love and friendship, sorrow and joy, introversion, commitment, the complexity of the lives of these dancers. While the constant awareness of every muscle at every moment is the same as it’s always been in ballet, the character and purpose of the art today are very different, thankfully.