Milwaukee Musicians and Danceworks Made a ‘Small But Mighty’ Celebration

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Danceworks 'Small But Mighty'

With the closing show of her second season as artistic director of Danceworks Performance MKE, Christal Wagner demonstrated her commitment to the company’s name. I’d guess that almost every kind of Milwaukeean—using all the categories we assign to humans these days—was represented somehow by the 32 dancers and 20 musicians in last weekend’s Small But Mighty concert.

There were six premieres by five company choreographers with live accompaniment by four Milwaukee music ensembles. Ninety minutes of absorbing, complex, witty, moving entertainment—a “mighty gift,” as Wagner called it, “as the rebirth of summer is upon us.”

This time of year, I often walk the paths of the Milwaukee River Restoration Project just to lose—or is it find—myself in nature. The same thing happens at a good live music concert. The verbal part of my brain rests. So it was at Small But Mighty. Seated in the front row beside a lifelong friend, close enough to touch the open-hearted dancers, breathing in the music, I was very happy.

Wagner’s Awe opened the show. In silence, 10 dancers faced us from the downstage edge of the playing space and took a deep, slow, restorative breath. Costumed in soft greens and grays, they quietly filled the large playing space at the Milwaukee Youth Art Center and became a human garden. An eleventh dancer wandered through as on a path, and the Cosmo Reed Quintet began to play “The Wildflower Quintet for Reed Quintet” by Jenni Brandon. There was so much to take in, with all 11 dancers moving differently, offering suggestions of butterflies and breezes, holding still and watching, taking solos. The musicians also took solos. 

Music, Dance, Life

As was true all night, the music alone was a reason to be there. Add fine dancing and life is good. Anxiety evaporates.

Next, a dozen teenaged members of the Danceworks Youth Performance Company joined the four-member Black Cat Ensemble for Stratified, choreographed by DPMKE’s Gabi Sustache to music by a 19th century Cuban music pioneer, Ignacio Cervantes. These dancers were Sustache’s students. This recital was part of their training, and they were intensely focused on the perfect execution of challenging contemporary dance moves. All but one dancer, whose radiant smile is unforgettable. 

The Black Cat Ensemble’s gifted oboe, clarinet, bassoon, flute and trumpet players remained onstage to execute a three-part work by Raymond Burkhart titled “Suite Arcata.” This suite accompanied between/the/trees, choreographed by longtime Danceworks member Gina Laurenzi. Seven barefoot members of DPMKE, each with a fanciful headpiece by Wagner, performed as fantasy animals waking in a forest, sensing and responding, following instincts, sometimes engaging in a kind of group think, sometimes cutting loose, in movements virtuosic, unexpected, and amusing. It was uncanny how much they behaved like my house pets. The dancers and musicians were in perfect sync. No conductor necessary.

Next, the Microcosm Ensemble arrived to play James Stephenson’s “Trio Sonata for Flute, Trumpet, and Piano” (2001) as accompaniment for a lovely day, Laurenzi’s second choreographic contribution. Performed with much charm by the Danceworks Intergenerational Performance Company, this was a comic dance theatre piece. The eight actor/dancers cavorted in a city park, playing kids of all ages and a pet dog on the loose.

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Photo: Microcosm Ensemble - Instagram

Elizabeth Roskopf in 'Small But Mighty'

Elizabeth Roskopf in 'Small But Mighty'

The Microcosm Ensemble stayed onstage to play Erika Malpass’s 2022 chamber work “to find the beauty in surviving our emotions.” I appreciated simply listening to this rhythmically complex and beautiful music for a while. But things grew even lovelier when Elisabeth Roskopf entered to dance Untethered, her solo to Malpass’ composition. 

For me, this was the program’s highlight. Born to South Korean parents, adopted as a baby by an American couple, and now in her mid-thirties, Roskopf has devoted herself to learning her Korean roots. Her dance seamlessly combined Asian and American styles, pulling together threads from both cultures. She danced the process of exploring her identity, finding her place, with moves that honored both Western virtuosity and Eastern spirituality. It was dance as search, not display. I could feel what it’s cost her.

DPMKE choreographer/dancer Nekea Leon’s Panorama was the perfect climax. Accompanied by the steelpan drummers of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Steel Band Ensemble, the full professional dance company returned for a celebration of Afro-Caribbean music. Against the intoxicating rhythms and sensuous dancing, it was hard for me to follow Lorelei Wesslowski’s narration of the history of the steelpan drum—only that Caribbean island slaves created them from heavy oil drums and invented a musical genre that helped them endure. I understood these words: “We recognize that the struggle still exists, here in Milwaukee and worldwide.”

Leon’s dance was an immensely joyful celebration of a genre handed down through centuries. The talented drummers and the stomping, jumping, collapsing and resurrecting dancers brought Small But Mighty to a giant finish.