Photo Credit: Jacob Durbin
I’d love to say go see Water Street Dance Milwaukee’s new concert, Centered, but it only had one performance. That was Sunday afternoon at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, where the company is a resident. So all I can say is go see this remarkable troupe as soon as there’s another chance. They should be seen across the country. Founder and artistic director Morgan Williams keeps each work in repertory, so you might yet see the dances in a future show. I hope you’ll see them with the same extraordinary cast.
This new contemporary dance company debuted last July, born of Williams’ earlier company, SueMo. The second act of Centered consisted of works premiered one year ago, right after SueMo’s break-up. In Action, Re Action & Words, the poet Brooklyn Lloyd described that dissolution beautifully, while Jasper Sanchez, dancing to the spoken word rhythms, embodied that episode’s real-life pain and confusion in powerful hip-hop style under Williams’ direction. That piece was followed by a second revival from that period, Imagery Portrayed, fiercely performed by the current company. Against haunting video imagery by Heather Mrotek of a haunted Williams, the dancers worked hard for a new life in art. Centered is exactly that.
The first act opened with the stately, mystical Siren by Chicago choreographer Luis Valquez, followed by revivals of We(ight) by Kam Saunders and Williams’ Rebirth of Serenity, both made with SueMo in 2018. Watching it all and trying to note the movements so I could describe them, I found myself marveling at the capacity of a brain to execute complex, extended sequences employing many body parts in contrasting ways at incredible speeds, precisely timed, in partnerships with others who are often doing something radically different. Everything is done with intense internal focus and intense awareness of space, sound, light and the other dancers.
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Any ballet company would be lucky to have dancer Nanya El Madyun Wilson. Sanchez, Marcus Hardy and Joe Musiel also showed superb technique and warm presence. Guest Gina Laurenzi of Danceworks looked right at home. Alex Seager, Allison Slamann, Ashley Tomaszewski, Sara Silvis, Anna Stachnik, Anna Straszewski and Tyler Straszewski did heroic work.
The company today is composed of men of color, white women and a non-binary dancer—each an individual. Equality is both foregrounded and assumed. Onstage relationships are free of power issues. The struggle, and there’s a lot of it, is with a world out there.
