Photo by Paul Mitchell
Audiences have learned to expect just one site-specific dance performance per season from Debra Loewen and her Wild Space Dance Company. Last fall’s Luminous, staged in the giant greenhouse of the Mitchell Park Domes, was that; or so we thought. But Loewen felt she hadn’t provided the full site-specific experience since audiences watched that show from just one spot, proscenium style. So she’s staging the company’s new Fresh Tracks as a wonderland that we can roam at will, enjoying dances that somehow respond to the space.
The site is Room 620 on the top floor of UW-Milwaukee’s Kenilworth Square East, a huge warehouse that also houses the INOVA Art Gallery where Wild Space made a fascinating multi-faceted performance two years ago. A former industrial site, the enormous, oddly shaped Room 620 has a two-story ceiling, dramatically exposed beams and a wall of windows facing the lake. Loewen will create a social area with an operating wine and beer bar. Performances in three additional areas will run simultaneously and repeat three times, so individual audience members can visit them in any sequence or bounce between them, perhaps following dancers as they exit one story to enter another on cue.
One area has a built-in kitchen. “I’ve invited mystery guest performers from the community, including former Wild Space members, to perform there,” Loewen says. “It will be a scene, simple on the surface—just things that happen around your kitchen table—but under the surface, a lot is happening.”
Area two is central. “I call it the abstract area, the dancing area,” Loewen continues. “Four company members—Mauriah Kraker, Kelly Radermacher Butts, Monica Rodero and Dan Schuchart—made significant chunks of the material and directed aspects of it and it’s all incorporated into one piece. My goal with Fresh Tracks was to provide an opportunity for them to put forward the new ideas they’ve been working on and want to bring into the company. If I could, I’d bring snow in for them to leave tracks on.”
Stay 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.
Loewen describes the third area as a quasi-living room for dancers and audience featuring real time behavior blended with dance material that focuses on couples. Composer Tim Russell made sound tapes for this space. He’ll also perform live, using clothing and shoes as instruments. And there’s a cameo for a miniature dachshund. “We’ll see if it works,” Loewen says.
Fresh Tracks runs at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 25-27 in Kenilworth 620, 1925 E. Kenilworth Place. For tickets 414-271-0712 or visit wildspacedance.org.
