Wild Space Seeding the Future with ‘Choreo Kitchen’

×

Expand

Photo via Wild Space Dance Company

Wild Space Dance Company ‘Choreo Kitchen’

Wild Space Dance Company ‘Choreo Kitchen’

Wild Space Dance Company opened its 37th season last week with a playful, honest look at the company’s dance making process. I say that with confidence, since I had the honor of experiencing that process myself a year ago while co-creating a dance with Flora Coker, Simone Ferro and choreographer Deb Loewen for Wild Space’s winter concert, History of the Future. That concert honored the passing of the company’s artistic directorship from founder Loewen to longtime company dancers Monica Rodero and Dan Schuchart. 

Choreo Kitchen–Session 1, as last week’s event was titled, was the first of a series of four such sessions that Rodero and Schuchart have scheduled. In each, we’re invited to witness the start of the dance-making process that largely defines Wild Space’s work. Session 2 is on November 9.

There’s nothing like sitting at arm’s reach of dancers and watching their eyes as they intuitively respond to other dancers and ideas. The title Choreo Kitchen is a joking reference to a Food Network game show called “Chopped,” in which contestants must immediately create an edible dish from disparate ingredients. You can make a taste treat that way, but not a meaningful dance, and that’s not the aim. 

Life Experiences

For Wild Space, the ingredients are life experiences, collaborators, and some kind of prompt. In our early rehearsals for History of the Future, our prompt was the title. We turned essential personal history into movement. Loewen videoed our improvisations, studied the results, and found new questions for us. She brought in music. She never brought in steps to execute. She’d craft our movements, rearranging, reordering and editing right up to opening night. The result is unique. You’re pretty transparent.

Choreo Kitchen welcomes the audience into the rehearsal room, so to speak. The site is the spacious, high-ceilinged, well-lighted MARN Art & Culture Hub in the Third Ward. MARN is the acronym for Milwaukee Artists Resource Center. They call their Hub “a space for you to feel at home, relax, and collaborate with our great community and enjoy great art.” 

Half of the warehouse-sized space is a stylish café featuring Esperanza Coffee and Great Lakes Distillery beverages. The rest is meant for gallery viewing. Expansive white walls serve up visual work by area visual artists. There’s a new show every six to eight weeks. The floor is polished wood, great for dancers. 

Comfortable chairs were arranged for the audience in the open area. Café service continued throughout the performance. In his welcome speech, Schuchart assured us that we were free to get drinks or change our viewing positions at will. The dancers performed in several areas. We adjusted our chairs as necessary. Everything felt natural.

Playful Interactions

It was a delightful evening. I’m sure each audience member had their own thoughts, but everyone appeared engaged, smiling, sometimes laughing, and bouncing along to the beats brilliantly provided by composer/percussionist Paul Westfahl. He was seated close to us at a table filled with fascinating electronic sound equipment. He’d create atmospheric hums, random arpeggios, and legato melodies while expertly playing a tabla. He even had some playful interactions with the dancers. His contribution to the entire program was immense. 

There were three full-scale improvisations by the company of eight dancers, including Schuchart. But the featured events were three experimental dances inspired by mystery prompts provided to three company choreographers who’d been given one short rehearsal with their dancers prior to the show. The mystery prompts turned out to be a plastic jump rope, fresh apples, a brief scripted argument about infidelity from the great British playwright Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information, and ChatGPT’s advice on “how to get from here to there.”

Choreographer Katelyn Altmann joined dancers Jessica Lueck and Jasmine Uras in a playtime scenario.  Ashley Ray Garcia choreographed a pensive solo for herself. Choreographer Ida Lucchesi joined her dancers Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro and Nicole Spence in a piece about curiosity. 

Will this “here” produce a “there” someday? Everything that took place in Session 1 could seed some future masterpiece. Whether any moment would remain the same is improbable. Regardless, it was a playful, generous, respectful way for new directors Rodero and Schuchart to start their first season. More to come.