Wild Space’s ‘InSite: Cycles’ Starring Davidson Park

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Photo by Mark Frohna

Wild Space Dance ‘InSite: Cycles’ at Davidson Park

Wild Space Dance ‘InSite: Cycles’ at Davidson Park

High creativity and a warm sense of humor made InSite: Cycles, Wild Space Dance Company’s outdoor performance at Milwaukee’s new Davidson Park, constantly interesting and fun. The most amazing feature and clear inspiration for the dance artists and musicians was the park itself. The heavens also helped. An enormous full moon last weekend made an awesome backdrop.

Davidson Park opened in June on grounds that were once a parking lot for Harley Davidson’s original factory on West Juneau Avenue. The company’s first three motorcycles were built there in 1903. We learned this in a pleasant preshow talk by Steve Rottmann of Harley Davidson University, where company employees learn to assemble and repair the bikes.

As prelude, Wild Space artistic director and lead choreographer Dan Schuchart read a statement from the Potawatomi Tribe welcoming everyone to what had been for centuries their homeland. Members of the Tribe designed the flower gardens built inside the grand amphitheater at the park’s heart, and in the “Serenity Garden” up above.  The plants are native to Wisconsin.

Strike Up the Band

Schuchart then asked the audience to move to the center of the amphitheater. The unexpected sound of an approaching motorcycle pierced the night air. Cyclist Freddie Franklin, with a helmeted passenger behind him, drove his Harley onto and around the amphitheater’s highest circular level, and down a ramp to the next highest level to pause at a central staircase. That was the cue for the excellent five-member band beside us to strike up what I’d call soft rock. 

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Photo by Mark Frohna

Wild Space Dance ‘InSite: Cycles’ at Davidson Park

Wild Space Dance ‘InSite: Cycles’ at Davidson Park

As the passenger dismounted and Franklin cycled off, 17 dancers descended from the distant hilltop, some on the staircase, some on the grassy slopes. The passenger joined as dancers spread outwards, upwards, downwards, on stairs, ramps, and benches, in groups, partnered, or solo, dancing free or in unison, open-armed, exuberant in the glow of built-in lighting and colored theatre lights, a kind of giant groovy outdoor disco with that awesome moon behind it.

And so this unique show began. The dancers raced back over the hill, the music ended, and the audience was asked to form two groups. Guided by docents, the groups set off in opposite directions to experience, in reverse order, a series of short performances staged along a long sidewalk positioned just over the amphitheater’s summit.

Grassy Slope

My group’s first stop was the grassy slope where the dancers had first appeared. The band had also divided, and saxophonist Dylan James Ovanin, waiting on the slope, was the sole accompanist for choreographer Dijon Michelle Kirkland’s Blissful Road Travelled. His sax improvisations were gentle and warm, like this dance for the trio of Gina Laurenzi, Ashley Ray Garcia, and Nicole Spence.

Kirkland explained in a program note that her piece was dedicated to her motorcyclist grandmother, a Harley Davidson connoisseur, and that “the work is reflective of taking pieces of people with you throughout life.” I enjoyed its mystery and the excellent dancing.

Then up the hill to the sidewalk for The Third Space, choreographed and performed by Elisabeth Roskopf on a narrow wooden bridge between sidewalk and hilltop. The title refers to the uncertain in-between space of her identity as a South Korean baby adopted by Americans. Accompanied by Tim Ipsen on bass violin, and in soft lavender lighting by the show’s designer Colin Gawronski, Roskopf maintained an intense inner focus while testing the bridge’s possibilities as a dance floor. She balanced ballet-style at the edges, moving between sidewalk and hillside where a few stairs led upward. At last she climbed the stairs, took a last look back, crossed the hill, and disappeared into the night. It was a wonderful six minutes.

Down on the Sidewalk

Further down on the sidewalk, motorcycle parts were strewn like trash. We saw two performers puzzle over the pieces in a comic interlude titled Repair. At last, they assembled something they could sit in. Perhaps this was a tease on Harley Davidson University.

By this time, music director and percussionist Tim Russell had moved his drum set to the sidewalk’s center-point where a giant circular sculpture of the Harley Davidson logo stands. The audience regathered there to witness a terrific jazz improvisation by dancer Cedric Gardner and the reunited five-piece band, including guitarists Brian Lucas and Andrew Murray Trim. Gardner deployed his signature slinks and slides and elasticity in highly accomplished, smart, heart-lifting fashion, dancing alternately outside and inside the circular sculpture. 

My group continued on to Helmet Heads, a comic sketch for three performers in Harley helmets bobbling on a stairway. Next was choreographer Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro’s thrilling romp to guitar accompaniment in the park’s incomparable playground. There was so much going on with seven dancers, more than anyone could follow but a treat no matter where you looked.

Even Freddie motorcycled back for the finale in the amphitheater and adjoining driveway to Harley Davidson Corporate Headquarters.