Fall Dance Preview

In the fields of dance and hybrid performance, almostevery work presented in our town is brand new. DebraLoewen is among the most original of the originators. She has been making dances here for so long that the life energy of ourcity is somehow always her subject and everything her Wild Space company presents is significant. Premiering Sept. 9-11 with a Sept. 12 rain date, A Place forEverything is her newest response to a specific local site, in this casethe newly reopened Lynden Sculpture Garden at 2145 W. Brown Deer Road. Thedance will spread across the grounds and incorporate the sculptures. Josh Schmidt, a Milwaukeecomposer heralded across the country for his opera and theater scores, createdmusic for the piece.

The “PerformanceArt Showcase” is our city’s most important performance art event, a windowto the relatively underground work of an array of local artists. Curated byPegi Christiansen and John Loscuito, it will have its sixth annual incarnationat MIAD, 273 E. Erie St.,on Wednesday, Sept. 22. Theimmensely generous show ($5 suggested donation, $3 for students) will presentwork by 28 artists in tents, booths or the indoor gallery. The title andspringboard theme is Souvenirs, and each performance will somehow offerone.

Danceworks is aprofessional dance laboratory. A show ofnew work, titled Lying,willbe presented in the company’s Studio Theatre Oct. 1-9. Guest artist Amii LeGendre, whose fields include alternative dance,contact improvisation and community building, will join the companychoreographers and dancers to address the theme of deceit. Can the body lie?

“AlvernoPresents” imports distinguished original work from around the world. OnOct. 16, Compagnie Jant-Bi from Senegalwill perform in the Pitman Theatre. Eight dancers and five drummers under theleadership of the legendary choreographer Germaine Acogny, will perform Waxtaan. The word means “discussion.” The workemploys traditional African dance to discuss “the naked aggression of 21st-centurypower politics.”

The MilwaukeeBallet will open its 41st season Oct. 28-31 at the Marcus Centerfor the Performing Arts with a revival of Michael Pink’s grand dance spectacle Esmeralda,based on Victor Hugo’s Notre-Damede Paris. The score is by PhilipFeeney, who composed Peter Pan. Pink finds Hugo’s heroine unusual in19th-century literature for her courage to take on church and state. I find Pink unusual in his ability to assemble a great company andinspire them to theatrical excellence.

Isabelle Kralj and Mark Anderson have amassed an armyof accomplished Milwaukeeactors, dancers and musicians to de- and re-construct King Lear, myfavorite Shakespeare play. Their TheatreGigante remains exemplary in its commitment to forward-looking, risk-takinghybrid performance. The new show runs Nov. 18-21 at Studio 508, Kenilworth Square East,1925 E. Kenilworth Place.