Photo credit: Josh Pacheco Photography
This week, multiple holiday season-themed classical music, dance and theater performances take center stage in Milwaukee and beyond.
Dance
Leaving and Coming Back
Peter Stathas, a Hales Corners native and dance artist with international credits, will present the Milwaukee premiere of “Leaving and Coming Back,” a program of original works first assembled for a New York City premiere last June. The grandson of a Milwaukee welterweight boxing champion and an avid childhood athlete, he began his dance career at UW-Stevens Point, then left Wisconsin to study in New York City with such great choreographers as Mark Morris, Lar Lubovitch and his mentor, Maggie Black. He went on to dance internationally with the José Limón Dance Company.
Thirty years ago, he came back and parlayed his training into Freedom Physical Therapy Services, which has four locations in greater Milwaukee. He missed dance, though, and so in 2016 he created Peter Stathas Dance to share his decades of experience with young people. According to his publicist, he wants to bridge the gap between millennials and boomers and is dedicated to ensuring that young performers are compensated fairly and treated with respect. “Leaving and Coming Back” includes Stathas’ works from 1985-2019 and shows his choreographic and personal evolution. The performers are Joe Fransee, Andrew McShea, Paulina Menesis, Jesse Obremski, Emilee Pratt, Sasha Rydizky and Lauren Twomley. (John Schneider)
Performances are Dec. 13-14 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 15 at 1 p.m. at UW-Milwaukee’s Mitchell Hall 254, 3203 N. Downer Ave. Call 414-229-4308 or visit peterstathasdance.com/events
Fieldwork Showcase
The Field Milwaukee is the organization’s name. Fieldwork is its work. Participants meet weekly to share works-in-progress and exchange peer feedback, guided by an experienced facilitator. In the case of a showcase like this one, the public is invited. As dance artist Zach Schorsch writes, “Having built a community through critical feedback and lack of hierarchy, artists of The Field Milwaukee invite audiences for a chance to see their works-in-progress and participate in Fieldwork feedback in a relaxed and open setting.” That setting is the new 53212 Presents performance space above Company Brewing in Riverwest. The presenting artists include Schorsch with dance artist collaborator Andrea Burkholder, dance artist Betty Salamun with poet collaborator Cy Ozgood, musician Joe Riggenbach, theatre artist Kirk Thompson and performance artist Chad Piechocki with rapper Sieze the Emcee. All are Milwaukee artists of stature accustomed to risk-taking.
Burkholder will perform an early look at Schorsch’s experimental dance work-in-progress, tentatively titled Thunder Domestic. Inspired by open-world video games, it’s “a live dance theatre choose-your-own-adventure,” Schorsch says, “with each performer portraying a fluid myriad of roles and timelines shaped by a range of choices. Andrea has started that process with the solo we are presenting, jumping between two different yet fundamentally tied adolescent characters.” (John Schneider)
Friday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. at Company Brewing, 731 E. Center St. Visit facebook.com/pages/category/Community/The-Field-Milwaukee-164838787040621/
“Catherine Galasso: Get Dancing”
This performance is an adaptation of get dancing—a program that Catherine Galasso created with Andy de Groat for New York City-based Danspace Project four years ago. The program is composed of one original work by Galasso, notes on de groat, as well as Get Wreck and Fan Dance, two de Groat works that will feature Sheboygan community members. Get Dancing’s program also includes a showing of the 1987 film, Rope Dance, in which two men, each holding one end of a rope, perform an intricate dance on, in and through a square figure. (John Jahn)
Friday, Dec. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 608 New York Ave., Sheboygan. For tickets, call 920-458-6144 or visit jmkac.org.
More To Do: Holiday Season Entertainment Highlights
By John Jahn
’Twas the Month Before Christmas
Milwaukee playwright and actor Doug Jarecki delivers a humorous holiday treat with this unique look at the Bible’s Joseph and Mary, the three kings, the innkeeper, as well as “other” stories that embellish the traditional take on that book’s account of all things Bethlehem. Friday, Dec. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the Schauer Arts Center, 147 N. Rural St., Hartford. For tickets, call 262-670-0560 or visit schauercenter.org.
Vivaldi’s Gloria
The Suburban Singers Community Choir, a mixed choir (in terms of both gender and age) that has been presenting beautiful music to Milwaukee-area audiences for more than three decades, performs Antonio Vivaldi’s beloved Gloria, as well as seasonal and symphonic music (the latter played by WAWM Sinfonia). Dec. 13 and Dec. 20 at Liberace Auditorium, West Milwaukee Intermediate School, 5104 W. Greenfield Ave. For tickets, visit the event’s Facebook page.
“Home for the Holidays”
The Florentine Opera’s Baumgartner Studio artists perform songs from across styles and genres with one thing in common: They sing the praises of the holiday season. The artists raising their voices in song will be soprano Kathryn Henry, mezzo-soprano Meghan Folkerts, tenor Luke Selker and baritone Samuel James Dewese. Dec. 13-22 at the Wayne and Kristine Lueders Opera Center, 930 E. Burleigh St. For tickets, call 414-291-5700 or visit florentineopera.org.
Christmas Alive!
Morning Star Productions bills this as a “totally interactive, dramatic experience where you play a part in the wonder of the first Christmas.” Interestingly, this participatory show takes place outdoors! Dec. 13-22 on the wooded trail behind Wooded Hills Church, 777 Highway 164, Colgate. For tickets, call 414-228-5220 or visit morningstarproductions.org.
“Lessons and Carols”
The Waukesha Choral Union, which has been musically active in its community for more than 60 years, presents a holiday season-themed concert in two different (though both certainly most apropos) locations. Friday, Dec. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 121 Wisconsin Ave., Waukesha; and Sunday, Dec. 15, at 4 p.m. at All Saints Lutheran, 705 W. Tomlin Road, Wales. For tickets, visit choralunion.ticketleap.com.
The Story of the Nutcracker
The Studio of Classical Dance Arts performs the beloved ballet The Story of the Nutcracker; set to Peter Tchaikovsky’s glorious score, it’s a holiday season masterpiece filled with dancing dolls, glittering snowflakes, beautiful flowers and a cannon that fires cheese. This production features 75 dancers, more than 150 costumes, 300 lbs. of dry ice and falling snow. Dec. 14 and 15 at The Rita, UW-Parkside, 2745 Chicory Road, Racine. For tickets, call 262-633-4450 or visit classicaldancearts.com.
“Holiday in Brass”
Milwaukee Festival Brass—now in its 35th year as the city’s only British-style brass band—performs unique takes on holiday classics, including several jazz-influenced interpretations of such chestnuts as “Greensleeves,” “All I Want for Christmas” and “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.” The talents of Carroll University’s Brett Keating will be on display in the euphonium feature, “Ding Dong, Merrily on High,” and more. Sunday, Dec. 15, at 2 p.m. at St. Sebastian Parish, 5400 W. Washington Blvd. For tickets, visit mfbrass.org.
Messiah
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and guest soloists soprano Mireille Asselin, mezzo-soprano Sofia Selowsky, tenor James Way and baritone Christòpheren Nomura, perform one of the Baroque era’s epic masterpieces: Messiah, HWV 56, the great English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text from the King James Bible. Dec. 19-22 at The Basilica of St. Josaphat, 2333 S. Sixth St. For tickets, call 414-291-7605 or visit mso.org.
The Great Scrooge Disaster
Off the Wall Theatre’s Dale Gutzman presents A Christmas Carol. Unfortunately, the flu starts hitting the cast one by one, resulting in only half of the originally cast actors available to do the show. The result is completely inappropriate recasting, mayhem and a play-within-a-play that will turn your holiday season upside down. Dec. 18-31 at Off the Wall Theatre, 127 E. Wells St. For tickets, call 262-509-0945 or visit offthewallmke.com.
“Italian Christmas”
The Bach Chamber Choir, accompanied by a chamber orchestra, performs holiday choral pieces from Italy, the highlight being Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria, RV 589, a familiar and popular piece from the Baroque master composed about 1715. Sunday, Jan. 5, at 3 p.m. in St. Joseph Chapel, 1501 S. Layton Blvd. For tickets, visit bachchoirmilwaukee.com.
