Danceworks Performance Company presents: Against the Grain: The Life & Times of Levi Fisher Ames

Danceworks Performance Company kicks off its 2018-19 season with a collaboration between theatre, film and dance in Against the Grain: The Life & Times of Levi Fisher Ames, October 20-21 and 25-28 at the Danceworks Studio Theatre, 1661 N. Water Street in Milwaukee.

Levi Fisher Ames was a self-taught woodcarver, a Civil War vet who carved a menagerie of real and mythical animals and took his show on the road. This interdisciplinary piece imagines Levi on his final day, his memories, family, showmanship and his fantastical relationship with the creatures he created.

"Against the Grain is a dance/theatre piece that shifts fluidly from scenes with dialogue to dance to various combinations of the two," says writer and director Edward Morgan. In collaboration with Theatre MXT - comprised of Morgan, writer and actor John Kishline and actress Deborah Clifton - Danceworks Artistic Director Dani Kuepper has choreographed movement that helps tell the story and also interacts with filmmaker Kym McDaniel's video and photography. "It all comes together as a unique exploration of Ames' remarkable life," says Morgan.

The cast features John Kishline as Levi Fisher Ames; Deborah Clifton as his wife, Lucinda; and Kirk Thomsen plays both their son Charles and a male orderly at the hospital. The dancers, in various roles, will include Kuepper, along with Danceworks Performance Company members Liz Licht, Elisabeth Roskopf, Zach Schorsch, Christal Wagner and Andrew Zanoni.

Comic and tragic, poetic and bizarre, Against the Grain explores a veteran's return, the birth of an artist, mortality and old-time Wisconsin entertainment.

Saturday, October 20, 7:30pm*

Sunday, October 21, 2:30pm

Thursday, October 25, 8:00pm

Friday, October 26, 7:30pm

Saturday, October 27, 7:30pm*

Sunday, October 28, 2:30pm

*Post-show talkbacks with the cast and creators will be held both Saturdays, October 20 and 27, lasting approx. 20 minutes each.