Photo by Christal Wagner
3 Dancers w HANDS
“CARE: Illuminating Milwaukee’s Queer & Trans Vogue Dance Community,” a multiyear creative research dance project designed to explore how Milwaukee’s BIPOC LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities care for one another, culminates with its world première performance at Winterdances: Resilience, February 5–8, at UWM’s Main Stage Theater.
Photo by Yi Chun
David Rousséve
David Rousséve
Responding to the current political crisis and its impact on queer identity and gender diversity, the Department of Dance at UWM’s Peck School of the Arts commissioned an internationally renowned choreographer, writer, director and filmmaker, LA-based David Roussève, to direct a community dance project. Based on true stories from Milwaukee’s LGBTQ+ and HIV-impacted communities, the CARE project evolved through storytelling and movement workshops with community partner Diverse & Resilient.
Lead by choreographer Richard Buda Brasfield as Roussève’s assistant with local dancers Jacquez Orr-McKinney and DaCosta Martin and UWM students, the company has distilled the material into a world premiere dance-theater work, that, according to its producers, “offers a powerful platform to amplify narratives of resilience, care, and queer joy during a politically fraught climate.”
Roussève’s desire was to create a piece by and for the LGBTQ+ community that would “highlight the profound impact that Ballroom houses and the communities of chosen family have had on the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals.” Naturally, integrating the ballroom community and the aesthetic precision and authenticity of its dance forms (vogue, runway, hands, catwalk, floorwork) was essential.
Engaging with the established, local stable of ballroom and vogue dancers as performers in the work was, therefore, as quoted in the project’s definition, “the only way to honor and share the authenticity and representation from Milwaukee’s Ballroom community.” Choreographer and queer BIPOC community advocate Richard Brasfield was the logical choice for that role. Coincidently, Brasfied founded his first dance company, Remix, 20 years ago in 2006. Its successor troupe, ReVamped Dance Company, performed for the first time at PrideFest in 2014 on the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center Stage, moving to the festival’s Dance Pavilion Stage in subsequent years. His participation in CARE is a culmination of his own story of his relationship to the community he has long served through art.
The production is produced through a National Endowment for the Arts grant and in partnership with Diverse & Resilient, Milwaukee’s non-profit health equity organization. Its mission to improve the safety and well-being of LGBTQ people and communities in Wisconsin is reflected in its commitment to anti-violence, sexual health, harm reduction, mentorship, capacity building, and leadership. Its “CARE” collaboration included facilitating Roussève’s connection to Milwaukee’s LGBTQ and Ballroom communities as well as holding workshops with D&R members who shared their histories and experiences with him. These would then become the inspiration for his choreography.
Performances of CARE in additional to other new works by dance faculty Mair Culbreth, Ishmael Konney and Dawn Springer take place Thursday–Saturday, Feb. 5–7, 7:30–9:30 p.m.) and Sunday, Feb. 8, (2–4 p.m.) Livestream option available for February 5 and 6
Ticket information for both in-person and livestream performances as well as additional details about Winterdances may be found at https://uwm.edu/arts/event/winterdances/
