Our community needs young artists to show us with candor their sense of our time, and to grapple with formal traditions and invent new styles. So the Dance Department of UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts is providing a vital service with New Dancemakers: Insight,two programs of rigorously developed choreography on the subject of identity by senior dance majors.

Co-Artistic Director Luc Vanier wants to fight the notion that dances are choreographed by on-the-spot inspiration. The 12 students selected to develop and present dances submitted detailed proposals last spring, spent the summer doing research, then worked all semester, with feedback from faculty and guest professionals, to create personal and artistically self-defining compositions. Co-Artistic Director Seth Warren-Crow, a composer and sound designer, guided their choices of music, much of which was student-composed specifically for these dances.

Two of the pieces have been entered into the American College Dance Festival’s national competition: Leandra Renaa Williams’ Route 60 is about the effects of years of taking the city bus to school, and Mary-Elizabeth Fenn’s Sibling Rivalry addresses the impact of siblings on self-identification.

New Dancemakers: Insight will be presented Dec. 10-13 in Studio 254 of UWM’s Mitchell Hall, 3203 N. Downer Ave. Two programs (A and B) will alternate start times of 5:30 and 7:30 p.m., except on Sunday when the start times are 2 and 4 p.m. Seating is limited and reservations are strongly recommended. Call the Peck School of the Arts Box Office at (414) 229-4308.