Internationally acclaimed soprano Katarina Vovkova will give her first performances in Milwaukee on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 25–26, at Vogel Hall in the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. Entitled “Casta Diva,” her recital will include well-known arias by Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, Dvorak and other great...

As finalists in the Milwaukee Ballet’s “Genesis: International Choreographic Competition,” Mauro de Candia, Lucas Jervies and Edgar Zendejas were chosen from a field of 50 competitors from North American, Europe, Asia and Australia to create new ballets on the company dancers. All three have...

Thespis, the world’s first dramatist, honed his revolutionary art in the traveling variety shows of ancient Greece, chanting poetry in alternation with the stunts of acrobats and clowns. The great modern example of this most ancient theatrical format was Vaudeville. From the French voix de ville or “voice of the...

The choreographers of the Milwaukee Ballet’s Genesis: International Choreographic...

Choreographer and Wild Space Artistic Director Deb Loewen clearly spent much time in the interior of the Milwaukee County Historical Society imagining where to situate her dancers and audiences for her newest site-specific performance, Past Present. Aided by Jan Kellogg’s quiet lighting, the work revealed...

“A dancer doesn’t have to emotionalize – he needs to motionalize,” the late great 20th century American choreographer Alwin Nikolais used to say. “He doesn’t even have to be a person – he can be a thing, a place or a time.” Nikolai’s hallucinogenic 1964 work Water Studies will be presented by the UWM Peck School of the...

If you missed the splendid performance of Salvatore Aiello’s Clowns and Others by the Milwaukee Ballet last winter, or want to enjoy again its glittering, humorous vignettes of circus performers and crowds representing a surprising assortment of passions and follies, you have an excellent chance on...

“I’ve worked in construction all over downtown Milwaukee and I’ve seen this building all my life, but I’ve never set foot inside. It’s beautiful!” exclaims a middle-aged workman, the only person other than me to visit the Milwaukee County Historical Society building during that noon hour. I was enjoying a personal tour of its newly restored interior, guided by the founding director of Wild Space Dance...