News @ the Peck School of the Arts

Dance - Questions for Xalaat African Dance

Helen Koth

Urban Milwaukee

7/31/2015

 

 

Xalaat Africa Drum and Dance for Life was founded in 2010 by Yaya Kambaye. The group specializes in African and Carribean dance and music. The group is led by Kambaye, a native of Senegal, West Africa, who is a master drummer and kora player drawing on Senegalese traditions. Its other leader is Roxanne Kess, who is on staff at Marquette University.

Read the full article at Urban Milwaukee

Dancemakers 2015 brings professionals from all over to Milwaukee

Milwaukee residents will see top professional dancers from around the country in 

 

Dancemakers 2015 at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 24 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 25 in 

 

Mitchell Studio 254. (Mitchell Hall, 3203 N. Downer Ave.) See arts.uwm.edu/calendar. 

 

The program is the culminating event for a summer residency program that is part of the 

 

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Master of Fine Arts in Performance/Dance 

 

program, which takes the unusual approach of concentrating on professional dancers who 

 

want to keep performing while working on a degree. 

 

Dancers combine two on-campus summer residencies – when as performers they are 

 

usually on hiatus – with online academic work over three semesters to earn the MFA 

 

degree. UWM’s program was the first of its kind for professional dancers, and is still one 

 

of only three such programs in the United States, according to Dance Department Chair 

 

Simone Ferro. “This allows professionals to reach a different level and broaden their 

 

options,” Ferro said.

 

Dancemakers 2015 will feature 11 choreographic works by nationally recognized MFA 

 

students, created or reset for community dancers. Students come from all over the the 

 

U.S. and represent influences from various styles – breaking and hip-hop, Mexican dance 

 

and more traditional modern and post-modern. 

 

 

Tickets are $14 for the public; $12 for seniors, UWM faculty and staff; and $5 in advance 

 

for students. For ticket information, visit uwm.edu/psoa/newsevents/boxoffice.cfm or call 

 

414-229-4308.

UWM Undergrad Travels to Disney, Beijing for Dance

UWM - UWM Dance BFA student, Brooke Miller, received an exciting opportunity last fall: an acceptance letter to the Disney College Program. What's better is that only a few months later she was brought on as a full time employee. Brooke describes her time with Disney positively and excitedly, "I have the privilege to keep Walt’s dream alive, and that’s something that’s really special to me."

In addition to performing for Disney, Brooke also received an invitation in 2014 to attend the Beijing Dance Festival alongside UWM Dance Professor and Oni Dance Founder, Maria Gillespie. At the Festival, Brooke participated in master classes and attended performances by renowned dancers from all over the world. "It was an amazing cultural experience as well as a great way to learn and dance with so many phenomenal individuals from around the world," commented Brooke.

"We are delighted that Brooke Miler has this professional opportunity.  The Disney Program allows talented students like her to cultivate their performance skills while giving them valuable experience for their post-UWM careers," comments UWM Dance Professor and Department Chair Simone Ferro.

"The UWM Dance Department is designed to prepare versatile artists who can take advantage of many different teaching, choreographing and performance opportunities for skilled professionals. We are very happy that Brooke's talent and her UWM dance training have made this possible."

A Wisconsin native, Brooke found her passion for dance performing in musicals as a kid. At 15, Brooke began choreographing musicals locally around her hometown Manitowoc, WI. She attended the Junior Theater Festival in Atlanta, GA for four years and in 2012 received the Student Choreography Award.

Dance - UWM’s Summerdances

John Schneider

Shepherd Express

5/12/15

 

 

 

Modern dance in Milwaukee is unthinkable without UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts dance department. The faculty includes leaders of every major modern dance company in town. The department conducts dance research and experiments as serious as those of any school of science or technology and offers opportunities for audiences to enjoy the results. Chief among these is Summerdances, the annual concert of new work by faculty, guests and students that closes each school year.

Read the full article: Shepherd Express

Dance - Review: Stephen Petronio’s ‘Bloodlines’

Alastair Macaulay

April 8, 2015

New York Times

 

The history of the leading figures of American modern dance can sound like lines from the Book of Genesis. Senior choreographers nurtured company dancers who in due course became choreographers in their own right. To adapt the King James Version, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn begat Doris Humphrey and Martha Graham; Humphrey begat José Limón while Graham begat Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor; Mr. Taylor begat Twyla Tharp. ...

Usually, however, the next generation has substantially rejected its progenitors’ achievements. There have been exceptions: notably, Limón kept the Humphrey repertory going. The new Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance project is an effort, as yet half-baked, to include choreographers older and younger than Mr. Taylor; so far it exhibits vague ideas of taste rather than any actual lineage. Lineage, however, is the overt subject of the project started at the Joyce Theater this week by the choreographer Stephen Petronio. Hence its name: “Bloodlines.” It’s as admirable as it is ambitious.

Read the full article here: New York Times

Inter-Arts - Wis. Rapids to be home of new performing arts school

Deb Cleworth

4/14/2105

Wisconsin Rapids Tribune

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – After decades of two dance studios in Wisconsin Rapids, a new studio opening this fall will add another dimension to education in the arts.

The Rapids School of the Performing Arts is set to break ground for a new, almost 6,000 square foot, four-studio facility at 1211 Parkwood Lane.

The school will offer more than dance, according to its director and owner, Julie Engum-Korpal, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts. Her husband, Matthew, is the co-owner.

Read the full article here: Wisconsin Rapids Tribune

Dance - Dance Happening: Oni Dance Presents ‘Palimpsest’

Shepherd Express

3/31/2015

John Schneider

 

 

Oni Dance Presents ‘Palimpsest’

UW-Milwaukee’s Kenilworth Studio 620

1925 E. Kenilworth Place

April 10-11

Maria Gillespie, UW-Milwaukee dance department assistant professor and a key figure in the exciting new Milwaukee dance-music improvisation collaboration Hyperlocal, is also artistic director of Oni Dance, which she founded in Los Angeles in 2005 and brought to Milwaukee. These forces will join in Palimpsest, a program of new and restaged works by Gillespie with Hyperlocal dancer/choreographers from Wild Space Dance Company, Danceworks Performance Company, Milwaukee Ballet II and UWM and with Milwaukee composer/musician Tim Russell.

Read the full article here: Shepherd Express

PSOA - Kenilworth Open Studios

Shepherd Express

4/8/2015

Tyler Friedman

 

On Saturday, April 18, Prospect Avenue’s Kenilworth Building will open its doors to the public for its annual family friendly, interactive show-and-tell event, Kenilworth Open Studios (KOS). From 11 a.m.-2 p.m., all six floors will be teeming with 100-plus of UW-Milwaukee’s best and brightest eager to share the ways they are changing the world with art and technology.

Built by the Ford Motor Company in 1914, the Kenilworth Building passed into Uncle Sam’s hands during World War II to function as a munitions factory. Later, after a stint as General Motors’ Spark Plug Division, the building was acquired by UWM and served primarily as a storage warehouse until being refurbished and repurposed in 2006: half to be used as dorms and half to house faculty and graduate students studying art and design, theater, dance, film and music.

Read the full article here: Shepherd Express

Inter-Arts - UWM’s Beautiful Rendition of ‘Little Women’

Amanda Sullivan

3/11/2015

Shepherd Express

 

UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts’ theater, music and dance departments joined forces March 4-8 to bring audiences a captivating performance of Little Women: The Musical. The intimate Five-0-Eight Theatre was a perfect location for the show, which delves into the close bond between sisters, the journey of falling in love and societal expectations during the 1860s.

Read the full article: Shepherd Express

Dance - A Lively ‘Requiem’ for Ed Burgess

John Schneider

March 10, 2015

Shepherd Express

 

There was barely room onstage at Next Act Theatre last weekend for the 15 powerhouse dancers who performed the Milwaukee premiere of Requiem, Janet Lilly’s lively tribute to Ed Burgess, the dancer, choreographer and chair of UWM’s Dance Department who died in his sleep in 2011 to the shock and dismay of the performing arts community. The dancers – DPC’s company joined by six highly individual artists who seldom perform together but were close to Burgess – created the dance from instructions by Lilly who now heads the dance program at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. In groups and solos, they brought to life Burgess’ particular exuberance and devotion to dance, until the final moment when that energy suddenly vanished, leaving the cast and audience bereft and directionless.

Read the full article here: Shepherd Express