Dancers Who Defy Gravity

Strange but true: Pilobolus Dance Theatre is named after a type of fungus which propels its spores with extraordinary speed and strength.  As the New Yorker critic Andrew Boyston has written, “in a performance of Pilobolus Dance Theatre, you forget what you’re looking at;  the dancers move so skillfully, so symbiotically, that they cease to resemble people at all. Plants, animals, all manner of objects and suggestions of objects arise and then dissolve, and at the end of an evening you feel as though you’ve glimpsed many worlds.”

The visionary dance troupe was formed in 1971 at Dartmouth College. Since its inception, the original company has created 115 dance pieces and toured to more than 64 countries.  The dancers — who often suggest human pretzels —  are constantly forming diverse collaborations and breaking down barriers that form the way people think about dance. The choreography is rooted in engineering and physics while the acrobats and athletes that make up the troupe use innovation and improvisation to create works that dance between the line of illusion and reality. They have performed on a number of national television programs, from Sesame Street to the Academy Awards. Also in the strange but true department: They hold the world record for “most people crammed into a Mini Cooper.”

April 11 & 12 at 8 p.m. Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts: Tickets range from $35 to $65, available online or call (262) 781-9520.

Music

Malian musician Fatoumata Diawara will perform at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center on April 8

John Michael Kohler Arts Center: Fatoumata Diawara Tuesday April 8 at 6:30 p.m. and Thursday April 10 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $14 to $29, available online.

Early Music Now: Four Nations Saturday, April 12 at 5 p.m. at the UWM Zelazo Center. Tickets range from $25 to $40, $10 to $20 for students, available online or call (414) 225-3113.

Turner Hall Ballroom: Present Music – Life, Love, and Death Friday April 11. Doors open at 6:30 p.m and tickets range from $15 to $35, available online or call (414) 286-3663.

Italian Community Center: Cure for Cabin Fever Series presents Frank DeMiles Combo on Tuesday April 8 at 6:30 p.m. Admission and parking is free for guests.

Theater

Milwaukee Repertory Theater: The History of Invulnerability at the Quadracci Powerhouse April 11 – May 4. Tickets range from $20 to $60, available online or call (414) 224-9490.

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre: Lend Me a Tenor April 10-27. Tickets are $33.50, available online.

Quasimondo Milwaukee Physical Theatre: Bottle 99 April 11-27. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door, available online.

Waukesha Civic Theatre: The Pirates of Pizzazz April 10-13. Tickets are $10, $8 for students and seniors, available online or call (262) 547-0708.

Film

Marcus Center: Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Film with Orchestra: The Wizard of Oz Saturday April 12 at 7 p.m. and Sunday April 13 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets range from $22 to $102, available online or call (414) 291-7605.

Visual Art

Lynden Sculpture Garden: Women, Nature, Science – Kyoung Ae Cho: One at a Time April 13-July 13.

Comedy

The Riverside Theater: Ron White on Saturday April 12 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Tickets range from $43.50 to $53.50, available online or call (414) 286-3663.

Special Events

The Pabst Theater: Ask Me Another, NPR and WNYC’s new live show Wednesday, April 9. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and tickets range from $25 to $35, available online or call (414) 286-3663.

Milwaukee Art Museum: MAM After Dark: Back to the Prom Friday, April 11 from 6 p.m. to midnight. Tickets are $14 at the door, $9 plus fees in advance. Free for museum members. Join at the door and get in free with a friend.

Last Chance

Wisconsin Lutheran College Schlueter Art Gallery: Pfister Artist in Residence Exhibition, through April 11

Museum of Wisconsin Art: Beth Lipman: Precarious Possessions, through April 13

Portrait Society: Ceramic exhibition, through April 12

First Stage: CRASH, through April 13

Cardinal Stritch University Theater: The Spitfire Grill, through April 13

Marquette University Theatre: Hamlet, through April 13

Tory Folliard Gallery :“The Figure in Clay” and “Concerning Nature,” through April 19

Soulstice Theatre: Still Life, through April 19

Fireside Dinner Theatre : Mary Poppins, through April 20

Next Act Theatre: Three Views of the Same Object, through April 27

Renaissance Theaterworks: Skin Tight, through April 27

Milwaukee Art Museum: Uncommon Folk: Traditions in American Art, through May 4

Inova Gallery: Lisa Selby: Must Come Down and Benjamin DeMott: Teeter Jam, through May 18


Milwaukee Repertory Theater : Ain’t Misbehavin’, through May 18

Museum of Wisconsin Art:  Handmade for Hard Times, through June 15

Charles Allis Art Museum : FORWARD: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now, through June 29