Wild Space Creates Acts of Discovery on Milwaukee’s East Side

Milwaukee, WI  (September 25, 2018)… Discoveries await around every corner of an Art Moderne warehouse when Wild Space Dance Company creates Acts of Discovery, a new performance adventure. Audiences can choose their own path through the chambers and anterooms of the former dairy distribution plant as dancers and musicians transform industrial relics into site-based vignettes. Acts of Discovery performances are at 7:30 p.m., October 24-27, 2018 at 1633 E. North Avenue.  There is limited seating, advance ticket purchase strongly recommended. Advance tickets are $22 for general admission, $16 for students and seniors, and are available by calling 800-838-3006 or online at www.wildspacedance.org. Tickets at the door are $25 for general admission, $18 for students and seniors.

“I was intrigued by this forgotten building and am very grateful to the building owner and developer Kendall Breunig for making this performance possible,” says Artistic Director Debra Loewen, “With all the machinery and storage items removed, the rooms offer layers of perspective. Secret passages open from one space to another allowing performers to appear or disappear moving between the scenes. Using this as an inspiration, we have created a performance that moves in a kaleidoscope-like rotation with shifting dances and dancers. The fun is in the puzzle of the changes.”

Acts of Discovery will unfold like a moving sphere with both the audiences and dancers moving around the chambers of the building. Dancers and sound artist C. Olivia Valenza use all elements of the structure for the revolving “acts.” Steel milk crates scrape floors when worn as shoes, glazed brick columns offer sound sources, and pipes, platforms and sinks become props and stages for intimate gestures and bold movements. Maps and floor markings will indicate viewing options for audiences to follow as vignettes reform and repeat.

This performance marks the third collaboration with Valenza, who has worked with Wild Space on Caught Up in the Moment (March 2017) and Artifacts (September 2017). Performers (at press time) include Wild Space Dance Company members Danielle Lohuis, Jennie Reinke, Maggie Seer, Nicole Spence, and Jimmi Weyneth; and UWM dance interns Annie Peterson, Katelyn Altmann, Amanda Laabs, Megan Velez and Abby Skowronski.

About the Building

Originally home to Dairy Distributors, Inc., the building on 1633 E. North Avenue was built in 1946 in the Art Moderne style, a more streamlined, pragmatic extension of Art Deco. Dairy Distributors also offered a dairy bar on the first floor, while customers waited for their orders. The building changed hands and purpose, becoming light manufacturing before transitioning to storage. Kendall Breunig developer of the Pritzlaff, bought the building last year and is currently developing the site for multiple uses, including storage.

About Wild Space

Led by Founder/Artistic Director Debra Loewen, Wild Space Dance Company is celebrating three decades of inventive performances and innovative outreach programs. Known for site-specific works and artistic collaborations, Wild Space takes audiences on adventures through built and natural landscapes, visual art, history and the human condition through wry humor, clever choreography and emotionally-charged dance. An affiliate of UPAF, Wild Space is a company-in-residence at Lincoln Center Middle School of the Arts in Milwaukee and Lawrence University in Appleton. Wild Space programs are supported in part by grants from UPAF, Milwaukee County CAMPAC and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information, call Wild Space at 414/271-0307 or email info@wildspacedance.org.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.