UWM Summer Dance Festival 2002

Two Months of Concerts and Free Dance Events

The UWM Peck School of the Arts Dance Program will host their third annual Summer Dance Festival, a series of concerts and free dance events beginning in late May and continuing through July at different venues on and off the UWM campus. Summer Dance Festival 2002 is part of an ongoing series of summer dance festivals that bring together local companies, Peck School of the Arts alumni, the UWM faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and guest artists. The Festival is Milwaukee's most ambitious summer dance event and involves collaboration at many levels. For tickets or further information, please call the Peck School of the Arts Box Office at (414) 229-4308. (Please see the fact sheet below for details.)

The Festival will open May 31 with Big Fat Dances, a concert of four new works by the Danceworks Performance Company, one of the Dance Program's community partners. Artistic Director Sarah Wilbur and her fellow UWM Dance alums Dani Kuepper and Kim Johnson will premiere three works created during an extended choreographic process residency with New York-based artist Ben Munisteri. The company will also perform "Terminal Event," a work created for them by Munisteri. Big Fat Dances will run May 31-June 2 in the Mainstage Theatre.

Hetty King, a Jacob K. Javits Fellow in the Arts and Humanities in the UWM Dance graduate program, will present an evening of solos entitled Dances for the Panther June 21-22 in the Mitchell Hall Chamber Theatre. A dancer, teacher, and choreographer, King has always been interested by the solo form. "All of my larger group works have started with a solo I created on and for myself," notes King. "The solo form has provided me with a kind of artistic freedom that I have not been able to find in working with other dancers." King has been dancing professionally since 1985, working with many choreographers including Ralph Lemon, Allyson Green, and David Dorfman. King's own work has been presented at venues in her native New York as well as in Canada. Dances for the Panther will include a mixture of old, new, and re-created works.

The Dance Program's faculty concert, UWM Summerdances, returns to the Mainstage Theatre July 12-14. This summer's concert will feature two works by new faculty member Long Zhao, as well as dances from Ed Burgess, Janet Lilly, André Tyson, and Simone Ferro. Dani Kuepper, a member of the Danceworks Performance Company and
a student in the UWM graduate program, will reprise "Virtue/Vice," a work she created for DPC's fall concert. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Tom Strini hailed "Virtue/Vice" as the "best new work of 2001."

Later in July, the Dance Program will offer its second formal concert of graduate student work, Dancemakers, in the Mitchell Hall Chamber Theatre, July 26-28. UWM has offered an M.F.A. degree in dance since 1997, and has attracted more than its share of noted professionals to the program, among them Allyson Green and Hetty King. As the balance of the program shifts toward graduate students with a primary interest in choreography for the concert stage, Dancemakers has become a natural conclusion to the intensive summer program. Dancemakers regularly features work by established choreographers currently pursuing an advanced degree at UWM.

Dances-To-Go, a regular fixture of the summer dance season, returns to Lake Park June 27 and July 18. This free outdoor event features site-specific works by UWM Dance Program Director Marcia Parsons and some of the undergraduates majoring in dance. The evening begins at dusk in the shadow of the lighthouse. Grab a blanket and come on over!

UWM Summer Dance Festival 2002 Fact Sheet

Big Fat Dances
Friday, May 31 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, June 1 at 7:30 PM
Sunday, June 2 at 3 PM
Peck School of the Arts Mainstage Theatre, 2400 East Kenwood Boulevard
Danceworks Performance Company & guest choreographer Ben Munisteri
Tickets (this concert only): $16/$10 students & seniors. Please call (414) 277-8480.

Dances for the Panther
Friday, June 21 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, June 22 at 8 PM
Mitchell Hall Chamber Theatre, 3203 North Downer Avenue
Solo work by Hetty King, New York-based performer and Javits Scholar in the UWM Dance Graduate Program.

UWM Summerdances
Friday, July 12 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, July 13 at 8 PM
Sunday, July 14 at 3 PM
Peck School of the Arts Mainstage Theatre, 2400 East Kenwood Boulevard
New work by UWM Dance faculty members Long Zhao, Simone Ferro, Janet Lilly, Ed Burgess and André Tyson.

Dancemakers
Friday, July 26 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, July 27 at 8 PM
Sunday, July 28 at 3 PM
Mitchell Hall Chamber Theatre, 3203 North Downer Avenue
New work by UWM Dance Program graduate students.

Dances-To-Go
June 27 at 7:30 PM
July 18 at 7:30 PM
Free performances in Lake Park, right by the lighthouse. Grab a blanket and come on over! Dances by Marcia Parsons and UWM Dance majors.
Tickets: $10 general admission/$7 students & seniors. Please call (414) 229-4308.

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