The Trisha Brown Dance
Company performs at Alverno Presents.
It’s taken a while, but dance fans finally have a weekend in which to indulge — film, ballet, a contemporary giant. Clear your schedule.
#5 Sing, Sing, Sing — Choral Music All Around:
Huh? Sorry Glee-o-philes. While we’re all for a little harmonizing to the latest Lady Gaga, we know that real choral music can shiver your timbers in ways that Will Schuester could only dream of. This weekend offers you the chance to hear three of the best choral groups in the Midwest, if not the U.S., and you only have to spend a couple of nights doing it. On Sunday, Richard Hynson leads the Bel Canto Chorus and Bel Canto Boys Choir in Alexander Levine’s Prayers for Mankind, a tribute to an Russian Orthodox priest assassinated in 1990. On Saturday, the Milwaukee Choral Artists hosts the National Lutheran Choir in a program entitled The Call. The two groups separately and together, and there’s a world premiere included in the bargain.
#4: Milwaukee LGBT Film Festival at UWM’s Union Theatre:
Why? Because it’s a full weekend of some of the best LGBT-themed films from around the world. And even if you missed the opening night feature, Thom Fitzgerald’s Cloudburst, there is still plenty to see. Including Charles Atlas’s Ocean a documentation of Merce Cunningham and John Cage’s performance that was a smash a this year’s Whitney Biennial, a documentary history of ACT-UP, and Mosquita y Mari, an award winning portrait of a friendship that begins with the meeting of a tutor and her student.
#3: Trisha Brown Dance Company at Alverno’s Pitman Theatre.
Why? Because there will be both old and new in this performance by one of the country’s great contemporary dance companies. Brown has been at it since the downtown New York Judson Church in the 1970s, and she is still a vital force in American dance. This concert features well-known works from the company’s past—Les Yeux et l’ame and Foray Foret, as well as a new work, impishly titled I’m going to toss my arms—if you catch them they’re yours.
#2: Renaissance Theatreworks Enfrascada at the Broadway Theatre Center.
Why? Because there is a lot of variety in the Milwaukee theater world, but I can’t remember a major company performing a play like this. Subtitled “A Jarring Comedy of Hoodoo Proportions,” Tanya Saracho’s 2008 comedy is about four Latina friends who come together to help one of them deal with a bad romantic breakup. There’s comfort, laughter and a good dose of folk magic, to boot. Chicago-based Saracho has hit it big since she performed with Renaissance in 2008. It’s great to have her back.
#1: The Milwaukee Ballet’s La Boheme at the Marcus Center.
Why? Because Michael Pink has done it again, created an original, world premiere ballet out of a much beloved story. This time, it’s La Boheme, Puccini’s opera of doomed love amid the poor artists of Paris. There is no singing, but Puccini’s melodies will sound in an instrumental score, and the drama of the ballet unfolds through dance. Pretty nifty idea. Don’t be surprised to see this one popping up at ballet companies around the country. But see it here first.
