READ MORE FROM OUR “2025 FALL ARTS” FEATURE HERE.
Moving Different
Jared Baker always wanted to start a dance company, but not in New York. “I’m just not a big-city person,” he says. “That’s not the lifestyle for me.”
The rural Jefferson County resident runs Milwaukee’s Nova Linea Dance Company as its artistic director. Since the company formed in 2021, a key to its success has been an approachable, athletic style – and tapping into dance studio kids and parents as audience members.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
“We’re in Milwaukee,” Baker says. “It’s dance dads who like to go see the Brewers and drink beer. If they can come and like contemporary dance, anybody could come and like it.”
Baker’s style straddles the line between the avant-garde and the “So You Think You Can Dance” crowds, using popular music, props and a high-octane vocabulary drawing from his background in jazz and commercial dance.
“A lot of dance feels like it’s only for people who are ‘in the know,’” Baker says. “But at the end of the day, it’s a performing art. What are we doing if there’s no one in the audience?”
Fortunately, Nova Linea hasn’t had that problem. Their Marcus Performing Arts Center debut last season was the company’s best-sold show on record. It returns there Nov. 14-15 for its home season kick-off, bookended by shows in Massachusetts and Detroit.
“We’ve developed our own niche audience that doesn’t go to professional dance all the time,” Baker says. “Now can we dabble in your typical art-goer? I think that’s where we’re headed to next.”
Other Chances for Dance
Giselle
OCT. 17-19 | MARCUS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
One of the most demanding ballets to perform, Giselle tells of a heartbroken girl who dies after a betrayal by her lover and is summoned to haunt him. Milwaukee Ballet’s Michael Pink takes this popular tale of love and forgiveness out of the Middle Ages into World War II.
InSite: Field Guide
OCT 10-11 | HAVENWOODS STATE PARK
This show puts the “wild” in Wild Space Dance Company. Joined by Ometochtli Mexican Folk Dance, the traveling troupe is venturing into Milwaukee’s overlooked urban wilderness for its latest free performance choreographed for a particular location.
