Wild Space Dance Company gets around. The troupe performs everywhere from art galleries to abandoned warehouses, choreographing performances with each venue’s history and structural quirks in mind. It’s a good way to get to know the city, says co-artistic director Dan Schuchart, and it also brings dance to different neighborhoods in Milwaukee.
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This goal of community outreach aligns with Davidson Park, the new public space at the Harley-Davidson headquarters and the venue for Wild Space’s season opener. InSite: Cycles runs Oct. 18-19, and it’ll pull inspiration from the company’s famous bikes and their local origin.
“We’ll draw on things like cycles and return,” Schuchart says. This means using repeating motifs as well as incorporating the park’s circular design. The audience starts in the middle of The Hub – an amphitheater resembling a wheel – with dancers performing vignettes in the surrounding rows. Schuchart dreams of partnering with a local motorcycle club – “Because I’d love to have the dancers arrive on motorcycles.”
But all that is subject to change. Rehearsal time is spent developing a diverse range of ideas rather than hammering in a fixed chorography. Dancers also have chances to improvise during the performance, allowing them to respond to the space in real time.
The audience won’t stay still, either. Docents will guide people throughout the open park to watch the dancers from varying angles and distances. It makes audience members a part of the show, which in turn helps them form a new, lasting connection to the space.
“[The performance] lives in that place,” Schuchart says. “That moment, that time in place is so integral to what it is.”
