The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Department of Dance is hosting its annual New Dancemakers performance from November 17 through November 20 of this year. The performances feature senior capstone choreographic work by both BA and BFA students in the department.
There will be nine pieces of choreography presented in the show, each piece choreographed by a senior graduating in either December of 2021 or May of 2022. The process of New Dancemakers is something the seniors in the department have been well aware of since their freshman year when many of them were cast in a New Dancemakers piece themselves.
UWM student and choreographer for this year’s show, 21-year-old Zoe Glise, auditioned to be a part of the show her freshman year.
“A lot of times I think back to freshman year, walking into that audition and I was terrified,” Glise said. “I was so scared my legs were shaking, I could barely remember the choreography.”
The process for New Dancemakers includes the seniors hosting auditions during the first week of fall semester, which is the first week of college for incoming students. At these auditions, the seniors create material to teach to all the students in the department and then select their top choices after watching everyone audition.
However, the entire process begins the summer before the fall semester. The seniors are required to research a topic they wish to create their dance around. This includes writing a six-page paper regarding their research and how they plan to implement it into their choreographic work.
Choreographer and UWM student, Ashley Ray Garcia, 25, created her piece around the sexualization and objectification of women from a young age and into late adulthood.
“I came up with my topic during my first year in the department when I was going through a lot personally and started noticing a lot of other people like my friends going through a lot as women,” said Garcia. “Since then, I have accumulated more stories, more information and felt it was something that needed to have light shed upon.”
Garcia received a red skirt as a Christmas gift a year or two ago and immediately knew she wanted to incorporate them into her piece.
“The skirts are a part of their bodies, like another limb, it is an extension of my dancers,” said Garcia. “I tried to have them embody how the skirts would be a part of them and how that affects them as women, knowing that these things they weren’t born with are attached to them.”
Each choreographer’s piece means something to them individually, hence their extension research behind the project.
Glise’s piece is loosely around the importance of relationships when dealing with trauma, working through trauma and learning to grow through trauma.
“All summer long I was researching and reading books, but I think in general, this topic is something I have thought about my entire life having been adopted,” said Glise. “Being adopted is a form of trauma that I will always have to work through and something not a lot of people will understand. It’s been something I’ve had to figure out for myself.”
Garcia has participated as a dancer in four pieces total between 2019 and 2020, being cast in two pieces each year. Looking back on the process of being a dancer in the show to being a choreographer, Garcia admits it is a big shift.
“I have even more respect now for the choreographers in the pieces I was casted in because of all the extra work that goes on behind the scenes that you as the dancer in the show don’t really see,” said Garcia. “There’s a lot of budgeting, time and commitment that I don’t think you really understand until you become a senior and have to go through the process yourself.”
Over the next two weeks leading up to the show, all nine choreographers and their cast members will be putting in extensive hours of rehearsal time, lighting workshops, tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals.
But more than anything, all nine choreographers are ecstatic to finally have their hard work presented in the show.
“I’m really proud of all of us,” said Garcia. “I can’t wait to see all of the stress, hard work and dedication be meant for something, something we have all been looking forward to since our freshman year.”
The show will be every night at 7 p.m. from Wednesday to Saturday. It will be presented each night both in person at Mitchell Hall on campus and livestreamed. Ticket and pricing information can be found here.
I really appreciate hearing about how long these artist who have choreographed these pieces have spent thinking about what they might do. After seeing the performances you can feel how much they have put into their work! Faith you have so elegantly captured their work!