In the News
Dance Wisconsin kids show diverse, grown-up talent
We all grow up.
So too, do members of a children's dance company.
Soft-shoed tweens in tutus become lanky adolescents on pointe, become young adults itching to move to a grittier bite, become fledgling professionals eager to stage their own works.
That progression was evident as dozens of young members of Dance Wisconsin presented new works, and raised funds for the Wisconsin Women's Health Foundation, in a marathon, three-hour "Dance for Life" concert Saturday night at Madison Area Technical College's Mitby Theater.
The fundraising was spurred by the experience of Artistic Director Jo Jean Retrum, who shared at the show's start that she has been battling breast cancer. The night wrapped up with a piece set to a song by rock star Melissa Etheridge, about the singer's own cancer ordeal.
But what was most notable about the evening was not so much that piece, although it was done well, but what came in the couple of hours before it.
Deviating from Dance Wisconsin's safe, secure Nutcracker and Peter Rabbit roots, four former company members and a high school senior sibling duo choreographed eight of the evening's 10 pieces, lending a distinct non-classical feel that sought to emulate the style of grown-up regional modern troupes like Hubbard Street Dance Chicago or what you might see down the street on the Kanopy and UW Dance Program stages.
It's an acknowledgement that in today's economic climate dancers need to be versed in different styles if they are to land one of the few professional jobs available, that might not be with a strictly classical company.
The four returning choreographers -- Chelsey Dahm, Ashley Dahm, Ceilia Pierquet-Flores and Danielle Dickert-Fuhrmanm -- had dancers jogging, making square turns, wind-milling arms, doing large-group lifts and reaching to the heavens to chanted accompaniments.
But the most pleasure came from watching talented Sun Prairie High School twins Mary Kate and Michael Hartung, who co-choreographed one work entitled "Unum" and jointly appeared in six pieces. Mary Kate also danced without her brother in two pieces.
The first hint of the duo's natural talent came in "Requiem," a tribute to Nazi Holocaust survivors choreographed by Chelsey Dahm. Both Hartungs showed they've got the technical depth and emotional maturity required of an intense theme that had barefoot, loose-haired dancers writhing across a kitchen table and included, at one point, a blood-curdling scream.
They contracted and contorted, whipped and squared-up appendages and met the choreographer's demand for fast, unfettered foot and bodywork and for theatrics that included, for Mary Kate, curling on the floor and clenching her ears to avoid hearing piped-in reminisces of Holocaust survivors.
The siblings shined again in the next piece, "Carry me Home," which was largely a duet for them backed by a half-dozen other dancers, choreographed by Danielle Dickert-Fuhrmann. Michael Hartung's strength as an individual dancer -- out from behind partnering the girls -- was particularly evident here with leaps, turns, spins and a general comfort with quick moves and weight shifts.
And even at the end of a long evening, Mary Kate Hartung was able to offer an exuberant, bent-kneed leap that started from a crouch, to help cap "Life's A Climb," choreographed by Ashley Dahm and Dickert-Fuhrmanm.
It's fun to envision where so much talent is going to take them. Perhaps to something juicier than "The Nutcracker."