Skip Stitch
A site-specific dance performance on the fourth floor of Milwaukee's former Eagleknit Knitting Mills Building in Walker's Point.
The performance breathes new life into the open floor plan of a repurposed 1928 knitting mill, imbuing it with a vibrant tapestry of dance and moving patterns that pay homage to the building’s rich history. Skip Stitch offers a captivating performance against the backdrop of the city’s skyline, including the iconic Hoan Bridge. Inspired by the Eagleknit's manufacturing legacy, choreographers Katelyn Altmann and Dan Schuchart craft a movement vocabulary inspired by the art of knitting itself. Dancers weave among pillars, evoking images of intertwining strands, knots, cycles, and slippages. The grid-like geometry of the pillars and windows provides a canvas for exploring the interplay between revealing and concealing, blending playfulness with formalism.
The cream-city bricks and honey-toned wood floors of the old factory set the stage as the audience is guided through the space, offering various perspectives to observe the performance. From the intimate closeness of proximity to the spacious views of distance, spectators will be immersed in the unfolding events from three vantage points. Configurations materialize and unravel, echoing across the expanse, as the intricate interplay of patterns unveils the inherent beauty of form.
Guest choreographer and performer Dawn Springer, will share her 2009 solo in three parts, Try, Try Again. Featuring a lone woman and a pair of boots, she delves into the profound solitude and suspended reality between failure and recovery. The evening also showcases original music compositions performed live by Paul Westfahl, who will punctuate the space with drums, percussion, and electronic sounds.
Read the Shepherd Express Preview HERE
Choreography: Katelyn Altmann & Dan Schuchart
Guest Choreography & Performance: Dawn Springer
New Music & Live Performance: Paul Westfahl
Dancers: Katelyn Altmann, Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro, Ashley Ray Garcia, Zoe Glise, Gina Laurenzi, Ida Lucchesi, Jessica Lueck, Tisiphani Mayfield, Jenni Reinke, Jamie Riddle, Shannon Stanczak, Jasmine Uras
SET 1
a place revealed
a woven space
Here, a solo
SET 2
it happens at once, intertwining
SET 3
Try Try Again
Dawn Springer
Music: Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan, Arpeggione Sonata in A Minor, D. 821: II. Adagio by Schubert, Boots of Spanish Leather Performed by Joan Baez
knots, threads, and patterns to unravel
Lighting Design & Stage Manager: Colin Gawronski
Technical Production: Tony Lyons
Special Thanks to Wangard Partners, Inc. & Tamarack Waldorf
Choreographers
Dan Schuchart
Dan Schuchart (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. Since 2002, Wild Space Dance Company has been his creative home as a company member, choreographer, and now Co-Artistic Director. Wild Space is known for site-specific dance and artistic collaboration. Schuchart’s choreography has been presented from coast to coast and extensively throughout the Midwest, being heralded as, “razzle dazzle of a different sort—intelligence, honesty, psychological insight, and often breathtaking beauty” (Milwaukee Magazine). His interests in dance include collaborative creative process, dance-theatre, improvisation, and contact improvisation with standout performances in work by Susan Marshall and collaborations with the “all-star, all-female band” (Time Out New York) Victoire. Schuchart is a Wisconsin Dance Council board member, advocating for dance performance and education in Wisconsin. In 2013, he earned his MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California, Riverside, where he was honored to be a recipient of the 2012-13 Dissertation Year Program Fellowship. Schuchart has BFA degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee's Peck School of the Arts in both Dance and Painting/Drawing, and continues to work professionally in both fields. In addition, he earned a Graduate Laban Certificate in Movement Analysis from Columbia College Chicago in 2015, and recently became a Certified Fascial Fitness Trainer. Schuchart is currently Teaching Faculty at the UW-Milwaukee Department of Dance. He has also taught dance and movement studies at Lawrence University, Beloit College, UC Riverside and has been a guest teacher at the Milwaukee Ballet, American College Dance Association Conferences, and in public school outreach programs. Outside of dance, Schuchart has worked as a scenic painter, including for the movie Public Enemies, and scenic charge for the Milwaukee Ballet, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Florentine Opera, and Skylight Music Theatre.
Katelyn Altmann
Katelyn Altmann (she/her) is a movement-based artist, choreographer, and improvisor currently residing in Milwaukee, WI. She received her BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and currently serves on faculty for the UW-Milwaukee Department of Dance. Katelyn has presented both her solo and collaborative work throughout Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Seattle, and New York. She has performed at the Seattle Festival for Dance Improvisation, Dance Masters of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Dance Council, BDF/Gibney Connect NYC, GALLIM, CNADM, MKE Fringe Festival, Danceworks DanceLAB Series, Moving Queries, and her work, “soft ground, stiff shoulder” was selected to be presented at the American College Dance Association’s North Central Conference(2019). Altmann has performed in works of Joe Goode, Simone Ferro, Maria Gillespie, Daniel Burkholder, Dan Schuchart, Debra Loewen, Dawn Springer, Melanie George, Esther Baker-Tarpaga, Christal Wagner among others. She is a current performance and collaborative artist with Wild Space Dance Company, Danceworks, Li Chiao Ping Dance, and the Gina Laurenzi Dance Project. Katelyn’s work lives in embodied study, tested and realized through creation processes, improvisational strategies and performance. This takes shape through porous embodiment, visceral play, connection, and attunement. Katelyn is elated to have been with Wild Space Dance Company since 2018.
Dawn Springer
Dawn Springer (she/her) has worked throughout the country and abroad. Her choreography has been described as “mesmerizing” (Spin Magazine), “terrific” (Shepherd Express), “surging and lush” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “subtle yet striking” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), a “stand out” (Durham Indy Weekly) and “beautiful composition” (Milwaukee Magazine). Throughout her training and performance career, she was fortunate to perform with many wonderful choreographers, including Helen Simoneau Danse, Camille A. Brown (Tony Award winner), Sara Hook, Jeff Slayton (Merce Cunningham Dance), Sarah Skaggs, Dahlia Nayar, and Aynsley Vandenbroucke Movement Group, among others. Her performances have included Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Venice Biennale Danza, New York Live Arts, and the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Her choreography for the Collection of Colonies of Bees was performed as the opener for Grammy Award-winning and nominated artists Bon Iver and Sylvan Esso. She toured the United States as an adjudicator for the American Dance Festival and was an artist in residence for two consecutive seasons with Alverno Presents and for two years at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland. She has choreographed, taught and lectured at The Ailey School, The University of the Arts, The Banff Center, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dickinson College, Beloit College, Lawrence University, Cardinal Stritch University, The American College Dance Festival Association, and at The Congress on Research and Dance and The Society of Dance History Scholars. Her writing is published in the Perspectives on American Dance Anthology by the University Press of Florida. She is a Teaching Faculty I in the Peck School of the Arts and on faculty at Milwaukee Ballet School and Academy.
