InSite: Cycles
Davidson Park - 3725 W Juneau Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53208
PROGRAM
Choreographers:
Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro, Dijon Michelle Kirkland, Elisabeth Roskopf, Dan Schuchart
Music Director:
Tim Russell
Special Guest Artist:
Cedric Gardner
Lighting Design & Stage Manager: Colin Gawronski
Technical Director: Tony Lyons
House & Assistant Stage Manager: Veronica Zahn
Dancers: Katelyn Altmann, Angela Frederick Blahnik, Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro, Ashley Ray Garcia, Cedric Gardner, Zoe Glise, Dijon Michelle Kirkland, Gina Laurenzi, Jessica Lueck, Jenni Reinke, Jamie Riddle, Kalista Roling, Elisabeth Roskopf, Nicole Spence, Shannon Stanczak, Jasmine Uras, Rae Zimmerli
Musicians: Tim Ipsen, Brian Lucas, Dylan James Ovanin, Tim Russell, Andrew Murray Trim
Motorcyclist: Freddie Franklin
Highlighted area indicates where the AUDIENCE will be.
Inside Looking Out
Touring
A It's a ǝɯɐפ
Choreography by Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro
B Helmet Heads
C Repair
D Sculpted
Choreography & Performance by Cedric Gardner
E The Third Space
Choreography & Performance by Elisabeth Roskopf
My solo work is an extension of my MFA Thesis research as I further explore my sense of place between two cultures. I investigate one of my graduate research questions: How do I bridge the gap that is creating a cultural divide between my identity and history of heritage? This bridge represents the nepantla, being in this liminality of time and space and in-between-ness, that creates a pathway for me to cross borders from one world to the other while being with the complexities that I carry along my personal journey.
F Blissful Road Travelled
Choreography by Dijon Michelle Kirkland
Motorcyclists travel all over the country and Canada, meeting people and taking a part of them along the way. The dancing in this work is reflective of taking pieces of people with you throughout life. This is shown through the continuing of three gestures throughout the different dance phrases. My grandmother was a motorcyclist for several years and a Harley Davidson connoisseur. This piece is dedicated to this blissful time of her life as a biker babe!
Outside Looking In
Choreographers
Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro (he/they) is a Mexican performing artist and dancer. He studied Performing Arts at the University of Guanajuato having a multidisciplinary approach, combining contemporary dance and acting techniques in his training. They have performed at the International Cervantino Festival (2016), as well as the Guanajuato International Film Festival (2015). They graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance and Choreography (2021). During his last year he was part of UWM´s Undergraduate Research Fellowship program as a teaching and research assistant for the project Parts of The Whole: The Body is Home under the mentorship of Maria Gillespie. During their time in Milwaukee, they have performed and collaborated in works by Maria Gillespie, Emma Draves, Bernard Brown, Caitlin Mahon, Joe Goode, Mair Culbreth, Amanda Lee, Cedar Becher, etc. And worked in companies such as Danceworks DPMKE, Wild Space, and Li Chiao-Ping Dance.
Cedric Gardner is an award-winning choreographer, educator, and community leader with over two decades of experience in the performing arts. He has choreographed for top brands like Old Navy and Wisconsin Lottery, and collaborated with the Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Ballet. Cedric has appeared on major TV shows, including Jimmy Kimmel Live, Empire, The Voice, and So You Think You Can Dance as a Top 20 finalist. His film credits include Step Up 3D and The Dance Flick. As the manager of the nationally recognized Davis Dancers, Cedric led the group to perform on Jimmy Kimmel and in Pepsi and Versiti Blood Banks commercials. His leadership in the arts has earned him prestigious accolades, including the 2024 Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Legacy Award, the 2020 Monsters Alan Funk Award, the 2018 Onward Top Ten National Educator Award, and the 2023 Wisconsin Dance Council Choreography and Performance Award. Driven by a deep commitment to the sustainability of the arts, Cedric is passionate about creating lasting, community-centered programs that provide meaningful opportunities for young talent. His focus is not only on artistic excellence but also on ensuring the arts remain a vital and accessible part of the community for future generations.
Dijon Michelle Kirkland “Honey Dee,” is a native of Washington D.C., and has been dancing for over 20 years. She attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts, The Ailey School, Princeton Ballet School, Maryland Youth Ballet, and Alonzo King's Lines Ballet. Dijon holds a B.A. in Dance from Point Park University. Upon graduation, She danced with The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company 2nd company (DCDC2) for two seasons. She then became a member of the Cleveland Cavalier Girl NBA dance team in 2015, and is a part of the 2015-16 NBA championship team! She’s been a part of various projects such as Mojuba Dance Collective, Soursop Stories, Blakk Jakk Dance Company, and some independent projects. In November 2020, Dijon was a part of the supporting cast of an independent film “Lovely Jackson” Recent film appearances include dancing in the 2022 release of “White Noise”. Dijon received a Masters of Fine Arts in dance studies at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee this spring. She has guest taught at Northern Kentucky University, The American College Dance Association, and Beloit College. Currently, Dijon teaches dance at Parker Arts Academy in Janesville, Wisconsin. Dijon is very excited to be joining Wild Space Dance Company for this wonderful collaboration at Davidson Park.
“Art is life, God is love.”
Elisabeth Roskopf 이지영 is a dancer, performer, choreographer, educator, pianist, and a mother to her daughter, Alina. Elisabeth was born in South Korea and raised in Appleton, Wisconsin where she began dancing at the age of 6. She is a company member of Danceworks Performance MKE, Li Chiao-Ping Dance, the Gina Laurenzi Dance Project, and a performance/choreography collaborator with Wild Space Dance Company. Elisabeth received her Bachelor of Arts in Piano and a minor in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She is currently earning her Master of Fine Arts in Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) where she is honored to be a recipient of the Graduate Student Excellence Fellowship award. At UWM, she began her career in academia as a lecturer in the Department of Dance and became a graduate teaching assistant while performing and studying under the distinguished professors and guest artists such as Maria Gillespie, Daniel Burkholder, Mair Culbreth, Dan Schuchart, Dawn Springer, Deb Loewen, Mauriah Donegan Kraker, Vershawn Sanders-Ward, Jan Erkert, Alexandra Beller, Kevin Williamson, Teresa VanDenend Sorge, and Sooyeon Lee.
Elisabeth co-produced and performed in “Provenance: A Letter to My Daughter”, an award-winning screendance work created with director/choreographer Li Chiao-Ping and cinematographer/editor Christal Wagner. This dance film has been selected to be screened in various film festivals nationally and internationally, such as the 2024 Incheon International Short Film Festival (Finalist for Best Short Film), 2024 Busan New Wave Short Film Festival (Best Editing Award), 2023 Experimental, Dance & Music Film Festival (Best Direction Award), 2023 Milwaukee Film Festival, to name a few.
Elisabeth is the Founder and Creative Director of Dance For Diversity, an annual screendance project that is made explicitly for Artists of Color to share their voices and stories of identity through their dance-making and performance work. Elisabeth’s choreographic work creates a platform for Adoptees and BIPOC Dance Artists to have a place to be visible in the fullness of their identity and authenticity while fostering a sense of belonging permanently. Her research encompasses autoethnography in movement through storytelling that creates a path for her embodied subjectivity. She links her corporeal experiences through cultural studies, post-colonial studies, and embodied cultural memory. As a Korean American Dance Artist, she is dedicated to creating meaningful change through her embodied dance scholarship and contributions in the field of dance and the Greater Milwaukee Community.
Music Director
Tim Russell lives at the confluence of the aural and the visual. He currently serves as Music Director for the University of Wisconsin’s Dance Department. In 2019, Tim was selected as one of the Cowles Visiting Artists at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, a first for a Musician in the field of Dance. He has a vast catalogue of works specifically for choreography, most of which exist live, in collaboration with movement. His 2022 album: “Selected Works For Movement v . 1”, was included in Tone Madison’s top 20 records of 2022. His commitment to the nowness in performance led him to co-create/curate, along with choreographer Maria Gillespie, Hyperlocal MKE, a Music and Dance improvisation series that exists to this day in Milwaukee. His current curatorial project: Common Sage Arts, promotes multidisciplinary artists through carefully curated performances. Along with Tim’s long time collaboration with the Gerald Casel Dance Company, his audio shares the stage with a vast array of choreographic artists bringing Tim and his music across the world from Dock 11 in Berlin to YBCA in San Francisco. He holds an MFA in Music Improvisation from Mills College in Oakland, California, where he studied improvisation, electronic music and composition with the likes of Fred Frith, Roscoe Mitchell and Zeena Parkins. www.avoidancepolicy.com
Thank you to the Harley-Davidson Foundation for welcoming us to Davidson Park.
Special Thanks to:
Bader Foundation, HGA, Newaukee, Steve Rottmann, & Forest County Potawatomi Community.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Milwaukee Arts Board and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the arts. Thanks to our sponsors the Herzfeld Foundation and:
