Artistic Director

Debra Loewen founded Wild Space Dance Company in 1986 following a career as an independent choreographer and solo performer. Born and raised in Wisconsin, Loewen began her dance training in Stevens Point, later earning a BFA degree from the University of Illinois and an MFA in dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her early performance work in the 1970s involved computers, dance and site-specific choreography. This formative experience helped shape the aesthetic she continues to work with today. Her movement style, experimental musical tastes, application of improvisational structures and process-oriented choreography can be traced to this early work.

While teaching at the University of Delaware, Loewen formed her first company -- New Space Company. Site-specific choreography and performance events were New Space Company's hallmark, with performances in buildings, public spaces and natural settings. She later traveled and lived in Bogota, Colombia and Lima, Peru, where she taught, choreographed and performed with Ballet Moderno and the National Ballet of Peru. Returning to the states, Loewen lived and performed in New York, studying with Robert Ellis Dunn, a leading proponent of post-modern theories and improvisational "menus" for choreographic development. She continued to work with him as her mentor on an annual basis until his death in 1996. As a teacher, Loewen imparts many of Dunn's concepts, teaching methods and improvisation techniques.

Loewen has garnered critical acclaim and awards for her choreography, including choreographic fellowships from Milwaukee County, the Wisconsin Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has been performed in the Midwest, Canada, New York and Japan. She has served as a faculty member at the University of Delaware, Alverno College and UW-Milwaukee, and has conducted workshops in choreography and improvisation throughout the Midwest.