Three choreographers have a single rehearsal to make a new dance in response to a box of mystery prompts. Prompts can range from a piece of writing, an image, an object, or song as limitations and unexpected connections become the springboard for making dance. The evening also includes live music and improvisation.
Choreographers: Dijon Michelle Kirkland, Tisiphani Mayfield , Nicole Spence
Dancers: Desmond Cotton, Ashley Ray Garcia, Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro, Gina Laurenzi, Ida Lucchesi, Shannon Stanczak
Musician: Barry Paul Clark
Program Order…
Welcome
Improvisation Set 1 - Group
Dance 1
Dijon Michelle Kirkland (choreographer), Ashley Ray Garcia
Music Improvisation
Improvisation Set 2 - Scores
Dance 2
Nicole Spence (choreographer), Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro, Ida Lucchesi
Dance 3
Tisiphani Mayfield (choreographer), Desmond Cotton, Shannon Stanczak
Improvisation Set 3 - Closing
This Session’s Recipe
Dance Recipe
Work fast and don’t second guess your choices.
1.) Decide on a theme (this could be as simple as “how I feel today” or something grand!)
2.) Improvise on the theme, spend as much time observing as you do moving.
3.) Recall, restage moments from the improvisation that were significant.
4.) Whenever you come to a point of decision or choice – select a card. Use the card to manipulate the material, create a layer, or influence what happens next.
5.) Continue making and remaking.
6.) Evaluate what has been created – What is the beginning, middle, end?
7.) Make something in opposition to what has already been created. Insert somewhere.
8.) Draw another card.
9.) Follow your desire, make it your own.
Meet the Choreographers & Musician
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 Forest Home Cemetery.
“Art is life, God is love.”
Tisiphani Mayfield is a choreographer, dance educator, a seasoned performer, a journalist, writer, mentor coach and mother. Born and raised in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Ms. Mayfield holds a B.S. in journalism and an A.A. from Florida A&M University as well as a B.A. in Dance from UW-Milwaukee. Mayfield’s latest works include the world premiere of “Hoops” a stage play adapted from Nicole Acosta’s internationally acclaimed HOOPS Project comes to the stage. In 2022, Mayfield choreographed as a guest artist for Milwaukee Wild Space “InSites”. Mayfield has graced the stage through many companies such as Mahogany Dance Theater, Milwaukee Bucks Energee! Dance Team, Wild Space Dance Company, Hyperlocal, and Ko-Thi Dance Company. Mayfield is also passionate about teaching dance throughout Milwaukee, especially in the public school system. For more than a decade Mayfield worked in Broadcast Journalism. Mayfield believes that dance and journalism go hand in hand. In both there is passion, fire and responsibility. Through her journalistic and choreographic works Ms. Mayfield shares stories of her life and community that are commonly ignored in the mainstream.
“Art without fear”, is to move with power. My dance, like myself is black, a melting pot of beauty. Strong and focused in the African Diaspora, elegantly flowing through the Caribbean, as diverse as jazz, as rhythmical as tap, with a touch of hard-hitting hip hop all fused authentically into contemporary. To dance is to live life to the fullest. Through my choreography I reveal my truths to the world.
Nicole Spence is a movement artist in the Milwaukee community. She studied modern dance at UWM and has collaborated with many dance artists such as Daniel Burkholder, Dani Kuepper, Kym McDaniel, Amanda Lee, Katy Pyle, Ari Christopher and many more wonderful artists. She channels her passion for dance into her career leading music and movement classes for the elderly at the Milwaukee Catholic Home. She has interned and performed with Wild Space periodically since 2016. She is excited to be back dancing with Wildspace continuing her movement exploration.
Barry Paul Clark (he/him) is an active member of the performing arts community throughout southeastern Wisconsin and frequent collaborator with artists of all disciplines nationally and internationally. He is a section bassist in many of the symphony orchestras throughout southeastern Wisconsin, including the Festival City Symphony, Kenosha Symphony Orchestra, and Wisconsin Philharmonic, and has been a featured artist with Florentine Opera.
Outside of his work with regional symphonies, Barry is a member of performance projects Tontine Ensemble, Argopelter, Lady Cannon (ret.), Lawste, adoptahighway, Field Report, Oak You, Cathedral Becomes Tomb, Retroreflector and the Tony Catania Trio, as well as many other ensembles across a broad spectrum of musical output. He has been a member of the teaching staff at West End Conservatory, Hartford Union High School, and Cardinal Stritch University, in addition to a private studio of bass students.
Barry is a co-curator of the monthly improvised performance series Unrehearsed MKE, along with Milwaukee based composer/musician Steve Gallam, which has been holding events on the first Sunday of each month since February of 2013. The series aims to bring together artists from the greater Milwaukee area and beyond in an improvised performance setting, not only to foster the development of a community of likeminded creators but to help establish collaborative relationships that will sustain the contemporary performing arts scene well into the future through expressions outside of the Unrehearsed MKE gatherings.
Some of his musical compositions can be heard in the film scores for "Seeking Century City" (2017 short, directed by Wes Tank & Adam Carr) and "Plucked" (documentary, Official Selection of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, Good Credit Productions.) Barry also contributed instrumental performance and string arrangements, under the artistic direction of electronic musician Lorn, to the 2013 Playstation 4 console video game “Killzone Shadow Fall”
Barry is also heavily involved in the dance and movement arts community in Milwaukee. He has worked alongside, composed for and accompanied many of the Milwaukee area’s premiere dance organizations, including the Milwaukee Ballet, Danceworks Inc, Hyperlocal MKE and the dance program at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts.
In addition to the musical side of his creative expressions, Barry also finds an outlet through experimental video work and filmmaking. He created a short film featuring movement artist Mauriah Donegan Kraker titled “Enough is revealed in the way you wait, and in the way you leap” which accompanies music from his 2020 adoptahighway album “Coaxing A Ghost Into The Room.” The film was an official selection at the 2022 Milwaukee Film Festival, as part of their Cream City Cinema programming, and an official selection of the 2023 Minnesota Film Festival in Duluth, MN for the “Memories & Landscapes” shorts programming. His short film “Bid Hope Farewell” was a work commissioned by and curated for the “Horror of the Humanities IX: Dante’s Inferno” event through the DePaul University Humanities Center in October of 2021, and has also been included as an official selection in the 2022 Alternating Currents Film Festival (Audience Award Winner - Experimental Film), Cactus Club Independent Film Festival (Best in Program - Milwaukee Made 2), Experimental Film Fest in New Bern, NC, and the 2022 Scumdance film festival in Sparks, NV (Best Score/Soundtrack), in addition to receiving an honorable mention for experimental short film in the May 2022 Roma Short Film Festival.
Thank you to MARN and all their staff for hosting and supporting this event.