Dance and Opera Along the Milwaukee River

Photo Credit: Mark Frohna

​People gather around in the chill of the late October night along the river. The pre-show murmur of theatergoers mixes with the distant sound of traffic. Everyone has gathered in masked, socially distant, little clusters for Enchanted Park(ing Lot): an outdoor collaboration between Danceworks and Milwaukee Opera Theater. The parking lot outside of Danceworks has been marked-off with chalk so that each patron has his or her own space. We’re all parked in folding chairs...each in our own parking spot. It’s a pleasant feeling to be in the company of strangers before a show after a long absence of live performance.


Lights moodily illuminate the riverside parking lot. A group of dancers emerge in blacks and whites. All dancers wear masks. It’s an intimate, little space. The eyes of the dancers gain considerable intensity with the rest of the face covered-up. There’s an amplification of mystery in the dramas being played-out between. dancers. They’re bathed in blue light as the show begins.


It’s music from the 19th century. Eight pieces glide out into the parking lot in a variety of different forms including the animating resonance of electric violin and the strangely ethereal sound of crystal wine goblets. Operatic sounds mix with the rattle of bikes and the gentle respirations and percussions of joggers and dog walkers along the Milwaukee River.


The delicate lights illuminating the dancers are occasionally accompanied by lights from cars exiting parking garages. A particularly passionate moment between a man and a woman struggling with each other from a distance is punctuated by the sound of a siren in the evening chill. A young, friendly illuminated tree on the riverwalk oversees the action on synthesizer and wine goblets.


Danceworks' Artistic Director Dani Kuepper and MOT Artistic Director Jill Anna Ponasik put together something remarkably organic here. It’s beautiful and graceful in a way that doesn’t seem at all out of place in a parking lot along the Milwaukee River in Autumn. This is a hell of an accomplishment. NOTHING is natural in a parking lot. PARKING isn’t natural in a parking lot and yet Kuepper and Ponasik have put something together to fit the crisp open air of an evening in Milwaukee that feels so natural as to be inevitable.


It’s Danceworks’ parking lot. It only makes sense that people would casually hang out and collaborate in dance and music on a casual evening. From dancers to music to light dancing on the gently flowing river, it all feels like it needs. to be exactly where it is. It is truly strange to have people performing dance and 19th century songs on folding chairs in a parking lot at night. There’s no reason it should feel natural. Kuepper and Ponasik find just the right elements from simple costuming to moody lighting and atmospheric music. It all comes together beautifully.


Enchanted Park(ing Lot) continues with two performances per night Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th of October. Performances are at 7:00 and 8:00 pm. For more information, visit Milwaukee Opera Theater online.