Havenwoods goes wild with two dance companies in outdoor performances!
October 16, 2025 | Topics: Events, featured artist, Places
By Eddee Daniel
Dancing makes an art out of the movement of human bodies. Dancing in nature highlights the connection between humans and the Earth. For me, as a spectator and nature-lover, the experience is as spiritual as it is aesthetic. Furthermore, dancing in an urban park like Havenwoods State Forest celebrates not only the human-nature connection, but also the paradoxical connection and interaction between civilization and wilderness. That’s what I loved about InSite: Field Guide, the name of the recent performance by two dance troupes working together at Havenwoods.
The two dance companies are both experienced in outdoor programming. This was the fourth season of free, immersive outdoor performances by Wild Space Dance Company. They were joined this time by Ometochtli Mexican Folk Dance, which lent the program their distinctive cultural depth.
If you’ve never experienced one of these immersive productions, they are far more than dancing on an outdoor stage. The performances were created and choreographed for specific and diverse spaces within the park, as the photographs make clear. Performers and audience alike move through those natural spaces. The dance is woven into the fabric of the landscape, engaging with the rhythms of the natural world.
The program began well before the dance itself. The first element was a guided meditative walk to explore the soundscapes of Havenwoods. We were instructed to walk in silence, mindful of our corporal presence, and to practice deep listening with a heightened awareness of the natural surroundings. At first the sounds of nearby traffic dominated the soundscape. Then, as the procession made its way deeper into the 237-acre park, the urban noise diminished, replaced by bird calls, the scurrying of unseen wild creatures, wind in the trees, the crunch of dried leaves underfoot. The silent group slowly attenuated until we were strung out along the trail in solitary reflection.
The second element in the program brought us indoors for a preshow talk in the auditorium of the Environmental Awareness Center. DNR Property Supervisor Angela Vickio outlined the complex history of the property and the dramatic transformations it has undergone. From the rich legacy of indigenous occupation of swampy forested land, what is now Havenwoods has been home to farmland, a penitentiary, a WWII era internment camp, and a Cold War era Nike Ajax missile base. Subsequently abandoned, the site became Wisconsin’s only urban State Forest in 1980. Extensive restoration efforts since then have turned it into an urban wilderness jewel.
The dance program was divided into three sections. It opened and closed in a liminal space between the Environmental Awareness Center building and the surrounding forest. Between those moments Section 2 was made up of five distinct named dances. The audience, divided into two groups, was guided along forest trails to five very different types of spaces where dancers engaged with trees, sandboxes, a road disappearing into an unknown distance that once held massive weapons of war in underground silos. Modern dance movements alternated and sometimes overlapped with ancient Aztec-inspired rituals. According to the program Aztec Dances “serve as a form of prayer, meditation, and communication with the spiritual world.” Modern and ancient, human and natural, it was all spirited and spiritual, entwined and elemental.
Like all of the performances in Wild Space’s InSite series, this one was held free of charge, supported by grant funding. “A core mission of the InSite program is to bring dance into parts of the city where access to live performance may be limited and to connect with audiences who might not typically attend dance events,” Artistic Director Dan Schuchart told me in a follow-up email. “Making the performance free removes barriers and increases the chance of reaching new and wider audiences.” Significantly, I think, that works two ways. Holding a dance program there also raises awareness about Havenwoods State Forest, bringing new people into intimate contact with an urban treasure. When asked during the preshow talk, an impressive two-thirds of the audience indicated that it was their first visit to the park.
![Into the Forest/Al Bosque - Somewhere [In] Between, Wild Space](https://awealthofnature.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/InSite-2.2_Somewhere-In-Between.jpg)
Speaking of raising awareness, a note about the photography. The images that accompany this story are intended to bring attention to both the dance program and the park. They should not be construed as a substitute for the immersive experience of being part of the live performance. Photographing a dance is like pinning a butterfly in a glass case. The dead object may be beautiful in its way but all the life has gone out of it. My hope is that you will be inspired by the still images to investigate further, to seek out future dance performances and to explore the woodlands, prairies and wetlands of Havenwoods.
“This performance was a joyful collaboration supported by many generous partners, from the Havenwoods staff who humored all of our unconventional ideas, to the artistic exchange with Ometochtli and the musicians who brought the forest to life with dance and live sound. Each group contributed their own creative practice, and together it formed a layered, vibrant collage that culminated in a truly magical experience in the woods.” ~ Artistic Director Dan Schuchart, Wild Space Dance Company
Note: As should be obvious from the lighting in the next set of photos, I attended two performances, one in the evening and one during the day. I have not attempted to arrange the images in the order that they were performed (the audience, which was divided into two groups, didn’t all see them in the same order in any case).
![Into the Forest/Al Bosque - Somewhere [In] Between, Wild Space](https://awealthofnature.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/InSite-1.2_Somewhere-In-Between.jpg)
For more information, photographs and stories about Havenwoods State Forest go to our Find-a-Park page.
For more information about the dance companies go to their websites:
Related stories:
Ometochtli helps Three Bridges Park celebrate its tenth anniversary
Acts of Wilderness: Wild Space in the Menomonee Valley
Eddee Daniel, writer/photographer, is a board member of Preserve Our Parks, the Project Director of A Wealth of Nature, and editor of The Natural Realm blog. Read more or subscribe at awealthofnature.org. Also available by arrangement for group presentations and guided tours.