2021
Vermont Counterpoint
Performance | Choreography | Video | Editing
Premiere: May 2021
Collaboration with Jennifer Burke | Masters Flute Recital
2020
Saint Kate Residency
Dance | Photography | Video | Performance | Conversation
Artist in Co-residence with Collaborator Kirsten Schmid
January to March 2020
About the Residency
This originally 5 month-turned-3-month residency debued at the new Saint Kate Arts Hotel. It was a studio collaboration with inter-disciplinarian, Kirsten Schmid as she worked to design clothing for animation on a dancers body.
Ideas and conversations about surrounding feminism and clothing production through the feminist lens started to develop along with movement explorations, videography, photography of existing works Kirsten had developed.
Explore the Gallery of work Christal and Kirsten developed >here
L’homme Arme
Performance | Video | Editing
Premiere: August 2020
Summer Exploratory Experimental Dance Festival
Grant Recipient
Vocalist: Jackie C Willis
Also in 2020
Out of Many, One
Danceworks Perfromance MKE
Company Member
January 2020
Winterdances | University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Rehearsal Direction | Bernard Brown
The Things They Carry
February 2020
One Over Thirty Five Equals Zero
Performance, Editing
Draw Write Here – Peoples History of the Pandemic
October 2020
Watch
Evicted
Performance, Editing
Draw Write Here – Peoples History of the Pandemic
October 2020
Watch
2019
Utterance
Choreography | Improvisation | Performance
Role: The Oracle
In Collaboration with Milwuakee Opera Theatre, Aperi Animam and Cadance Collective
Built On Change | Illuminating Wrigley
Cadance Collective
About the Collaboration
Built on Change was commissioned for a collaborative performance entitled Illuminating Wrigley, with Chicago piano/percussion duo L+M Duo. To celebrate the centennial of Chicago’s famous Wrigley Building, Built on Change draws upon historical headlines, music and movement of the 1920s, with musical arrangements of It Had to Be You (Isham Jones/Gus Kahn) and Clap Yo’ Hands (George/Ira Gershwin), and steps reminiscent of the Charleston, Lindy, Black Bottom and Shimmy.
Illuminating Wrigley marks the beginning of the Wrigley Building’s upcoming centennial celebrations. Take a journey through this iconic landmark’s impressive history, as told through works by George Gershwin, William Grant Still, Steve Reich, Marc Mellits, and more – and culminating in the world premiere of Steven Snowden‘s “Twenty-five Million Candles” as Wrigley becomes illuminated in the background! Live art by Arthur Wright will round out this spectacular celebration of music, art, and architecture in Chicago!
Christal Wagner, choreography, dance, voice, poetry
Alicia Storin, cello, musical arrangement
Emma Koi, flute, musical arrangement
Also in 2019
Zie Magic Flute (Reboot)
Milwaukee Opera Theatre | Cadance Collective
Role: Papagena
January 2019
PC: Mark Frohna
Torch and Glamour
Danceworks Performance MKE
Company Member
February 2019
PC: Paul Ruffalo
Carmina Burana
Danceworks | Skylight Music Theatre | Chant Claire
Role: Lady in the Red Dress
March 2019
PC: Ross Zentner
Spring Arts Festival
Cadance Collective at Carol University
April 2019
NO Studio’s Dance Fest
Danceworks Performance Milwaukee
Ensemble
July 2019
Oklahoma
Skylight Music Theatre
Role: Gertie Cummings
October 2019
PC: Mark Frohna
Revealing the Eclectic Body
Danceworks Performance MKE
Company Member
November 2019
PC: Mark Frohna
Christal Wagner danced lithely through the show as Papagena, singing a delightful “Pa-pa-pa” duet with Wesselowski and to the audience’s amazement, donning skates and careening through the cast and audience like a Roller Derby pro.
Elaine Schmidt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinal – Zie Magic Flute
As the vocalists treat our ears, the dancers offer a delightful feast for the eyes – none more than Lady in Red, Christal Wagner. Wagner dances divinely, her manner such that she seems to inhabit another plane of existence when she moves. She is magnetism. Her red dress evokes immediate emotion, as do other strategic moments where color pops against the otherwise grey wardrobe.
Kelsey Lawler – Broadwayworld.com – carmina Burana
2018
Two 2 Duet
Pippin
- March – Co-produced and performed in a split bill concert with colleague Gina Laurenzi based on the idea of Duets across mediums. For example, Dancer to choreographer, poet to performer, musician to dancer. Two 2 Duet premiered at the 2017 Milwaukee Fringe Festival.
- September – Choreographed Skylight Music Theatre’s first production of the 2018-19 season, The Critically acclaimed, Pippin.
At last summer’s Fringe Festival, Danceworks artists Gina Laurenzi and Christal Wagner treated a full house at the Marcus Center’s Wilson Theatre to a challenging, thoroughly engaging collection of original dance, music, spoken word and film collaborations on many good subjects. It was a festival highlight…
John Schnider – Shepherd Express – Two 2 Duet
Other 2018 Events
Development of Interactive Programing, Improv 101 for Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Ace program (Jan)
Choreography of Nicolet High School’s Adams Family* (Feb),
Performance and Choreography in DPMKE’s Women Who Dance (Feb),
Rehearsal Direction for Anna Maria Alvarez’s Joyous, Just Us UWM Springdances (April)
Performance and Choreography in DPMKE’s Secrets From the Wide Sky (April),
Choreography of DSHA’s Willy Wonka (July),
Performance in DPMKE’s Against The Grain (Oct).
* notes Jerry Award Recipient.
2017
Improv 101
Mad Hot Program Liaison
Trying to Get Home
- January – Collaborated With 3 musicians on original programing for Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s ACE program. Educated 5th grade students on improvisational dance and music practices in this interactive, imaginative program.
- Year long – Danceworks Administrative team member for the Mad Hot Ballroom and Tap program. Oversaw teaching staff and provided support to participating schools in 1 of 4 consortiums.
- October – Choreographed ensemble piece titled Trying to Get Home. This piece was tiled after a cardboard sign found on site stating just that; Likely discarded by someone in need. The work premiered at DPMKE’s Fall concert Dance In, Take Out. The setting for the work was a site specific empty lot across from the Milwaukee Intermodal Station. Upon use of the space the company cleaned the lot of litter and it became the backdrop for a film created by Kym Mcdaniel as a complimentary piece highlighting connection and dissonance. These ideas acted as metaphor for connection with a public space that is often neglected and underutilized, but used for shelter by populations of homeless neglected and unseen.
The premiere of Wagner’s physical “trying to get home ” found dancers Anderson, Cambra, Cotton, Kuepper Laurenzi and Licht along with Wagner, in an angular, somehow airy ensemble. They danced in front of a floor-to-ceiling projection of a film by Kym Mcdaniel, it’s shifting images of sky and urban Milwaukee lifting the performance out of the theater and into the realm of imagination.
Elaine Schmidt – Journal Sentinel – trying to get home
Other 2017 Events
Premiere of Zie Magic Flute with Cadance Collective (Jan)
Choreography of Nicolet High School’s Ragtime* (Feb)
Soloist Performer in DPMKE’s Stories from a Life in Washington DC (Feb and March)
Performance and soloist in DPMKE’s Handel’s Bestiary with Milwaukee Opera Theatre (June)
Premiere of Two 2 Duet at the Milwaukee Fringe Festival (Aug)
Choreography for Dsha’s The Little Mermaid (November)
* Notes Jerry award Recipient for Outstanding Choreography
2016
Twin Talk
Haiku Fiction
A Woman’s Place
Eau Claires Festival
- February – Featured performer in Gina Laurenzi Dance Project’s collaboration with Twin Talk Band.
- March – Aerialist in Coperative Performance’s production of original stage play, A Woman’s Place
- March – Directed choreography of a suite of 6 dance pieces based on Haiku’s written by the public. The writer imagines movement, they then describe it in haiku form, and it is translated to the actual stage. Excerpt.
- June – Performer with Dawn Springer Dances and Jon Muler at the nationally recognized new music festival, Eaux Claires.
“A celebration of friendship inaugurated a series of six radically different dances inspired by poems written by friends and the dancers themselves. Christal Wagner was the primary choreographer. The poems appeared as projections or were spoken by dancers whose movements embodied them. For the final two, the excellent musicians of UW-Milwaukee’s Leonard Sorkin Institute of Chamber Music provided piano, violin and cello accompaniment, dramatically heightening our awareness of the relationship of movement and music.“
John Schnider – Shepherd Express – Haiku Fiction
Other 2016 Events
Performance and Choreography in DPMKE’s Writing About Music, Dancing About Architecture (March)
Performance in the DPMKE’s The Quest (May)
Choreography for Shorewood High School’s South Pacific (May)
Choreography for DSHA’s Hairspray (July)
Choreography for DSHA’s 9 to 5 (October)
Performance and Choreography in DPMKE’s Dance In, Take Out. (October)
Christal Wagner 