🩰 5/5 Stars for Milwaukee Ballet II Showcase 🩰

A review of Momentum

by Lucia E. Schrader, age 11

On February 21, I watched Momentum, Milwaukee Ballet II’s showcase, at Baumgartner Center for Dance. MBII is a talented group of young male and female dancers from all over the world who are training to become professional dancers! The 2026 showcase, under the direction of Davit Hovhannisyan, consisted of four unique pieces, including both contemporary and classical ballet.

The dancers’ skills and hard work was evident throughout the showcase. As a dancer myself, I know how difficult it is to perfectly synchronize movements with other dancers. These graceful dancers made being on pointe shoes look easy (but it isn’t!) Another thing that really stood out was the way the dancers showed different emotions with their dancing and their facial expressions. Like actors, dancers express how they feel—but they have to do it without speaking! 

In each of the four pieces, the gorgeous costumes matched the mood perfectly. For the classical piece, "Le Conservatoire," costume designers Mary Piering and Lyn Kream created beautiful costumes that reminded me of the Sugar Plum Fairy’s dress from The Nutcracker. For the contemporary piece "The Three Wisps," costume designers Amanda Lewis and Lyn Kream dressed the trio in all black, with glittery makeup highlighting their faces.

Lighting designer Colin Gawronski used special lighting, like a big chandelier hanging from the ceiling, to highlight the dancers. Fancy candelabras in the corners of the stage reminded me of Lumière from Beauty and the Beast!

The ballet pieces in Momentum beautifully showcased MBII’s very talented group of up-and-coming dancers. This outstanding show is highly recommended to anyone who likes ballet. Other young dancers (like me!) will be inspired to keep practicing, so they can someday dance on stage too!

See more shows like this from Milwaukee Ballet!