The swan paddle boats are a beloved if tourist-y feature of the lagoon at Veterans Park on Milwaukee’s lakefront, perfect for any leisurely summer day. Wheel Fun Rentals has a whole bevy of them available to rent, except for early afternoon on the last Sunday of August, when six of them were commandeered for a special performance piece.
Billed simply as Swans, the event, part of the Out There experimental performance series and sponsored by Milwaukee’s Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and others, would feature one saxophonist and two dancers per boat, in a display meant to evoke the flight and swimming patterns of actual swans. This was the second-to-last Out There event for 2026, with the final of five scheduled for September 26 at Grant Park.
Composer Lia Kohl has never tended towards orthodox projects; her recorded works feature collages of found sounds, static-y radio broadcasts, and improvisations, ranging from chaotic to meditative, and she’s worked with many luminaries of the Midwestern experimental music community (Haley Fohr, Ka Baird, Makaya McCraven, etc.). Last year she staged a takeover of Chicago’s Union Station, positioning 10 musicians (including herself on cello) throughout the great hall for a 45-minute drone as people went about their Thursday business. She conceived Swans with visual artist Jess Bass, who also often showcases her sculptures and paintings in whimsical space-activation settings. Both artists are based in Chicago, and their troupe of musicians and dancers drew from the Chicago and Milwaukee areas.
Dozens of folks had gathered along the eastern bank of the lagoon by 2 p.m., blankets and folding chairs scattered throughout the grass as the swans emerged into view. There’d been chances of rain in the forecast, but everyone was enjoying a warm sunny day, with gusty winds tempering the heat. At first, all we could hear were occasional honks from the various saxophones, mimicking the sounds of actual birds. Once the six boats had made their way into the main viewing area and began toodling around, the music started to coalesce into more conventionally harmonic music, first in sonorous drones, then dissolving into a sort of lite free-jazz. It was unpredictable but never hectic.
By this point, however, it became apparent that no one had fully anticipated the potential effects of strong winds. Migrating birds may have it mastered, but the slow-moving paddle boats were struggling to maintain any semblance of formation. One boat got blown into the reeds, and a few helpful spectators managed to shove it back into the lagoon. The dancers (who, like the musicians, were clad all in white, including white hats) each held a fluttery white wing, and with each powerful gust that came along it seemed inevitable that one of these would go flying south on its own; miraculously, none did.
Whatever actual choreography had been planned for the boats and wings, though, was probably plotted in a still atmosphere; the sculptures were lovely but probably not as effective as the artists had hoped. The paddlers did their best with the current and hopefully at least had fun in a display that resembled a very gentle game of swan-boat bumper cars.
The performance was scheduled for an hour, but by 2:30 the birds had retreated, drawing polite applause from the crowd, and that would be it for the day. It was a lighthearted event on paper and no one seemed particularly disappointed. Whatever we may have hoped for from Swans, it was a gorgeous day for a picnic in the park.
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