GroundWorks 20th Anniversary season has been a whirlwind of activity and events. We proudly continue our work sharing the ideas and energy of our artistry and how it connects us to our community on so many levels.
We kicked off a milestone year with a new collaboration with ChamberFest Cleveland as part of their 2018 series. Our Executive Artistic Director choreographed a new piece, Dawn of a Revolution, which featured music by Debussy, Ligeti, Beethoven, Ravel and Shostakovich, and the world premiere of Sebastian Chang’s Cryptogenic Infrastructure Fanstasy for violin, clarinet, percussion and piano. This was the second magical collaboration between GroundWorks and ChamberFest Cleveland, with the first being in 2014 featuring Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera.
Our Summer series at Cain Park and the Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival featured the world premiere of Chronos by guest choreographer Banning Bouldin, founder of New Dialect in Nashville, TN.
GroundWorks summer performances also featured three of the four new company dancers, Alexis Britford, Annie Morgan, and Robert Rubama. Our new company dancers brought fresh new energy and talent to our stage, continuing the world class excellence that is GroundWorks.
Our final new company member, Nicole Hennington, started in August as well as our new Education and Community Engagement Coordinator, Rebecca Burcher.
Fall began a new two year project in partnership with the Akron Art Museum. The project involved the creation of a new work by Executive Artistic Director, David Shimotakahara, with performances in the museum gallery space. The new work was choreographed in response to the magnificent “Dzesi ii” by renowned artist El Anatsui from the museum’s permanent collection.
The project also featured our Action/Reaction programming. We worked with 5 Akron based artists, and they had the chance to sit in on a rehearsal, attend a workshop, see the performance, and then come together a couple weeks later to show work they had made themselves in response to GroundWorks performance. We look forward to building on the success of Action/Reaction this fall when we are back at the Akron Art Museum for year two of our collaboration!
Spring – GroundWorks had an opportunity to revisit some or our audience favorites, including Hindsight, choreographed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, LUNA, choreographed by David Shimotakahara, and Eveille, choreographed by James Gregg. Spring also featured another world premiere, The Witness, by Cleveland native Dianne McIntyre. The piece communicates powerful stories that audiences can identify with emotionally and from their own experience.
In honor of the 20th Anniversary, GroundWorks also headed to Gibney Studios in New York in March to perform The Witness, as well as eveille and LUNA. GroundWorks has a long history with Gina Gibney, Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of Gibney Dance. In addition, GroundWorks former Artistic Associate Amy Miller now works as Senior Company Director of Gibney Dance. It was a fantastic reunion of old friends and collaborators, and a great way to celebrate some of GroundWorks past as part of our 20th anniversary season.
Throughout the year, GroundWorks continued our educational outreach programming. In conjunction with every performance series, GW was in at least three Cleveland or Akron area schools, providing one day workshops that connected the students with the language of dance. These students then got to go to the performance venue and see the behind-the-scenes work that goes into a performance as well as experience performing on stage themselves.
Beyond these short-term workshops, GW once again worked with the Willson School, a magnet school for the deaf and hard of hearing. The 12-week long residency integrated dance with the curriculum they were learning in their other classes. GW plans to continue this long term residency at Willson, and potentially expand to bring it to other schools in the near future.
GW has been working this year to broaden our engagement with community and offer more opportunities for programming in schools, universities and beyond. Our Action/Reaction programming continues to be a success at Judson Senior Living, and we will be deepening our connections with the Judson community in the coming year.
Lastly, our annual benefit gala, “It Takes Two!” was once again a success! Thank you again to everyone who came out to support GroundWorks and all of the Celebrity Dancers for a spectacular night of dance. Our overall winner was John McMicken, CEO of Evergreen Cooperatives, and our fan favorite was Michelle Hirsch, Sr. Vice President of Brunswick Companies. All of the celebrity dancers did a fantastic job kicking up their feet and putting on a great show!
Thanks to all who participated, GroundWorks raised over $100,000. This funding helps us bring in world-class guest choreographers, put on performance series throughout the year and continue our education and outreach activities in the Cleveland and Akron areas.
Thank you to everyone who has supported and been a part of GroundWorks this special year and over the amazing past two decades. Thank you for a great 20 years, and cheers to 20 more!