By Steve Sucato Morgan Walker’s burgeoning choreographic career got another boost recently when she became the second dancemaker to receive an invitation to participate in GroundWorks DanceTheater's new Discovery Residency program for up-and-coming choreographers. Walker, a dancer and rehearsal director for Cleveland’s Dancing Wheels Company, has a BFA in Dance Performance and
By Steve Sucato In Maddie Hanson's brief time with the company during the 2021-2022 season, she left a lasting impression. None more so than on GroundWorks DanceTheater Founding Artistic Director David Shimotakahara. When he had the idea for a series of “Discovery Residencies” for young choreographers to work with the company on
By Steve Sucato Choreographer Peter Chu finished a three-week Creative Residency with GroundWorks DanceTheater recently that included community dance classes, the creation of two new commissioned works for the company, and a work-in-progress showing of those works on Friday, March 4 at Cleveland State University’s Department of Theatre & Dance’s
By Steve Sucato For GroundWorks DanceTheater’s very first collaboration with CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, the company has created a dance-on-video work to accompany the live performance by CityMusic musicians of composer Olivier Messiaen’s poignant masterwork, “Quatuor pour la fin du temps” (Quartet for the End of Time). The work is part
Written by GW trainee, Micky Esteban Carrie Mae Weens – Untitled from the Kitchen Tables Series (Woman with friends) How does a captured image reflect identity, both past and present? GroundWorks Executive Artistic Director David Shimotakahara premiers a new work for the company’s second year performing at the Akron Art Museum
We are often able to derive cultural feelings, political movements and changing values from the music of the time. David Shimotakahara, Executive Artistic Director and Founder of GroundWorks DanceTheater, drew inspiration from the music of the 1920s — which, in some ways, reflects our modern age — in his new work Sud Buster’s Dream, premiering
GroundWorks 2018 Fall Series features the world premiere of a dynamic new project created in partnership with the Akron Art Museum and funded by a Knight Foundation Arts Challenge award. Artistic Director David Shimotakahara was given permission to work in response to an important piece from the Museum’s permanent collection, the magnificent Dzesi II by
Celebrating milestones and continuing two decades of creative collaboration, GroundWorks’ Spring Dance Series will feature farewell performances by founding company members Felise Bagley and Damien Highfield, as well as two world premiere works including Passenger by Executive Artistic Director David Shimotakahara. “This series is definitely a milestone for GroundWorks, with Felise and Damien’s decision to
Colorado-born, Oklahoma-raised dancer and choreographer James Gregg will debut his world premiere work during GroundWorks’ upcoming Spring Dance Series. Inspired by Italian poet Giambattista Basile’s version of the Sleeping Beauty story, Gregg combines his unique “fixed point” style of movement with while exploring themes including tenderness, love, dark beauty and tragedy. “My works are like a puzzle
