There are lots of ways of celebrating the centennial of Igor Stravinsky’s revolutionary ballet score, The Rite of Spring. The Joffrey Ballet’s reconstruction of the original Ballets Russes production will be a highlight of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Blossom season this summer. Cleveland’s Verb Ballets is undertaking a new version with an overdubbed performance of the original two-piano

This year marks the 100th anniversary of one of ballet and classical music’s most beloved and controversial masterworks, The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps). Both Igor Stravinsky’s brilliant and avant-garde score and Vaslav Nijinsky‘s modern ballet choreography redefined music and dance at the outset of the 20th-century. In the process The Rite, and

When Akron Symphony Orchestra (a Knight Arts grantee), approached GroundWorks DanceTheater (also a Knight Arts grantee), things started clicking. ASO wanted to perform Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” while adding a visual element to its aural connection through dance. Maestro Christopher Wilkins met up with David Shimotakahara, artistic director of GroundWorks, and asked him

It's hard to imagine that the dance premieres in Northeast Ohio on Saturday, April 13, and Thursday, April 18, in 2013 will come close to duplicating the ruckus that occurred on Thursday, May 29, 1913, at Paris' Theatre des Champs-Elysees. On that evening nearly a century ago, an audience of elites and bohemians reacted to

“Luna” by David Shimotakahara in performance at the Breen Center for the Arts in Cleveland.  Photos by Mark Horning.

GroundWorks DanceTheater, a Knight Arts grantee, always brings something new and intense not only when in performance but to contemporary dance itself. If you’ve ever attended a dance concert and after a while you say something like “That’s great, but can they do something different?” because of limited dance vocabulary and vision, you’ll know what

GroundWorks Dance­Theater will return to the Akron-Summit County Public Library Friday for the Akron premieres of Kate Weare’s Inamorata and artistic director David Shimotakahara’s LUNA. The library auditorium was so booked, the modern dance company was able to schedule just one performance, for 7:30 p.m. Friday, instead of its usual two nights. The appearance by

Performance Will Feature Two Akron Premieres and the Heralded “Brubeck” GroundWorks DanceTheater will feature the Akron premieres of two new works at the Akron-Summit County Public Library for one performance only at 7:30 p.m. on March 22.  The company performs “Inamorata,” a newly commissioned work by guest choreographer Kate Weare, and “LUNA” by GroundWorks Artistic

A world of contemporary dance passes before your eyes at most performances by GroundWorks DanceTheater. The results may be abstract or narrative-driven, dance for dance’s sake, or something completely off the charts. For its first program of 2013, GroundWorks explores many facets of its adventurous art at the Breen Center for the Performing Arts, offering