A Pictorial Look Back at
TRANSCENDENCE: the Installation 

DAVID SHIMOTAKAHARA (Executive Artistic Director/Choreographer)

Founded GroundWorks in 1998, determined to challenge the preconceptions about dance. This desire to push boundaries is evident in Shimotakahara’s bold initiative: To seek collaboration and input from guest choreographers of the highest caliber and to constantly evolve the repertoire of the company. Over the past 23 years, GroundWorks has created and produced over 100 original works. 60 of these have been commissioned from nationally and internationally renowned guest artists. In addition, Shimotakahara has contributed over 50 pieces to the company’s rep. His work is about here and now. He is interested in framing issues surrounding individuality, privacy, place, and connectivity through movement that speaks through its musicality and physicality. Shimotakahara’s performance history includes being a member of the Atlanta Ballet, Boston Repertory Ballet, Kathryn Posin Dance Company, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. He performed with Ohio Ballet under the direction of Heinz Poll from 1983-1999. He also served as Rehearsal Assistant for Ohio Ballet from 1989-1999. From 1989-97, Mr. Shimotakahara founded and was Director of New Steps. This acclaimed dance project offered a variety of programs that stimulated the creation and growth of new choreography in Northeast Ohio. Mr. Shimotakahara has choreographed for opera and theater with the Cleveland Opera, Great Lakes Theater Festival, and the Dallas Theater Center. He served on the Carlisle Project advisory panel in 1996, and dance panels for the Ohio Arts Council, Illinois Arts Council, the Mid Atlantic Arts Alliance, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has received 7 Individual Artist Fellowships for Choreography from the Ohio Arts Council from 1996 to 2012. In 1998, he received a McKnight Foundation Fellowship from the Minnesota Dance Alliance to create new work in the Minneapolis, St. Paul communities. Mr. Shimotakahara was awarded the 2000 Cleveland Arts Prize for Dance. In 2002 his work with GroundWorks DanceTheater was voted “One of 25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. In 2007, he received the OhioDance award for Outstanding Contributions to the Advancement of the Dance Artform. Mr. Shimotakahara was a 2008 recipient of the first COSE Arts and Business Innovation awards as the founder of GroundWorks DanceTheater. In 2010 Shimotakahara received a Creative Workforce Fellowship, a program of the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture, funded by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

NICOLE HENNINGTON (Dancer, Film) 

Former GroundWorks DanceTheater company member/choreographer Nicole Hennington spent her first two decades in Arizona where she graduated from the University of Arizona with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Finance. During this time, she also studied with Nederlands Dans Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, chuthis., New Dialect, and Ate9. She has performed the works of choreographers Brian Brooks, Robyn Mineko Williams, James Gregg, Dianne McIntyre, Peter Chu, Jianhui Wang, Banning Bouldin, and Bella Lewitzky. Nicole also has a passion for teaching and has taught dance at Cleveland State University, The University of Akron, and dance studios in Northeast, Ohio and beyond. As a choreographer, she is a 2022 RAD FEST (Midwest Regional Alternative Dance) Screendance Selectee for her solo work, “Between Presence” in collaboration with videographer Cory Sheldon. 

DANIEL GILBERT (Clarinet)

Joined the faculty at the University of Michigan as Associate Professor of Clarinet in 2007. Previously, he held the position of Second Clarinet in the Cleveland Orchestra from 1995 to 2007. A native of New York City, Mr. Gilbert received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and both a Master of Music degree and Professional Studies Certificate from The Juilliard School. Prior to joining the Cleveland Orchestra, Mr. Gilbert was an active freelancer in New York City, appearing regularly with groups including: The Metropolitan Opera, American Ballet Theater, New Jersey Symphony, Solisti New York, the Stamford Symphony and the New Haven Symphony, where he played principal clarinet from 1992 to 1995. Mr. Gilbert was a member of the Quintet of the Americas in 1994-1995. The group toured throughout the United States and was in residence at Northwestern University.

An active soloist and chamber musician, Mr. Gilbert has appeared at the Classical Tahoe festival, Aspen Music Festival, Maui Chamber Music Festival, St. Barth’s Music Festival, Music on the Hill, Rhode Island and Cape Cod Music Festival, among others.  He has appeared as soloist with orchestras that include the Cleveland Orchestra, Classical Tahoe orchestra, Reno Chamber orchestra, City Music Cleveland Cleveland Heights Chamber orchestra, the Suburban Symphony Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony, Solisti New York and the Aspen Mozart Orchestra.

Mr. Gilbert is an artist/clinician for Backun Musical, Canada and Vandoren companies. He is featured as a soloist and clinician throughout the US, Canada and Europe and his recitals and classes have received critical acclaim. Aside from his position at the University of Michigan, he also serves on the faculty of Case Western Reserve University. In addition, Mr. Gilbert holds the position of principal clarinet of the chamber orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, Principal clarinet of the Classical Tahoe festival, the Napa Festival Orchestra and second clarinet of the All Star orchestra that is currently recording its third season for PBS.  He formerly served on the faculties at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Oberlin Conservatory of Music.  His teachers have included David Weber, Robert Marcellus, Stanley Hasty, Richard Waller, Burt Hara and Judith Kalin-Freeman. Mr. Gilbert plays exclusively on Backun and Vandoren products.

KUO-HENG HUANG (Film Production)

Is a Taiwanese artist currently based in New York City. He started his art practice as a photographer, Huang strives to see things, for their appearance and substance, structure and order, cause and effect, in relation with time and space, the unseen and invisible. The subjects in Huang’s mind: Gene, System, Space-Time, Neurology and Mind and Identity, Evolution and Sapien and Neanderthal, Theater and Reality and Virtual Reality, Justice, and History.

AHNA BONNETTE (Dancer, Live)

Grew up in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona where she trained, taught and set solo competition dances at Dance Connection Scottsdale. At 18, she was accepted into SUNY Purchase to pursue a BFA in dance. After a year there she left to explore concert dance firsthand. In 2021, she traveled with choreographer Peter Chu, répétiteur Roger Van der Poel and Jenni Gordon to aid in setting repertoire and host dance intensives at competition dance studios in Texas, Florida, and California. She then spent 5 weeks assisting Chu and Van der Poel in Germany as they set a work on Augsburg Ballet. In addition to performing, Bonnette over her career, has also developed a deep passion for creating with, and teaching young dancers. 

TEAGAN REED (Dancer, Live & Film)

Is a St. Petersburg, Florida native and started training and competing in Scottish Highland dance at age 12. “Tea” then trained in ballet at the Patricia Ann Dance Studio, attended the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and The Hubbard Street Professional Program in Chicago. Tea has been a freelance dance artist with Fukudance, Adam Weinert & Company, the A.R.T. at Harvard University, Dance in the Parks Chicago, and Aerial Dance Chicago. In 2021, Tea founded the inaugural pro.noun dance festival to help queer dance artists gather and create. Tea has also been a guest artist at Ballet22 and Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and a guest teacher at Mass Motion Dance, New England Youth Dance Exchange, HAVEN Sanctuary for Dance, and Chicago Movement Collective. For more about Tea, visit teaganreed.com. 

VICTORIA RUMZIS (Dancer, Live & Film)

Is a Chicago native and began dancing at age 14 at Dancenter North. She continued her studies at Point Park University where she received her BFA in dance, graduating magna cum laude. Additionally, Tori received training at Axis Connect, Movement Invention Project, ODC and Salt Contemporary Dance. She has also had the privilege of performing as a company member with Aerial Dance Chicago, Ensemble180, Dance in the Parks, Hedwig Dances and New Dances (under the direction of Melissa Thodos and Julie Nakagawa). Along with performing, Tori has enjoyed working as a dance teacher, choreographer, and certified yoga instructor. 

MIHO HASHIZUME (Violin)

Born and raised in Tokyo, Miho Hashizume joined The Cleveland Orchestra in 1995, after serving as a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. A member of the first violin section, she also is a longtime member of Apollo’s Fire/The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra and has appeared as a soloist with the group at festivals in Aspen, Boston, Detroit, and Indianapolis, as well as at the Idea Center at PlayhouseSquare. She has also appeared as a soloist with the Fort Collins Symphony and the Toronto Symphony. Ms. Hashizume performs with Cleveland Orchestra colleagues in the Amici String Quartet. She has taught at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and coached students at Case Western Reserve University.

Educated at the Toho School of Music in Tokyo, Ms. Hashizume earned both a high-school diploma and a bachelor of music degree from the institution. She also studied at the University of Wyoming and at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her teachers were Masahiro Arita, Angela Eto, Toshiya Eto, Brian Hanly, David Updegraff, Ami Watanabe, and Natsumi Wakamatsu. Miho Hashizume plays an A&H Amati violin. She and her husband, Paul Meyer, have a daughter, Natsumi Lynne Meyer.