Project Description

New work pushes GroundWorks DanceTheater’s dancers as athlete and performers (preview)

By Steve Sucato, Arts Air

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. The old dog of sorts being Northeast, Ohio’s GroundWorks Dance Theater, now in its 17^th season who, in its upcoming summer series programs at Cain Park, July 14-16, and as part of the Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival, August 4-5 at Akron’s Goodyear Heights Metro Park, will present a world-premiere dance work unlike any trick the company has performed.

One of three works on the program that includes reprises of  NYC-based choreographer Kate Weare’s 2013 work for the company “Inamorata,” and GroundWorks’ artistic director David Shimotakahara’s “Chromatic” (2016), is choreographer Monica Bill Barnes’ “Tonight’s the night,” a new work created on the company that represents a seismic stylistic shift compared to the troupe’s usual more flowy repertory.

Barnes sees the new work as a continuation of the type of dance pieces she loves to create and that she has been known for over the past couple decades, works that “celebrate individuality, humor, and the innate theatricality of everyday life.”

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