The Plain Dealer – GroundWorks Dance Theatre plans highly musical ‘Summer Series’ at Cain Park

By Zachary Lewis, The Plain Dealer

Music is always on his mind. Lately, though, it’s been the foremost topic.

In planning his group’s “Summer Series,” GroundWorks Dance Theatre founder David Shimotakahara took all of his inspiration from music, building or hosting dances heavily steeped in the sonic arts.

“I’m trying to use it as many ways as I can,” said the choreographer, referring to live music, a relative rarity in modern dance. “Sometimes it seems like a real luxury.”

It may sound that way, too. For his own contribution to the program, a set of three dances for presentation three nights in a row, Shimotakahara set a piece of music he described as rich beyond belief.

Enabled by a grant to perform with percussionist Luke Rinderknecht, the choreographer turned to Paul Smadbeck’s “Rhythm Song,” using the Minimalist masterpiece for solo marimba as the backdrop to a study of interim space both emotional and physical.

“Dancers are used to communicating postures and getting to the point,” said Shimotakahara of his untitled work, a duet. “I wanted them to be aware of being in between, just as you are in life. More often than not, things are unresolved.”

Even more definitively musical are the roots of “Hindsight,” the second feature of this year’s “Summer Series.”

For not only is the piece, a 2011 creation by renowned choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett, set to music. It’s about music. Specifically, that of Akron-born rocker Chrissie Hynde.

As the full company performs to Hynde’s music, a large screen above the stage will display photos, graphics and film clips documenting one of the most diverse careers and broadest bodies of work on record.
“There’s a lot there,” said Shimotakahara. “The whole piece came together beautifully. We think it’ll be a great summertime piece.”

Still, if there’s a lot in “Hindsight,” there’s a ton in “All I Do,” the program’s main attraction. And where the other two works employ music in new ways, David Parker’s 2011 creation, based on “Singin’ in the Rain,” actually makes music, of a sort.

Parker, choreographer at The Bang Group, an experimental New York dance theater troupe, conceived “All I Do” for GroundWorks in 2010. Now he’s re-setting it, drawing several new company members into an intricate world testing all their faculties, including their senses of humor and theatricality.

“It’s a great addition to our repertoire and range,” said Shimotakahara. “Any time you find an artist who uses genuine good humor, I think that’s the hardest thing to do.”

Much as certain composers derive their scores from sets of ordered pitches, Parker, a tap specialist fascinated with rhythm, drew his work from Morse code, creating motions for each letter of the alphabet. Using this lexicon, the dancers spell out words and phrases.

But that’s not all. Parker also turns the dancers into instruments by asking them to sing and make an array of sounds on themselves and each other.

Hence the title, a reference not only to a hit song from “Singin’ in the Rain” but also to how far the dancers go in their effort to entertain the audience.

“You can do a lot of great things if you don’t see the boundary as fixed,” said Parker, praising GroundWorks for welcoming tap into their dance arsenal. “They’ve done it, as I knew they would. The greats can always move back and forth.”

PREVIEW
GroundWorks Dance Theatre
What: Works by Taylor-Corbett, Parker, and Shimotakahara.
When: 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, June 12-14.
Where: Cain Park, Lee and Superior Roads, Cleveland Heights.
Tickets: $25. Go to cainpark.com or call 216-371-3000.