GroundWorks DanceTheater Founding Artistic Director David Shimotakahara has been recognized with Summit Artspace’s titular Arts Alive Award for 2023. The Arts Alive Award is given to an individual or individuals who give selflessly to the cause of advancing arts and culture in the community. Whether an artist, arts administrator, volunteer
By Steve Sucato When Groundworks DanceTheater Executive Artistic Director David Shimotakahara had the idea to turn the company’s dance film and stage production of Transcendence into an art installation at Cleveland's 78th Street Studios he turned to Akron-based filmmaker, artist, and academic Miriam Bennett. A professor of Media Arts and Filmmaking at
By Steve Sucato Rebounding from the effects of the global pandemic,
By Steve Sucato Continuing GroundWorks’ artistic relationship with The National Center for Choreography - Akron (NCCAkron), the company’s dancers engaged in a 2-day creative exploration, October 17 & 20 at Cleveland State University's Department of Theatre and Dance, with Urbana, Illinois choreographer Alexandra Barbier as
By Steve Sucato The latest iteration of GroundWorks DanceTheater’s ongoing exCHANGE program, designed to engage students in the worlds of creative movement, contemporary dance, and kinesthetic learning, took GroundWorks’ teaching faculty this past September to Cleveland’s Bard High School Early College and the Cleveland School of
By Steve Sucato GroundWorks DanceTheater in conjunction with Akron’s Summit Artspace presented the latest round of GroundWorks’ Action/Reaction this summer. The four-part program designed to connect with participants with little or no experience of contemporary dance, but who are interested in or involved with creative practices in
By Steve Sucato You could say Rena Butler has reached a tipping point in her career. The former dancer with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Kyle Abraham/A.I.M, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, and most recently Gibney Dance, has reached a point in her freelance choreographic career where making dance works is now her
By Steve Sucato Since arriving at GroundWorks DanceTheater in 2018, Nicole Hennington has left an indelible mark on the company and its audiences. The versatile dancer has originated memorable roles in such works as GroundWorks Executive Artistic Director David Shimotakahara’s Sud Buster’s Dream and Jigsaw, James Gregg’s éveillé, Brian Brooks’ Unwritten and
By Steve Sucato As part of The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron’s Ideas in Motion: 21st Century Dance Practices capsule series and research residency, choreographer Ashwini Ramaswamy worked with GroundWorks DanceTheater’s dancers in a creative exploration session on March 17 at Cleveland State University’s Department of Theatre &
