Event Description
Fall Performance Series 2023 GroundWorks DanceTheater’s 25th Anniversary Season continues with a program of world premiere dance works by FLOCK (Alice Klock and Florian Lochner, former dancers with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago) and GroundWorks’ Artist in Residence Antonio Brown. Plus, the company performs a revival of Founding Artistic Director David Shimotakahara’s acclaimed 2007 duet Sweet.
Presented by Cleveland State University Department of Theatre and Dance
STUCSU - FREE CSU Student (w/ID)
FAC - FREE CSU Faculty/Staff (w/ID)
NST - $10.00 Non-CSU student (w/School ID)
CHLD - FREE Children under 12
GRP- $20.00 Groups of 10+ (CALL TICKET OFFICE FOR GROUP SALES – 216-241-6000)
ABOUT GROUNDWORKS DANCETHEATER
GroundWorks DanceTheater is a contemporary dance company formed in 1998 by Founding Artistic Director, David Shimotakahara. Entering its 25th Anniversary Year, GroundWorks is nationally recognized for its contribution to the art form and the enrichment of human experiences in collaboration with some of the most innovative voices in dance today. Work that is created, produced, and supported in Northeast Ohio. Fundamental to GroundWorks is the fostering of new choreography and challenging preconceptions about dance. This group of outstanding artists has introduced dance lovers and neophytes alike to an experience that is unconventional, yet deeply human and resonating. The company performs new works by Shimotakahara, as well as commissioned work by nationally and internationally acclaimed choreographers. Discover what the Cleveland Plain Dealer has described as the “smoldering brilliance” of one of “Cleveland’s cultural gems.”
ABOUT FLOCK (Choreographers)
Alice Klock and Florian Lochner met while serving as dancers and Choreographic Fellows at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In 2017 they created FLOCK through which they perform their own work internationally and co-create new choreography for film and stage. As a team they have choreographed for multiple dance companies, universities, and cultural institutions including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Whim W’Him, Ballet Idaho, Orsolina 28, Seattle Dance Collective, Ballet Arkansas, Kultur O.H.G, the Goethe Institut, Adaptations Dance Theater, University of Iowa, Booker T Washington School for the Performing Arts, the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA, and the 92nd Street Y. Most recently they have been touring and performing their full length shows “Familiar” and “Somewhere Between”. In all of their work they strive to bring artists and audiences together in environments that are open, dynamic, and based on joy.
ABOUT ANTONIO BROWN (Choreographer)
Antonio Brown is GroundWorks DanceTheater’s Artist in Residence and the artistic force behind AntonioBrownDance, a native Cleveland, Ohio, where he began his dance training at the Cleveland School of the Arts and received his BFA from The Juilliard School. While there, he had the opportunity to perform works by Jose Limon, Ohad Naharin, Jiri Kylian, Eliot Feld, Aszure Barton, Jessica Lang, Susan Marshall, Larry Keigwin, among others. Mr. Brown has also worked with Camille A. Brown & Dancers, The Dash Ensemble, Sidra Bell Dance New York and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company for 11 years. Antonio has choreographed works for Verb Ballets, The Juilliard Dance Ensemble, MOVE(NYC), August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble, Jacksonville University, Cleveland State University, Hunter College, Perry Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp, The Arden Theater Company’s production of “The Bluest Eye”, Drama League DirectorFest, Earl Mosley’s Dancing Beyond and is currently the movement director for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare Initiative and Associate Choreographer for upcoming Broadway musical “Black No More”.
ABOUT DAVID SHIMOTAKAHARA (Choreographer)
Founding Artistic Director David Shimotakahara formed 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 25 years, GroundWorks has created and produced over 110 original works. Sixty of these have been commissioned from nationally and internationally renowned guest artists. In addition, Shimotakahara has contributed over 50 pieces to the company’s repertory. 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: 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.