GroundWorks Dance Theatre at Cain Park 7/1-3

You may be unfamiliar with either Cain Park or GroundWorks Dance Theater. The park is easy enough to find in Cleveland Heights at the corner of Superior Road and Lee Road; parking can be a little tricky but even if you arrive at the last minute you can always drive a few blocks south on Lee and park legally in the office lot opposite the diner. GroundWorks is the first of five dance companies presenting in Cain Park this summer and if you're unfamiliar with them, a longer explanation is in order. GroundWorks is a different dance company. It consists of four ballet dancers but the dancing they do for GroundWorks does not involve toe shoes, tutus or classical pirouettes. Three of the current dancers and most of the company alumni were drawn from Heinz Poll's old Ohio Ballet, known for its eclectic modern dance repertoire. GroundWorks Artistic Director David Shimotakahara danced for many years under Poll; he began cutting his choreographic teeth in 1989 with New Steps, a group of ballet dancers from Ohio Ballet and Cleveland Ballet who presented their own original choreography. Shimotakahara founded GroundWorks in 1998, about the time of Poll's retirement. The upcoming Cain Park concert features a premiere and a repertoire piece by Shimotakahara and At Once There Was a House, set on the company in 2004 by Pittsburgh's Beth Corning. Both repertoire pieces tell a lot about the company. The duet Ephemeral (2004) takes its premise from the image of moths to the flame. Like another Shimotakahara duet, Know, this duet is content to leave a lot of space between dancers both physically and emotionally; there's any amount of frantic fluttering but it would be a mistake to look for a sexual metaphor here. The dancers are costumed by Ray Zander in black unisex attire, revealing but not sexy. Felise Bagley and Mark Otloski, the only dancers we've seen perform it, present exquisite ballet trained bodies but keep the personal space between them cool. Of course all this could change if the casting changes, as it often does with GroundWorks. The other half of the company, Shimotakahara and Amy Miller, are both known for dramatic intensity. Ephemeral is set to an original score by the company's Composer in Residence, Gustavo Aguilar, and his frequent collaborator, Alan Lechusza. Both times we saw the piece the music began with a processional, a mystical invocation that preceded the dance. But again, all this can change; Aguilar is committed to incorporating improvisation into his compositions. Suffice to say that this is experimental music but for all the computer technology in evidence, both performers play with rhythmic drive and much emotional color. At Once There Was a House is subtitled "what ever happened to Dick and Jane?" Corning posits that the couple we remember from elementary school primers has grown up to live in suburbia. Drawing on her background in European modern dance she gives us her view of how deeply weird suburban existence is. The tone is set right away with a bizarre talent show performed to the music of Tom Waits. Throughout the eleven or so sections that follow, the dancers suddenly break into incongruous monologues concerning their houses, their yards and their spouses. We see a dance with a picket fence, a woman imprisoned in her house and a man who pummels a puppet. This is GroundWorks' third year at Cain Park's Alma Theater. The small space apparently appeals to their emphasis on intimate exchange between performers and audience. More about GroundWorks at http://www.GroundWorksDance.org.
GroundWorks Dance Theatre appears 7:30PM Fri 7/1 and Sat 7/2, and 2PM Sun 7/3 at the Alma Theater in Cain Park. $20 - $18 in advance and $25 - $23 day of show. Inquire about discounts. Cain Park Box Office 371-3000. Ticketmaster 216 241-5555 or http://www.Ticketmaster.com.
from Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas

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