Valence (vey-luhns) began as an exploration of how dance could become music and music could become dance. Using the idea of breath, with its inherent sounds and movements as a starting place, Miller and Swendsen collaborated to create a work that aims to explore the intersections of the two art forms, while still allowing each to retain its own voice and trajectories. Swendsen draws on a broad palette of sounds, including many related to human, mechanical, and environmental ‘breath’ to create a score that offers both setting and content. Miller, in collaboration with the dancers, has explored a movement vocabulary rich in contrast, suspension and moments of arresting stillness. Valence, a chemistry term used to describe the relative combining capacity of an atom, is used here to illustrate ‘the capacity of one person or thing to react with or affect another in some special way, as by attraction or the facilitation of a function or activity

-Pause-

"I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness…"

GroundWorks DanceTheater is imagination you can see. Critically celebrated as an "artistically significant" ensemble, GroundWorks explores the nuances of the human experience through unique and adventurous choreography. This exciting, eclectic work brings audiences face-to-face with fresh, fascinating performances of passion, intellect and humor.

Artistic director David Shimotakahara founded GroundWorks in 1998, determined to challenge the preconceptions about dance. From its Northeast Ohio base, this group of outstanding artists has introduced dance lovers and neophytes alike to an experience that is unconventional, yet deeply human and resonating.

From performing in unusual settings to featuring live musicians onstage, GroundWorks enriches its work with subtle layers of meaning that deepen the impact and enjoyment for the audience. This desire to push the boundaries is also evident in Shimotakahara’s bold initiative: To constantly seek collaboration and input from ground-breaking choreographers of the highest caliber and to make certain that the repertoire of the company is constantly evolving.

Additionally, GroundWorks is committed to giving back, through inspiring, education outreach programs for which it has been recognized with Ohio Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts funding.        

By never settling, by stretching even its own definition of what’s possible in dance, the company now in its eleventh season continues to grow and attract new audiences.

DAVID SHIMOTAKAHARA (Executive Artistic Director) has been a member of the Atlanta Ballet, Boston Repertory Ballet, Kathryn Posin Dance Company, and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. 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 1989-1997, 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 6 consecutive Individual Artist Fellowships for Choreography from the Ohio Arts Council from 1996 to 2007. 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 recently 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 is a recipient of a Creative Workforce Fellowship, a program of the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture, funded by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Bios

AMY MILLER (Artistic Associate, Dancer) received her training at the Dance Institute of the University of Akron and at the Joffrey Ballet School. She performed with the dance project New Steps; was a member of Ohio Ballet; and has danced with GroundWorks DanceTheater since its inception in 1998, where she also serves as artistic associate. Since 2006, Ms. Miller has created six works for the company including Allow composed by Alex Christie and eleveneleven composed by Ryan Lott. Valence, her newest work for GroundWorks, was created with Peter Swendsen of the renowned TIMARA School (Technology in Music and the Related Arts.) Since 2008, she has created commissioned works for Cleveland’s Dance/Theater Collective, as well as the dance programs of Bowling Green State University and the University of Akron. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Akron and was recently voted Outstanding Artist in Dance by the Akron Area Arts Alliance. Her choreography earned a 2010 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Grant.

TODD VANSLAMBROUCK (Dancer) is excited to be joining GroundWorks this season. He is concurrently pursuing his MFA in Dance at The Ohio State University where he has had the privilege of performing in works by Mark Morris, Bebe Miller, Larry Keigwin, Doris Humphrey and so on. As a former company member of Garth Fagan Dance, Todd performed with the Wynton Marsalis Septet at Lincoln Center and participated in the Moving Tribute to African American Choreographers at The Kennedy Center and the Fall For Dance Festival at City Center. In addition to dancing, Todd recently graduated from the American Institute of Alternative Medicine where he studied massage therapy. He attended SUNY Stony Brook as an undergraduate student and graduated Magna cum Laude with a BA in Cultural Anthropology.

JANET BOLICK (Costume Design) studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC and discovered a passion for the theatrical world instead of fashion.  She moved back to her hometown of Cleveland about 15 years ago and began working extensively with many of the local dance companies.  Her costume designs have been seen at Groundworks, Ohio Ballet, Dancing Wheels, Verb Ballets, Tom Evert Dance, Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet and Ballet Theatre of Ohio.  She has also done some theatrical and opera costumes, but enjoys the challenge of working with dance the best. 

 DENNIS DUGAN (Technical/Lighting Designer) see Dance Festival biography.

SARAH PERRETT (Dancer) began formal dance training in classical ballet at Budzynski Studios in Doylestown, PA before moving to North Carolina to attend high school at North Carolina School of the Arts. There she studied ballet under Melissa Hayden and Warren Conover, performing works by George Balanchine and Lynn Taylor-Corbett. Sarah also attended summer dance programs at Boston Ballet and the Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet in Philadelphia. Sarah furthered her studies and training as a college student receiving her diploma in Contemporary Dance from North Carolina School of the Arts. She performed with many guest choreographers including Camille Brown, Niki Juralewicz and Monica Bill Barnes. Most recently, Sarah performed at Merce Cunningham Studios and at Dixon Place in New York City.

TODD VANSLAMBROUCK (Dancer) -

LYNNE TAYLOR-CORBETT (Choreographer, Unpublished Dialogues) has established a reputation as an outstanding choreographer of works for dance companies — ballet and modern —, theater and film. Her commissions include Great Galloping Gottschalk and Estuary for American Ballet Theatre, Mercury and Chiaroscuro for New York City Ballet's Diamond Project, In a Word for Ohio Ballet, Appearances for Atlanta Ballet and works for Pacific Northwest Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Company, Pennsylvania Ballet among others, and for Carolina Ballet, where she is principal guest choreographer. Ms. Taylor-Corbett wrote, directed and choreographed The Ballad of You and Me, a collaboration with Pete Seeger, which was a multi-media tribute to his life and politics. Her choreography can be seen in the feature films Footloose and My Blue Heaven, in Disney's stage show Aladdin, at the Hyperion Theatre in California and countless videos and commercials. As a director Ms. Taylor-Corbett received two Tony nominations and a Drama Desk nomination for her direction and choreography of Broadway's Swing! in 2000, and received two American Theatre Wing "Star" nominations for its National Tour in 2001. She also choreographed two hit shows on Broadway, Chess and Titanic. In the summer of 2005 she directed a multi million dollar project for Disney In China. Upcoming projects include "Wanda’s World" Off Broadway Winner of the 2008 Joe A. Calloway Award, bestowed by the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and "Tarzan" for Theatre of the Stars.