[NEohioPAL]Berko review: GroundWorks Dancetheater

[Roy Berko]

GROUNDWORKS AGAIN CAPTIVATES AUDIENCE

Roy Berko
--Times Newspapers—

David Shimotakahara, the artistic director of
GroundWorks Dancetheater has a reputation for
inspiring his audience’s to think.  He also
illustrates for them what it means to have a
disciplined dance corps.  

The evening, presented as part of Cleveland Public
Theatre’s ‘DANCWORKS 04,’ consisted of two equal
length pieces, “The Book of Water” and “At Once There
Was A House.”

“The Book of Water,” as explained by Shimotakahara,
the piece’s choreographer, continues his interest in
connectivity.  He challenges the audience to
experience, as the company did, the questions:  “Is
life a series of isolated pools through which we pass
alone in our encounters?  Is memory held in separate
cups, secret and contained?  Or are we connected in
our course?

The choreographer answers his own questions, as he
leads the viewer through a seamless connection of each
of the vehicle’s segments.   Each unit, danced to a
unique piece of music, had a feeling all its own, but
with the unmistakable unity of flow and movement. 
Slashing hands, flying bodies danced to a heavy drum
beat; bodies moving across the floor in controlled
moves set to heavy organ music; slow controlled moves
of arching bodies, swimming, moving like water birds
to plaintive piano music.  Whatever the music,
whatever the movements, the parts all melded into a
single unit.  Even the ending, which found
Shimotakahara bathed in a pool of blue light,
bare-chested and breathing heavily, was a perfect fit.

Felise Bagley, Amy Miller, Mark Otloski, and
Shimotakahara are all fine dancers.  Bagley and Miller
make the most difficult of moves look easy.  They
display total body control.  Shimotakahara has always
been a dance machine, well-oiled and in perfect sync. 
It has been especially interesting to watch Otloski,
who was a principal dancer with the Cleveland/San Jose
Ballet, mature under the tutelage of Shimotakahara
into a more disciplined dancer.

“At Once There Was A House,” a Cleveland premiere
choreographed by Beth Corning, and danced to the music
of such composers as Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan and
Lou Harrison, was a much more complex piece.

Most interesting was listening to the audience’s
conversation following the performance about what
meaning the piece held for each of them.  Comments
were made of children playing dress-up, child abuse,
the experiences of growing up and looking back at
childhood, and childhood delight.  One thing appeared
certain.  The meaning of piece remained abstract, but
the concept purported by psychologists is that each of
us creates our reality through our stories,
narratives, and questions of life.  
Dressed at the start in oversized adult shoes and
children’s clothing, the company interacted with the
audience with childish delight.  Later segments found
Felise Bagley partnering with a white picket fence
that folded and bent as she created illusions of
life’s experiences?  Another segment was danced
accapello, consisted of changing partners, searching
other others and freezing in place.  Often the words
and the movements were not in parallel to each other
causing discordant thoughts.  Another portion found
the dancers moving across the stage in parallel lines,
never intersecting, never touching.  fifth One unit
found Otloski illustrating high school experiences in
both movement and words.  In another part
Shimotakahara, with a large soft sculpture door
attached to his body, danced to discordant music.  Yet
another unit exposed a balancing act of dancer and a
chair.  The finale repeated the opening in costume and
theme.  

The piece, a departure from the usual serious mood of
Danceworks numbers, was thought-provoking for the
audience and physically challenging for the dancers.

For those who have not experienced the offerings of
this wonderful company, Danceworks will be performing
on July 2 and 3 at Cain Park Theatre in Cleveland
Heights.    There will be Talk back sessions following
each of those performances.  For information call
216-932-0222.


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