DAVID SHIMOTAKAHARA  

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. The 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 in 1995, the Illinois Arts Council in 2001, and for the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001. 

He has received Individual Artist Fellowships for Choreography from the Ohio Arts Council in 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. 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. His work with GroundWorks Dancetheater was recently voted One of 25 to Watch by Dance Magazine.