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The Plain Dealer - April 30 , 2001 (http://www.cleveland.com/artsandevents/plaindealer/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/entertainment/98862660016271.xml)

The Plain Dealer - February 18 , 2001 (http://www.cleveland.com/eventsguide/index.ssf?/entertainment/pd/e18dance.html)

The Free Times - March 7 - 13 (http://www.freetimes.com/search/)  - search for word Groundworks

Through the magic of intense contemporary dance, evocative world fusion music and dramatic theatrical lighting, Groundworks DanceTheater transformed Akron’s historic Northside Ice House into a sensational performance space.

Before the company’s riveting Landmarks Series performance Friday night, owner Michael Owen of Millworks Gallery Inc. described the huge brick building as a gigantic Igloo cooler. As the dancers warmed up onstage and the audience filled every folding chair, lighting designer Dennis Dugan dramatized the beautiful old brick walls with abstract patterns of shadow and light.

At first, the 55-foot-high space seemed enormous. But when the lights went out and the room was thrown into blackness, the big icebox suddenly felt claustrophobic.

The suffocating closeness opened up to the illusion of a vast outdoor terrain when composer-percussionist Gustavo Aguilar appeared as a colossal shadow climbing over an imaginary mountain, playing a shrill whistle and singing a chantlike song to the accompaniment of maracas.

When he became visible in the light, he looked like a handsome descendant of an ancient South American tribe making his way with dignity to a large percussion set consisting of drums, cymbals, rattles and gong. There, he gave a mesmerizing performance of "Obra de la Tierra," a virtuoso work by California composer David Johnson. The partly composed and partly improvised piece created a mysterious world of sound and silence that held the crowd enthralled until Aguilar departed as enigmatically as he had entered.

His ritualistic solo performance segued seamlessly into "A Person," the emotional solo choreographed and danced by artistic director David Shimotakahara. Costumed in suit and tie, he portrayed a contemporary businessman, first turning in place on a bench like a music-box doll, then hammering into forceful movements like a traditional Japanese drummer. After a blackout, the driven character turned fearful. Hiding under the bench and throwing off his shoes and socks as if they were hand grenades, he worked himself into a suicidal state. But at the end, he stripped himself of his self-doubts and walked into the redeeming light with a sigh of relief.

Throughout the character’s remarkable inner journey, every shift of dynamics and mood was supported by a powerful score recorded by Aguilar, his wife, Gaelyn, and Richard Maurer.

Smoothly guiding the imaginative performance to its next impassioned peak was "The River," an Afro-Cuban style song that Aguilar composed and sang in Spanish and played on a wooden-headed drum topped with clock coils. His complex rhythms and wild scat singing melted into the purity of his wife’s lovely voice as she intoned a Macedonian song of death.

Proceeding without pause, the show culminated in dancer Amy Hayes’ exciting performance of "Field Stone," Shimotakahara’s fierce depiction of a woman confronting her mortality after she is struck by a bolt of lightning in an open field. Hayes threw herself into the violent choreography as if impelled by the energetic vocal-and-percussion music performed at her feet by the Aguilars.

The evening as a whole was stunning, and the capacity crowd responded with cheers. The program, a must-see, will be repeated at 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday .

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The Plain Dealer - Monday, March 13, 2000 - by Wilma Salisbury, Plain Dealer Dance Critic

Fire met ice Saturday night as GroundWorks Dancetheater shared its portable stage with Marronprater music and dance co. at the First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland. The program sandwiched Marronprater's explosive new ensemble piece between two duets finely crafted by GroundWorks artistic director David Shimotakahara. In the strange but stimulating juxtaposition, the athletic work created by composer James Marron and choreographer Bethany Prater erupted like a tiger let loose in a contemporary art gallery.

The presentation, part of GroundWorks' Landmarks Series, opened with a dramatic performance of Shimotakahara's "Provenance," the haunting memory piece that premiered at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art during a 1997 exhibition of Masumi Hayashi's photographs of Japanese-American internment camps. Two of the photo collages were projected as a backdrop to the emotional exploration of a woman's evolving relationship with the men in her life. Shimotakahara was the powerful male figure, Amy Hayes the intense heroine in the dance of despair and resolution set to original taped music by Gustavo Aguilar.

"The Call" by Marronprater broke the introspective mood with loud and fast rips from Marron's electric guitar. As he played, he was attacked by four women in black leather who jumped him, only to be violently pushed away and used as human footstools. At the height of the fray, Prater suddenly appeared, a silver madonna moving gracefully to the accompaniment of quiet guitar music. When the black leather troupe returned with renewed vigor, Prater climbed on Marron's shoulders and protected him like a guardian angel. The performance clearly projected the image of a modern man confronting his demons with the aid of music and the guidance of a female presence.

The evening ended with the breathtaking premiere of Shimotakahara's "Circadian," a duet of equals that resonated to the atmospheric tones and energizing rhythms of improvisatory music composed and performed live by harpist Jocelyn Chang and flutist Michael Leese. Ohio Ballet dancers Hayes and Damien Highfield were the beautifully matched partners who circled, lifted and reached out to each other in magnetic attraction.

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