It’s always a great thing when GroundWorks DanceTheater, a Knight Arts grantee, comes to Akron on one of their recurrent visits to perform for local audiences. And in the fall of the year, it is a couple of performances at the Main Library in Downtown.

This year, the troupe will be bringing first a work by German choreographer Johannes Wieland, who set a witty and evocative piece called “wait.now.go now” on the company. In a video discussion, Wieland noted that the work explores relationships, but focuses on various tensions – whether the person is ready for commitment, do they come on too strong, and the like – to set the dance into motion. As he said, the characters/dancers may dive into each other, but then draw back as though not sure they really want the relationship to continue.

Felise Bagley, dancer. Photo courtesy of GroundWorks DanceTheater

The music is very eclectic – ranging from a solo singer crooning something like the song “Puppy Love” through a cowboy, aw-shucks kind of music, to something very industrial, bleak and distraught sounding.

Johannes Wieland is the artistic director/choreographer of the resident dance company at the State Theatre of Kassel, Germany. A native German and former principal dancer with the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and Berlin’s State Opera, he established his company, Johannes Wieland, in New York in 2002.

Also on the bill will be a return to an Akron stage of Ronen Koresh’s “CoDa.” The piece is a highly musical and exuberant work requiring tons of energy and freshness from the dancers. Several recognizable folk dance traditions emerge in the piece, underlining the roots of social dance that inform this work. The piece, commissioned by GWDT in 2011, uses music by French composer Rene Aubry and communicates, as organizers note, a full range of life experiences with passion and humanity.

Koresh has choreographed for dance companies throughout the U.S. as well as South Korea, Japan, Turkey and Israel, where he was born and raised. He formed the Koresh Dance Company, based in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1991.

Felise Bagley and Damian Highfield, dancers. Photo courtesy of GroundWorks DanceTheater

The last work that we will see will be “Always” by choreographer Gina Gibney. The work is an homage to the music of Patsy Cline, as the title (a famous hit by Cline) indicates. The piece is set to seven songs by the country singer, while the choreography reflects on a couple and their emotional leanings for one another.

Gibney, as organizers have noted, is a dance maker that is highly sought-after  by a wide range of performing arts institutions. Her work has been featured in recent years by such venues as Danspace Project (New York), White Bird (Oregon), the Yale Repertory Theater (Connecticut), L’Agora de la Danse (Montreal, Canada), and Internationale Tanzmesse (Dusseldorf, Germany).

Come learn all about relationships as explored by three well-respected choreographers and as performed by the highly skilled and elegant dancers of GroundWorks DanceTheater.

GroundWorks DanceTheater will perform its dance concert at 7:30 p.m. on November 7-8 in the theater of the Main Library, 60 S. High St., Akron; 216-751-0088; www.groundworksdance.org. Tickets are $25 ($20 general seating and $10 students).