GroundWorks DanceTheater, a Knight Arts grantee, is currently working with a relatively new contemporary dance choreographer, Noa Zuk. For one thing, Zuk is creating a piece especially to set on GroundWorks for upcoming performances both in Cleveland and in the Akron area in the fall, when GroundWorks comes to our fair city. Touted as a work-in-progress, there will be a special showing of the new work (with original music by Ohad Fishof, at the Cleveland State University Arts Campus, Middough Building (Main Dance Studio), on Friday, July 12 at 5 p.m.

Anyone who wants a look at it before it is completed and comes to town – here’s your chance. That’s always a cool thing to do, for when it is finished and in full performance, you get to see the changes made as the piece is developed and get the polished version (with hopefully some stage magic thrown in).

Noa Zuk. Photo from www.groundworksdance.org

Before that, though, on this coming Sunday, July 7 at 2 p.m. at the same venue, but in the Black Box Studio, Zuk will perform a solo work titled “NOTHING III,” which she created (again with Fishof) as part of a residency at Ohio State University and which she premiered in New York in March of this year.

If it is anything like “NOTHING II” (if that’s indeed a separate work), one might expect some playfulness in the choreography, certainly what seems a penchant for minimalism and interior tension, and a wide spectrum of movement and motion to be visually captivating.

Fishof will also perform his 30-minute work, “A Lecture on Architecture,” which is described as “an audio-visual meditation on the nature of memory and fantasy and the relation between them.” Sound nice and esoteric – and very interesting.

Ohad Fishof. Photo from commons.wikimedia.com

Zuk began her dance career in 2000, when she joined the Batsheva Dance Company. During her tenure there, she did some choreography for them, then branched out to do commissioned works for the likes of Bern Ballet in Switzerland. She seems to have about 10 major works under her belt, to which will be added the one for GroundWorks.

According to his bio, Ohad Fishof “is an artist and musician working in a diverse range of fields including sound, dance, video, performance and installation.” Probably through his long-term collaboration with Batsheva Dance Company and its artistic director Ohad Naharin, Fishof began working with Zuk.

GroundWorks DanceTheater will present the works of choreographer Noa Zuk and musician Ohad Fishof on Sunday, July 5 at 2 p.m. and Friday, July 12 at 5 p.m. at the Middough Building, Cleveland State University, Prospect Ave., Cleveland; 216-751-0088; www.groundworksdance.org. Admission is free.