Residency Artist - Dance

Inlet Dance Theatre

Bill Wade, Artistic Director/Founder
The Music Settlement
11125 Magnolia Dr.
Cleveland, OH  44061
Phone: (216) 721-8580
Fax: (216) 721-8580
Email: info@inletdance.org
Website: www.inletdance.org

Inlet uses dance viewing, training and performing experiences as tools to bring about personal growth and development. A typical Inlet Dance Theatre residency happens in what we call an ABA format (performance/instruction/performance). We usually begin the residency with Inlet performing a narrated educational concert for students and staff, giving context to the residency. The second phase of our format involves teaching the students curriculum Inlet creates in collaboration with teachers, ensuring connection to academic and dance content standards. Often times, we focus the residency with topics or themes. We engage the students in the same techniques we utilize in our creative process when we build our concert repertory -- we get the students involved in the dance making process. Together with the students (and sometimes the staff) we create a culminating concert wherein the students teach the audience what they've been learning and present choreography they've created. We consistently find that teachers, administrators, parents, and community members attending the culminating performance are amazed at the level of artistry produced by the students.

Inlet Dance Theatre's mission statement is "to create and perform innovative dance and movement theatre at a high level of artistry, speak creatively about human life issues, and bring about personal development in the lives of individuals through training and mentoring." We accomplish this mission via our performing and education programming. Our company's performing aesthetic is distinct in its accessible athletic physicality, unusual sculptural partnering, high technical skill, and emotional, theatrical vulnerability. Our education outreach programming is known for teaching high concept work in a truly empathic and collaborative environment.

Inlet Dance Theatre recently received an Award of Achievement in Dance from Northern Ohio Live Magazine for our International Artist Exchange with artists from Easter Island, which culminated in May of 2008. Our culminating two week residency of performing and teaching on the island was part of an international artist exchange made possible by the Ohio Arts Council, The Ohio Arts Foundation, Playhouse Square Center's Education Department, the State Department and the American Embassy in Santiago, Chile. Inlet performs annually at Cleveland Public Theatre's DanceWorks Series, Playhouse Square Center, and Cain Park Evans Amphitheater, and conducts regional touring. Inlet's Artistic Director, Bill Wade, received the Coming Up Taller Award at the White House (Washington DC) from the National Endowment for the Arts and the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities for his work with at risk youth when serving Cleveland School of the Arts as an Artist in Residence where he founded the nationally-recognized and awarded after school program the YARD -- Youth At Risk Dancing. Prior his eleven year CSA residency, Wade served as Interim Artistic Director and dancer with Footpath Dance Company. Wade's work also includes collaborations with STOMP, Major League Baseball, Sea World of Ohio and the 1992 Winter Olympic Games. He has been recognized regionally, nationally, and internationally on television, radio, magazines and newspapers.