- [Narrator] Production of "Applause," on Idea Stream Public Media, is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

(upbeat jazz music) - [Kabir] Coming up, we're making moves with choreographer Martin Céspedes, on stage at Porthouse Theatre.

Plus meet an artist in Kent who weaves together technology and hands-on techniques.

And the talented students of the Oberlin Conservatory, introduce us to a contemporary composition.

It's time for "Applause" my friends.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

Martin Céspedes works behind the scenes staging shows like "Jesus Christ Superstar," and "Annie," for Kent State University's Porthouse Theatre.

With more than 40 years as a dancer and choreographer the Cleveland based creative has worked on Broadway, regional theater and film.

His love of dance started early, growing up in the 1970s.

- Dance found me, it kind of plucked me as a young kid, as a young, I would say like 15, 14-year-old kid.

It was something that was all around.

If you go to a Latino family gathering, there's music, and there's dance, and there's food and there's.

My uncle was an incredible musician at the time, and he recorded in the '50's, so it was always around me.

My mom's an exquisite singer, she came from Puerto Rico.

My dad came from Mexico and they met in New York City, and that's where we grew up in the Chelsea area of New York.

I can remember one of the earliest things that introduced me to dance was a guy named Jacques d'Amboise, who's now not with us, but he would go to elementary schools and he would pick kids, but how he did it was clever because he had us doing athletic drills.

At the time, he was retired from the New York City Ballet.

He was one of the premier American ballet dancers, and he started this group of dance classes and it was called American Dance.

From there, I just grew passionate about movement, about creating a scenario, putting a hat on, becoming another character through that, and that slowly arced and I went into a concert dance, television, opening for the Bee Gees, opening for Earth Wind and Fire, dancing in concert companies in Denver, and then from there I zoomed into musical theater, but at the same time, I was working on operas.

I was doing a minor choreography, fight stage choreography, and I was in the operas, and at the same time, on the off season, I would go and audition for musical theater tours.

So it kind of never stopped for me.

It's always been a moviola that kept going.

And I think the love, I think the monumental love I have for theater itself was the fact that I can do it in all these different styles and mediums, you know.

I was asked once, a friend of mine asked me, what was the most influential piece of art that you saw that kind of catapulted you or moved you into the land of illusion, so to speak.

And it was me being able to watch "West Side Story" on reruns, and it was late.

It was late at night, my mom let me stay up.

Old TV, and I'm listening to the traffic behind the TV, which was almost like watching it in multidimensionals.

And I'm watching George Chakiris flying through the air, hitting this beautiful, it's called the stake position, which was the three sharks going in the air and lifting themselves, which was symbolic of saying that's the first time Puerto Ricans had a stake in the neighborhood, there was three firsts, and by the end of the summer there was 12.

That story and seeing a guy who looked like me, who was dancing in jeans and, you know, dungarees and sneakers and jumping over garbage cans and we're tough and we're strong and vibrant, that just said to me, "Man, there's a door there for you".

"There's somewhere you can go."

I'm based now 'outta Cleveland, you know, knowing the city, knowing I can get to the city when I have to, if I'm hired to work on any new projects, any workshops, you know, I'll get to New York.

But I'm based here, I love being here now, and the Porthouse Theatre has given me a home as a director choreographer.

- I have no time for this.

I have a mani-pedi scheduled for quarter to sundial.

- We're teching "Jesus Christ Superstar."

So that the ankle begins here before you start.

You know what I mean?

As opposed to bending it.

- [Dancer] So straight?

- Straight down, yeah.

(actors performing) - I wanted to do the show for a long time.

I grew up with the double album on my living room stereo as a kid, wrapping all of my brothers in sheets, you know, directing the play when I was, you know, 7, 8, 9 years old.

The show touches me deeply in that it brings the humanity to Jesus, which is sometimes just more relatable, especially for a young person.

- It's a perfect, wonderful synergy to work with Terry because she's a professor.

She approaches it in a very professorial way where I was a working gypsy for years and years and years.

So I'm coming at it from, you know, I'm dipping my hands in the paint to the elbows, and I'm Jackson Pollocking, and she's looking at the overall lighting, the creatives taking care of this costume, the storytelling of the actor's spoken word.

(piano playing in the background) - Martin and I, this is one we've been hoping to do for probably the last four or five years, - You know, and that's the joy.

It's not someone who is, who works on my level, but we work in compliment of each other's.

♪ Fifty thousand ♪ ♪ Nor the Romans ♪ ♪ Nor the Jews ♪ ♪ Nor Judas ♪ ♪ Nor the twelve ♪ ♪ Nor the priests ♪ - Our company is consists of students from Kent State University and other programs across the nation, combined with professionals, some of which are union members, some of which are not.

So the purpose is for the students to learn firsthand by working side by side with seasoned professionals who also serve as mentors to the students.

- You know, the things that a lot of people don't understand about musical theater choreography is that the musical director has the score.

You know, the director has the script.

You know, I have, I have nothing.

I have the architecture of the human form.

♪ Messenger would be at the grave ♪ ♪ Don't you get me wrong ♪ ♪ Don't you get me wrong now ♪ ♪ Don't you get me wrong ♪ ♪ Don't you get me wrong now ♪ ♪ Don't you get me wrong ♪ ♪ All I want to know ♪ - [Martin] This is the deal.

You can't act vulnerability.

You can't act vulnerability, you can't choreograph vulnerability.

That has to be, that has to be in you, that has to be an embodiment that you carry with you.

♪ This the wonderful Christ ♪ ♪ You're a joke, you're not the Lord ♪ ♪ You are nothing but a fraud ♪ ♪ Take him away ♪ - [Kabir] Martin Céspedes has choreographed two shows this summer at Porthouse Theater, "Jesus Christ Superstar", and "Annie".

Hey, we're looking for ideas about all arts and culture, great and small in Northeast Ohio.

So if you've got an idea to share with the Idea Stream Arts team, send an email to arts@ideastream.org.

Cleveland Arts prize winner, Janice Lessman-Moss, was drawn to textiles decades ago, not to make clothing, but art.

The retired Kent State professor offers an up close look at how she creates intricate abstract weavings inside her studio.

- [Janice] When I say that I'm a weaver, people generally assume that I am making garments or that I am making fabric for function.

And it takes a while me to convince them that in fact, it is a medium, just like painting that allows you to create abstract images for the wall, for contemplation, for, you know, visual enjoyment.

And it usually doesn't resonate so well until they see them.

And then it makes sense because they recognize that I can do all of the things that other people can do with other mediums, with color and with form and with texture.

But it happens with that intersection of thread.

I work digitally, I do all my designs digitally, and I am interested in the kind of the mathematical aspects of working with geometric forms and the count of threads in both directions.

I mean I like that right brain, left brain kind of intersection that weaving allows.

They allude to my interest in walking.

And walking is a very linear movement, and weaving is a very linear process.

Walking allows you to kind of move forward, but also to kind of linger.

It's a slow movement.

Weaving is a slow process.

I always call it a slow art, it's a very slow art.

And when I am designing, I'm actually thinking of that same notion of movement, kind of following a path.

So I create a path on a template of circles within squares, and I create these paths, and those paths end up being the kind of the contours of the outlines of shapes.

And they create, sometimes they're just lines and sometimes they establish shapes, and I put other patterns within those shapes.

So everything kind of builds in that same systematic way in the kind of ordered way, and yet deviates from any kind of real plan.

It's just that it, it is ordered because of the nature of the structure.

Once I've done the design, the weaving process itself is really following through on that plan.

I feed it to the loom, and then the loom reads it, and then I press a button and the threads are raised according to what I have programmed.

However, I mean, it's like an architect, you know, you're, you have some design, you know, you can visualize and you can see from your design, this is what's going to happen.

What actually happens is sometimes different.

And the whole experience of coming in, in contact with this material and having it grow before your very eyes is amazing.

I've been working with metal, introduced into the weaving for years, minimally.

Work that I did in the spring of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, I started to put more and more metal into the weaving, which adds an element of shine.

And I felt, you know, in thinking about it, that it was this attempt to kind of create a sense of hope.

You know, just have some little bright spots in my weaving.

They appear as you move around the weaving, you see this, the shine kind of emanating, and then it'll tuck back behind.

So it, it's this sense of almost shadow and light.

And I like that, that kind of surprise, that mystery.

And I started working with those smaller kind of orbs of, or circles of metal.

And then I intro this one is, I went kind of crazy with the introduction of the metal because I just felt like I really wanted some light in there.

And I really love in this piece, they almost look like little trails of like slug trails, that kind of a wet trail that is illuminated depending on what the lighting is like.

And I love that it's so imperfect that it has that sense of organic movement that is more like nature.

You learn so much every time you make something, you see something that, that maybe you didn't think about before.

And, it's a very satisfying journey.

I mean, you're going through life and you're able to make these visual statements, pieces that you hope other people enjoy looking at and finding meaning in, whether they see what I see in it isn't totally relevant.

The work is directed by personal, you know, interest and inspiration.

But people may look at it, they bring other histories to the engagement with the colors and the engagement with the relationship of lines.

And they might say, "Oh, it looks like this."

"It looks like that, it reminds me of this."

And that's okay, well good.

If you're looking at it and you're taking the time to think about it, I am happy about that.

I'm grateful for that.

- [Kabir] Northeast Ohio's ice festivals showcase a unique art form.

On the next "Applause", meet the Medina Ice festival's world champion sculptor delighting the region with his craft.

Plus watch as some masters of the air take to the skies from an historic airfield in Waynesville, Ohio.

And we share a passionate gospel performance from the Tri-C JazzFest by Dave Gully and the Cleveland Corral.

All that and more on the next round of "Applause".

(upbeat jazz music) ♪ We love you ♪ ♪ We love you ♪ ♪ We love you ♪ ♪ We love you ♪ ♪ Say we love you ♪ ♪ We love you ♪ ♪ We love you ♪ ♪ We love you ♪ ♪ We love you ♪ - [Kabir] Watch past episodes of Applause on the PBS app.

Some kids like reading others like arithmetic, but for Columbus artist Hannah Parker, her jam was wood shop.

Let's inside Parker's studio in Hilliard where she loves to problem solve as she creates her clean designs.

- [Hannah] As a kid, I was always into building with Legos.

I could look at a magazine and build the model that was in the magazine because I couldn't, you know, couldn't afford the Lego set, but I had a ton of hand-me-downs, and, you know, so I've always been a builder.

And then when I got into school, I struggled a lot with like your everyday classes.

And we had a wood shop in high school, and it was like the one class that I was like, "Yes, this is so awesome."

You know, like, I'm finally connecting to something.

But you know, I struggled with math and reading and writing, and so I was like, "There's gotta be like something that I can do this, like, as a living."

(saw whizzing) Typically when a human comes to me with like a problem, usually it's a problem.

It's like, I just don't know what to do with this space.

It's just not utilized properly.

Help me make it a functional space.

And I think that for me is where I can come in and take some of my knowledge of building and be like, "Hey, you know, we could throw in some drawers here."

"Or, you know, we could throw in some lights with cabinetry or, you know, reading nook."

So a lot of those come from like listening to the client and solving their problems.

And that's where I get a lot of like my creativity.

So it's like taking Legos to a whole new level.

Now you're just like building life-size Legos.

(dulcet music) There's a joy that comes with making something with your hands.

I mean, you can step back and as stressful as it starts, because sometimes you're just like, "I don't know, is this really gonna work?"

You're constantly just thinking like, "Am I gonna be able to pull this off?"

And then in the end, when you create what it is your client had in their mind and what you had in your mind and you've, you know, made it a whole, it's just, it's pretty awesome to look back and be like, "Yeah, I made that."

(machine whizzing) Why wood?

I think for me it was honestly something that made sense to me.

I mean, I could see the beauty in the, the wood every time I'm looking at a piece or, you know, for me I think wood is so magical, like there's true beauty in it.

I mean, it comes from the earth and we're able to make it into something that we can showcase in our homes.

For me, I wanna make a piece that somebody's grandkid looks at and is like, that's awesome.

The art of milling.

That alone could make somebody wanna work with wood the rest of their life.

I know every single woodworker has this piece of wood that they've been holding onto and they're waiting for that special moment.

But when you mill it and you, you have that rough sawn look, but as soon as you clean one edge on the joiner and you look at it, you're just like, "Okay."

And so the process of taking it from a rough sawn piece of wood to maybe even turning it into a kitchen table.

One of my first pieces that I made was a dining room table and a built-in benched nook that went all the way around the table.

And this woman had saved these pieces from a tree that they had cut down in their front yard.

And when they had first moved into the house, she let her son name the trees.

And so Bob was his name and he unfortunately wasn't gonna make it.

And so they saved this lumber, and they gave me all of this material and it was drying in their garage for years.

And I was able to mill it and build their dining room table and bench.

And for me that was magical.

I mean, for them to be able to take something that they loved so much that was a physical presence to then turning it into something that they as a family could sit around for generations and talk about the tree that used to be out front.

(machine whizzing) Believe it or not, each piece of wood has a distinct smell to it.

So you're gonna cut into a piece of red oak and you're going to know it's red oak.

I mean, for me, I don't like the smell of red oak.

It's my least favorite.

But if you're cutting into a piece of Walnut, chef's kiss.

It's amazing how all of your senses come into play.

Sight, sound, smell, everything when you're identifying lumber.

That to me also was so amazing to be able to like, by the end of it, be able to joint into a piece of board, turn it over and be like, "Oh, yep, that's beach."

(dulcet music) There's beauty in every single piece.

And so to be able to make that into something that you're gonna sit at and you're going to eat and you're gonna have a community table and just enjoy it.

Everything that goes into building a cabinet or a table or a shelf, I'm touching every single of that and I'm handling it all day every day.

I'm sanding it, I'm finishing it.

So to see where it starts, you know, maybe it's just a big sheet of plywood and you are really taking that and looking at your, your wood and you're thinking, "Okay, what door do I wanna lay out in this piece?"

Or if I'm building something from scratch and I'm milling it up, I'm like, "What piece do I want where and how is that symmetrical going to look like?"

You know, how's the layout gonna look after this?

It's pretty insane to just have that ability to create something with your hands.

- [Kabir] When it comes to arts and culture in Northeast Ohio.

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We're almost home kids.

Thanks for watching "Applause".

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

Handing it off to the Oberlin Orchestra, performing inside Historic Finney Chapel.

Led by professor and conductor Rafael Jimenez, here's the orchestra with American Composer Cindy McTee's, Ballet for Orchestra, "On with the Dance."

(orchestral music) (orchestral music continues) - [Narrator] Production of "Applause" on Idea Stream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.