Cleveland's longest running annual dance series DanceWorks, presented by Cleveland Public Theatre, opens the second half of its 4-week run with a double bill featuring Tremont-based Antaeus Dance and Erie, Pennsylvania's Shen & Bones Performance Group, April 24-26 at CPT's Gordon Square Theatre.

Antaeus Dance will open the double bill with two premieres. Dancer/choreographer Heather Koniz's 10-minute trio "Let My Hero In" features an original score by Cleveland composer Greg D'Alessio. The work, says Antaeus artistic director Joan Meggitt: "dives into the world of addiction, depicting both the inner struggle and the outward consequences of it". The work, based on Koniz's personal experience with a family member, has each of its three dancers representing a different role in the addiction cycle; the drug, the addict, and those affected by the addict's habit.

Founded in 2001, Antaeus Dance takes its name from the mythological figure Antaeus, son of Poseidon, an athletic giant who gained strength through his contact with the earth. The modern dance troupe has presented the work of more than 50 choreographers, dance artists, composers, visual artists and filmmakers to Cleveland stages and beyond, including a tour to Estonia.

Antaeus' second premiere, also, set to original music by D'Alessio, will be Meggitt's "Events Leading Up to My Death". The 22-minute work for four dancers says Meggitt: "explores transformation, with 'death' as the metaphor". The dance, using 30 chairs as set elements, concentrates more on the struggle before death, rather than its aftermath. The work also continues an area of interest for Meggitt in her choreography, exploring the dynamic between the individual and the group.

The program's second half will feature Shen & Bones Performance Group's 55-minute dance-theater piece Betweens, a collection of vignettes featuring some of the company's best known repertory works culled together into a singular dance experience.

Founded in 1999 by and directed by Arizona State University graduate Lani Weissbach, Shen & Bones Performance Group blends contemporary Japanese dance form butoh with western contemporary dance styles. The company has performed throughout Pennsylvania as well as in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

Set to an eclectic mix of music by J.S. Bach, Aphex Twin, Brian Eno and others, Betweens features choreography by Weissbach in collaboration with the dancers and Philadelphia choreographer Robert Bingham. Weissbach says the work is built around the Japanese spatial concept of "Ma", referring to the "between" space, a consciousness of place via the imagination.

"Betweens implies space, but more specifically, the space that completes the whole," says Weissbach.

Antaeus Dance and Shen & Bones Performance Group perform as part of DanceWorks 2014, 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 24 - Saturday, April 26. Cleveland Public Theatre's Gordon Square Theatre, 6415 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, OH. Tickets $12-28. (216) 631-2727 ext. 501 or cptonline.org.

Antaeus Dance. Photo by Bob Christy.

Antaeus Dance. Photo by Brad Petot.

Shen & Bones Performance Group's Laura Swedenborg and Kerrylee Hinkson in "Sketch #1". Photo by Amasa Smith.

Shen & Bones Performance Group in "The Truth About Mr. Duffy". Photo © & courtesy of Lani Weissbach