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CF VDC interview David Shimotakahara/Groundworks 1 VDC Interview Transcript David Shimotakahara GroundWorks Dance Theater Executive Artistic Director 6.18.18 Total Time: 2:14:09 (usable footage ends at 2:05) Cleveland State University Middough Building 1901 E. 13th Street Room 255 Cleveland, OH Key: CF: Candace Feck DS: David Shimotakahara MDB: Megan Davis Bushway (VDC film team) JD: Jane D’Angelo: (Ohio Dance Director) CF: I’m Candace Feck, and I’m talking with David Shimotakahara at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, OH on June 18, 2018. From film footage: CF: Congratulations on your nomination, and thank you for giving us this time when you’re so busy. DS: Thank you! It’s an honor. CF: Having reviewed the nomination materials and other sources, I am eager to know much more. I know that you were born in Iowa City, were raised mostly in Montreal, and then moved to New York City in 1977. Is that correct? DS: Yes, I moved to New York City during the summer of Son of Sam! CF: Ahhh…that’s right! An auspicious beginning! DS: Yes! And there was a black-out, too. I had a wild summer — but I guess I liked it (laughing), because I never returned to Montreal after that, and it was just fortunate that I had an American birth certificate. I didn’t even know I was entitled to stay in the States. I often tell this story of writing to the American consulate, and I had gotten all these letters of reference because I thought I was applying for American citizenship (he laughs, remembering), because I had decided I wanted to stay in New York, and about three weeks later I got a very curt, typewritten form letter, basically saying, you know “You already are a citizen, dummy!” Not quite in those words, but (laughing) you know, it was like “What are you doing?” 2 CF: Oh my! Such a contrast to the present moment of immigration policy.
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