When Oren Baratz met GroundWorks Artistic Director David Shimotakahara for the first time at Leadership Cleveland, they immediately hit it off.
“I told David that I’d never danced in my life and that his success in the [Leadership Cleveland] program would be if he could get me to dance,” Baratz says. “Two weeks later David calls me and says, ‘Let’s meet for coffee.’”
The next Sunday, the two had coffee together. Shimotakahara pitched the idea of participating in It Takes Two. Baratz thought he was nuts. But by the power of persuasion, he was convinced.
“In a moment of weakness, I said yes,” he says, laughing. “But I’ve always believed that it’s important to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.”
Baratz, who serves as Senior Vice President of External Affairs at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and is on the board of Global Cleveland, looks forward to helping Shimotakahara with what he’s doing in the community through GroundWorks.
He also can’t wait to have fun at the April 28 gala at the Cleveland Museum of Art and knows he’s in good hands with his partner – GroundWorks artist Felise Bagley.