Announcing Inside the Dancer's Studio
Join NCCAkron this spring for Inside the Dancer’s Studio, a live conversation series with choreographers from around the country!
These free lunchtime talks explore creativity, the craft of choreography, and navigating an artistic career. All talks take place virtually on Fridays at 12:30 PM ET starting on February 5th.
Students at The University of Akron have the opportunity to learn from Inside the Dancer's Studio artists through 21st Century Dance Practices, a capsule series of guest classes that's part of our Ideas in Motion joint initiative.
Top row, L-R: Amy Miller (Stephanie Diani), Jesse Factor (Beth Barbis), Bebe Miller (courtesy the artist), Bridgman|Packer Dance (courtesy the artist). Bottom row, L-R: Paula Mann (courtesy the artist), Helen Simoneau (Olly Yung with direction by Eli Gray), New Dialect (Andrea Behrends Fecht), Abby Zbikowski (Effy Grey).
NCCAkron Receives $750,000 Multi-Year Award from the Knight Foundation
Kicking off our 5th anniversary year, NCCAkron is excited to announce a $750,000 award from the Knight Foundation to support the implementation of our first strategic plan and associated initiatives.
This multi-year funding will support NCCAkron between now and 2023 in its work to advance American dance by creating new opportunities and resources for artists and audiences, including our new partnership with The University of Akron Press and our Satellite Residency program.
For more information on this award, read our press release here!
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Satellite Residency artist Charles O. Anderson's (Re)current Unrest. Photo by Jon Haas.
A First Look at NCCAkron's First Book
Next year, The University of Akron Press and NCCAkron will publish Shifting Cultural Power: Case Studies & Questions in Performance by choreographer Hope Mohr (San Francisco, CA).
This book, Mohr's first, reflects on her ten years at the helm of the Bridge Project and the organization's shift into distributed leadership.
This book will be the first in a new series partnership between NCCAkron and The University of Akron Press that seeks to decentralize narratives in dance in a way that is geographically equitable and culturally holistic.
Click here to read an adapted excerpt of this forthcoming book.
Join our mailing list to be the first to know when Shifting Cultural Power is released!
New Multi-Year Program
NCCAkron is excited to announce our $750,000 multi-year award from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to build out a new program, Creative Administration Research (CAR). Over the next three years, NCCAkron will foster a national think tank of up to 20 dance Artist Teams to investigate alternative administrative practices in support of their discrete artistic visions.
From 2018-20, NCCAkron prototyped Creative Administration Research with choreographers Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Brian Brooks/Moving Company, and Raja Feather Kelly | the feath3r theory. The three prototype artists will continue their investigations and be joined by Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener and Ronald K. Brown, EVIDENCE as the first cohort.
The second cohort, beginning in early 2021, will include Abby Zbikowski/Abby Z and the New Utility (Champaign-Urbana, IL); Bebe Miller/Bebe Miller Company (Columbus, OH); 7NMS| Marjani Forté-Saunders & Everett Saunders (Pasadena, CA); Kate Wallich/The YC (Seattle, WA); and Banning Bouldin/New Dialect (Nashville, TN).
NCCAKRON FOUNDING PARTNERS
THE KNIGHT FOUNDATION
The next generation of great American choreographers needs space and time to develop the craft and explore the full potential of the creative process. The new National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron will fill that need, building on the resources of northeast Ohio to create works that inspire tomorrow's audiences.
— Alberto Ibargüen,
President of the Knight Foundation
DANCECLEVELAND
If dance is to thrive, it's essential to have residency spaces coupled with a full range of support for choreographers. We first envisioned northeast Ohio with its enormous cultural, research, and physical space resources, and the University of Akron with its state-of-the-art dance studios, as having the potential to fill this gap. It's thrilling to see this vision take shape and help answer a critical need in the dance ecosystem.
— Pam Young
Executive Director of DANCECleveland and Founding Board President at NCCAkron
THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON
The University of Akron is the region's most influential public research university, contributing to the resurgence of the local economy, providing a workforce highly trained in diverse disciplines, and known for an innovative approach to higher education.
UA provides students with life-long skills, internships and co-ops, opportunities for academic research, education abroad, and service projects for diverse groups of learners.