National Center for Choreography - Akron to Host Second Creative Administration Research Summit Convening

The National Center for Choreography - Akron (NCCAkron) will host the second National Summit Convening for its Creative Administration Research (CAR) program Artists and Thought Partners, Thursday, June 1 through Saturday, June 3, 2023. Select events are free and open to the public, including a talk at Akron Art Museum and a movement class. All other core summit activities are invitation-only.

Funded by a multi-year grant from The Mellon Foundation, the CAR program challenges the national dance ecosystem to think beyond the boundaries of known, traditional models and "best practices." The program launched in 2020 and has initiated five cohorts of 19 Artist Teams across the U.S. For three days, teams will compare notes from their investigative retreats earlier in the year, physicalize their administrative thinking and dreaming, and create new shared reference experiences to inform future work.

"NCCAkron has been working with these Artists and Thought Partners for the past three years, exploring and challenging conventional ways of working within the dance world," commented NCCAkron Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke. "Now, we get to welcome everyone to Akron, where the connections and creative thinking will go even deeper. I am so excited to welcome these artists and thinkers from all across the U.S., and grateful to our local colleagues for their collaboration."

NCCAkron is partnering with numerous local businesses and organizations to amplify the local impact of the Summit Convening, and to shine a light on Akron's abundant way of thinking and organizing. CAR program participants will gather at local spaces like BLU-Tique Hotel, BLU Social, Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, and NCCAkron's home on The University of Akron campus. They'll also have the opportunity to dine at local establishments and sample local goods like Akron Coffee Roasters, Akron Honey, Sweet Mary's Bakery, and Chill Artisanal Ice Cream. Since its inception, NCCAkron has partnered with Chill to develop flavors designed by visiting choreographers. In anticipation of the Summit Convening, Chill is bringing back 9 of the 21 NCCAkron flavors for the month of June.

Public Events

As part of the Summit Convening and the Keith Haring: Against All Odds exhibit currently on view, NCCAkron and the Akron Art Museum are co-hosting the following Summit events that are free and open to the public. Masks are recommended, but optional.

Advance registration is required - visit nccakron.org/summit

Against All Odds: Moving in Museums

An NCCAkron Dancing Conversation
between Christy Bolingbroke, Brendan Fernandes, and Dr. Jeff Katzin

FREE

Thursday, June 1, 2023

6:30 - 7:30 pm ET

Akron Art Museum

1 South High Street, Akron, OH 44308

RSVP here

The body is an ever-present theme in Keith Haring's work, inciting movement, energy, and liveness. That liveness, combined with Haring's tendency to work both inside and outside of formal sites of artistic display, resonates with dance artists. Using this common ground, how are visual artists and choreographers dancing in and around museum spaces today? Speakers include NCCAkron Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke, visual artist Brendan Fernandes, and Akron Art Museum curator Dr. Jeff Katzin.

Umfundalai - African Contemporary Dance Class

Led by Errin Weaver, Executive/Artistic Director of Mojuba! Dance Collective

FREE

Saturday, June 3, 2023

10:00 - 11:00 am ET

The Bud and Susie Rogers Garden | Akron Art Museum

1 South High Street, Akron, OH 44308

RSVP here

Umfundalai is a contemporary African dance technique with movement vocabulary from dance traditions throughout the Diaspora. The literal word, Umfundalai, means "essential" in Kiswahili.

All ages and abilities are welcome. Organizers recommend that participants wear sunscreen, comfortable shoes, and clothing for movement, and bring water. Class offered rain or shine, rain location TBD.

Speaker and artist bios are below. Programming subject to change.

The Creative Administration Research program is made possible with lead support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

About NCCAkron

The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron supports the research and development of new work in dance by exploring the full potential of the creative process. In addition to offering studio and technical residencies to make new work, activities focus on catalyzing dialogue and experimentation; creating proximity among artists and dance thinkers; and aggregating resources around dance making. For more information, visit nccakron.org.

The establishment and general operation of NCCAkron is made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Artist and Speaker Biographies

Christy Bolingbroke (Akron, OH) is the Founding Executive/Artistic Director for the National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron (NCCAkron). She is responsible for setting the curatorial vision and sustainable business model to foster research and development in dance. Previously, she served as the Deputy Director for Advancement at ODC in San Francisco, overseeing curation and performance programming as well as marketing and development organization-wide. A key aspect of her position included managing a unique three-year artist-in-residence program for dance artists, guiding and advising them in all aspects of creative development and administration. Prior to ODC, she was the Director of Marketing at the Mark Morris Dance Group in Brooklyn, NY. She earned a B.A. in Dance from the University of California, Los Angeles; an M.A. in Performance Curation from Wesleyan University; and is a graduate of the Arts Management Fellowship program at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She currently serves on the Akron Civic Commons Core Team; formerly as a consulting advisor for the Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts Innovation Management initiative; and on the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Advisory Panel. In 2017, DANCE Magazine named Bolingbroke among the national list of most influential people in dance today.

Brendan Fernandes (b. 1979, Nairobi, Kenya) is an internationally recognized Canadian artist working at the intersection of dance and visual arts. Currently based out of Chicago, Brendan's projects address issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest and other forms of collective movement. Always looking to create new spaces and new forms of agency, Brendan's projects take on hybrid forms: part Ballet, part queer dance hall, part political protest...always rooted in collaboration and fostering solidarity. Brendan is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program (2007) and a recipient of a Robert Rauschenberg Fellowship (2014). In 2010, he was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award, and is the recipient of a prestigious 2017 Canada Council New Chapters grant. Brendan is also the recipient of the Artadia Award (2019), a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020) and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant (2019). His projects have shown at the 2019 Whitney Biennial (New York); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York); the Museum of Modern Art (New York); The Getty Museum (Los Angeles); the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa); MAC (Montreal); among a great many others. He is currently Assistant Professor at Northwestern University and represented by Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago. Recent and upcoming projects include performances and solo presentations at the Noguchi Museum, New York, NY; The Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, BC; The National Gallery of Canada and new commissions with The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; The DR Vocal Ensemble, Copenhagen, Denmark and a new dance performance with Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway.

Dr. Jeffrey Katzin is the Curator at the Akron Art Museum. He specializes in modern and contemporary art with research ranging from painting to photography, film, and video art. Jeffrey has received a certificate in Art Museum Studies from Smith College, a BA from Wesleyan University, an MA from the University of Texas at Austin, and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, where his doctoral dissertation explored the history and potential of abstract photography, with particular focus on Alvin Langdon Coburn's Vortographs of 1916-17. Since coming to Akron Art Museum in 2019, he has curated several exhibitions, including Keith Haring: Against All Odds and Afterimages: Geometric Abstraction and Perception.

Errin Weaver (?Cleveland, OH) is a community activator and the Executive Artistic Director of Mojuba! Dance Collective based in Cleveland, Ohio. She is currently completing her thesis toward an MFA in Choreography and Interdisciplinary Studies from Wilson College. Errin has taught, been in residency, and sat on panels regarding sacred dance rooted in the Gospel tradition and Africanist dance forms extensively. Through her work, she has created the Emerging Black Choreographers Incubator, hosted countless workshops and festivals, and become a published author. Her choreography has been presented regionally and internationally, and has received awards and commissioned support. She has been deeply vested in wellness and the community arts where she has facilitated training sessions, free outdoor movement workshops, and a collaborative evening length work uniting professional and aspiring artists in a telling of Black American history.

Photo by Duke Dang.