DANCECleveland & National Center For Choreography-Akron Announce Collaboration Around Helène Simoneau Danse

DANCECleveland and The National Center for Choreography-Akron (NCCAkron) will collaborate to support Hélène Simoneau Danse (HSD) (Montreal, Quebec / New York, NY) in March. DANCECleveland will offer two free public events including a master class and work-in-progress showing on Saturday, March 9 in Cuyahoga Falls, OH with HSD.

This follows a week-long engagement with NCCAkron including a creative residency and guest classes for The University of Akron dance students.

Event Details

Hélène Simoneau Danse Master Class

Saturday, March 9, 10-11:30am

FREE

The Natatorium of Cuyahoga Falls, 2345 4th St, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221

An advanced level contemporary master class with the artists of Hélène Simoneau Danse. Open to ages 14+.

Register here

Body of Work: Dialogues on Dance with Hélène Simoneau

Saturday, March 9, 3pm

FREE

The Natatorium of Cuyahoga Falls, 2345 4th St, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221

DANCECleveland's Body of Work: Dialogues on Dance series explores the creative process and how works of dance get made. At this afternoon event, Hélène Simoneau and her company members will share choreography and movement ideas generated during her time at NCCAkron. Simoneau will explain her approach to creating new work and answer questions from audience members.

Register here

"Northeast Ohio has a rich dance history," states Christy Bolingbroke, NCCAkron Executive/Artistic Director "As an NCCAkron founding partner, DANCECleveland has also been a part of building out a future ecosystem for dance through their work establishing the second national center for choreography here in Akron. As a research and development hub for dance, NCCAkron is keen to find ways to work together so we can support dance artists longitudinally. "

"We are thrilled to collaborate with NCCAkron to bring Hélène Simoneau Danse to Northeast Ohio and are delighted to share Simoneau's work with Summit County audiences," comments Theresa Remick, Executive Director of DANCECleveland. "We hope this is just one of many collaborations that will bolster opportunities for artists as well as audiences' access to dance."

Hélène Simoneau is a French-Canadian choreographer exploring themes of intimacy, agency, identity, sexuality, and power. Her choreography has been commissioned by Oregon Ballet Theatre, The Juilliard School, Charlotte Ballet, Amy Seiwert's Imagery, BalletX, the Ailey School, the American Dance Festival, and others. She was recently a Choreography Fellow at New York City Center and received a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. Simoneau was one of the first artists to participate in NCCAkron's Dancing Lab program; a 2017 week of experimentation, collaboration, and professional development with fellow female choreographers Kimberly Bartosik and Kate Wallich.

In addition to the public events, Hélène Simoneau will explore partnering, group dynamics of power, and romance during her creative residency with NCCAkron and will participate in the 21st Century Dance Practices program. 21st Century Dance Practices is a capsule series created by NCCAkron in partnership with The University of Akron School of Dance, Theatre, and Arts Administration (DTAA) and the Mary Schiller Myers Lecture Series in the Arts, representing genres, geographies, and cultural and social contexts outside the traditional binary of modern dance and ballet in a conservatory setting. The series challenges students to stretch past the basic dance curriculum as they learn from dance artists who are creating work today.

About DANCECleveland

DANCECleveland is one of only a handful of presenters in the nation dedicated solely to the presentation of modern and contemporary dance. The centerpiece of the organization's programming is its annual performance series. Performances are surrounded by an array of educational outreach events including artist-run classes, residency programs, student matinees, pre-performance lectures and post-performance Q&A sessions, designed both to break artistic boundaries and provide community access to the dance aesthetic and dance luminaries that DANCECleveland brings to Northeast Ohio. www.dancecleveland.org

Public events with Hélène Simoneau Danse are made possible with support from the Peg's Foundation and the Akron Community 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. 

About the Artist

Hélène Simoneau (Montreal, Québec / New York, NY) is a French-Canadian choreographer exploring themes of intimacy, agency, identity, sexuality, and power. Her choreography has been commissioned by Oregon Ballet Theatre, The Juilliard School, Charlotte Ballet, PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, Vitacca Ballet, Amy Seiwert's Imagery, BalletX, the Ailey School, Dimensions Dance Theatre, and the American Dance Festival. She was recently a Choreography Fellow at New York City Center and received a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. She has also been a resident artist at Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYU/Tisch, NCCAkron, and a fellow of The NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts, Ailey's New Directions Choreography Lab, the Bogliasco Foundation, and the Swiss International Coaching Project for Choreographers (SiWiC) in Zurich. Simoneau was awarded first place for Choreography at the 13th Internationales Solo-Tanz-Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, for her solo "the gentleness was in her hands." hsdanse.org

Photo Credit: Peter Mueller/Whitney Browne

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