The National Center For Choreography-Akron Receives $750,000 From The Knight Foundation For New Initiatives Of Multi-Year Strategic Plan

 

 

 

Kicking off its 5th anniversary year, The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron (NCCAkron) announces a $750,000 award from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to support the implementation of its first strategic plan and associated initiatives. Between now and 2023, this substantial multi-year funding will support NCCAkron in its work to advance American dance by creating new opportunities and resources for artists and audiences.

NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke says: "At NCCAkron, we define our role in the ecology of the dance world as a hyperagent for dance. A hyperagent offers a boost to the community, finds new possibilities for others and helps to define ways of working. Hyperagents are not constricted by a limited or existing range of possibilities. In our first five years, we've hosted over 200 dance artists and have maximized ways of working within the rules and systems generally accepted in the dance ecology. Now, as we move into our fifth anniversary year, we seek to not only support artists but also challenge the status quo in the dance field. The generous support from the Knight Foundation gives us the necessary fuel to work towards furthering these changes, both in our Northeast Ohio home and across the country."

"The National Center for Choreography-Akron, one of only two in the U.S., is playing a key role in the transformation and increased relevance of dance across the country," said Victoria Rogers, Knight's Vice President for Arts. "We're excited to support the center's efforts to grow its artistic programming, establish new partnerships to reach broader audiences, promote the use of digital technologies to make dance more accessible, as well as its focus on choreographers and dancers creating new, innovative works."

The Knight Foundation award will support NCCAkron's new partnership with The University of Akron Press, which seeks to decentralize narratives in dance in a way that is geographically equitable and culturally holistic. Books will focus on individuals, regions and genres of dance that have traditionally been left out of the predominantly New York-focused narrative currently driving the field. Choreographer Hope Mohr (San Francisco, CA) has authored the first title in this publication series: Shifting Cultural Power: Case Studies & Questions in Performance. Publication is anticipated in July 2021. 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. A second manuscript is near completion and will highlight women leadership in dance with essays uplifting stories from across the country. Tentatively titled Women in Dance, Volume 1, this manuscript is envisioned as the first of several books, addressing a distinct disparity: historically women comprise the majority of the dance workforce and the minority of its stories.

Pivoting residency support in 2020, NCCAkron initiated a Satellite Residency program - reaching beyond traditional residency parameters of time, space, and place to support artists wherever they are able to continue their choreographic research. Participating artists include Charles O. Anderson (Austin, TX); Sean Dorsey Dance (San Francisco, CA); Dance Heginbotham (New York, NY); DANCE IQUAIL! (Philadelphia, PA); Liz Lerman (Tempe, AZ); and Movement Art Is (Las Vegas, NV).

Managing Director of Dance Heginbotham Andrea Lodico says: "Dance Heginbotham was eagerly awaiting our return to NCCAkron as a company in fall 2020 to close out John's three-year research residency. In a year defined by quick pivots and re-invention, DH jumped into the world of virtual dancemaking with our 24 Caprices project and NCCAkron just as quickly shifted their support to a Satellite Residency -- and we are deeply grateful. The support from NCCAkron of 24 Caprices this year has made a vital impact on our ability to continue to advance John's vision, offer a platform for connection and collaboration, and provide more sustained employment for the artists of DH in a year of so much uncertainty to our field."

In addition to new program initiatives and implementing its strategic plan, NCCAkron is also using these Knight Foundation funds to envision how it can evolve its infrastructure and curatorial thinking to include even more artists and ensure programs reflect the artistic, racial, and geographic diversity of the dance field.

While operations and most Akron-based activities occur in NCCAkron's offices and dance studios on the University of Akron campus, NCCAkron is a completely separate, discrete 501(c)3 nonprofit. The NCCAkron team works to dismantle the systems of white supremacy that exist in the dance and nonprofit spaces through programs, artist support, and day-to-day work. Simultaneously, the team understands that the proximity to and working relationships with longstanding, institutionalized organizations add a risk of potential culpability in perpetuating systemic inequities. Leveraging these relationships while being a catalyst for change is one step NCCAkron takes as a hyperagent for dance.

NCCAkron's Programs Manager Kat Wentz, an Ohio native who became NCCAkron's second full-time employee in fall 2020, says: "I love that NCCAkron encourages dance artists to build administrative habits that reflect their artistic practices. At the same time, we acknowledge we do our work in dialogue and alongside less nimble institutions built on systems of oppression and inequity. Continuing to seek out how NCCAkron can be an advocate for inclusion from the gaps within the system remains one of our strategic challenges."

NCCAkron Board President John Michael Schert says: "In just five years, NCCAkron has become an anchor institution for American dance by disrupting old models of supporting choreographers and partnering with dance artists to meet their evolving needs and those of the field at large. This award from the Knight Foundation allows us to deepen our partnerships with artists, evolve our governance structures, and expand our programs to truly advance 21st century dance practices in the United States."

 

Photo credit: Jessica Liu in performance at Akron Art Museum; photo by Mike Crupi.

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