nccakron podcast

This special edition of Inside The Dancer’s Studio podcast features content from the Creative Administration Research (CAR) Summit Convening and was recorded at the Akron Art Museum. CAR is made possible through a multi-year grant from the Mellon Foundation. We join Christy Bolingbroke, our Executive / Artistic Director, in dialogue with Chicago, IL-based multidisciplinary, Kenyan-Indian, Canadian-American artist Brendan Fernandes and Akron Art Museum Curator Dr. Jeff Katzin. The trio foreground their conversation titled, “Against All Odds: Moving In Museums,” with visual artist, Keith Haring's work, which was on exhibit at the time. Using this common ground, they explore how visual artists and choreographers are dancing in and around museum spaces today. 

http://www.brendanfernandes.ca/

https://akronartmuseum.org/

https://akronartmuseum.org/media/exhibition/keith-haring-against-all-odds/

https://www.nccakron.org/creativeadminresearch

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Brooklyn, New York-based interdisciplinary artist and the artistic director of Renegade Performance Group, André M. Zachery. Zachery is a 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts Gregory Millard Fellow in Choreography and a 2019 Jerome Hill Foundation Fellow in Choreography. As a scholar, he speaks and writes on many topics including Afrofuturism, African Diaspora practices and philosophies, Black cultural aesthetics, technology in art and performance, and expanding the boundaries of art making within the community.

http://renegadepg.com

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with two members of the Saint Paul Minnesota-based company BRKFST Dance Company. Lisa “MonaLisa” Berman is the founder and Artistic Director of BRKFST and Joseph "MN Joe" Tran is a founding member of BRKFST and a member of Knuckleheads Cali breaking crew. BRKFST’s egalitarian and virtuosic choreographic collaboration is deeply rooted in the Hip Hop adage, "Each One Teach One": regardless of class, race, experience, age or gender, everyone remains both teacher and student. 

http://brkfstdance.com

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Pittsburgh, PA-based artists, taylor knight & anna thompson who are co-founding artistic directors of slowdanger. Through the process of making each piece, they work with a heightened understanding of energy, synergy, action, gender, time, and storytelling. slowdanger’s work has been presented in the US and Canada by venues including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts, Springboard Danse Montreal, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Place Des Arts, among others. 

http://slowdangerslowdanger.com

Today we are excited to share an excerpt of the closing plenary of the 2022 CAR convening facilitated by Ontario, California based arts administrator and professor, Elena Marie Muslar. Elena is the Founder and Chief Empowerment Officer of Confide Creative, a coaching and consulting practice dedicated to the collective cultural and economic progress of pre-professionals and working professionals. She is also Associate Director of Programs at Fractured Atlas, a national nonprofit arts service organization that helps artists and creative businesses thrive and a Lecturer at Loyola Marymount University teaching “Introduction to Business in the Arts.” honored by L.A. County for her leadership in the arts & creative economy, commitment to cultural equity & inclusion, and dedication to community affairs & civic pride.

Joining Elena in this Closing Plenary conversation, titled Money, Mindset, and Motivation: Where Artist Meets Enterprise are: New York City-based artist, Antuan Byers, Boston, MA - based artist Indira Goodwine, Durham, NC-based artist jumatatu m. poe, and Miami, FL-based artist Rosie Herrera. 

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Miami-based, Cuban-American dancer and choreographer Rosie Herrera. In addition to being the artistic director of Rosie Herrera Dance Theater, she is an independent director and creative consultant and a classically trained lyric coloratura soprano who performs with the Performers Music Institute Opera Ensemble. Rosie has been awarded choreographic fellowships by MANCC and Bates Dance Festival, among others and was awarded a Princess Grace Choreographic Fellowship for her work with Ballet Hispanico.

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Twin Cities-based dancer, choreographer, and educator, Paula Mann. Mann moved to the Twin Cities in 1987, has created 50 new works, and is co-artistic director of TIME TRACK PRODUCTIONS with visual artist Steve Paul.  She has been a driving force in Contemporary Dance and Performance-based out of Minneapolis for the past 30 years; challenging, educating, and engaging artists, audiences, and communities with passion, inventiveness, and rigor. She was full-time faculty at the University of Minnesota Department of Theater and Dance from 1993-2013 and is a 2019 McKnight Choreographer Fellow.

http://www.timetrackdance.org/about.html

A recreation of New Dance by Doris Humphrey (with my teacher Linda Tarnay in the main role)https://youtu.be/EA4KmKnYRwM

Bill T Jones   https://youtu.be/o4DD3dgfvS0

Donald McKayle's Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder    https://youtu.be/kXZ2ca066Lo

Daniel Nagrin's Strange Hero          https://youtu.be/rxWVYT3_Ccc

Robert Wilson Einstein on the Beach    https://youtu.be/a8kgAkTS7oM

Sharon Wehner performs "32 Fouettes" from Swan Lake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIADfYGc9Vw

https://www.artsmidwest.org/

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Guillaume Gabriel, cofounder of French company, Companie Hervé Koubi. The company’s work was born from a mixture of techniques and influences, at the crossroads of urban dances and ballet and with the coming together of Koubi’s French-Algerian and African family history. 

https://www.cie-koubi.fr

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with New York City-based dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and photographer, Kayla Farrish. Kayla is the founder and director of Kayla Farrish/Decent Structure Arts. Through which she shares her vision of intimate storytelling and makes work that delves into socio-political structures and the liberation of people. Her work has garnered residencies and film screenings across the country, as well as commissions by Gibney Dance and Danspace Project in New York. 

https://www.kaylafarrish.com/

https://www.dance-enthusiast.com/features/social-distance-video-series/view/Kayla-Farrish-Armstrong-Now-Louis-Armstrong-

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with San Francisco, CA-based performer, choreographer, and teacher, James Graham. James dances with Lisa Wymore & Sheldon Smith’s Disappearing Acts, the Joe Goode Performance Group, and is the founder of James Graham Dance Theatre. This conversation was his second engagement with the Center, as he participated in the 2019 NCCAkron Dancing Lab: Dance as Cultural Diplomat, a multi-day symposium exploring the exchange between Israeli and American modern dance.

http://jamesgrahamdancetheatre.com

Also referenced in this episode: https://lizlerman.com/hiking-the-horizontal/

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with San Francisco-based choreographer Nicole Klaymoon. Klaymoon is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Embodiment Project, whose recent work includes a piece titled “Ancient Children”, which explores the ways restorative justice can interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. This conversation was her second engagement at the Center, as she is an alumna of NCCAkron's Dancing Lab: Screendance that took place in July 2018.

https://www.embodimentproject.org

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Brooklyn New York based choreographer, Brian Brooks. Brian's work has toured internationally since 2002 with presentations by BAM, the Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, the American Dance Festival, and Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum, among others. He has developed and toured work with former New York City Ballet prima ballerina, Wendy Whelan, titled Restless Creature and appears in the film by the same name, with Whelan. 

https://www.bbrooks.org

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Champaign-Urbana, IL-based choreographer, Abby Zbikowski. Abby is the founder of the company Abby Z and the New Utility. She is a 2020 United States Artists Fellow and received the 2017 Juried Bessie Award for her work. She is also a professor of Dance at the University of Illinois and on faculty at American Dance Festival.

Strange Tools by Alva Noe https://g.co/kgs/n9Fdyj
Artist Website:  www.abbyznewutility.org
Sandi Scheuber: https://dance.osu.edu/people/hadley.4

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Brooklyn New York based choreographer, Raja Feather Kelly. Raja is the artistic director of New Brooklyn Theatre and founder of the dance-theatre-media company the feath3r theory. He was born in Fort Hood, Texas and holds a B.A. in Dance and English from Connecticut College. He is a three-time Princess Grace Award winner (2017, 2018, 2019). Over the past decade he has created fifteen evening-length works for the feath3r theory, choreographed extensively for Off-Broadway theatre, and performed with Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group, David Dorfman Dance, Kyle Abraham | A.I.M, and zoe | juniper.

http://thefeath3rtheory.com

Dominic Moore-Dunson hails from Akron, OH, where he attended the University of Akron and Firestone High School (Akron School for the Arts). Recently recognized as a “New Agent” by MOCA Cleveland, Dominic has received numerous fellowships and recognitions as an emerging artist and arts leader. He was a 2019 Jacob’s Pillow Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow, a 2018 Breakout Artist by the Devil Strip Magazine (Akron), a 2016 National Arts Strategies (NAS) Creative Community Fellow (DC), and an inaugural member of Leadership Akron’s Diversity on Board Program. His solo work, CAUTION, was a 2018 commission by Akron Art Museum.

Dominic completed a certificate program with the National Arts Strategies Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategies (University of Pennsylvania) to enhance his capacity in all aspects of running a thriving arts & non-profit culture organization. Moore-Dunson currently serves on the board of ArtsNow and the Akron Cultural Plan Steering Committee.

Dominic was a dancer, rehearsal coordinator, and educator with Inlet Dance Theatre (Cleveland, OH). During his time with Inlet, he developed a community-based dance theatre project called ‘Black Card’ Project that premiered in Sept 2018. The ‘Black Card’ Project is a live-action dance-theatre cartoon that examines the narrow definition of blackness and the African-American ideal of the “Black Card”.

EPISODE LINKS

• dommooredun.com
• Article about The Black Card Project
  ideastream.org/news/akron-firestone-grad-dominic-moore-dunson-stages-the-black-card-project

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Samantha Speis (New York, NY) is an improviser and movement artist based in the Bronx, and is the Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women. She has worked with Gesel Mason, The Dance Exchange, Jumatatu Poe, Deborah Hay, Marjani Forte, and Liz Lerman. She is currently a member of The Skeleton Architecture collective of black womyn and gender non-conforming artists and was recently awarded a Bessie for Outstanding Performer. She has developed a teaching practice that explores pelvic mobility as the root of powerful locomotion and as a point of connection to the stories, experiences, and lineages that reside in each of us.

EPISODE LINKS

• Urban Bush Women: urbanbushwomen.org/the-company

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Paloma McGregor (New York, NY) is a Caribbean-born choreographer. As co-founder and Artistic Director of Angela’s Pulse, McGregor has spent more than a decade centering Black voices through collaborative, community-specific performance projects. McGregor also facilitates technique, creative process, and community engagement workshops around the world. She toured internationally for six years with Urban Bush Women and two years with Liz Lerman/Dance Exchange and continues to perform in project‐based work, including Skeleton Architecture, an acclaimed collective of Black women(+) improvisers with whom she received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for performance in 2017. 

Alongside her choreographic work, McGregor founded Dancing While Black (DWB), a platform for community-building, intergenerational exchange, and visibility among Black dance artists. Since 2012, DWB has produced more than two dozen public dialogues and performances, supported the development of 22 Black artists through the DWB Fellowship, and published the country’s first digital journal by and for Black experimental dance artists.

EPISODE LINKS

• Angela's Pulse: angelaspulse.org
• Dancing While Black: angelaspulse.org/project/dancing-while-black

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Helen Simoneau (Winston-Salem, NC), a native of Québec, Canada, has been commissioned by The Juilliard School, the American Dance Festival, Oregon Ballet Theatre, the Bessie Schönberg Residency at The Yard, Springboard Danse Montréal, and the Swiss Intl. Coaching Project (SiWiC) in Zurich. She was a resident artist at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Bates Dance Festival, and has received fellowships from Bogliasco Foundation and the NC Arts Council. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at notable venues such as The Guggenheim Museum (NYC), Dance Place (DC), Joyce SoHo (NYC), Tangente (Montréal), The Aoyama Round Theatre (Tokyo), the L.I.G. Art Hall Busan (South Korea), Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out (MA), PACT-Zollverein in Essen (Germany), and Athens International Dance Festival (Greece).

Simoneau founded Helen Simoneau Danse (HSDanse) in 2010. Dance Magazine described Simoneau as “a choreographer-on-the-rise with a style that is both athletic and smooth."

EPISODE LINKS

• helensimoneau.org
• Excerpts from DARLING
  vimeo.com/446889223

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Taja Will (Minneapolis, MN) is a queer, Latinx (Chilean) adoptee, performer, choreographer, somatic therapist, and Healing Justice practitioner, on ancestral Dakota lands of Wahpekute and Anishinabewaki. Taja’s approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text, and vocals in contemporary performance. Will’s work explores visceral connections to current socio-cultural realities through ritual, archetypes, and everyday magic.

Taja is a recent recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, in the dance field, awarded in 2021. Their work has been presented at the Walker Art Center Choreographer’s Evening, the Red Eye Theater’s New Works 4 Weeks, the Radical Recess series, Right Here Showcase, and the Candy Box Dance Festival. Will is the recipient of a 2018 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, administered by the Cowles Center and funded by The McKnight Foundation. Will has recently received support from the National Association of Latinx Arts & Culture, the Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.

Taja maintains a dynamic Healing Justice practice that includes consulting with individuals, organizations, and communities in the context of workshops, conflict mediation, one-on-one somatic healing sessions, nervous system triage, board development and organizational cultural competency, and individual coaching on unwinding from white body supremacy culture. They ground their work in indigenous solidarity and decolonization as a means to undo white body supremacy and its pervasive relationship to capitalism, Taja is committed to working for healing and liberation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

EPISODE LINKS

• tajawillartist.com

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Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer (Valley Cottage, NY), Co-Artistic Directors of Bridgman | Packer Dance, have collaborated in choreography and performance since 1978.

In 2001, they expanded their choreographic vision, stretching the boundaries of dance by merging it with video technology. In 2017, they received a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) for Outstanding Production for their work Voyeur at The Sheen Center.

The 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to Bridgman and Packer was the first in the history of the Guggenheim Foundation to be given to two individuals for their collaborative work. Bridgman and Packer are recipients of eleven grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (2007-2019) and grants from the New England Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, National Dance Project, USArtists International, Performing Americas Project, and La Red. They have received two Choreography Fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, four National Performance Network Creation Fund Awards, and choreographic commissions from Dance Theater Workshop (now New York Live Arts), Portland Ovations, Danspace Project, and the 92nd Street Y New Works in Dance Fund.

Based in New York City, they have been presented by City Center Fall For Dance Festival, Lincoln Center, The Baryshnikov Arts Center, The 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival, Dance Theater Workshop (now NYLA), Danspace Project, The Sheen Center, and Central Park's Summerstage.

EPISODE LINKS

• bridgmanpacker.org
• Remember What Never Happened at the Beirut Spring Festival in 2017
  youtube.com/watch?v=T8ZFj2p5Bjk

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