Welcome! We invite you to move through our site and see all the opportunities NCCAkron creates for artists to engage with one another, their communities, the city of Akron, and the national dance ecosystem.
The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron (NCCAkron) supports working dance artists as they experiment, engage in the creative process, and advocate for their work and for the field.
Cast Your Spell
Our Akron community is invited to engage with choreographer Liz Lerman (Tempe, AZ). To cast a spell, Akron community members can pick up a postage-paid and pre-addressed postcard, write a message on the card in response to its prompt, and drop the card in the mail to be delivered to Lerman. Click here for a map of locations to get your postcard.
A spell for healing... a friend, nature, our nation, whatever you would like.
A spell for forgiveness... how does forgiveness work? What ingredients do you need?
Mail your spell to:
Liz Lerman LLC
6424 E. Greenway Pkwy
Suite 100
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
To learn more about Liz’s work around women and witchcraft, watch her May 20 Dancing Conversation — available now on our YouTube channel!
Pictured is a detail from What I Know, a block print by Akron visual artist Joan Colbert which appears on the spell postcards.
June 17: Dancing Conversation - Black Male Choreographers
For the past year, the artists of NCCAkron's Dancing Lab: BLKmenMoves have been convening virtually to establish a network of collegial support and give critical feedback on one another's work. Lab participants are dancemakers Jean Appolon (Boston, MA); Kevin Lee-Y Green (Wilmington, NC); and Dominic Moore-Dunson (Akron, OH); with Charles O. Anderson (Austin, TX) as the program’s facilitator.
On June 17, join these artists, along with Satellite Residency artist Iquail Shaheed (Philadelphia, PA), for a conversation on the plurality of Black male identities and decolonized metrics of success.
This event is free and virtual — register today to join us on YouTube.
Thursday, June 17
7:00pm ET
June 19: REFRAME / REMNANT / RITUAL Film Premiere
Join NCCAkron for the premiere of a collection of short dance films by Cara Hagan (Boone, NC/Australia) and her artistic collaborators as part of NCCAkron’s Community Commissioning Residency. Hagan’s artistic collaborators include Ananya Chatterjea (Minneapolis, MN), Paloma McGregor (New York, NY/St. Croix, USVI), and Tamara (Fákẹ́mi) Williams (Charlotte, NC). The cohort works closely with poet Jacinta V. White (Winston-Salem, NC) and dramaturg Sharon Bridgforth (Los Angeles, CA). The films explore ancestry, embodied relationships to place, and the reframing of histories as women of color.
The films will premiere through NCCAkron’s YouTube channel on June 19 — Juneteenth, also known as African American Freedom Day or Emancipation Day. The virtual premiere is free and open to the public.
Saturday, June 19
3:00pm ET
Provide space for artists to exchange knowledge and/or try something new.
Support opportunities for dance makers, writers, and artist-administrators to deepen their practice and realize their visions, at any stage of their creative process.
Elevate the voices of artists through documentation, publishing, archiving, and writing.
OUR IMPACT
NCCAkron aims to foster geographic equity and to fulfill our potential as a national center. We commit to supporting a stronger, more visibly connected network focused on research and development across the dance ecosystem.
Artists' Home Cities
Additional Cities Reached
Coming Soon (2-Years)
Virtual Reach
“I would consider NCCAkron as a place where ideas can become reality. Experiments build curiosity.”
- NCCAKRON ALUMNI ARTIST
NCCAkron’s social media and its monthly digital newsletters share inspiration, opportunities and insight on what’s happening at the Center and in the field.
Photo credits: Above video contains images courtesy Dale Dong Photography; Mike Crupi; Jonny Riese; Cara Hagan performs at the 2018 Performática Festival in Cholula, Mexico. Photo by Victor Blanco.