In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Asheville, NC/Cleveland, OH based choreographer, educator, curator, performer, musician, and administrator, Mustapha Braimah. Braimah brings over two decades of international experience and high artistic acclaim to his roles as an artist-scholar from Ghana, West Africa. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor and Director of Dance Program at UNC Asheville. His art practice and creativity are deeply rooted in contemporary, popular, and traditional forms.

EPISODE LINKS

• Mustapha's website: https://mustaphabraimah.weebly.com

ARTIST BIO

Mustapha Braimah (Asheville, NC) brings over two decades of international experience and high artistic acclaim to his roles as an artist-scholar from Ghana, West Africa. He is a choreographer, educator, curator, performer, musician, and administrator. He holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Maryland, an MA in African Studies from Ohio University, and a BFA in Dance from the University of Ghana. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor and Director of the Dance Program at UNC Asheville. His art practice and creativity are deeply rooted in contemporary, popular, and traditional forms. His works utilize diverse virtuosic approaches in applying 21st-century skills and creativity, including improvisation.

EPISODE CREDITS:
Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio
Audio engineering by Rahsaan Cruz
Theme music by Floco Torres
Cover art by Micah Kraus
Transcription by Arushi Singh

LINKS:
Join our mailing list - nccakron.org/engage
Follow NCCAkron on Facebook - facebook.com/nccakron
Follow NCCAkron on Instagram - instagram.com/nccakron

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with New York-based improviser and movement artist, Samantha Speis. Speis has worked with Gesel Mason, The Dance Exchange, Deborah Hay, 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 is also the Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women.

EPISODE LINKS

• Urban Bush Women: urbanbushwomen.org

ARTIST BIO

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 CREDITS:
Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio
Audio engineering by Rahsaan Cruz
Theme music by Floco Torres
Cover art by Micah Kraus
Transcription by Arushi Singh

LINKS:
Join our mailing list - nccakron.org/engage
Follow NCCAkron on Facebook - facebook.com/nccakron
Follow NCCAkron on Instagram - instagram.com/nccakron

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Caribbean-born, New York-based choreographer and arts leader Paloma McGregor. McGregor is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of Angela’s Pulse and the Dancing While Black project. 

EPISODE LINKS

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

ARTIST BIO

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 CREDITS:
Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio
Audio engineering by Rahsaan Cruz
Theme music by Floco Torres
Cover art by Micah Kraus
Transcription by Arushi Singh

LINKS:
Join our mailing list - nccakron.org/engage
Follow NCCAkron on Facebook - facebook.com/nccakron
Follow NCCAkron on Instagram - instagram.com/nccakron

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Winston-Salem, NC, based choreographer, Hélène Simoneau, who was recently recognized with a Guggenheim fellowship for her work which strives to hold space for individual agency and explores power dynamics through dance. A native of Rimouski, Québec, Simoneau is the artistic director of Hélène Simoneau Danse and was recently described as “a Choreographer-on-the-rise” by Dance Magazine, and has been commissioned by The Juilliard School, Oregon Ballet Theatre, American Dance Festival, Springboard Danse Montréal among others. 

EPISODE LINKS

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

ARTIST BIO

Hélène 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 Hélène 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 CREDITS:
Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio
Audio engineering by Rahsaan Cruz
Theme music by Floco Torres
Cover art by Micah Kraus
Transcription by Arushi Singh

LINKS:
Join our mailing list - nccakron.org/engage
Follow NCCAkron on Facebook - facebook.com/nccakron
Follow NCCAkron on Instagram - instagram.com/nccakron

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Taja Will is a queer, Chilean adoptee, performer, choreographer, therapist, and restorative justice facilitator based in the Twin Cities (MN). Their approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text, and vocals in contemporary performance. Will also works in healing justice and as an advocate for artists, especially serving as a liaison for artists in experimental forms, people of color, and the LGBTQIA2+ communities. 

EPISODE LINKS

• tajawillartist.com

ARTIST BIO

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 CREDITS:
Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio
Audio engineering by Rahsaan Cruz
Theme music by Floco Torres
Cover art by Micah Kraus
Transcription by Arushi Singh

LINKS:
Join our mailing list - nccakron.org/engage
Follow NCCAkron on Facebook - facebook.com/nccakron
Follow NCCAkron on Instagram - instagram.com/nccakron

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, Artistic Directors of Bridgman | Packer Dance (Valley Cottage, NY). They are Guggenheim Fellows and 2017 NY Dance and Performance Award recipients (The Bessies). Their collaborative work focuses on integrating live performance and video technology to blur the line between image and reality, explore identity, and reveal multiple layers of consciousness. They are also recipients of four NPN Creation Fund Awards and numerous grants from the NEA, National Dance Project, NYSCA, and NYFA.

EPISODE LINKS

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

ARTIST BIOS

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 CREDITS:
Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio
Audio engineering by Rahsaan Cruz
Theme music by Floco Torres
Cover art by Micah Kraus
Transcription by Arushi Singh

LINKS:
Join our mailing list - nccakron.org/engage
Follow NCCAkron on Facebook - facebook.com/nccakron
Follow NCCAkron on Instagram - instagram.com/nccakron

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Jesse Factor (Slippery Rock, PA). Factor's growing repertoire of solo work has been presented in North American venues such as TQ Live! at the Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), OUTsider Festival (Austin), Milton Art Bank (Milton), RADfest (Kalamazoo), St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery (NYC), and Fierce Queer Burlesque (Toronto).

EPISODE LINKS

• jessefactor.com
• blackcube.art/blog/chimera

ARTIST BIO

Jesse Factor's (Slippery Rock, PA) growing repertoire of solo work combines a speculative view of queer histories and the archive with contemporary composition practices. He has created Mommie Queerest, presented at Queers in Revolt at Sam Houston University in 2019, Kween Kong presented at the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival in 2017, and Marthagany: the Spectre-Acle series, which continues to tour at dance festivals, performance events, and nightclubs. Jesse Factor’s studied channeling of divas in exile–from time and body–hauntingly reflects the impressions they’ve left behind.

Awards include the Twin Cities Arts Reader Critics Pick and Minnesota Fringe Staff Pick for RELIC at the Minnesota Fringe Festival and Outstanding Dance Performance for Marthagany at the Fresh Fruit Festival-NYC. Jesse received the Kelly Strayhorn Alloy Studios Freshworks residency grant (Pittsburgh, PA) for a collaborative work with multimedia artist Scott Andrew.

Factor’s work has been presented in many American and international venues including TQ Live! at the Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), OUTsider Festival (Austin), Milton Art Bank (Milton), RADfest (Kalamazoo), St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery (NYC), Fresh Fruit Festival (NYC), House of Yes, (NYC), and Fierce Queer Burlesque (Toronto).

Factor received the Iowa Arts Fellowship (2015-2016) and an Obermann Graduate Institute Fellowship (2017) at the University of Iowa. Jesse danced professionally with the Martha Graham Dance Company and Graham II, received a BFA in Drama with honors from Tisch/NYU, and an MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa.

EPISODE CREDITS:
Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio
Audio engineering by Rahsaan Cruz
Theme music by Floco Torres
Cover art by Micah Kraus
Transcription by Arushi Singh

LINKS:
Join our mailing list - nccakron.org/engage
Follow NCCAkron on Facebook - facebook.com/nccakron
Follow NCCAkron on Instagram - instagram.com/nccakron

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Bebe Miller (Columbus, OH). Miller has been named a Master of African American Choreography by the Kennedy Center, has received four “Bessie” awards, United States Artists and Guggenheim Fellowships, honorary doctorates from Ursinus College, and Franklin & Marshall College, and is one of the inaugural class of Doris Duke Artist Award recipients.

EPISODE LINKS 

• bebemillercompany.org
• bebemillercompany.org/projects/dancefort
• themakingroom.org
• Bebe's E-book How Dancing is Built: The Making of In A Rhythm: bebemillercompany.org/projects/in-a-rhythm-e-book
• Dancer Darrell Drive in a solo from A History (2012): vimeo.com/399322591

ARTIST BIO

Bebe Miller (Columbus, OH), an American choreographer, dancer, and director, first performed her work at NYC’s Dance Theater Workshop in 1978. Interested in “finding a physical language for the human condition,” she formed Bebe Miller Company in 1985. The Company has performed extensively in the UK, Europe, Africa, and throughout the US. Miller's choreography, noted for its mix of virtuosic, athletic speed, and fragile humanity, has been commissioned by Oregon Ballet Theatre, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Boston Ballet, Philadanco, the UK’s Phoenix Dance Company, and PACT Dance Company of Johannesburg, South Africa. She was named a Master of African American Choreography by the Kennedy Center, has received four Bessie awards, United States Artists and Guggenheim Fellowships, honorary doctorates from Ursinus College and Franklin & Marshall College, and is one of the inaugural class of Doris Duke Artist Award recipients.

EPISODE CREDITS:
Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio
Audio engineering by Rahsaan Cruz
Theme music by Floco Torres
Cover art by Micah Kraus
Transcription by Arushi Singh

LINKS:
Join our mailing list - nccakron.org/engage
Follow NCCAkron on Facebook - facebook.com/nccakron
Follow NCCAkron on Instagram - instagram.com/nccakron