Inside the Dancer's Studio

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

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio

LINKS:

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

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio

LINKS:

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with New York City-based dancer, choreographer and educator Amy Miller. A former member of the Ohio Ballet, and founding member and artistic associate of Cleveland-based GroundWorks DanceTheater, she is now a Gibney Company Director and a performing member of the Gibney Company. An Ohio native, Amy earned a 2010 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award and in 2009 was voted Outstanding Artist in dance by the Akron Area Arts Alliance.

www.gibneydance.org
www.groundworksdance.org
Emergent Strategy  by adrienne maree brown
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio

LINKS:

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. 

EPISODE LINKS

• thefeath3rtheory.com

ARTIST BIO

Raja Feather Kelly (Brooklyn, NY) is a choreographer and director, and the Artistic Director of the dance-theatre-media company the feath3r theory, for which he has created 18 premieres, most recently UGLY Part 3: BLUE at the Chelsea Factory. The company’s latest work, The Absolute Future, will premiere in 2024. His choreography can currently be seen in White Girl in Danger at the Second Stage Kiser Theater, written by Michael R. Jackson and directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz. He also choreographed Jackson’s Broadway musical A Strange Loop (Lyceum Theatre, premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizon) winner of two Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In addition to Jackson and Blain-Cruz, his Off-Broadway collaborators include Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Sarah Benson. Among many recent works are the Pulitzer Prize-winning productions Fairview and A Strange Loop. In addition to White Girl in Danger, current projects include Lempicka and The Listeners. Recent works include Bunny Bunny (UC San Diego) and Scenes for an Ending for the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. His accolades include Princeton Arts Fellowship, three Princess Grace Awards, an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle honor, a Creative Capital award, and many others.

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio

LINKS:

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Akron Ohio based choreographer, Dominic Moore-Dunson. Moore-Dunson's recognitions and fellowships include the 2019 Cleveland Arts Prize, MOCA Cleveland’s “New Agent” award, Jacob’s Pillow Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship, the Devil Strip Magazine’s 2018 Breakout Artist, National Arts Strategies (NAS) Creative Community Fellowship, and others. His large-scale community-based dance theatre project called The ‘Black Card’ Project premiered in September 2018 and is currently in its second iteration. 

EPISODE LINKS

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

ARTIST BIO

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 CREDITS:

Produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio

LINKS:

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

LINKS:

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

LINKS:

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

LINKS:

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

LINKS:

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

LINKS: