Inside the Dancer's Studio NCCAkron

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.

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 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.

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.

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Cleveland, OH-based artist Errin Weaver. Weaver is a choreographer and the Executive Artistic Director of Mojuba! Dance Collective and has created the Emerging Black Choreographers Incubator. Mojuba! Dance Collective (MDC) is an African contemporary dance company and platform dedicated to exploring spiritual and cultural dance traditions of the African Diaspora to restore community wellness, share and validate the Black narrative experience, and reestablish cultural connection.

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.

In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with with Philadelphia-based dancer, choreographer, musician, photographer, and writer, Raphael Xavier. Xavier’s extensive research in Hip Hop forms and culture, specifically Breaking, has led to the creation of Ground-Core, a Somatic dance technique. Originally from Wilmington, Delaware, Xavier is a 2013 Pew Fellowship Grantee and 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, and Princeton University professor.