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AKRON, OH: Inside the Dancer’s Studio: Talks with 21st Century Dance Practice Artists (FREE)

Company:
NCCAkron and DTAA

NATIONAL CENTER FOR CHOREOGRAPHY - AKRON AND THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON SCHOOL OF DANCE, THEATRE, AND ARTS ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCE THE THIRD YEAR OF 21ST CENTURY DANCE PRACTICES SERIES

 

AKRON, OH (January 24, 2022)—The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron (NCCAkron) and The University of Akron School of Dance, Theatre, and Arts Administration (DTAA) are proud to announce the third year of 21st Century Dance Practices, a capsule series of classes guest taught by today’s working dance artists.  The six choreographers and companies include: Rosie Herrera (Miami, FL), Kate Wallich (Seattle, WA), Christopher K. Morgan & Artists (Portland, OR/Washington, D.C.), Dance Heginbotham (New York, NY), Helanius J. Wilkins (Boulder, CO), and Ashwini Ramaswamy (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN).

21st Century Dance Practices is a capsule series that represents genres, geographies, cultural and social contexts outside of the traditional binary of modern dance and ballet in a conservatory setting. This year’s lineup includes artists with experience as wide-ranging as Broadway, bharatanatyam, and dance on camera. Students will be challenged to stretch past the basic curriculum in a series that goes beyond the typical one-off master class.

“As a research and development hub for dance, NCCAkron seeks to build a bridge from the traditional dance narratives of 20th century thinking to make room for what we have termed 21st century dance practices, visibilizing the greater breadth of dance making,” says NCCAkron Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke. “In collaboration with our founding partner, The University of Akron, we’re inviting students to really get to know and learn from nationally-recognized dance artists working today.” 

In addition to guest teaching technique classes at UA, 21st Century Dance Practice artists will participate in Inside the Dancer’s Studio, an ongoing series of interviews free and open to the public. This series of lunchtime talks explore creativity, the craft of choreography, and navigating an artistic career. All talks will take place on Fridays at 12:30 PM ET in Guzzetta Hall on The University of Akron’s campus. Visit nccakron.org/insidethedancersstudio for a full listing of public events.

The capsule series is the annual spring phase of Ideas in Motion, a larger initiative launched in 2020 and supported by NCCAkron, The University of Akron, The University of Akron Foundation, and the Mary Schiller Myers Lecture Series in the Arts.

“By partnering with NCCAkron on Ideas in Motion, The University of Akron DTAA can responsively augment the curriculum in a way that we wouldn’t be able to do alone. We look forward to the continuation of this initiative and our collaboration to strengthen and diversify The University of Akron’s dance program,” says Dr. Marc Reed, Director of The University of Akron’s School of Music and School of Dance, Theatre and Arts Administration.

21st Century Dance Practices will be placed in DTAA’s Modern V-VIII for 6 weeks of the 15-week semester in Spring 2022. Assistant Lecturer of Dance and University of Akron Dance program alumnus, Christine Howe, expressed excitement heading into the third year of this program: “This connection to different artists making their own careers in dance is crucial to students' understanding of what dance can be and what is possible with a degree from The University of Akron. As an instructor, I have been inspired by our students’ openness and adaptability. It is thrilling to witness them engaging fully with different pedagogical styles and for the guest artists to be fully immersed in our community."

 

Inside the Dancer’s Studio Events

All talks are free and open to the public
RSVP: https://www.nccakron.org/insidethedancersstudio
Fridays at 12:30 pm ET,  Studio 194, Guzzetta Hall 228 E Buchtel Ave, Akron, OH 44325
Estimated event run times are 30 minutes total.

 

Friday, January 28th, 2022
12:30 PM ET
Rosie Herrera 

 

Friday, February 4th, 2022 
12:30 PM ET
Kate Wallich 

 

Friday, February 18th, 2022 
12:30 PM ET
Christopher K. Morgan & Artists 

 

Friday, February 25th, 2022 
12:30 PM ET
Dance Heginbotham 

 

Friday, March 11th, 2022 
12:30 PM ET
Helanius J. Wilkins

 

Friday, March 18th, 2022 
12:30 PM ET
Ashwini Ramaswamy

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About NCCAkron

The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron supports the research and development of new work in dance by exploring the full potential of the creative process. In addition to offering studio and technical residencies to make new work, activities focus on catalyzing dialogue and experimentation; creating proximity among artists and dance thinkers; and aggregating resources around dance making. For more information, visit nccakron.org. 

 

About The University of Akron School of Dance, Theatre & Arts Administration

The University of Akron School of Dance, Theatre, and Arts Administration (DTAA) prepares students for successful performing, academic, and administrative careers in the arts. Its diverse student body works with distinguished, award-winning faculty in classes that offer technical training, theoretical study, practical experience, and creative skill-building. The Dance Program offers both a B.F.A. and B.A. with Business Cognate. The Theatre Arts Program offers a B.A. with four tracks, including applied theatre and social entrepreneurship. The school’s M.A. in Arts Administration provides students the education necessary to work in all disciplines of the non-profit arts. DTAA is headed by Marc Reed, D.M.A., who also directs the School of Music. For more information, visit uakron.edu/dtaa. 

 

About the Mary Schiller Myers Lecture Series in the Arts

Ideas in Motion is made possible by the support of The University of Akron Foundation’s Mary Schiller Myers Lecture Series in the Arts. NCCAkron is grateful to Stephen E. Myers, trustee of the University of Akron Foundation and the Myers Foundation and son of Mary Schiller Myers, for his support.  

Established in 1979 under the sponsorship of the Mary and Louis S. Myers Foundation, this endowed lecture series brings significant representatives of the arts to campus and community annually, to share their particular talents with students, faculty, and residents of the community. These events can include performances, lectures, and master classes.

 

Artist Biographies

Rosie Herrera (Miami, FL)

Rosie Herrera is a Cuban-American dancer, choreographer and artistic director of Rosie Herrera Dance Theater in Miami. She is a graduate from New World School with a BFA in Dance Performance. She founded her company, Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre, in 2009. Rosie is also a classically trained lyric coloratura soprano and performs with the Performers Music Institute Opera Ensemble as well as works as an independent director and creative consultant throughout Miami, bringing over a decade of experience in both dance and cabaret.

Rosie is a 2016 USArtist Sarah Arison Choreographic Fellow, a 2010 and 2018 MANCC choreographic fellow, a 2014 Bates Dance Festival Artist in residence, a 2016 Bessie Schoenberg Fellow and a 2011 and 2016 and 2017 Miami Dance Fellow. She was awarded a Princess Grace Choreographic Fellowship for her work with Ballet Hispanico in 2013. 

 

Christopher K. Morgan & Artists (Portland, OR/Washington, D.C.)

Christopher K. Morgan & Artists (CK&M) was founded in 2011 by Christopher K. Morgan. Christopher’s Native Hawaiian ancestry and diverse, international modern dance career (Liz Lerman, David Gordon, Shapiro & Smith, Pilobolus, and others) both influence his choreographic voice. The company’s work has been presented in 18 countries on five continents, addresses issues including sexuality, gender identity, race, climate change, and water conservation, and has been called "charming and poignant" by The New York Times. CK&M was a resident company at Dance Place in Washington, D.C. until 2021, and provides provides professional and pre-professional opportunities through educational intensives, workshops, university residencies, peer-to-peer facilitation, and commissioning the work of other choreographers. 

 

Kate Wallich (Seattle, WA)

Kate Wallich is a Seattle-based choreographer, director and educator – named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch”. She has left a significant mark in the Pacific Northwest with commissions and presentations from leading institutions regionally, nationally, and internationally. In 2010 she co-founded her company The YC with Lavinia Vago and has gone on to create five evening-length works and three large scale site-specific works with the company since. In 2010 she founded an all-abilities, community-focused class Dance Church® (no religious affiliation) which reaches over 550+ attendees per week and is taught by professional dance artists weekly in New York City, Seattle, Portland, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and has popped up in cities worldwide. In 2016 she founded Studio Kate Wallich, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to cultivating a community of artists and the public through dance-based, design-forward experiences. Through the support of the Studio, Kate founded YC2 — a new platform for professional dance professionals — in 2016.

Kate was a 2013 and 2015 Rauschenberg Residency Fellow and a 2018 Ucross Foundation Fellow. She has been a Visiting Artist at the National Center for Choreography at University of Akron, University of Washington, University of Oregon and University of Utah as well as Cornish College of the Arts and Beloit College. Kate attended Interlochen Arts Academy and graduated Magna cum Laude from Cornish College of the Arts.  

 

Dance Heginbotham (New York, NY) 

Dance Heginbotham (DH) is a New York-based contemporary dance company committed to supporting, producing, and sustaining the work of choreographer John Heginbotham. DH enriches national and international communities with its unique blend of inventive, thoughtful, and rigorous dance theater works, and is celebrated for its vibrant athleticism, humor, and theatricality as well as its commitment to collaboration — sharing the stage with music icons including Alarm Will Sound, Brooklyn Rider, Gabriel Kahane, and others.

DH had its world premiere in January 2012 at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and has since been presented by Baryshnikov Arts Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Vail International Dance Festival, among others. In spring 2020, As New York City went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, John and Dance Heginbotham shifted focus from preparing in-person performances to the creation of dance and theater works specifically for video. 

 

Helanius J. Wilkins (Boulder, CO)

Helanius J. Wilkins, a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, is an award-winning choreographer, performance artist, and educator. He founded and ran EDGEWORKS Dance Theater (Washington, D.C.), an all-male dance company of predominantly African-American men, from 2001 - 2014. To date, he has choreographed and directed over 60 works, which includes two critically-acclaimed musical productions for Washington, DC’s Studio Theater – Passing Strange (2010) and POP! (2011). Foundations and organizations including New England Foundation for the Arts (National Dance Project), National Performance Network (NPN), the Boulder Office of Arts & Culture Public Arts Program, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts have supported his work.

He is a member of the National Board of Directors of the American College Dance Association for the Northwest region and was appointed in 2018 by Governor Jared Polis to the Colorado Council on Creative Industries. He is based in Boulder, CO where he is Associate Chair and a Professor of Dance at the University of Colorado-Boulder. helaniusj.com 

 

Ashwini Ramaswamy (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN)

As an independent choreographer, Ashwini Ramaswamy’s work references ancient myths and ritualistic practices, global literature and poetry, and the mixed media contemporary culture she has absorbed for 35 years, drawing from myriad influences to express a personal identity with collective resonance. Celebrated for her ability to “[weave] together, both fearfully and joyfully, the human and the divine” (New York Times), Ashwini studies Bharatanatyam from the legendary dancer/choreographer Smt. Alarmel Valli of Chennai, India, and Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy, Artistic Directors of Ragamala Dance Company.

Ashwini’s choreography was among the “Best of the Year” in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Big Dance Town, and Minn Post, and has been presented by the Joyce Theater (NYC), Triskelion Arts (NYC), Cowles Center (Minneapolis), The Yard (Martha’s Vineyard, MA), and Just Festival (Edinburgh, U.K.), among others. Ashwini is a recipient of grants from the McKnight Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and Jerome Foundation, including a recent inaugural Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. Ashwini’s work is supported by USArtists International, National Endowment for the Arts, and New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project. A recent piece was commissioned by The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music Series, and her work has been developed in residence at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and the Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York, NY).