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 - Akron (NCCAkron) supports working dance artists as they experiment, engage in the creative process, and advocate for their work and for the field.
Photo credits: Above video contains images courtesy Dale Dong Photography, Mike Crupi, and Jonny Riese
Inside the Dancer’s Studio: Live – Obsessed with Light
Join NCCAkron at The Nightlight Cinema for an Inside the Dancer’s Studio: Live artist talk followed by a film screening of the Loïe Fuller documentary Obsessed with Light. To mark the culmination of Dancing Lab: Immersive Spaces & Alternate Places artists Raphael Xavier (Philadelphia, PA), Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer of Bridgman|Packer Dance (Valley Cottage, NY), and Hanna Ali (Miami, FL) gather to explore: Can immersive spaces become the next normalized practice for choreographers to tour their work?
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Tuesday, April 15, 2025
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6:30pm Artist Talk & 7pm Film Screening
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The Nightlight Cinema, 30 N High St, Akron, OH 44308
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Tickets are FREE, RSVP is required
Dancing Lab: Immersive Spaces & Alternate Places brings select U.S. dance artists and designers together to visit three cities, explore immersive digital exhibitions, and reflect on whether these experiences are the next frontier for dance performance.
Raphael Xavier (photo by Monica Chang), Myrna Packer and Art Bridgman of Bridgman|Packer Dance (courtesy of the artists), and the film poster for Obsessed with Light.
Meet the 2025 21st Century Dance Practices Artists
NCCAkron and The University of Akron School of Dance, Theatre, and Arts Administration are proud to announce the sixth year of 21st Century Dance Practices, a capsule series of classes guest taught by today’s working dance artists as a part of the Ideas in Motion program.
The choreographers for this program include Shaina and Bryan Baira (Detroit, MI) of BAIRA MVMNT PHLOSPHY, Kara Jenelle (Los Angeles, CA), and George Staib (Atlanta, GA).​​​
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​Ideas in Motion is made possible with the support of The University of Akron Foundation’s Mary Schiller Myers Lecture Series in the Arts.
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This year’s lineup includes artists who move individually as well as collectively beyond borders; who represent contemporary and Afro-diasporic genres; and who will come to the UA community from all corners of the country.
Pictured (clockwise from top): Bryan and Shaina Baira (photo Effy Grey), Kara Jenelle (photo Wes Klain), and George Staib (photo courtesy Dance/USA)
NCCAkron Announces 2024 Knight Choreography Prize Recipient
NCCAkron is thrilled to announce Shamel Pitts (Brooklyn, NY) as the 2024 recipient of the $50,000 Knight Choreography Prize. Pitts will receive an unrestricted cash award of $30,000, plus $20,000 in programmatic support over two years, to be co-designed with NCCAkron.
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Shamel Pitts shares, “It is incredibly propelling to win a prize that is designed to recognize and uplift a choreographer's art by contributing to their life by way of unrestricted funds! I am grateful to NCCAkron for being an organization that offers such life enhancing support. I look forward to drawing closer to the NCCAkron team and using these funds to continue to invest in my arts collective TRIBE, as well as imagine what my life may now look like as I am being poured into.”
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Made possible by Knight Foundation, this award is designed to support choreographers' artistic experimentation and career longevity in the United States.
Shamel Pitts (photo Itai Zwecker)
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.
