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
Digital Dance Gallery Exhibition.02
Check out the second exhibition in the NCCAkron Digital Dance Gallery, Practices in the Name of Progress: Dancing Through the 21st Century!
Continuing to build out alternative publications under our NCCMedia umbrella, the Digital Dance Gallery is NCCAkron’s latest experiment. This exhibition shares our research as witness to the thirty-eight artists who came through Akron as part of our 21st Century Dance Practices program.
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​The exhibition runs May 16 – June 27, 2025, and is best viewed on a laptop or desktop.
Brian Brooks (photo Erin Baiano), Raja Feather Kelly (photo Andy Toad), and slowdanger (photo Anita Buzzy Prentiss)
In-Practice Movement Workshop With Shamel Pitts
Join NCCAkron for a free community class with 2024 Knight Choreography Prize Recipient Shamel Pitts (Brooklyn, NY).
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Monday, June 2, 2025
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6:00–7:30pm
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Guzzetta Hall Studio 194
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228 E Buchtel Ave, Akron, OH 44325
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FREE with RSVP
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Ages 16+
In-Practice Movement Workshop is grounded in developing physical efficiency and proficiency, expressive range, and clarity through creative prompts. Discover unique individual expression through dancing in a communal space. No movement experience necessary.
Shamel Pitts (photo by Delaney Greenberg, courtesy of Kelly Strayhorn Theater)
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.
