The National Center for Choreography-Akron (NCCAkron) is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary this year! One of only two such centers in the United States, NCCAkron has deep local and broad national impact. They’ve worked with more than 800 choreographers across the nation over the past decade. NCCAkron is a hub for research and development of dance, where dance artists can experiment and take risks and where community members can learn more about and engage with dance.
We chatted with Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke on NCCAkron’s impact in Akron and beyond. If you want to support this incredible organization, get tickets now to NCCAkron’s 10th Anniversary Dance Party on June 20 from 8 to 11 p.m. at The Bank at The East End.
Plus, we heard from Dominic Moore-Dunson on his upcoming The Remember Balloons Live! performance. Also taking place on June 20, this performance is a collaboration between Dominic and composer Theron Brown. The Remember Balloons Live! is a celebration of family and the memories we create together, with poignant ties to Juneteenth and Father’s Day. After touring the country since 2024, this is the first Akron performance. Get tickets now.
Christy Bolingbroke on the National Center for Choreography-Akron’s 10th anniversary
What is your background and relation to dance? How did you get involved with NCCAkron?
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t dancing. One of the family nicknames for me was “perpetual motion.” I was a dance competition kid in middle school and high school, and went to UCLA to pursue a degree in dance. Always a pragmatic kid in addition to being a mover, I knew I wanted a degree in something to parlay it into anything.
During my 10 years in Los Angeles as a working dance artist, I often took on arts administrative jobs on the side. In 2005, I pursued an administrative fellowship at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; before moving on to New York City where I became the Director of Marketing for the Mark Morris Dance Group. This proved to be tremendous market research since MMDG tours to 20+ cities a year, but it also gave me room to hone my administrative skills. Instead of being just a ‘Jill-of-All-Trades’, I focused on specializing in marketing and communications as they may apply across an operating organization.
Later on, I oversaw performance programming, marketing, and fundraising at ODC, a two-building campus for dance and the performing arts in San Francisco, CA. And shortly after a new choreography center was established in 2015 here in Akron, I was invited to apply and became the first employee as Founding Executive/Artistic Director of the National Center for Choreography-Akron, where I’ve been for the past decade.
Onstage and off, to me, it’s all choreography and improvisation.
Why was Akron selected as one of the two cities to be a National Center for Choreography hub?
The resources and the fertile infrastructure here in Akron, but true to form in the region, the center was created from the ground up by community leaders. Between DANCECleveland, the Knight Foundation, and The University of Akron, these three organizations conducted a feasibility study for such a center shortly following the closure of Ohio Ballet.
There is a long-held history and appetite for dance here because of individuals like Heinz Poll (among many others!) and organizations like DANCECleveland as one of the oldest dance presenters in the country (70 years young later this year).
What has changed the most over the past 10 years?
From that first year to now, we have increased in budget size by 37% year-over-year (on average). What started as a one person operation is up to five payroll employees and three specializing contractors, across four states. We’ve always strove to disrupt the lottery system of support in the performing arts and work with as many artists as possible, averaging 100+ artists a year from relatively early on.
How have you developed a connection between dance and the Akron community? Do you find the community’s enjoyment of and respect for the art has deepened?
Yes.
After accepting the job, I made my second visit ever to Akron in August 2016 to look for somewhere to live. Don and Susan Murray were showing me around, and that night we attended the Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival in the Glendale Cemetery. As I was being introduced to Groundworks Dance Theater for the first time and looking around, I felt I would be more than okay here. For a city to value dance this much and present such fabulous, free, arts events for its community, Akron was showing off her great history of and foundational respect for the artform.
Even today, I’m continually reminded of Akron’s historical dance values and relevance. I interviewed a dancer [Clarence Brooks] for our Aging as Action event in NYC, and he regaled me with stories of living in Akron when he danced for Heinz and Ohio Ballet for a year or two back in the late 1980s. It’s that historical reminder that helps me not have to look too far for connections.
And I appreciate what local choreographer Dominic Moore-Dunson offered at ArtsNow’s 100 Days of Impact earlier this spring. We may not be the ones to finish the arts infrastructure we continue to build and nurture. Future artists will continue to make and work in dialogue with the area’s history and define its future.
When people from the dance world who are not from Ohio visit Akron, how do they feel about the city?
Each time we welcome artists to Akron, we get to play cruise director. We introduce them to Mustard Seed for the first time … Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre … Akron Coffee Roasters … the Akron Art Museum … We point out businesses and activities all over town.
Early on, we were hosting choreographer John Heginbotham (Brooklyn, NY) for a Research Residency in 2018. In the first afternoon, as I was showing him around, he got to design and taste his own ice cream flavor at Chill; explore a virtual reality room with Bill Myers (formerly of New Territory Arcade); and at dinner, a thoughtful server at d.b.a. told him he didn’t need to choose between two salads — they will plate it half and half. Having felt that deeply embedded ‘can do’, abundant mindset firsthand, John proclaimed, “Akron — you can build anything here!”
And it’s true. Local writer David Giffels coined it as a place of ‘functional ingenuity.’ Visual artist Micah Kraus made a Devil Strip cover that said something like, “Akron — Our Aesthetic is Hard Work.” To locate a center for research and development in dance in this atmosphere, artists feel that, are drawn to it, and galvanized by how easy it is to make new friends and get to a “yes” when you show up, open-hearted and curious.
What do you envision the next 10 years to look like for NCCAkron?
In some ways, many of the same challenges exist for artists, dance as an artform, and NCCAkron that seeded the creation of the center 10 years ago. But it’s become our practice to name new questions instead of seeking the same answers to chronic challenges.
In the next 10 years, we will continue to be a national model for supporting choreographers and advancing dance as an art form, and these are the three framing questions that I’m holding now:
- How can NCCAkron redefine what it means to support artists?
- How many ways might we visualize NCCAkron’s footprint?
- How can NCCAkron practice being the best possible advocate for the artform?
What can people expect at the 10th anniversary party?
I know no better way to be in community than to move together! We look forward to filling up your dance card with NEO dance artists, dance fans, and dance civilians alongside visiting artists and arts leaders from across the country.
Our Dance Party Through the Decades is at the Bank at East End on June 20, 8-11pm. Country/Hip Hop line dancing instruction will be led by Ronni of Vibe & Sweat for the first half, emcee/host Will Blake will keep the party on its toes, and DJ Forrest Getemgump will spin dance music from the past 50 years all night.
It’s 21+ because there will be an open bar, light bites, and a disco ball photo booth from Karen Starr of Starry Night Enterprises.
Dress code is fun & festive, inspired by a favorite decade of your choice.
All proceeds go to NCCAkron paying artists at an increasing rate over the next 10 years.
How can people support NCCAkron?
- Buy a ticket to the Dance Party Through the Decades!
- Sign up for our enewsletter or follow us on Facebook or Instagram to learn more about what we do, and learn about upcoming events, showings, or dance talks
- Listen to our Inside the Dancer’s Studio podcast to learn about the creative process and how choreographers create work.
Is there anything else the Everyday Akron audience should know about NCCAkron or the dance community in general?
Dance is truly everywhere. Even if you haven’t been in the dance studio since you were a child or at all, how we navigate public spaces like the Towpath Trail and the world in which we live is in your one body. It all counts. Don’t hold yourself back. Now is the time to embrace joy and join the movement.
Stay connected with NCCAkron
- NCCAkron website
- Follow @nccakron on Instagram
- Like the NCCAkron Facebook page
Dominic Moore-Dunson on The Remember Balloons Live!
Where did the inspiration for The Remember Balloons Live! come from?
The inspiration for this project came from discovering the book The Remember Balloons at the Akron-Summit County Public Library. I found it on a shelf labeled “Children’s Books About Difficult Topics.” After my wife and I read this beautiful story, both of us crying by the end, we spent the rest of the day talking about Alzheimer’s and memory loss. During that conversation, my wife shared, “I remember the day my grandmother forgot me and never remembered me again. I wish this book had existed so the adults in my life would have had a way to explain what was happening.”
That moment stayed with me. I realized this story had the potential to become something larger — a live performance experience that could help families navigate difficult conversations about memory, loss, love, and connection together.
What is it like performing in Akron compared to other cities? How do you think Akron will receive this show?
It’s been incredible performing for more than 20,000 audience members over the last two years. After each performance on tour, we often sit at the edge of the stage to talk with audience members, and we’ve heard countless stories from people whose lives have been impacted by Alzheimer’s through their loved ones.
With The Remember Balloons Live!, we’re presenting the largest version of the production we’ve ever staged. The show is now 30 minutes longer, and we’ve added a new character to deepen the storytelling experience. Like audiences in many other cities, I believe families here will be deeply moved by the joy, tenderness, and emotional honesty of the production.
And with live music throughout the performance, hopefully the whole place will be jumpin’!
What do you hope people will take away from The Remember Balloons Live! ?
I hope people leave the performance with a renewed understanding of how important it is to share our stories across generations. My hope is that families wake up the next morning feeling inspired to spend more time sitting with one another, sharing stories from their daily lives, their childhoods, and their family histories.
I hope children learn more about their parents and grandparents … and that parents and grandparents learn more about them, too.
How would you describe your collaborative dynamic with Theron Brown?
Theron and I are like brothers from another mother. We work incredibly closely in the studio. As a composer, he’s in every rehearsal with the dancers, often at the keyboard as we create together in real time. Everything audiences see in the show was developed through an improvisational process between Theron and the dancers.
From the beginning, we wanted the music and movement to feel inseparable, almost like they were the same language. There isn’t a single moment in the show that wasn’t built collaboratively and simultaneously between us. I think that process creates a much richer and more emotionally connected experience for the audience.
How long have you worked with NCCAkron? How would you describe that experience?
Oh gosh — I think I started working with NCCAkron back in 2018. Since then, I’ve participated in so many of their programs, from Research Residencies to the Creative Administration Residency. I would describe my experiences with NCCAkron as both life- and career-affirming.
NCCAkron has this incredible ability to meet me at pivotal moments in my artistic journey. Whether through formal programming or simply an offline conversation about what I’m experiencing in the field, the relationship has had a direct impact on my growth as an artist and on my path toward becoming a nationally recognized dance maker from Akron, Ohio.
Is there anything else the Everyday Akron audience should know about you, Theron and/or your upcoming performance?
You know, I think it’s important for people to understand that this show is really about joy and family. Sometimes when audiences hear that a family production touches on memory loss, they can feel a little nervous about engaging with it. And yes — this is a tender story.
But what we’ve discovered is a way to guide audiences on a journey where we experience joy, laughter, imagination, and connection, while also gently moving through the more emotional moments and ultimately arriving at a place of hope.
For the Everyday Akron audience, we created this new large-scale version of the production specifically with our city in mind, and we hope families will come experience it together — from the youngest members of the family to the oldest.
(We do recommend the show for ages 7+ for little ones.)
Stay connected with Dominic and Theron
- Follow Dominic on Instagram and Facebook
- Visit Dominic’s website
- Subscribe to Dominic’s Substack, The Block
- Follow Theron on Instagram and Facebook
- Visit Theron’s website
- Follow The Remember Balloons Live! on Instagram and Facebook
- Visit The Remember Balloons Live! website
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