National Center for Choreography launches

The University of Akron and DANCECleveland in Ohio announced in May that they were launching a new center for choreography — only the second in the nation. This center, a place where the country’s finest dance professionals will gather to create new work, has officially opened, as two choreographers recently completed pilot residencies at Guzzetta Hall.

According to the Akron Beacon Journal, choreographer Carrie Hanson and her Chicago-based company, The Seldoms, recently spent a week at the center working on RockCitizen. New York dancemaker John Jasperse spent nearly two weeks there preparing Remains, his fifth commission by the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

These choreographers, and all future ones who get to work at UA, have at their disposal seven state-of-the-art rehearsal studios, plus a black box theatre.

To make this center a reality, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has committed to $5 million in support over the next five years. The center has received its 501(c)3 status as a standalone nonprofit housed at UA.

Board members hope the center will be fully operational within two years. Soon it will conduct a national search for an executive director.

Once operational, the center plans to host six choreographic residencies a year, most during the school year. The two recent pilot choreographic residencies cost $60,000, which was funded as part of a $120,000 feasibility study grant awarded by the Knight Foundation in 2014.

To read the original center announcement, click here.

Photo: Damon D. Green and Cara Sabin of The Seldoms at Pulaski Park in Chicago. Photo by William Frederking.