Dance Artists Jasmine Hearn, Amy O’Neal, Deneane Richburg Join NCCAkron Creative Administration Program

The National Center for Choreography – Akron (NCCAkron) welcomes the sixth cohort of their Creative Administration Research (CAR) program. The artists of this new cohort are Jasmine Hearn (Houston, TX), Amy O’Neal (Los Angeles, CA/Seattle, WA), and Deneane Richburg (St Paul, MN).

The Creative Administration Research program supports U.S. dance artists and challenges the field to think beyond the boundaries of known, traditional models and “best practices.” NCCAkron has built a think tank of Artists and Thought Partners across 19 states to do this work. With continued support from the Mellon Foundation, NCCAkron welcomes these three new teams to the program this year.  

Since 2020, the program has initiated six cohorts across the U.S. CAR Artists and Thought Partners participate in intensive virtual Investigative Retreats designed to reflect on their body of work, examine chronic pain points across operations, and imagine multiple ways forward. This new cohort will make 25 CAR Artist Teams to date. 

Jasmine Hearn (Houston, TX) is an interdisciplinary artist, teacher, doula, performer, and organizer. Amy O’Neal (Los Angeles, CA/Seattle, WA) is a dancer, choreographer, curator, and dance educator merging contemporary and street dance to challenge notions of race, gender, and the sampling nature of innovation. Deneane Richburg (St Paul, MN) is the founder/Artistic Director of Brownbody and a former competitive figure skater, whose work combines dance, theater, and movement forms from the African Diaspora to produce unique site-specific pieces that challenge the dominant visions of who or what kinds of movement belong on the ice.

“We are constantly humbled with each pool of applicants for this program,” says NCCAkron Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke. “The response affirms the interest and demand for what Creative Administration Research has to offer — to better understand and interrogate how the business of dance gets done so we can imagine the next chapter of dancemaking.”

New CAR Artist Deneane Richburg remarks, “In my view creative administration means addressing the dichotomy between an efficiency-based way of being which is really encouraged in the U.S., and alternative values that prioritize moving with intention and creating the space we as humans and artists need to play, explore, and research.”

Jasmine Hearn expands, “Without efficiently managing the behind-the-scenes labor and rooting this work in care, I won’t be able to grow nor last.” 

And Amy O’Neal explains, “CAR means working to dismantle hierarchies and systems of power to create new ways that empower all of us to work together with reciprocity and depth. CAR means making sure that our dance ecology survives and thrives because it is deeply important to our society.”

All Artists will be paired with a Thought Partner — an artist, administrator, or other thinker, identified from NCCAkron’s national community and curated based on their background and skill sets. Thought Partners are identified through the CAR Work-in-Process (WiP) — a series of small group discussions by nomination and invitation with arts administrators, artists, funders, and presenters to discuss current dance business models and the potential around the program. Since 2020, NCCAkron has brought together and cultivated 80 thinkers and leaders across the arts sector. 

Over the next year, Artists and Thought Partners will engage in Investigative Retreats (intensive periods of exploration) to identify administrative experiments that support their artistic practices.

For more information, visit nccakron.org. 

From L to R Jasmine Hearn (photo by Jakayla Monay courtesy of the artist and DiverseWorks), Deneane Richburg (photo by Tim Rummelhoff), and Amy O’Neal (photo by Gabriel Bienczycki)