
NCCAkron announces Series 3 & 4 of How People Move People Podcast
The National Center for Choreography-Akron (NCCAkron) announces Series Three and Four of How People Move People, a podcast about the impact that words, art, stories, and lives have on each other. Each four-part audio series features multi-episode arcs crafted by a lead researcher. Listeners discover how the lives and stories of others impact artistic journeys – the choreography of cultural influence. Tara Aisha Willis, Ph.D. hosts Series Three, titled “Mid-Ground”, and Brinda Guha hosts Series Four, titled “As Grandmother Says…”.
In Series Three Tara Aisha Willis, Ph.D.(Chicago, IL), a dance artist, independent curator, and writer, brings pairs of dance and performance artists together in kinship around their roots and work in the Black Midwest. Interviews for Series Three feature Ajara Alghali, Gabrielle Civil, Melanie George, Jennifer Harge, Meida McNeal, Bebe Miller, Katherine Simóne Reynolds, and Reggie Wilson. Series Three began on July 19.
Tara Aisha Willis shares: “NCCAkron’s invitation to consider how people can move each other—through dance, but also through shared culture, family, and artistry, as well as the act of holding conversation itself—has been incredible. It’s been fruitful for my own thinking about how certain places and artistic practices feel like home, and it created stunning interactions between each of the paired guests. It was a pleasure to listen to them while recording and it will be a pleasure to listen again alongside everyone else.”
In Series Four Brinda Guha (New York, NY), a Bessie-nominated artist and queer South-Asian American Kathak and Contemporary Indian dancer, asks artists of different generations and contexts who work in similar fields to be in conversation with each other and reflect on their own mentor/mentee relationships within their creative processes. Conversations for Series Four feature Maria Bauman, Sharon Bridgforth, Ananya Chatterjea, Misha Chowdhury, devynn emory, Shinichi Iova-Koga, Dianne McIntyre, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Maria Torres, Okai Musik, Frank Malloy, and Milteri Tucker Concepcion. Series Four will begin on August 23.
Brinda Guha comments: “When NCCAkron approached me to curate Season 4 of How People Moved People, I immediately heard my grandmothers in my ear giving me sacred advice. One said, ‘Be clear about what you want to say,’ and the other said ‘Make space to listen before you speak.’ I firmly believe that although our art forms will live beyond our time in this realm, our responsibility to investigate where they’ve been and where they’re going is a job for right now. Listening to legendary creatives talk about their craft with exquisite contemporaries in their fields has been nourishing for me, and I cannot wait for others to listen to them break bread, too.”
How People Move People exemplifies NCCAkron’s commitment to artist-led storytelling. In 2021, NCCAkron established the digital publishing umbrella NCCMedia, an artist-centered and artist-driven platform for telling stories and elevating the voices of dance artists and genres historically left out of the codified dance canon. The NCCMedia podcast network, including Inside the Dancer’s Studio and How People Move People is building a bridge between 20th-century working knowledge and 21st-century arts ecosystem – reflecting on recorded history, documenting untold stories, and creating a humanities archive for future dance audiences, students, and scholars. In addition to the podcast network, NCCAkron is a Series Editor in Dance for the University of Akron Press, which includes Shifting Cultural
Power: Case Studies and Questions in Performance (2021) and Artists on Creative Administration: A Workbook from the National Center for Choreography (due to be published September 24, 2024).
Spurred by questions of how the visual, time-based art form of dance can translate to other publication forms, NCCAkron formed an Artist Editorial Council from program alums to map out the editorial themes and guide the Lead Researcher selection.
Series One, titled “Back and Forth,” was created by Cara Hagan (New York, NY), a choreographer, professor, and mother, as a love letter to Black girlhood through the lens of pop culture. Series Two, titled “Trace Elements,” was developed by cultural critic Jose Solís (Madrid, Spain) and chronicled the legacy and impact of those lost to and living with HIV/AIDS. All episodes of Series One and Two are available now.
NCCAkron Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke elaborates, “NCCAkron strives to advocate for the art form and the creative process of dance as a central part of U.S. culture. With the continued decline of print arts journalism, we seek new ways of telling dance stories and visibilizing the work of artists on stage and off. Technology affords us new opportunities to share these stories through short and long-form podcasts in addition to still investing in books under the umbrella of NCCMedia.”
For more information and to listen to episodes, visit nccakron.org/podcasts.
Pictured L to R: podcast cover for How People Move People (Series Three) – “Mid-Ground” (art Micah Kraus), Series Three host Tara Aisha Willis (photo zakkiyyah najeebah dumas o’neal), podcast cover for How People Move People (Series Four) – “As Grandmother Says…” (art Micah Kraus), and Series Four host Brinda Guha (photo Mike Esperanza)