Dancing Conversation: Queer Movements with choreographer Pioneer Winter (FREE)
Company:
The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron (NCCAkron)
THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR CHOREOGRAPHY-AKRON ANNOUNCES EVENT WITH PIONEER WINTER - DANCING CONVERSATION: QUEER MOVEMENTS
AKRON, Ohio (August 12, 2021)—The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron (NCCAkron) announces its Dancing Conversation: Queer Movements event with choreographer Pioneer Winter (Miami, FL) on Thursday, August 19, at 7pm ET. This free, virtual public event invites Winter to share three short videos and discuss his new work, Birds of Paradise. The work continues Winter’s exploration of beauty and virtuosity outside the mainstream by creating a series of dance-based queer solo portraits on the themes of agency, survival, and transformation.
Dancing Conversation: Queer Movements
Thursday, August 19, at 7pm ET
Online event: NCCAkron’s YouTube Channel
RSVP: https://www.nccakron.org/event-details/dancing-conversation-queer-movements
The event’s title, Dancing Conversation: Queer Movements, was inspired in part by a recent conversation with NCCAkron Alumni Artist and NCCMedia Artist Editorial Council member, Cara Hagan, who explored a range of definitions of movement whether physical movement, the emotion of feeling moved, or movements in history as part of greater civic acts. Through this lens, Akron community members are invited to join the conversation to provide their own insights.
Community members from the Akron Pride Festival and The University of Akron (UA) will join NCCAkron Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke in discussions about the intersections of queer identity, space, and self-preservation. Community members include Arnie Tunstall (Director, University Galleries, Myers School of Art; Interim Program Coordinator, Arts Administration), LaTonda Mobley (Akron Pride Festival Steering Committee and chair of the Cultural Humility sub-committee), and Tony Pankuch (Archives Assistant, Cummings Center for the History of Psychology).
Dancing Conversation: Queer Movements is part of a greater relationship between Winter and NCCAkron. In December 2021, Winter will visit NCCAkron for a technical residency to explore alternative presenting spaces and formats for his work Birds of Paradise. Featuring interwoven filmed and live dance performance, this new work is developed in collaboration with the performers, the White Elephant Group media company, and sound artist Juraj Kojš.
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About NCCAkron
The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron supports the research and development of new work in dance by exploring the full potential of the creative process. In addition to offering studio and technical residencies to make new work, activities focus on catalyzing dialogue and experimentation; creating proximity among artists and dance thinkers; and aggregating resources around dance making. For more information, visit nccakron.org.
The establishment and general operation of NCCAkron is made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Public programs and events like these are made possible with additional support by the National Endowment for the Arts, Ohio Arts Council, the GAR Foundation, and the Akron Community Foundation.
Pioneer Winter Collective's technical residency is supported in part by a National Endowment for the Arts award and the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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Biographies
Pioneer Winter (Miami, FL)
Pioneer Winter is a Miami-based choreographer and artistic director of Pioneer Winter Collective, a dance-theater company rooted in social practice and community, queer visibility and beauty beyond the mainstream. Recognized in Dance Magazine's 25 to Watch, Pioneer Winter works to democratize performance in public spaces, museums and galleries, stage, and film. Pioneer has been commissioned by the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami Theater Center, Karen Peterson and Dancers, Tigertail Productions, Jacksonville Dance Theatre, and FundArte. Pioneer Winter’s work is supported by local, state, and foundation grants and fellowships. Pioneer is the Arsht Center’s first Artist-in-Residence collaboration in a decade. Pioneer earned an MPH Public Health and Epidemiology from Florida International University’s Stempel College of Public Health (2009) and MFA Choreography from Jacksonville University/White Oak (2016). An extension of his creative practice, Pioneer has curated and directed ScreenDance Miami Festival since 2017, presented first by Tigertail Productions and now by Miami Light Project; Pioneer’s own films screen internationally. Pioneer serves as Assistant Teaching Professor in the Honors College and College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts at Florida International University. pioneerwinter.com
Arnie Tunstall (Akron, OH)
Prior to becoming Director, University Galleries, Arnie Tunstall worked for the Akron Art Museum in various curatorial positions since 1985 and served as the Collections Manager and Registrar from 1994 to 2016. Select museum projects included curating exhibitions (Proof, Danny Lyons' Bikeriders), managing a national tour of the work of sculptor El Anatsui, and managing a multi-year project to digitize the museum collection and to make it available online. Tunstall has served on the board of directors of SPACES Gallery in Cleveland, and the Akron Soul Train. He received his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree from the University of Akron majoring in Graphic Design and Photography and he received his Masters of Fine Arts in Photography from The Ohio University. Tunstall has also taught as an adjunct professor at The University of Akron, in the Myers School of Art, preceding his current work with the Arts Administration graduate program. Tunstall is active throughout the NE Ohio region with curatorial projects and continues to create and exhibit his own artwork.
LaTonda Mobley (Akron, OH)
LaTonda Mobley currently functions as the Operations Manager for Block by Block. She and her team of ambassadors provide support to the Downtown Neighborhood by way of Downtown Akron Partnership. Mobley comes to Akron from Columbus, Ohio where she worked in sales and account management for Cardinal Health. Tonda, as she is known by most, passionately believes that inclusion begins with a smile. This belief guides her work as a member of the Akron Pride Festival Steering Committee and chair of the Cultural Humility sub-committee. In her spare time, Tonda enjoys urban ballroom and line dancing, singing off-key karaoke, and ensuring that the Cleveland Dawg pound is as rowdy as possible.
Tony Pankuch (Akron, OH)
Tony Pankuch is an Archives Assistant at the Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology at The University of Akron. Their work includes researching and designing exhibitions and educational programming, as well as leading the Cummings Center’s accessibility and inclusion initiatives. They earned their B.A. in History from The University of Akron and their Master of Library and Information Science from Kent State University. They are a historian of LGBTQ+ identity and expression in popular media and the social sciences. In 2020 they wrote and designed the Cummings Center’s online exhibition A Clockwork Lavender: Sexology, Psychology, and the LGBTQ+ Community, which explores the overlapping narratives of research and protest in the history of LGBTQ+ psychology. Currently, they are serving as Co-Chair of the American Alliance of Museums LGBTQ+ Alliance Task Force for Transgender Inclusion, which works to support trans inclusion in museums through advocacy, content/policy review, and resource development.
Christy Bolingbroke (Akron, OH)
As the Founding Executive/Artistic Director for NCCAkron, Christy Bolingbroke is responsible for setting the business model and curatorial vision for all programs. She works closely with every artist to support their artistic/administrative growth and to develop educational outreach opportunities for the local community to interact with the visiting artists. Previously, Christy served as Deputy Director for Advancement at ODC in San Francisco, overseeing curation and performance programming as well as marketing and development organization-wide. Prior to ODC, she was Director of Marketing at the Mark Morris Dance Group. She is currently a consulting advisor for the Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts Innovation Management initiative, on the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Advisory Panel, and a member of the Akron Civic Commons core team. In 2017, Dance Magazine named Bolingbroke among the national list of most influential people in dance today.
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