A Startup for Dance: Reflections on NCCAkron’s First Decade

Photo by Dale Dong; NCCAkron’s Dancing Lab: Screendance filming in Akron.

The National Center for Choreography-Akron (NCCAkron) is celebrating their 10th anniversary.

As one of only two choreography centers in the U.S., NCCAkron is an incubator and hub for dance research and development. NCCAkron serves as a connector, a catalyst, and a cultural matchmaker for dance artists across the country.

NCCAkron Founding Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke recently interviewed John Jenkins, NCCAkron board member and Partner at Bober Markey Fedorovich, about board service and what his time with NCCAkron has meant.

You can celebrate and support NCCAkron on Saturday, June 20 at the NCCAkron Dance Party Through the Decades.

Christy: We’ve done a lot together, so it’s nice to take a moment to reflect.

John: It’s been a very quick 10 years. It is just amazing.

Christy: Let’s start with your beginning. What kind of board service had you done before joining NCCAkron?

John: When I started my professional career, I had a mentor who always stressed the importance of finding a volunteer or board position that you’re passionate about, something that feels truly meaningful to you. He always stressed, you need to be present for that organization and when you show up, you really show up.

So after a while I found my way to DANCECleveland as a board member and eventually treasurer.

Christy: It’s so important to name DANCECleveland – they have a key role in why NCCAkron exists. Under Pamela Young’s leadership, DANCECleveland, including the board, did a lot of heavy lifting with a feasibility study. This was long before I was hired and issued the invitation to come to Akron to play, experiment and dream.

John: So then through DANCECleveland I became an NCCAkron board member.

Christy: You’ve become a sort of board specialist for dance organizations. Which is so unique because you did not grow up in dance. But you use your professional expertise in the service of dance.

One of my favorite memories of our work together, early on, I had this wild idea: what if we don’t call all of our board officer roles the typical things? What if we call them the ‘choreographer of governance,’ the ‘choreographer of numbers,’ etc. You gave me a skeptical look. But after a few months you were calling yourself the Choreographer of Numbers. It gave me such joy. I felt that accounting and creativity truly had met at that moment.

John: I do remember that meeting, vividly. I was suspect, but open-minded. I leaned in.

Christy: Yes! Do you have other particularly memorable moments from 10 years of service?

John: It would have to be in January of 2020 when we traveled to New York City to attend the APAP Conference (Association of Performing Arts Professionals). It was an adventure for the board. That was my first experience on a board trip and it was particularly memorable: all the meetings there and dance performances at night. We were at the 5 year mark and we had big ideas.

Christy: That was a memorable benchmark moment for me too. Getting to share the national ecosystem that we’re here to serve. Yes, we’re based in Akron, and NCCAkron has always been focused on the hyperlocal AND the national. I had been tapped to curate the American Dance Platform at the Joyce Theater (NYC) that year. It was really special to be able to share that with all of you and the team.

Choreographer Ashwini Ramaswamy (Minneapolis, MN) in studio at NCCAkron; photo by Dale Dong.

Christy: What has it meant for you to be a part of a startup nonprofit organization?

John: I knew there was a need for NCCAkron and for what we were going to do. Once NCCAkron was up and running and you came on board, I was amazed at how quickly the organization flourished. NCCAkron has been able to expand and grow, strategically. There’s this small and mighty team, and the programs and the amount of work that gets done is just absolutely amazing.

I’ve learned from you, and from other board members as well. From John Michael Schert (past Board Chair) I learned to be very present in meetings and examine: Where are you in space? How are you giving back to the dance community at this moment? Or, what are you interested in exploring, at this moment?

Christy: I received a very powerful piece of advice from John Michael early on. He used to run a dance company in Boise, Idaho, where he was both the executive director and a dancer in the company. I remember after one of the first board meetings under his chairship, he pulled me aside, and he was like, “Christy, you don’t have to perform.” Which felt so counterintuitive to my whole training as a dancer. He reminded me that board meetings are an opportunity to share what I want board input on as well as what I think the board needs to know to be an ambassador for the organization. Yes, there’s some due diligence to be had, but since then, I think about every board meeting as a work-in-process showing.

That blew it wide open for me. The governance and the business at hand should mirror NCCAkron as an organization dedicated towards research, development, and experimentation. We could do that in our board meetings, too. The mindset shift, for me as an executive/artistic director was indelible.

Bios:

Christy Bolingbroke; photo by Shane Wynn 

Christy Bolingbroke is the Founding Executive/Artistic Director for NCCAkron. Previously, she served as the Deputy Director for Advancement at ODC in San Francisco, overseeing curation and performance programming as well as marketing and development organization-wide. She was the Director of Marketing at the Mark Morris Dance Group in Brooklyn, NY. She earned a B.A. in Dance from the University of California, Los Angeles; an M.A. in Performance Curation from Wesleyan University; and is a graduate of the Arts Management Fellowship program at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She has served on the Akron Civic Commons Core Team; as a consulting advisor for the Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts Innovation Management initiative; and on the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Advisory Panel. In 2017, Dance Magazine named Bolingbroke among the most influential people in dance.

John Jenkins; photo courtesy of John

John E. Jenkins is a Partner at Bober Markey Fedorovich (BMF), a top 20 Northeast Ohio CPA and advisory firm. John focuses his practice on tax compliance, mergers and acquisition structuring, tax due diligence, and consulting solutions to public companies, private equity firms, middle-market, and family-owned businesses that are in a growth mode or have a growth mentality. John serves a variety of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, real estate, and professional service firms. John graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from University of Mount Union. He is active in a variety of community organizations, including DANCECleveland, NCCAkron, Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, and Boy Scouts of America.