Neos Dance Theatre and the University of Akron have joined in a collaboration that gives the nonprofit dance company a new headquarters in Akron, and will provide students with learning opportunities in everything from marketing and nonprofit administration to entrepreneurship through the ballet company.
Neos, which will also maintain its dance studio in Mansfield, had been spending more than 70 percent of its rehearsal time at the University of Akron in the last two years. The company, which has performed in the city’s Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival for six years, has been building collaborations with the UA dance program, the pre-professional Dance Institute at UA and the Lock 3 Summer Arts Experience. It has also performed at the Akron Civic Theatre for several years.
New headquarters at UA will allow Neos to grow even stronger roots in the Akron community, said Artistic Director Bobby Wesner.
“We do have this new space that they’re making available to us so that we can headquarter our operations here on campus, and with that comes the opportunity … [of] engaging a broader spectrum of the student body as well as engaging the community in a more intimate way,’’ Wesner said.
Neos will have an office in E.J. Thomas Hall and continue using studios at Guzzetta Hall for company rehearsals. With a new home in Akron, the nonprofit also will be eligible to apply for local grants that it hadn’t pursued as visiting artists.
Dance and arts students have always been free to watch Neos rehearsals and guest choreographers setting dances on the professional company. Now, through UA’s new Experiential Learning Center for Entrepreneurship and Civic Engagement (EXL Center), students can also learn about the administrative end of Neos as a small business, including marketing and development, program building and strategizing, as well as legal requirements for maintaining nonprofit status.
“These are the kinds of activities that I think really cross over, from being a small arts nonprofit into the entrepreneurial world,’’ Wesner said.
The EXL Center, which has opened at the Student Union career center and will open another location in early March at UA’s main library, connects students in multiple academic disciplines to internships, cooperative work assignments, service learning opportunities and entrepreneurial activities. The goal is to give students practical experience that will help them get jobs after graduation. Carolyn Behrman is the faculty collaboration director.
Larry Burns, vice president of advancement, said UA’s collaboration with Neos through the new EXL Center is a “win-win situation all the way around.”
“I think it’s another example of connecting with the community and using our facility and our faculty and our students to engage with organizations that are important to the community,’’ he said.
“The whole idea of EXL is to be multidisciplinary in nature,” said Burns, who said the center will partner with other local organizations and companies that relate to many fields of study.
In the case of Neos, “it won’t be just specifically for arts students, or dance students. It will be for those that want to learn about a nonprofit, that want to learn about other elements of running an organization.”
Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com. Like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kclawsonabj or follow her on Twitter @KerryClawsonABJ.