MANSFIELD, Ohio – The city of Akron will deepen its connection between the University of Akron and the arts thanks to a new agreement between the university and Neos Dance Theatre.
The agreement allows Neos to have a headquarters on the campus of the University of Akron to reach into a new community, while also maintaining its roots in Mansfield.
Richland Source sat down with Bobby Wesner, artistic director of Neos Dance Theatre, to talk about the changes coming to the company with the new partnership:
RS: How did the relationship with Neos and the University of Akron first blossom?
Wesner: Ever since we started as a more full-time, organized group under the banner of Neos – even back when we were under the fiscal umbrella of the Renaissance Theatre – we had been forming relationships in the Akron area. We knew that as a performance group we wanted to take the things we were creating here in Mansfield and share them and build a support base in other communities as well.
As we were forming our model, we wanted to formulate relationships with quite a few communities all throughout northern Ohio so that not any particular community would bear the full financial burden of another nonprofit organization. Another motivation was to get the dancers on stage as much as possible.
We started from Day One knocking on doors up in the Akron community because we knew a void there. I had performed as an independent artist and it was a natural place for me to grow into. Within a year’s time we were taking the things we were creating in Mansfield and sharing them in Akron as well. That immediately allowed us to form a pretty positive relationship with the university, they saw what we were bringing and saw that it had a certain caliber and excellence to it, and they wanted to share it with their dance students. I was invited in as a choreographer and teacher, and wherever I go, Neos goes. And it began to grow from there.
RS: What led to forming an official partnership with the University of Akron?
Wesner: Over the years, Neos and the university have really gotten to know each other quite well; we’ve done some large-scale projects together. Through those, we have learned there is so much more to have the opportunity to share about the depth and width of what we’re doing. There is a whole other element people don’t think of when they think of performing arts groups that involves development, fundraising, grant writing, marketing strategy – all of those things any young entrepreneur would have to consider.
As the University of Akron has started to change their educational model and unfortunately have had some things happen on campus that made arts aspects go into a decline. There was a void they could fill by having us present there. Fortunately, we will be able to be there on campus now and really serve a huge cross-sector, not just in the arts or dance program but also in other educational programs going on.
RS: How is this partnership going to benefit the students of the University of Akron?
Wesner: In a word, exposure. Students being able to rub elbows with local, working professionals that are on campus and serving a wider community, they can apprentice or train alongside us to see what it is we’re doing. If they have an interest in marketing they can see what we’re doing on the marketing side to push a project through, or if they’re interested in event planning or exploring other types of media or film they can see and work with professionals we bring in. I’ll have an opportunity to work with other professors and be put in front of those students to form a mentoring relationship.
The dance component will continue to exist because we work so closely with the dance department and theater department that we can utilize the space at Guzetta Hall and develop educational programs that have to do with being a dancer. But that is really just a small part of this project; we’ll always look for opportunities to engage the dancing students with what we’re doing.
RS: What about how this partnership will benefit Neos and the dancers?
Wesner: In our past, we would go up to Akron and other communities as the “guest company,” and with that comes a certain distance and hindrance we face that I’ve always called the “geographical barrier.” When we go to a community that does not have a home base for us, we have a harder time building intimate relationships with organizations, businesses and foundations that would otherwise be very interested in sponsoring a cultural activity or performance.
Now, in the community of Akron, we have a mailing address at EJ Thomas Performance Hall and a place I can call meetings. The idea of being present there will help a lot in breaking that geographical barrier and make us more tangible and present in that community.
I think too, people will look at who we are and what we are with more consideration to collaborate. There are other arts organizations there that often are utilizing dance and now they’ll have a company they can consider a “home company” of Akron that they can collaborate with.
RS: So just to be clear, Neos is not leaving Mansfield, right?
Wesner: Not at all. If anything it’s going to benefit Mansfield because of the accessibility we’ll have to make an even greater product of higher quality by increasing our resources and employing more dancers of higher caliber, and continuing to grow the excellence we produce on stage. I think Mansfield will be directly impacted by that.
RS: How has Mansfield played a role in helping Neos get to this point of expanding?
Wesner: Something I recognize as a true gift of being able to create our first hub here in Mansfield was that the community was really hungry for a performing arts they hadn’t experienced yet in this capacity. And it felt like a playground; I get to, in a sense, develop from scratch a dance culture in this community that I’ve always wanted to bear witness to.
At the same time, there’s a lively group of young, independent visual artists that are renaissance men and women using different types of mediums and hungry for a voice and opportunity to express. I feel like that community and what we’re doing has really saddled up next to each other and continued to drive it through, and at the same time I’ve seen significant changes with some of our old standbys. There’s a lot going on here that I admire, and a lot going on here that I felt at home with that made it pretty easy.
RS: Looking back at where Neos began, are you excited for the future?
Wesner: In name, we produced our first pop-up show back in 2004, which is incredible to me to think it started back then. By the time 2008 rolled around we had secured enough work that it was respectable, and the Renaissance Theatre asked us to come under their umbrella to work closely with them but also gave us a small corner of the world where we could continue to do the other thing that really drove us, and that began to grow.
We just celebrated our third anniversary as an independent company, and three years goes by really fast but there’s a lot of ups and downs where you’re holding your breath thinking this is a wild ride and are we going to make it, but we have. I feel like we’ve landed into a place that will help us, at this point, really be beyond those formative years when you’re just learning to walk. And here we are.
