The National Center for Choreography–Akron has partnered with Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet, the history and advocacy organization, to launch "Dancing Lab: MoBBallet Writing Workshop." The residency runs July 13–17 in Akron, Ohio.

An open call selected four writers to take part. Over five days, the group will examine the role dance writing plays in the field's evolving ecosystem, along with the needs and responsibilities of the people who practice it.

The program did not emerge from a vacuum. Its programming builds on findings from two prior initiatives: NCCAkron's earlier Dancing Labs and MoBBallet's 2024 Dance Writers Convening. Both projects surfaced questions about who writes about dance, how they do it, and what the form requires to sustain itself.

For NCCAkron, the workshop extends the Dancing Lab model — a framework the center has used to support choreographic research — into the territory of language. For Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet, it continues work the organization began with its 2024 convening, which brought dance writers together to confront the conditions of their profession.

The collaboration places criticism and commentary alongside choreography as practices worthy of dedicated development time. The four selected writers will work in Akron, the Ohio city that has served as NCCAkron's base since its founding.

The stakes extend beyond craft. Dance writing shapes how audiences encounter work they never see live, how histories get recorded, and which artists enter the record at all. By asking writers to define their own needs and responsibilities, the lab treats the critic's desk as part of dance's infrastructure rather than a peripheral service.

Applications came through an open call, a structure that widened the pool beyond established bylines. The selection of four writers keeps the cohort small enough for sustained dialogue across the residency's five days.

The partnership between a national choreographic center and a Black dance history organization signals where both institutions see gaps. MoBBallet has built its reputation on recovering and documenting Black contributions to ballet; NCCAkron has positioned itself as a laboratory for process rather than product. The writing workshop sits at the intersection of those missions.

If the lab's outcomes follow the pattern of its predecessors — the earlier Dancing Labs and the 2024 convening — its findings could shape how future programs for dance writers are structured, and how the field defines the writer's place within it.