Akron has a cool thing going – and it’s an ongoing tradition extending back 41 years. It’s free outdoor dance concerts in area metro parks. For the past eight years, the event has been known as the Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival, in honor of the man who started it all.

The story goes that in 1974, Heinz Poll gathered his dancers from his Chamber Ballet (which later became the internationally recognized Ohio Ballet) and took them to a plaza in downtown Akron, built a stage out of donated lumber, and announced that they were going to dance. For free. A few hundred people showed up. (In 2013, 11,000 people attended the free events.)

Then his company began performances in parks around the city, a tradition that still continues even though Poll has passed away and the Ohio Ballet no longer exists.

The City of Akron (and some former Ohio Ballet dancers led by Jane Startzman) picked up where the energetic Poll left off. Generally, Startzman and her group have area dance groups perform, but try to bring in a special group. A few years ago, the Martha Graham Dance Company appeared at one of the concerts.

The 2014 season will follow that same format. On the weekend of July 18-19, the nationally known company Ballet Hispanico, from New York City, will appear at 8:45 p.m. in Goodyear Metro Park (2077 Newton St.).

Organizers say that Ballet Hispanico is the nation’s leading company for preserving and celebrating Latino cultures through dance. The group is led by Eduardo Vilaro. Founded in 1970, the troupe of 14 dancers does cutting edge dance, yet makes their dance in accessible ways that turn out crowd-pleasing performances.

Ballet Hispanico. Photo from www.morningsider.com

On July 25-26, area favorite Neos Dance Theatre will appear at Hardesty Park (1615 W. Market St.). Led by Bobby Wesner, they will bring both classic and contemporary dance, including a new contemporary piece created by Wesner for this event.

GroundWorks DanceTheater, led by artistic director David Shimotakahara, has loved appearing in a cemetery. On August 1-2, GWDT will perform in Glendale Cemetery (150 Glendale Ave.).

Shimotakahara plans to bring a new dance piece, it is reported, set to Tan Dun’s “Ghost Opera.” That seems eminently appropriate for a cemetery setting. The work presumably combines various eastern and western musical influences. (As a note, Glendale Cemetery will be celebrating its 175th anniversary in the city.)

Another special – and collaborative – event will be performed in Firestone Park (1480 Girard St.) on August 8-9, when James Sewell Ballet will combine members of his ballet troupe with Akron area dancers into a collective company for a one time performance of a work that Sewell will create while in residence at the dance studios of The University of Akron.

James Sewell. Photo from www.mnartists.org

Sewell, who has made dance in the past for Ballet Excel (formerly the area dance company Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet), is noted for solid classical ballet technique and the stuff of modern dance. He has also been described as bringing the unpredictable onto the stage, which may make for exciting new dance in this Akron venue.

His project, in cooperation with the UA School of Dance, will provide rehearsal space and a bevy of dancers, represents a great cooperative effort for the art of dance in this area. Other groups, like Neos and GWDT, work that way as well. Such collaboration is a nice tradition going on in its own right.

The Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival will kick off on July 18th and extend through August 9th. All performances are Friday and Saturday nights at 8:45 p.m. For more information, call 330-535-3179 or visit www.akrondancefestival.org. Admission is free.