 David Murray photo: Daniel Miller |
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Performing Arts
COMMON TIME: NEW JAZZ AND DANCE COLLABORATIONS URBAN BUSH WOMEN AND THE DAVID MURRAY OCTET: SOUL DEEP TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1999, 7:30 PM $19 ($15 WALKER MEMBERS) *POST-PERFORMANCE RECEPTION: $10 TED MANN CONCERT HALL 2128 FOURTH STREET SOUTH U OF M WEST BANK, MINNEAPOLIS
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"You just have to dive down into deep water and trust your swimming skills -- and trust that you'll rescue each other."
--Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
Urban Bush Women, led by choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, returns to the Twin Cities with a showcase of new repertory pieces. This powerful dance-theater company creates a visual and aural feast of raw energy with works deeply rooted in African-American folklore and spiritual traditions. Join them for an evening of jubilant music, dance, and spoken word, featuring Soul Deep, a collaborative work-in-progress with David Murray and his Octet. Co-commissioned by the Walker, this stirring, multipart work includes structured and improvised movement and music as well as text from poets Langston Hughes and Ntozake Shange. The performance of Soul Deep is presented as the third collaboration in the Walker's series Common Time: New Jazz and Dance Collaborations.
* Meet the artists at a special post-performance reception, which includes wine and hors d'oeuvres.
Urban Bush Women and David Murray will be offering artist talks, master classes, and workshops throughout their residency. For information call (612) 375-7625.
LEAPS OF FAITH:
JAWOLE WILLA JO ZOLLAR ON THE ART OF COLLABORATION
 Jawole Willa Jo Zollar photo: Bette Marshall | |
Zollar credits their so-far smooth partnership with a "harmony" created between the artists. With similar backgrounds -- Murray honed his art playing in a Pentecostal church while Urban Bush Women have always explored African-American spirituality and folklore in their work -- they share similar passions. Beyond that was a more fundamental congruity: "I deal with the physical expression of music," Zollar says. "When I hear David's music, I think he deals with a musical expression of dance."
Their collaboration began almost three years ago with research; Murray and Zollar began reading slave narratives, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and a book about John Parker, a conductor on the Underground Railroad. When they agreed on a focal point -- survival stories -- Murray began exploring sounds. "As he came up with a musical theme, I started coming up with movement, and then his musical theme got expanded from the movement and then my movement got expanded from his music!"
Such room to explore and spontaneously create is essential to successful collaboration. And hard to come by. With shrinking funding sources, some performing arts presenters opt for tried-and-true box office hits, Zollar says. That's why, she thinks, the Walker -- co-commissioner of the new work and host to the developmental residency -- is invaluable. The risks of collaboration, for artist and presenter, are shared. "They're not booking the piece that's finished that they can look at and say, 'This is going to be successful; we know what this is.' They're taking a chance on something that we all want to be extremely successful, but can fall flat on its face."
COMMON TIME IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM THE DAYTON HUDSON FOUNDATION ON BEHALF OF DAYTON'S, MERVYN'S CALIFORNIA, AND TARGET STORES. ADDITIONAL SUPPORT IS PROVIDED BY THE DORIS DUKE FUND FOR JAZZ AND DANCE, THE MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION, THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS, THE NATIONAL DANCE PROJECT OF THE NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, AND THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS.