There have been dance troupes built around anthropological investigations, there have been dance troupes that grew out of political movements. But Urban Bush Women are a category unto themselves. In fact, given the breadth and freedom of their art, they defy categorization.
-- Janice Berman, New York Newsday
Founded in 1984 by choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, the Urban Bush Women performance ensemble creates powerful artistic works that recognize the struggle, transformation, and survival of the human spirit. The company's aesthetic is formed by synthesizing the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of African Americans and the African diaspora with contemporary dance and music. Dedicated to encouraging cultural activity as a part of community life, the Urban Bush Women engage in extensive community-based programming, helping community members identify cultural influences and shape their creative expressions.
In New York City, the company's home base, the Urban Bush Women have perfromed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival, the Dance Theatre Workshop, the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center Playhouse 91, the Kitchen, and the Joyce Theater. The company has toured throughout the United States and has performed in Asia, Europe, Australia, and South America. UBW has received commissions from major presenters nationwide, including the American Dance Festival (Durham, NC), Hancher Auditorium (Iowa City), Jacob's Pillow (Lee, MA), On the Boards (Seattle), Krannert Center (Champaign/Urbana, IL), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and the Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena (San Francisco), to name a few.
Jawole Zollar and UBW received a 1992 New York Dance and Performance Award (known as a BESSIE) for their collective work on the dances River Songs (1984) and Praise House (1990), among others. In 1994, UBW received the prestigious Capezio Award, a $10,000 prize for outstanding achievement in dance. The company was the recipient, in June 1998, of one of the first Doris Duke Awards for New Work, for Hands Singing Song.
Since 1984, Zollar has created 25 works for the Urban Bush Women, including the repertory works Self-Portrait (1997), Transitions (1996), Batty Moves (1995), Shelter (1988), and Bitter Tongue (1987). Evening-length collaborations with artists from other disciplines include Song of Lawino (1988), created with director Valeria Vasilevski and composer Edwina Lee Tyler; Praise House (1990), created with co-choreographer Pat Hall-Smith, composer Carl Riley, writer Angelyn DeBord, and visual designer Leni Schwendinger; and BONES AND ASH: A Gilda Story (1995), adapted by Jewelle Gomez from her book The Gilda Stories and co-directed by Steven Kent, with music by composer-lyricist Toshi Reagon. Praise House, as adapted and directed by Julie Dash, was broadcast nationally in 1991 as part of the KTCA-TV (St. Paul, MN) series Alive from Off-Center. In 1997, the Urban Bush Women began a five-year international creative exchange with the Companhia Nacional e Canto e Danca in Maputo, Mozambique.
Since its inception, the company has performed community engagement work to enhance audience understanding of UBW's performances, to generate greater recognition of the historical roots of cultural expression, and to increase appreciation for cultural activity as a part of community life. Workshops include Survival through Cultural Traditions, which explores the creative process and the use of African-American cultural materials to broaden the ways audiences see dance in relation to their lives; Dancing Who You Are, for anyone interested in finding a source of power in movement through improvisation, vocal work, and storytelling; and Community Sing, in which participants learn about African-American and Jamaican singing traditions and vocalization styles.
UBW's community engagement projects involve the company in long-term residencies designed with community members to enrich an empowerment process already under way in the sponsoring community. Such projects have taken place in New Orleans, Philadelphia, Miami, Tallahassee, and Campinas, Brazil. They have involved partnerships with schools, churches, sports groups, community centers, arts programs, advocacy groups, and social service organizations.
In July 1997, UBW inaugurated the Summer Dance Institute: A New Dancer for a New Society-- The Artist's Role as Citizen in the Community. The program offers intensive training in dance and community engagement for young artists with leadership potential who are interested in a community focus in their art-making. The four-week institute has five goals: (1) to provide solid dance training; (2) to engage participants in UBW's aesthetic ideology for creating community-based projects; (3) to foster participants' recognition of the cultural and historical contexts in which they live; (4) to show how creative research and performance can respond to community life; and (5) to encourage participants to return home and build appreciation for and participation in cultural activities within their communities.
UBW Artistic Director Jawole Zollar received a B.A. in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and an M.F.A. in dance from Florida State University, where she subsequently taught. In 1980, she moved to New York City to study with Dianne McIntyre at Sounds in Motion. She founded the Urban Bush Women ensemble in 1984. In addition to UBW works, Zollar has created works for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Arizona, Philadanco, the University of Maryland, the University of Florida, and others. She is also in demand as a teacher and speaker. She delivered keynote addresses at the 1990 Dance Critics Association meeting in Los Angeles and the 1995 annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. She has served as Worlds of Thought Resident Scholar at Mankato State University (Mankato, MN; 1993-94), Regents Lecturer in the Departments of Dance and World Arts and Culture at UCLA (1995-96), and visiting artist at Ohio State University (Columbus, OH; 1996). She was named alumna of the year by the University of Missouri (1993) and Florida State University (1997), where she holds a tenured position with the dance department.