Ubw Inc

Programs: Choreographer jawole willa jo zollar founded urban bush women (ubw) in 1984 as a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. Ubw weaves contemporary dance, music and text with the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of african americans and the african diaspora, exploring the transformation of struggle and suffering into the bittersweet joy of survival. Ubw's artistic work is unique and requested around the world. Ubw has a collaborative approach to choreography and performance and works with an impressive list of collaborators from the worlds of dance, music and literature. In fy2017, the company continued to tour zollar's "walking with 'trane and began the development of "scat! ," also choreographed by zollar and "hair and other stories" choreographed by samantha speis and chanon judson. Ubw tours its renowned and awarded repertory works throughout the us and internationally. Over its 33-year history, the company has toured five continents and throughout the united states. During fy2017, the company toured to new jersey, connecticut, minnesota, virginia, ohio, california, the district of columbia, and to leicester in the uk. Urban bush women b. O. L. D. -builders, organizers and leaders through dance-is the umbrella that covers the company's education and community engagement programming. Within b. O. L. D. , the current and former company dancers trained in facilitation techniques lead movement workshops and experiential dialogues in various communities to foster leadership, build community, organize for equity, and create an example of art and creativity. While urban bush women has been engaged in this kind of work for most of its 33-year history, these activities were formalized under the b. O. L. D. Umbrella in 2012. The flagship program serving ubw's community engagement mission is the summer leadership institute, a 10-day training forum that connects arts and dance professionals and community-based activists in a learning experience to leverage the use of the arts as a vehicle for social activism and civic engagement and to strengthen the national network of community arts practitioners. It began in tallahassee, florida in 1997 and was re-launched in brooklyn in 2004. In 2009, ubw moved the institute to new orleans to assist with community rebuilding efforts there, and it remained in new orleans until its return to brooklyn in 2016. Ubw launched the urban bush women choreographic center initiative (cci) in january 2016. The cci supports the development of women choreographers of color and other under heard voices.