Legacy + Lineage + Liberation 

Original Choreography by
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Founder

Directed by 
Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, Co-Artistic Directors 

Associate Artistic Director:
Courtney J. Cook

The Company:

Kentoria Earle, Roobi Gaskins, Symara Sarai, 
Keola Jones,  Kashia Kancey(Apprentice), Mikaila Ware 

Musician/Performer
Grace Galu Kalambay

Percussionist
Lucianna Padmore

Lighting Supervisor
Evan Spigelman

Production Manager
Tegan Ritz McDuffie

Program Repertory 

I Don’t Know, but I Been Told, If You Keep on Dancin’ You Never Grow Old (1989)

The opening solo of I Don’t Know… is an excerpt from, Visible 

by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and nora chipaumire with Marguerite Hemmings

Music: Percussion performed by Lucianna Padmore

Lighting: John D. Alexander 

Give Your Hands to Struggle (1998) 

Music: Give Your Hands to Struggle, words and music by Bernice Johnson Reagon
© 1986 Songtalk Publishing Co., Washington DC. Used by Permission.

Lighting: Russell Sandifer

Give Your Hands to Struggle was originally choreographed and developed at the Florida State University Dance Department for Cathy Horta.

 It is an excerpt from the evening-length work, Hands Singing Song (1998), commissioned by the American Dance Festival through

 the Doris Duke Awards for New Work, with additional support from the Philip Morris New Works Fund. 

Women’s Resistance (2008) 

Choreography: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Germaine Acogny (Compagnie Jant-Bi)
Excerpted from the evening-length work, les écailles de la mémoire (Scales of Memory)

Music: Fabrice Bouillon-LaForest with Frederic Bobin 

Lighting: Russell Sandifer

Costumes: Naoko Nagata 

Women’s Resistance is an excerpt of the evening-length work, les écailles de la mémoire (Scales of Memory (2008), co-commissioned by DANCECleveland with funding from the 2006 Joyce Award and Christopher Newport University’s Ferguson Center for the Arts .It was developed via creative residencies hosted by the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University, 

the Brooklyn Academy of Music and L’Ecole des Sables. Additional funding: National Dance Project, The MAP Fund, and Florida State University Cornerstone Arts and Humanities Program Enhancement Grant.

--  Intermission -- 

Haint Blu: Episode 1 - Listenin’ and Dreamin’: Do You Hear Me Now? (2023)

Choreography by Chanon Judson & Mame Diarra  Speis, Co-Artistic Directors,

in collaboration with the company: 

Courtney J. Cook, Kentoria Earle, Roobi Gaskins, Symara Sarai,
Bianca Leticia Medina, and Mikaila Ware

Writer: Nina Angela Mercer

Producer: Jonathan D. Secor

Dramaturg: Talvin Wilks

Projections Designer: Nicholas Hussong

Music: Percussion performed by Lucianna Padmore

Guitar and vocals performed by Grace Galu Kalambay

Lighting: John D. Alexander

Costume Coordinator: Lori Gassie

Episode 1 is excerpted from Haint Blu, an evening-length site-responsive work built in and with community over time. Prior partners and presenters include: Live Arts Miami and Miami Dade College in partnership with Historic Hampton House; New Orleans: Junebug Productions in partnership with André Callioux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice; Berkshires Coalition: Williams College Dance Department, MASS MoCA, and Jacob's Pillow; The Yard, working with the Wampanoag people and the Oak Bluff community.

Additional commissioning partners: Wesleyan University Center for the Arts; Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth.

Residency and development support: NPN Creation Fund, LMCC's Residency Program,
Arts & Culture on Governors Island, Lumberyard's Technical Rehearsal Program.

ABOUT URBAN BUSH WOMEN 

Urban Bush Women (UBW) burst onto the dance scene in 1984, with bold, innovative, demanding and exciting works that brought under-told stories to life under the artistic direction Co-Artistic Directors of the UBW Company, Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis. Originally founded by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, the company continues to weave contemporary dance, music, and text with the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of the African Diaspora.

UBW performs regularly in New York City and tours nationally and internationally. The Company has been commissioned by presenters nationwide, and includes among its honors a New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”); the Capezio Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance; a Black Theater Alliance Award; two Doris Duke Awards for New Work from the American Dance Festival; and named one of America’s Cultural Treasures by the Ford Foundation. Zollar is a recipient of the 2021 DanceTeacher Award of Distinction, the 2021 Martha Hill Dance Fund Lifetime Achievement Award, and named a 2021 MacArthur Fellow. Speis is the recipient of the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer with the ensemble skeleton architecture. Judson received the APAP Leadership Fellowship and the Director’s Lab Chicago Fellowship in 2018. 

Off the concert stage, UBW has developed an extensive community engagement program called BOLD (Builders, Organizers, and Leaders through Dance). UBW’s largest community engagement project is its Summer Leadership Institute (SLI), established in 1997. This 10-day intensive training program serves as the foundation for all of the company’s community engagement activities. Ultimately the SLI program connects dance professionals and community-based artists/activists in a learning experience to leverage the arts as a vehicle for civic engagement. UBW launched the Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative Producing Program (CCI 2.0) in March 2022. The CCI 2.0 fellowships support the development of women choreographers and producers of color and other underheard voices. 

MAJOR FUNDING FOR URBAN BUSH WOMEN IS PROVIDED BY:

Anonymous; Acton Family Giving; Bloomberg Philanthropies; David Rockefeller Fund; Doris Duke Foundation; Ford Foundation; Howard Gilman Foundation; The Institute of Museum and Library Services; International Association of Blacks in Dance; Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Mellon Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund; New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project; The New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship Program; New York State Council on the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; The Shubert Foundation; Solidaire Black Liberation Pooled Fund; William Talbott Hillman Foundation; Barnard College Center for Research on Women, Barnard College Office of Community Engagement & Inclusion; The O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation; The Harkness Foundation for Dance 

URBAN BUSH WOMEN STAFF:

Chanon Judson & Mame Diarra Speis, Co-Artistic Directors/BOLD Directors

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Founder

Tahnia Belle, Acting Executive Director

Jonathan D. Secor, Producer & Creative Executive Producer, 40th Anniversary

Michelle Coe, Director of Production, Booking & Touring

Cheri Stokes, Associate Producer of Special Projects

Pia Monique Murray, Associate Producer, 40th Anniversary

Makeda Smith, Marketing Manager

Angelina Lopez, Marketing Assistant

Tracy Cochran, Human Resources

Ameeya Singh, Operations Assistant

Brooke Rucker, Development Associate

Veronica Jiao, Founder's Assistant

Elsie Neilson, Executive Assistant to the Co-Artistic Directors

Zoe Walders, Executive Assistant to the Acting Executive Director

Henry Liles, Finance Manager

Camille Lawrence, Archivist

Whitney Christopher, Archives Assistant

Tegan Ritz McDuffie, Production Manager

Evan Spigelman, Lighting Supervisor

Pinar Goodstone, BOLD Logistics Coordinator

Jaimé Yawa Dzandu, BOLD Artistic Coordinator

Dani Criss, BOLD Facilitator

Advance NYC, Development Consultants

Paloma McGregor, SLI Associate Director

Lai-Lin Robinson, CCI Producing Program & "When Black Women Speak" Producer

Jolie Saltiel, Tour & Company Manager
Shaena Smith, NYC Production Assistant

Bennalldra Williams, Movement Coach

Urban Bush Women Company Apprentices are supported by The New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowships: Kashia Kancey, J'nae Simmons, and Synead Cidney Nichols

For booking: Michelle Coe, Director of Production, Booking & Touring: mcoe@urbanbushwomen.org

Urban Bush Women 40th Anniversary leadership funding provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Additional funding is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation.

MAJOR FUNDING FOR URBAN BUSH WOMEN IS PROVIDED BY:

Anonymous; Acton Family Giving; Bloomberg Philanthropies; David Rockefeller Fund; Doris
Duke Foundation; Ford Foundation; Howard Gilman Foundation; The Institute of Museum and
Library Services; International Association of Blacks in Dance; Lily Auchincloss Foundation,
Mellon Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); National Performance Network
(NPN) Creation & Development Fund; New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance
Project; The New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship Program; New York State Council
on the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; The Shubert Foundation; Solidaire
Black Liberation Pooled Fund; William Talbott Hillman Foundation; Barnard College Center for
Research on Women, Barnard College Office of Community Engagement & Inclusion; The
O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation; The Harkness Foundation for Dance

Connect with UBW: 
www.urbanbushwomen.org 

Facebook: @urbanbushwomen   |   Twitter: @ubwdance    |   Instagram: @ubwdance