December 26, 2001
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

Sassy Urban Bush Women perform
dance theater piece HairStories at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Innovative dance/theater group Urban Bush Women
• Acclaimed for its ability to combine entertainment with political statement
• Performing HairStories, a visual and aural feast about the relationship of African American women to their hair
• Tuesday & Wednesday, February 5 & 6
• 8 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
• General: $25/$22, UCSB students: $19/$16
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535

Urban Bush Women, the dance theater ensemble noted for its physicality and furious energy, will perform HairStories on Tuesday & Wednesday, February 5 & 6 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. The group, led by artistic director Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, synthesizes the history, culture and spiritual traditions of African Americans with contemporary music and dance. Their brand of sassy dance builds upon modern technique to encompass African, street, hip-hop, fraternity step dancing and even Double Dutch jump rope routines. “There have been dance troupes built around anthropological investigations, there have been dance troupes that grew out of political movements,” insists New York Newsday. “But the Urban Bush Women are a category unto themselves. In fact, given the breadth and freedom of their art, they defy categorization.”

HairStories looks at the relation of African American women to their hair, and how that relation reflects self-image, social and economic status, political views and cultural identity. Commissioned by the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the piece combines choreography, text and music (by James Brown, Parliament Funkadelic and others) to develop a performance that is touching, funny and sociologically acute. Vivid character sketches are at the heart of HairStories. They include Homegirl—our guide into the world of hair terminology and the battle over the epithet “nappy”—and Dr. Professor—the academic who spins an entirely different vocabulary, arguing for “reappropriating the tools of the oppressor” and struggling against “the construct of whiteness.” The dancers of HairStories, meanwhile, led The New York Times to write, “Ms. Zollar’s six extraordinary performers—bodies and spirits taut yet resilient—abandon everything but their tightly wound hair to the moment.”

Founded in 1984 by choreographer Zollar, Urban Bush Women create powerful artistic works that recognize the struggle, transformation and survival of the human spirit. In New York City, the company’s home base, Urban Bush Women have performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival, the 92nd Street Y, the Kitchen and the Joyce Theater. Praise House, an evening-length work in two acts inspired by many visionary artists, was adapted and directed by Julie Dash and broadcast nationally in 1991 as part of the PBS series Alive from Off-Center. In 1997, Urban Bush Women began a five-year international creative exchange with the Companhia Nacional e Canto e Danca in Maputo, Mozambique, just one element of their global performing schedule.

Since its inception, the company has worked with communities to enhance audience understanding of its 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. This outreach includes numerous long-term residencies throughout the world. Since 1997, UBW have coordinated the annual Summer Dance Institute: A New Dancer for a New Society—The Artist’s Role as Citizen in the Community. This New York City-based 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.

Urban Bush Women’s Artistic Director Jawole Willa Jo Zollar received her B.A. from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and her M.F.A. from Florida State University. Since founding the group in 1984, her work with Urban Bush Women has earned her numerous plaudits, including a New York Dance Performance Award (“Bessie”) for the group’s body of work from River Songs (1984) through Praise House (1990). Zollar has also choreographed work for Philadanco, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballet Arizona, among other groups. She currently holds a Nancy Smith Fichter tenured professorship in the Dance Department at Florida State University.

Members of Urban Bush Women will hold a Meet-the-Artists discussion after both performances. The ensemble is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Santa Barbara Independent. This residency is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment of the Arts, a federal agency. It is also funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts. Tickets are $25 and $22 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.