To envision and prepare for the future, we often pull from the stories and lessons learned from history. For Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, co-artistic directors of the 37-year-old Urban Bush Women, looking to the past is a key part of their process for continuing the legacy of the company.
Credit: Ian Douglas
Credit: Ian Douglas
Atlanta has to look seven years into the past for the ensemble’s last concert here. It was in January 2015 at the Rialto Center for the Arts as part of Urban Bush Women’s 30th anniversary tour. Now the company is back, performing Oct. 20-22 at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts Dance Studio.
Part of the history of Urban Bush Women is the array of unique work the company has performed. Their pieces range from highlighting movement using the dancers’ bodies as vehicles for storytelling, to using text and song, and even conversations with the audience. The company regularly shifts the art forms and choreographic concepts to fulfill the need of the individual work.
Atlanta audiences can expect to experience choreographic storytelling, inspiring movement and a glimpse into both the past and the future of the company. The first half of its program, “Legacy + Lineage + Liberation,” will feature the diverse ways Urban Bush Women has created art over the last 37 years, which Judson calls a “mini-history lesson.”
The audience will be transported forward in the second half, which features newer works of the company. Among the dancers is Atlanta’s own brilliant Mikaila Ware, who has danced with Urban Bush Women for three seasons.
Since its founding, Urban Bush Women has prioritized creating work in a collaborative environment. “There is a strong belief inside of the company that more minds create more brilliance,” Judson says. “Our founder Jawole (Willa Jo Zollar) really holds true to not being relegated to being the only genius in the room.”
Judson and Speis are continuing this tradition with their choreographic processes. Though they were the definitive voices in the studio during the creation of “Haint Blu,” the final piece on the program, the dancers contributed their choreographic problem solving and experiences as well. The iteration of “Haint Blu” that will be performed at the Schwartz Center will be a proscenium version; a site-specific edition will premiere in 2023 in Miami, New Orleans, The Berkshires, Martha’s Vineyard and Manhattan.
Judson and Speis dove deep into an array of research for the site-responsive versions, including learning about waterways in the sites in which the piece will be performed. In some of these areas, waterways were used for safe passage and liberation of people of color. In Martha’s Vineyard, the lores and legends surrounding the water contributed to Judson’s and Speis’ inspiration.
Credit: Ian Douglas
Credit: Ian Douglas
Says Judson: “The work is concerned with reclaiming, remembering and releasing ways of being that will allow us to be more wholly inside of our liberation. That is first as individuals, secondly as a collective of Black women identifying folk, and then thirdly as humans in relationship with this planet. In that sense, the work is a conversation we’re having with everyone who might be in our audience, and every land that we’re doing this work on.”
The Urban Bush Women history is vast. Zollar, now the Visioning Partner for the company, founded the group in 1984, with the goal of creating work that pulls from cultural expression and inspires social change. The ensemble is an innovator not only in choreographic expression, but also in community education, artistic development and administrative structure.
In addition to performances, the company facilitates workshops within communities, holds a summer leadership institute, as well as a choreographic center initiative that prepares Black, female-identifying artists for their artistic field. Across the ecosystem of the arts, the members of Urban Bush Women contribute creativity and ground-breaking ideas.
Judson first joined as a company member after being mesmerized by the many layers of the storytelling of Urban Bush Women. “I was captured by the viscerality of the movement,” she says. “And as a young Black performer woman, when I first saw the company, I hadn’t seen people that looked like me on the stage telling stories that were so layered and from the gut, but also inside of spaces that were imaginary.”
Judson and Speis were named co-artistic directors in 2019. They aim to recognize the important history of Urban Bush Women as they take on their new responsibilities and determine direction for the company. Says Judson: “I feel strongly that in order for us to be looking at the next thing, we also want to really honor and take notice of what’s on the ground. Our way forward is very much with all that 37 years of history as our springboard.”
Reflecting on the new direction, she adds: “I celebrate that Urban Bush Women has been a kind of beacon in the dance field. I want folks to recognize our arts history, and that we’re still super-relevant. There are more stories to tell, and there are more brilliant minds that are gathering to this space and pressing in ways that are the necessary and the new for right now.”
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
MEET OUR PARTNER
ArtsATL (www.artsatl.org), is a nonprofit organization that plays a critical role in educating and informing audiences about metro Atlanta’s arts and culture. Founded in 2009, ArtsATL’s goal is to help build a sustainable arts community contributing to the economic and cultural health of the city.
If you have any questions about this partnership or others, please contact Senior Manager of Partnerships Nicole Williams at nicole.williams@ajc.com.
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