This movement jam/dance class embraces the ideas that each individual has a unique and powerful contribution to make, and that our bodies are a powerful source of agency. The goal is for “every body” to find their level of challenge and comfort and partake according to their abilities, and to appreciate the groups’ diversity as an attribute to their community. This is a movement class designed for the community so no prior dance experience is needed. Participants explore UBW’s technique with close attention to the use of breath, weight, call and response and polyrhythms.
Cost: $16
About Urban Bush Women:
Urban Bush Women is a groundbreaking Black women-led theatrical dance company and social activism ensemble, founded in 1984 by visionary choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar as an engine and an amplifier for the unheard stories of Black Women+. Today, under the artistic leadership of Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, UBW combines revolutionary performance, deep-healing community engagement, and ancestral knowledge from the African diaspora into a cultural force that is urgent, forward-looking, and essential.
For the last four decades, UBW has defied expectations and easy categorization with its bold, narrative storytelling. The very bodies of the seven founding members of UBW – Black women of various shapes and sizes – challenged and changed the landscape of who could be seen on stage as a dancer. The subject matter of the work placed the stories of such women, historically overlooked and undervalued in America, front and center stage. Similarly, UBW remains committed to ensuring that underserved audiences, especially people of color who face systemic barriers to accessing conventional performance, are engaged, invited, and made welcome wherever the company tours.
UBW embraces the power of radical storytelling to activate social change. Whether creating genre-defying work for the stage, guiding the development of Black Women+ choreographers and producers, organizing for justice through art-making, or inspiring leaders across generations, UBW is an innovator, operating at the vanguard.
Upcoming Performances at ICA Boston:
Friday March 21 at 8:00pm. Saturday March 22 at 8:00pm. Sunday March 23 at 2:00pm. $30 ICA members & students / $40 nonmembers. Tickets available HERE.
A centerpiece of Urban Bush Women’s 40th Anniversary Celebration, This is Risk looks forward and back in celebrating four decades of operating at the vanguard of movement and social activism. At the ICA, Urban Bush Women will perform an evening of iconic works celebrating the Company’s 40-year history including Visibility, Batty Moves, Blues Medicine, and Shelter and will feature live music performed by Grace Galu Kalambay and Lucianna Padmore. This is Risk takes the audience through intentional storytelling to the next space of collective brilliance.
Following Saturday’s performance, members of Urban Bush Women will join Grisha Coleman for a post-performance conversation. Coleman is Professor of Movement, Computation, and Digital Media at Northeastern University and a former member of Urban Bush Women.
Special offer for Boston’s Dance Community. Because of the special relationship among the Dance Complex, the ICA, and Urban Bush Women, we are happy to offer a special discount code for our dance community. See Urban Bush Women’s This Is Risk performance May 21-23 for $15 with code UBW15. Visit www.icaboston.org/events/urban-bush-women-40th-anniversary-this-is-risk/ to secure your tickets now! Limited quantity available.
