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Urban Bush Women: telling it with sass and style.

Article Excerpt
In the witty and caustic tradition of African American wordplay, the name Urban Bush Women plays games with us. Filled with double meanings, it suggests guerrilla warfare, city smarts, and a streetwise slang word for the female anatomy. Its founder and artistic director, the diminutive, quicksilver Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, has created works that integrate dance, music, and theater in an innovative brew with a distinctive flavor. Over the past two decades the all-women ensemble has paved the way for narration in postmodern dance and revolutionized the image of the female dancing body. Big or small, short or tall, UBW's diversity defies a stereotyped ideal. Its work is frequently based on personal stories and women's lore, and is drawn from African traditions. The funny and pungent HairStories (2001) explores conflicts around black women's hair, beauty, and self-esteem; Batty Moves (1995) celebrates the female buttocks ("batty," in Caribbean-speak)--a particularly touchy topic for dancers trained to "tuck it under"; Sheller (1988), inspired by a bag lady on a Manhattan sidewalk, suggests how close we all are to homelessness. In each case Zollar shapes the movement vocabulary to meet her dramatic needs. Her choreography combines text, musical accompaniment, and motifs inspired by African, pedestrian, modern, and social dance techniques. The result is a repertoire of heart-wrenching, soul-searching works that communicate the ecstasy and agony of the human condition.

Zollar began formal dance training in her native Kansas City, Missouri, with ballet classes at...

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