Sassin’ Back Through Dance: Urban Bush Women
by Sophia Hsu

Bold yet subtle, strong yet vulnerable, the dancers of Urban Bush Women (UBW) make you feel the ecstasies and agonies of life with just one movement. Based in New York, this extraordinary group of women mixes dance, theater, and music to give voices to the unheard. By forcing audiences to ask what it is to be a woman, African American – and first and foremost – human, in contemporary society, Urban Bush Women is a force to be reckoned with.

With members of all sizes, shapes, and personalities, UBW redefines the female dancer. For this company, it’s artist first, body type second – a refreshing outlook in an art form that sometimes values long legs and a thin frame over technique and talent. In line with this revolutionary view, UBW’s dances present women-centric perspectives that are always political but never divisive, thanks to the troupe’s indomitable leader, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar.

Motivated by the network of vivacious women in her life, Zollar created UBW in 1984 to reflect that cohesiveness. “Growing up, the women around me were all strong and held each other accountable in really powerful ways about our actions,” recounts Zollar. “We’d fight of course, but ultimately, there was a bond of love that was greater than competition or dissent.”

UBW’s diversity and strength personifies Zollar’s vision. The company’s uniqueness comes from its dancers – all dancing together yet none dancing alike. Zollar affirms, “We can be individuals but still have an obligation to the group. And the group does not have to drown out your individuality.” One of UBW’s most famous dances, Girlfriends (1986) is an ode to this very camaraderie between women upon which the company is built.

However, UBW isn’t only concerned with the female experience. The troupe seeks to catalyze social change with dances that ultimately reveal aspects of the human experience. Zollar attests, “All stories are human stories. We’re born, we live, we work, we mourn, maybe we fall in love, and eventually we die. That’s the arc of any one person’s life, and that’s what interests people. Specificity only comes from how a person lived, how a person worked, how a person found solace.”

It is this desire to connect people that compels Zollar to continue working so to expose our common humanity. For instance, Hairstories (2001) comically focuses on black women’s hair, but its larger theme explores the ridiculous beauty standards that affect every person’s self-esteem. Batty Moves (1995) extols the female buttocks, but more significantly challenges notions of physical ideals and appropriate movement. And Walking with Pearl (2005) not only honors civil rights activist and dance pioneer Pearl Primus but celebrates the resilience of the human spirit.

Evident by its repertoire, UBW fulfills its tagline of being sassy, strong, and relevant. Zollar says the words, “Condense the complexity of what we do. We’re sassy because we’re candid. The phrase ‘don’t sass back at your master’ was often said to slave women, and suggests that ‘sassing back’ is speaking truth to power. We’re strong and bold, qualities of which we always need more. And we’re relevant to the issues that we live in. We use the past as inspiration, but it’s not about living in the past. It’s about understanding and using the past to move into the future.”

To find out more about Urban Bush Women, visit their website.

Clips from a performance at the Joyce Theater in May of 2007

dance, urban, urban bush women, women