Urban Bush Women, Laurie Taylor/Soul Movement

Join Urban Bush Women as they celebrate their 30th anniversary year with an evening of special performances that showcase the best of the company’s repertoire as well as a SummerStage premiere.
Founded in 1984 by choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women (UBW) seeks to bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance. The company presents this from a woman-centered perspective and as members of the African Diaspora community in order to create a more equitable balance of power in the dance world and beyond. UBW continues to use dance as both the message and the medium to bring together diverse audiences through innovative choreography, community collaboration and artistic leadership development.
The company will premiere Chalabati, a new work choreographed by Zollar, with choreographic assistance by Maria Bauman for dance students at Virginia Commonwealth University, Florida State University, and recently Southern Methodist University. Chalabati is a work that explores journey, memory and ritual retelling of a shared history. Inspired by the music of the Gnawa people (Morocco), the piece will explore a community coming together to remind itself of its strength, power and generosity. http://www.urbanbushwomen.org
Laurie M. Taylor/Soul Movement (LMTSM) is a dance company of “movement story tellers” who delve into the emotional truth of the human experience. The company’s style is based on “sound perception,” how rhythm, tone and texture can be physically embodied and expressed through movement. Fusing Jazz, African Diaspora and Hip-Hop sensibilities, Laurie uses her rich Liberian and American (the American South) cultural background in her work, rendering a lush, curvilinear contemporary dance style. LMTSM’s rich repertory explores the full spectrum of the human experience whether it be the courageousness of lunch counter sit-ins, or being caught up in whirlwind of love and passion. For Laurie, music is the primary impulse for movement, and she has forged close collaborations with musical partners including Blue Note recording Artist Derrick Hodge, composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery, and arranger/violinist Stephanie Matthews. The company’s latest works go deeper into their signature style of “sound perception,” creating a dynamic dialogue between movement and music.