Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

Last updated

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (born December 21, 1950) is an American dancer, teacher and choreographer of modern dance. She is the founder of the Urban Bush Women dance company.

Contents

Biography

One of six children, she was born Willa Jo Zollar in Kansas City, Missouri, to parents Alfred Zollar Jr. and Dorothy Delores Zollar. [1] From age seven to seventeen, Zollar received her dance education from Joseph Stevenson, former student of Katherine Dunham. [2] Zollar also had early training in Afro-Cuban and other native dance forms which later helped to shape her teaching aesthetic. [3] She received a Bachelor of Arts in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and her Master of Fine Arts from Florida State University. She has been a professor at Florida State University's School of Dance since at least 2011, when she was named the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Dance. [4] In 1980, Zollar moved to New York City, where she studied under Dianne McIntyre, artistic director for Sounds in Motion Dance Company. [2] In 1984, she left the company and established her own, called the Urban Bush Women, which became the first major dance company consisting of all-female African-American dancers. [2]

Movement style and choreography

Zollar's choreographic style is influenced by the dance traditions of Black Americans—modern dance, African dance, and social dance. [3] Her movement synthesizes influences from modern dance (a combination of Dunham, Graham, Cunningham, and Limón techniques), Afro-Cuban, Haitian, and Congolese dance. [2] She emphasizes the use of weight and fluidity as opposed to creating clean shapes. [5] From her Afro-Cuban dance training she employs a strong sense of dynamic timing, rhythmic patterns, and continuous flow of movement. She derives many of her movement ideas from African-American culture—allowing the "church testifying, emotional energy shap[e] the form, and the rawness of that form, like you have in jazz," she says. [6]

In her choreography, Zollar creates avant-garde dance-theater productions that speak from the Black female perspective. [3] Her pieces are collaborative performances between dancers, vocalists, artists, actors, composers and musicians, including vocalizations, a cappella singing, storytelling, and social commentary. Through these mediums, Zollar pushes towards social awareness and change. Zollar also explores African-American folk traditions and the reality of the Black woman's experience, tackling uncomfortable and controversial social topics such as abortion, racism, sexism, and homelessness, in a hard-edged and straightforward way. [7] Many dance critics say that Zollar's company makes a point to show the reality of African-American culture, revealing how Black Americans express themselves when not in the presence of whites. [2]

Zollar was director and choreographer of the Houston, Texas, world premiere Oct. 20, 2023, of "Intelligence," an opera based on the true story of a southern female spy for the Union in the American Civil War. [8] [9]

Selected works

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pearl Primus</span> American dancer, choreographer and anthropologist (1919–1994)

Pearl Eileen Primus was an American dancer, choreographer and anthropologist. Primus played an important role in the presentation of African dance to American audiences. Early in her career she saw the need to promote African dance as an art form worthy of study and performance. Primus' work was a reaction to myths of savagery and the lack of knowledge about African people. It was an effort to guide the Western world to view African dance as an important and dignified statement about another way of life.

<i>True Women</i> 1997 TV film series

True Women is a 1997 American Western CBS TV miniseries based on the 1993 novel by Janice Woods Windle directed by Karen Arthur, starring Dana Delany, Annabeth Gish, Angelina Jolie, Julie Carmen, Tina Majorino and Rachael Leigh Cook. It was filmed in Austin, San Antonio, and McDade, Texas. The series covers five decades, from the Texas Revolution through Native American uprisings and the Civil War to the early stages of the women's suffrage movement. This miniseries was first aired on the CBS television network over two nights during May 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syvilla Fort</span> American dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher

Syvilla Fort was an American dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher. Born in Seattle, she drew on her African-American heritage in her original dance works. American composer John Cage wrote his first piece for prepared piano, Bacchanale (1940), for a dance by Fort. She died from breast cancer at the age of 58.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Collins</span> American prima ballerina, choreographer and teacher

Janet Collins, OblSB was an African American prima ballerina, choreographer, and teacher. She performed on Broadway, in films, and appeared frequently on television. She was among the pioneers of black ballet dancing, one of the few classically trained Black dancers of her generation.

Mary Richards, also known as Mary Jane Richards Garvin and possibly Mary Bowser, was a Union spy during the Civil War. She was possibly born enslaved from birth in Virginia, but there is no documentation of where she was born or who her parents were. By the age of seven, she was enslaved by the household of Elizabeth "Bet" Van Lew, in Richmond, Virginia. The Van Lew family sent Richards to school somewhere in the north, and then to Liberia through the American Colonization Society. Richards returned to Richmond shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War, where she was one of many black and white Richmond residents who collected and delivered military information to the United States Army under the leadership of Elizabeth Van Lew.

The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessie Awards, are awarded annually for exceptional achievement by independent dance artists presenting their work in New York City. The broad categories of the awards are: choreography, performance, music composition and visual design. The Bessie Awards were established in 1983.

Hattie Gossett is an African-American feminist playwright, poet, and magazine editor. Her work focuses on bolstering the self-esteem of young black women.

Urban Bush Women (UBW), founded in 1984 by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, is a Brooklyn, New York-based non-profit dance company and professional African-American women's dance company. The ensemble performs choreography by Zollar and several other choreographers, often with a focus on the experiences of women of African descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Philadelphia Dance Company</span>

The Philadelphia Dance Company is a professional dance company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that specializes in contemporary dance. The organization was founded in 1970 by artistic director Joan Myers Brown. The company tours both nationally and internationally, in addition to their regular appearances locally at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Painted Bride Art Center, and other venues in the Philadelphia area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern dance</span> Genre of western concert or theatrical dance

Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was considered to have been developed as a rejection of, or rebellion against, classical ballet, and also a way to express social concerns like socioeconomic and cultural factors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marguerite Ross Barnett</span>

Marguerite Ross Barnett was the eighth president of the University of Houston and a former chancellor of the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Barnett was the first African American woman to lead a major American university.

Khorshed Dastoor better known as Khori Dastoor is an American arts executive. She is the General Director and CEO of Houston Grand Opera (2021–present) and the former General Director of Opera San José (2019-2021). 

The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize or Gish Prize is given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." It is among the most prestigious and one of the richest prizes in the American arts. The 2019 winner Walter Hood received $250,000. The founders Dorothy Gish (1898–1968) and Lillian Gish (1893–1993) were sisters, famous as actresses from the silent era of film and mid-century theatre. About the prize, established in Lillian Gish's will, she said: "It is my desire, by establishing this prize, to give recipients of the prize the recognition they deserve, to bring attention to their contributions to society and encourage others to follow in their path." It was established in 1994 by the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize Trust and is administered by JPMorgan Chase Bank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willa Brown</span> American aviator, educator, activist (1906–1992)

Willa Beatrice Brown was an American aviator, lobbyist, teacher, and civil rights activist. She was the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license in the United States, the first African American woman to run for the United States Congress, first African American officer in the Civil Air Patrol, and first woman in the U.S. to have both a pilot's license and an aircraft mechanic's license.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, which was founded in 1968 by Dayton, Ohio native, Jeraldyne Blunden, is the oldest modern dance company in Ohio, and one of the largest companies of its kind between Chicago and New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ishmael Houston-Jones</span> American choreographer (born 1951)

Ishmael Houston-Jones is a choreographer, author, performer, teacher, curator, and arts advocate known for his improvisational dance and language work. His work has been performed in New York City, across the United States, in Europe, Canada, Australia and Latin America. Houston-Jones and Fred Holland shared a 1984 New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for their work Cowboys, Dreams and Ladders performed at The Kitchen and he shared another Bessie Award in 2011 with writer Dennis Cooper and composer Chris Cochrane for the 2010 revival of their 1985 collaboration, THEM. THEM was performed at Performance Space 122, the American Realness Festival, Springdance in Utrecht, Tanz im August in Berlin, REDCAT in Los Angeles, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and at TAP, Theatre and Auditorium of Poitiers, France. The 1985 premier performance of THEM at PS122 was part of New York's first AIDS benefit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dianne McIntyre</span> American dancer, choreographer and teacher

Dianne McIntyre is an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her notable works include Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Dance Adventure in Southern Blues , an adaptation of Zora Neal Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as productions of why i had to dance,spell #7, and for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, with text by Ntozake Shange. She has won numerous honors for her work including an Emmy nomination, three Bessie Awards, and a Helen Hayes Award. She is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and the Dramatists Guild of America.

Amara Tabor-Smith is a San Francisco Bay Area-based choreographer and performer noted for significant contributions to dance that draw on, celebrate, and reconfigure African-American and women's history.

Nadine George-Graves is an academic who works at the intersection of African American studies, gender studies, and dance and theater history. She holds the Naomi Willie Pollard Endowed Chair at Northwestern University with appointments in the Department of Performance Studies and Department of Theatre. She is also the executive co-editor of Dance Research Journal. She has a PhD in Theater and Drama from Northwestern University, and a BA in Philosophy and Theater Studies from Yale University.

James Frazier is an American dance artist, arts administrator, and Dean of the Florida State University College of Fine Arts. 

References

  1. ↑ Great Performances: Free To Dance - Biographies - Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Hussie-Taylor, J. "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo", International Dictionary of Modern Dance. Detroit: St. James Press, 1998, 852.
  3. 1 2 3 White-Dixon, Melanye. "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo", International Encyclopedia of Dance. 6th ed. 6 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1998, 448.
  4. ↑ cizquierdo (2015-04-15). "Jawole Willa Jo Zollar". School of Dance. Retrieved 2024-07-13.
  5. ↑ Office of Research: Research In Review: The Journey of Jawole
  6. ↑ Zollar as quoted in Hussie-Taylor's "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo", 852.
  7. ↑ Hussie-Taylor, "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo", 854.
  8. ↑ "Houston Grand Opera debuts Civil War-themed 'Intelligence' this weekend". Houston Chronicle . October 7, 2023. Retrieved November 4, 2023.
  9. ↑ "In an Opera About Civil War Spies, Dancers Help Drive the Drama". New York Times . October 15, 2023. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Founder and Legacy Timeline". Urban Bush Women. Retrieved 2024-07-13.
  11. ↑ Wingenroth, Lauren (8 December 2015). "Highlights of the 2015 Dance Magazine Awards in Pictures". Dance Magazine. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  12. ↑ Greene, Melanie (2021-09-16). "Shifting Through Adaptability: A Conversation With Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Dance Teacher's 2021 Award of Distinction Recipient". Dance Teacher. Retrieved 2024-07-13.
  13. ↑ "MacArthur Foundation Announces 2021 'Genius' Grant Winners". The New York Times. September 28, 2021. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
  14. ↑ Ulaby, Neda (2022-07-18). "Dancer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, of Urban Bush Women, wins prestigious Gish Award". NPR. Retrieved 2022-07-19.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.