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WORLD PREMIERE

Commissioned by Harlem Stage / Produced by Urban Bush Women

CHOREOGRAPHERS:

Nora Chipaumire - Zimbabwe                                Jawole Willa Jo Zollar - Kansas City

FEATURED ARTISTS:

PROGRAM:

Visible is a performance work that explores epic journeys, myths, dreams and memories of the known world and an imagined future in an unknown land. Nora Chipaumire and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar are conceiving a landscape that unlocks the personal narratives of those who leave their homelands, by choice or not in search of “warmth of other suns” (Richard Wright). The vision of the work is reflected in the male and female cast who range from early twenties to mid sixties and who come from many places around the world.

Commissioned by Harlem Stage and produced by Urban Bush Women, the work draws directly on the personal experiences of the cast and historical and poetic references. Some of the questions explored include – How does this world we live in project its ideas of dominance and submission, shadows and light, sentient beings who are visible and ancestral forces that we feel but are not visible? – How does the “other” or those on the margins affect the host cultures? – What new art ideas emerge from the confrontation of difference? And most central to our investigation is our desire as dance-makers to take risk. – What kind of work would we capable of if we had nothing to lose and nothing to prove?

Please Note:

The performance begins promptly at 7:30 pm and is approximately 65 minutes long with no intermission.

There is no late seating 10 minutes after the performance begins, due to the nature of this performance and the spatial configuration of the theater.

DISCUSSIONS:

Wednesday, October 12:

Opening night 
pre-performance discussion • 6:30pm

“Process and Building the Work”
with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

Thursday, October 13:

Post-performance discussion

“The Great Migration” with John Perpener and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

Friday, October 14:

Post-performance discussion

“Othering” with Brad Learmonth and Nora Chipaumire

Please note: Each dialogue is approximately 20-30 minutes long.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Co-Choreographer

From Kansas City, Zollar founded Urban Bush Women in 1984. In addition to 33 works for UBW, she has created works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Arizona and Philadanco among others. The Nancy Smith Fichter professor of dance at Florida State University also is a recent United States Artists Wynn Fellow and fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Nora Chipaumire, Co-Choreographer

From Zimbabwe, Chipaumire is the recipient of a 2008 New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”) for choreographic work and a 2007 Bessie in the performance category. Also a Maggie Allessee Center for Choreography (MANCC) 2007-08 choreographic fellow, she served as a dancer and associate artistic director of UBW.

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Visible resonates deeply with our mission, as does the work of each artist individually.  The themes of this work address many of the histories and stories representative of the people who have long lived in the Harlem community.  The work digs into issues of migration and immigration, women’s issues, and of course people of color intersecting with each other from across the African Diaspora and within this country and their communities.

Jawole and UBW have been associated with HS since the 80s and have presented here numerous times. Nora has been with us with during the development of this work and as a mentor for our E-Moves dance series for two years. This work-in-progress show has been presented at HS twice – fall 2009 and fall 2010. UBW performed their annual season at HS in April 2011. Jawole and Nora were featured on our tenth anniversary Legends and Legacies program for E-Moves in 2009.

FUNDING CREDITS

Harlem Stage was the Lead Commissioner for Visible through its WaterWorks program.

WaterWorks receives Lead Sponsorship from the Time Warner Foundation.  Additional support has been provided by The Nathan Cummings Foundation; the MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; the Lambent Foundation Fund of the Tides Foundation; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Dance at Harlem Stage is supported by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Capezio/Ballet Makers Dance Foundation.

Visible is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Visible was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Boeing Company Charitable Trust.”

Visible was supported in part by ARTOGRAPHY: Arts in a Changing America, a grant and documentation program of Leverating Investments in Creativity, funded by the Ford Foundation.

Visible was supported in part by funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Lead Commissioner and presenter: Harlem Stage / Produced by Urban Bush Women