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Harlem Stage joins forces with two revered choreographers – Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Nora Chipaumire—for, the first section of a major new project of the artists, visible/invisible,  that will span ten years and travel the country creating in-depth residencies and performances in urban communities. Urban Bush Women, the extraordinary dance company founded by Zollar and featuring Chipaumire, will appear in this powerful, new dance work.Engagment activities with the Harlem community will be scheduled in the days leading up to the showing on the 29th.  The evening will include a dialogue between artists and audience and a reception. Harlem Stage will be a major commissioning partner through its WaterWorks initiative, created to support the creation of major new works and connect audiences and communities to the creative process.

Eventually spanning a period of ten years visible/invisible will travel the country creating in-depth residencies and performances pieces in urban communities.  The work explore themes of the Great Migration of African Americans leaving the south following the Civil War, as well as other documented and undocumented immigrants whose intersection in America’s urban centers birthed new cultural art forms.  Some of the questions it asks are:  What new forms of expression developed in the urban centers that were the destination of these migrations?  How did or does society view the workers that occupied the lower working classes of America?  Why did they leave their homes and what did they find?  When do groups emerge as visible and when are they invisible?  The artists will explore these themes and questions specific to the make-up, history and character of cities.  In NYC, Harlem and Brooklyn will be the focus.  Further down the line New Orleans, Kansas City, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and others will be explored.

The Harlem work is inspired by three major sources: Toni Morrison’s Jazz, Edward P. Jones’ All Aunt Hagar’s Children, and Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series. All of these works share stories and images of people who moved from the south to the north with high hopes, and express the mixed emotions of the struggle of creating new communities.  The resulting piece will be an abstract visual narrative that weaves these themes into the work, and I will serve as the conceptual and choreographic director in collaboration with Nora Chipaumire.  Collaborating with artists of various mediums will be engaged to create a work that is rich and multi-layered with elements of movement, sound, and visual design producing a piece that has historical depth and cohesive clarity.

This first section of the work references the film noir late 50's television series of the same name.  It is situated in the present day and in city life and explores rants, alienation, protest and ultimately celebration through a humorous and sometimes dark lens.  Zollar was inspired by the images of Toni Morrison's novel Jazz as a way to create and explore movement.

To learn more about Urban Bush Women, including their recent prestigious appointment by the U. S. State Department TO TOUR SOUTH AMERICA IN MARCH, 2010: Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia

In April the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) announced DanceMotion USASM, a unique program dedicated to sharing the story of American dance with international audiences.

DanceMotion USA invited three U.S. companies to share America's rich dance culture in separate performance tours in 2010. Urban Bush Women (UBW) was selected for this inaugural program and will tour South America -- Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia -- in March.

“There have been dance troupes built around anthropological investigations; there have been dance troupes that grew out of political movements. But Urban Bush Women are in a category of themselves. In fact, given the breadth and freedom of their art, they defy categorization.” – New York Newsday
“…the all-women ensemble has paved the way for narration in postmodern dance and revolutionized the image of the female dancing body.” – Dance Magazine
visible/invisible: Naked City is presented as part of the Harlem Stage WaterWorks Program, a new initiative designed to support the creation of significant new works by artists of color.  In past seasons, WaterWorks has given way to the development and premiere of new works by Bill T. Jones, Sekou Sendiata, Roger Guenvuer Smith, and Tania Leon.

Presented as part of the Harlem Stage WaterWorks Program