UBW / JANT-BI International Exchange
Part 2
January 6 - 12, 2007
mancc research highlights from residency
During their second phase of research at MANCC (first phase took place June 2007), Zollar, Acogny and the fourteen UBW/JANT-BI dancers finalized the lighting and production aspects of Les écailles de la mémoire (The scales of memory), then performed a preview of the final work before its world premiere and U.S. tour.
Zollar and Acogny teched the piece for one week with Russell Sandifer, the lighting designer for Les écailles de la mémoire (The scales of memory). They rehearsed and refined Scales each day and concluded the residency by performing a preview, at full production, for the members of the Tallahassee community who they initially engaged and researched with during their first residency in June 2007. This provided an opportunity to strengthen their audience base and nurture ongoing supporters. Zollar and Acogny were also able to spend thorough, collaborative time with Fabrice Bouillon-Laforest, the composer for Scales.
BIOGRAPHIES
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Artistic Director of UBW
Germaine Acogny, Artistic Director of JANT-BI
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Artistic Director of UBW
Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar trained with Joseph Stevenson, a student of the legendary Katherine Dunham. Zollar holds a BA in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and an MFA in dance from Florida State University.
In 1980, she moved to New York City to study with Dianne McIntyre at Sounds in Motion. She founded Urban Bush Women in
1984. In addition to repertory for UBW, Zollar has created works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Arizona, Philadanco, University of Maryland, University of Florida, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and others.
She has been a guest teacher and speaker at Mankato State University (1993-94), UCLA (1995-96), Ohio State University (1996), and the Abramowitz Memorial Lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1998). She was named Alumna of the Year by the University of Missouri (1993) and Florida State University (1997).
Zollar is the Nancy Smith Fichter tenured professor in the Dance Department of Florida State University. She was prominently featured in the PBS Documentary “Free to Dance”, which chronicles the African American influence on modern dance. In June 2002, Zollar was awarded an honorary doctorate from Columbia College in Chicago. Most recently, she was awarded a 2006 New York Dance and Performance Award, A BESSIE, for her work as choreographer/creator of "Walking With Pearl . . . Southern Diaries," a dance inspired by African American choreographer, educator and social activist, Pearl Primus.
Germaine Acogny, Artistic Director of JANT-BI
She was born in Benin, grew up in Senegal, and is widely considered the mother of contemporary African dance. In 1968, she began experimenting in her small studio in Dakar with new movements, based on traditional dances from West Africa . Inspired by western contemporary dance, she has created her own unique technique.
As the director of Mudra Afrique in Dakar (1977 - 1982), a school for the Performing Arts created by Maurice Béjart and the Senegalese President Senghor, she began to teach and perform across all 5 continents, becoming a formidable Ambassador of African dance and culture. In 1995 she returned to Senegal . Together with her German husband Helmut Vogt, she has built up an International Centre for Traditional and Contemporary African dances in Toubab Dialaw, a small fishing village south of Dakar . The “Ecole des Sables” is a meeting point for dancers coming from Africa and all over the world, and a place of education that guides them towards a contemporary African dance, without losing their roots. Between 1997 and 2001, Germaine Acogny was the artistic director of the Contemporary African Dance Competition and Choreographic Meeting in conjunction with AFAA/Afrique en Créations in Paris .
Germaine Acogny continues to dance herself. Her latest solo “Tchourai” is currently touring successfully. Kota Yamazaki is a first-rate dancer and choreographer of contemporary dance in Japan . Kota started learning Butoh in Tokyo with the great master Akira Kasai in 1977. He also studied ballet and contemporary dance and quickly developed his own style of dancing. A critic once said “Yamazaki himself is a style”. He worked with Daniel Larrieu in France and was finalist at the choreographic competition in Bagnolet in France in 1994. His first company Rosy Co, toured in Asia, Europe and United States . Yamazaki constantly strives to go beyond the limits and notable features of his dancing are the speed, the precision, and the power of movement. In 2002, he founded a new company “Kota Yamazaki¹s Fluid HugHug Co”, creating pieces like Meronna , Fish for Ellen and Night on the grass .
COLLABORATORS
Fabrice Bouillon-Laforest, composer/musician
UBW Company Members
Maria Bauman, dancer
Nora Chipaumire, dancer
Bennalldra Williams, dancer
Marjani Forte, dancer
Christine King, tour manager
Love Muwwakkil, dancer
Paloma McGregor, dancer
Catherine Denecy, dancer
JANT-BI Company Members
Babacar Ba, dancer
Cire Beye, dancer
Mohamed Abdoulaye Kane, dancer
Ousmane Ndiaye, dancer
Tchebe Bertrand Saky, dancer
Assane Abib Sow, dancer
Pape Ibrahima Ndiaye Kaolack, dancer
