Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

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

Biography

One of six children, she was born “Willa Jo Zollar” in Kansas City, Missouri to parents Alfred Zollar Jr. and Dorothy Delores Zollar. [ [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/freetodance/biographies/zollar.html Great Performances: Free To Dance - Biographies - Jawole Willa Jo Zollar ] ] From age seven to seventeen, Zollar received her dance education from Joseph Stevenson, former student of Katherine Dunham [Hussie-Taylor, J. "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo." "International Dictionary of Modern Dance". Detroit: St. James P, 1998, 852.] . Zollar also had early training in Afro-Cuban and other native dance forms which later helped to shape her teaching aesthetic [White-Dixon, Melanye. "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo." "International Encyclopedia of Dance". 6th ed. 6 vols. New York: Oxford UP, Inc., 1998, 448.] . After high school graduation she went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and from there also received her Master of Fine Arts from Florida State University, where she is currentlyvague a tenured dance professor [ [http://www.urbanbushwomen.org/mission_history.html Mission and History ] ] .In 1980, Zollar moved to New York City where she studied under Dianne McIntyre, artistic director for Sounds in Motion Dance Company [www.pbs.com; Hussie-Taylor, "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo," 852.] . 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. [Hussie-Taylor, "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo," 852.]

Movement style and choreography

Zollar’s choreographic style is influenced by the dance traditions of black Americans—modern dance, African dance, and social dance [White-Dixon,"Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo," 448.] . Her movement synthesizes influences from modern dance (a combination of Dunham, Graham, Cunningham, and Limon techniques), Afro-Cuban, Haitan, and Congolese dance. [Hussie-Taylor, "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo," 852.] She emphasizes the use of weight and fluidity as opposed to creating clean shapes. [ [http://www.rinr.fsu.edu/summer2002/jawole.html Office of Research: Research In Review: The Journey of Jawole ] ] 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. [Zollar as quoted in Hussie-Taylor's "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo," 852.]

In her choreography, Zollar creates avant-garde dance-theater productions that speak from the black female perspective [White-Dixon,"Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo," 448.] . Her pieces are collaborative performances between dancers, vocalists, artists, actors, composers and musicians, including vocalizations, a capella 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 straight-forward way. [Hussie-Taylor, "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo," 854.] 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. [Hussie-Taylor, "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo," 852.]

Cultural impact and choreographic contributions

Zollar is well known for creating strong and diverse images of black women through her choreographic works. Her company, [http://www.urbanbushwomen.org/ Urban Bush Women] , has survived as a black, all female, dance company in New York doing work that challenges political and aesthetic conventions. The Urban Bush Women have acquired widespread recognition, while still staying committed to the community. The company has many community outreach programs such as Project Next Generation, through which the company donates a scholarship to a new up-and-coming female choreographer in the community. Also, the program entitled B.O.L.D. (Builders Organizers and Leaders through Dance), offers classes to young women ages 7 to 14, where they can experience self-expression and empowerment through dance. Furthermore, the company conducts a ten day workshop, called the Summer Institute, that strives to bring professional and local community artists together to advance dance as a vehicle for social change. [ [http://www.urbanbushwomen.org/current.html Current Projects ] ]

Apart from her work with Urban Bush Women, Zollar has also created commissioned pieces for other major companies such as [http://www.alvinailey.org/page.php?p=main&v=4&sec=aaadt Alvin Ailey Dance Theater] , [http://www.balletaz.org/eoffice/taf/_balletaz.taf?mnid=home&smid=0&vurl=balletaz Ballet Arizona] , and [http://www.philadanco.org/ Philadanco] . Zollar strives to reclaim black female sexuality by defying containment in her dancing and choreography [Chatterjea, Ananya. "Subversive Dancing: The Interventions in Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s "Batty Moves"." "Theatre Journal". 55:3. (October 2003): 451-465. [http://iipa.chadwyck.com/marketing.do International Index To Performing Arts] . 20 Mar. 2008, 451.] . Her pieces are raw, honest, confrontational, unconventional, blunt, and controversial. She shows how art can and does instigate social and political change. Zollar weaves together the history of the community, the individual experience, and the political, social and economic happenings of the past, present, and future to create rich and complex meaning through her choreography [Chatterjea, Ananya. “Jawole Willia Jo Zollar's "Womb Wars": Embodying Her Critical Response to Abortion Politics.” "Dance Research Journal". 33:1. (Summer 2001): 23-33. [http://iipa.chadwyck.com/marketing.do International Index To Performing Arts] . 20 Mar. 2008, 28.] . In her work, she often shows the struggle of the black female body through depictions of rape, assault, and oppression, but always ends with a note of hope, of self-determination, of strength [Chatterjea, "Womb Wars", 30.] .She regards the idea of pain as an acting, breathing dynamic, not a passive place, that at some point directs the subject to a place of no pain, and she stresses that in her choreography [Chatterjea, "Womb Wars", 31.] .

One of important piece of Zollar’s choreography is the witty dance called "Batty Moves". The word “batty” is Jamaican slang for “butt,” and in the dance she celebrates black female sensuality by re-evaluating the black female body. Though it is a humorous piece, with dancers pointedly shaking their “batty’s” in every way possible, "Batty Moves", has to do with overturning historical perceptions and misconstructions of the black female body, and is therefore much more than just a comment on sensuality and power of female sexuality [Chatterjea, "Subversive Dancing", 45.] .

List of works

* 1984 "River Songs"; "Life Dance…The Fool’s Journey"
* 1985 "Working for Free"
* 1986 "Anarchy, Wild Women and Dinah"; "Girlfriends"; "Madness"; "LifeDance I…The Magician (The Return of She)"
* 1987 "Bitter Tongue"
* 1988 "Heat"; "Lipstick"; "Shelter"; "LifeDance II…The Papess"
* 1989 "I Don’t Know", "But I Been Told", "If You Keep on Dancin’ You Never Grow Old"
* 1990 "Praise House"
* 1992 "LifeDance III"
* 1994 "Nyabinghi Dreamtime"; "Vocal Attack"
* 1995 "Batty Moves"; "BONES AND ASH: A Gilda Story"
* 1996 "Transitions"
* 1997 "Self Portrait"
* 1998 "Hand's Singing Song"
* 2000 "Soul Deep"
* 2001 "HairStories"
* 2002 "Shadow's Child"
* 2004 "Walking with Pearl- Africa Diaries"

Awards

* New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship (1984)
* National Endowment for the Arts choreography fellowships (1988-90)
* New York Dance and Performance Award (1992)
* Worlds of Thought Resident Scholar, Makato State University (1993-94)
* Capezio Foundation Dance Award (1994)
* Who’s Who in America (1995)
* Regent Lecturer, Department of World Arts and Culture, University of California (1995-96)

References