Urban Bush Women Walking With 'Trane

Buffalo, NY – The University at Buffalo Department of Theatre and Dance will host Brooklyn-based professional dance company Urban Bush Women (UBW) for a public performance in the UB Center for the Arts Drama Theatre on Saturday, September 28, 2019 at 7:30 p.m.  The department is excited to welcome back UB alumna and recently named artistic director, Chanon Judson, I'm thrilled to share the great work of Urban Bush Women at the University at Buffalo.  As a Buffalo native and UB Alum, it's my joy and responsibility to pour back into the community nurtured me so richly.

UBW will perform the evening-length work Walking With ‘Trane, inspired by legendary jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. Esteemed UB Department of Music instructor and jazz pianist, George Caldwell, is co-composer of the music, and will accompany UBW live on stage.

Walking With "Trane offers two unique experiences, SIDE A and SIDE B, inspired by the musical life and spiritual journey of Coltrane, a composer at the forefront of 1950s and ’60s jazz innovation. Informed by the unpredictability of the bandstand, the “Band State,” is the scary, risky place that potentially expands into “transcendence.” The work is an ethereal investigation within the layers of Coltrane’s music, life, and spirituality.

SIDE A: JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH ‘TRANE conjures Coltrane’s essence, rooted in “known” traditions pushed into heightened performance “states.” From cool to hot, from ancient field hollers to gospel cadences, the strange reed riffs drive a spiraling physical journey through echoes of the blues, bebop, hard bop, and free jazz, dazzlingly scored by Phillip White.

SIDE B: FREED(OM), is a free-fall suite of “states,” exploring the artistic imprint of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. A riff on pursuance, plunging into the depths of Coltrane’s formidable legacy with diagonal pulls, suspended silences, chaotic spirals, which ultimately lead to transcendence. SIDE B’s masterful musical score is by George Caldwell, and played live on piano.

The public performance is complemented by a two-week residency by UBW, from September 23 – October 4, 2019, which will consist of a series of dance and community engagement activities.

Founded in 1984 by choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women has toured five continents and performed at venues including: Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, and The Kennedy Center. The group brings the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance from a female-centered perspective and as members of the African Diaspora community in order to create a more equitable balance of power in the dance world and beyond.

The public performance and residency are made possible by generous funding from the Morris Visiting Artist Fund and the UB Creative Arts Initiative.

DATES and TIMES:
Saturday, September 28, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. (Public Performance) Monday, September 23, 2019 – Friday, October 4, 2019 (Residency Project)

LOCATION:
UB Center for the Arts
Drama Theatre
University at Buffalo
North Campus

TICKETS:
$40 General Public
$20 Student/Senior

CFA Box Office:  (716) 645-2787
Charge by phone:  1-877-987-6487
ubcfa.org/tickets    -    ticketfly.com 

Directions to UB Center for the Arts: www.ubcfa.org/directions-maps

UB Center for the Arts Website: ubcfa.org