THIS IS RISK
We bring the presence of Blackness to the table.
Not a race-based concept. A spectrum of excellence.
A centering of voices that don’t often get centered.
Urban Bush Women (UBW) opens the winter/spring 2027 Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) season with THIS IS RISK featuring three powerful, disparate works by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar.
UBW’s new work i live in music is a vibrant reimagining of Zollar's 1994 original, anchored by Ntozake Shange's poem of the same name. i live in music is a love letter to jazz driven by the body's sheer physical possibility. The UBW company embodies rhythm itself, transforming Shange's poetry into a living, breathing celebration of sound and movement, rooted in Zollar’s deep love of jazz. Shelter (1988), explores contemporary and historical relationships of people affected by displacement from homelessness to the middle passage to today’s events of forced migration due to climate change, political violence, and economic despair. And Batty Moves (1995) honors Sarah Baartman, the so-called “Hottentot Venus,” who was taken from her South African home to appear in European sideshows in the early 1800s. Batty Moves ultimately celebrates seeing beauty in all the different shapes, sizes, and shades we come in.
As Black women, we have been shamed and ridiculed for our bodies. We celebrate and reclaim our narrative of beauty through embodied liberatory dance.
Shelter and Batty Moves are both accompanied by live percussion and vocals.
ON TOUR
January 14-18, 2026
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) — Fisher
Brooklyn, NY
TICKETS — On sale Nov 5 at 1 PM
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Thu, Jan 14 at 7:30 PM
Fri, Jan 15 at 7:30 PM
Sat, Jan 16 at 2 PM
Sat, Jan 16 at 7:30 PM
Mon, Jan 18 at 2 PM
“Movement becomes a message for the Urban Bush Women dance company when cultural knowledge, lived experience, and modern-day struggle are intertwined with purposeful expression.”
— Lewiston Tribune
Engaging with the past requires risk.
Embracing the present requires risk.
Unleashing the future requires risk.
Urban Bush Women
THIS IS RISK
Photo Credits: Kirk Richard Smith, and Stephen Cohen Photography