Oregon ArtsWatch REVIEW: UBW’s THIS IS RISK at Newmark Theater
At White Bird, the company's This Is Risk looks ahead and back on its 40-year history as its dancers delve into the roots and realities of the African Diaspora.
By Hannah Krafcik | Oregon ArtsWatch
Contemplations on Legacy (2023) - Photo by Kirk Richard Smith
“…Urban Bush Women’s work changed my life.”
Urban Bush Women took audiences on a prescient journey with their 40th anniversary evening of performance, This Is Risk, presented February 5-7 at Portland’s Newmark Theater by White Bird Dance. The company shared a recent piece by choreographer Vincent E. Thomas, followed by two works from Founding Artistic Director Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, dating to 1989 and 1995, respectively.
Shelter (1988) — Photo by Kirk Richard Smith
“…through every piece, Urban Bush Women adamantly invoked and celebrated the African Diaspora — traditions and ancestral memory that shape present-day realities and collective futures.”
I attended opening night, noting that this program did not shy away from subjects of enslavement, forced migration, genocide, and the harms of Eurocentrism. Most of all, through every piece, Urban Bush Women adamantly invoked and celebrated the African Diaspora — traditions and ancestral memory that shape present-day realities and collective futures.
Batty Moves (1998) — Photo by Kirk Richard Smith
“…I came into relationship with the long legacy of the company’s work.”
Urban Bush Women’s focus on legacy even extended to their detailed program notes, which list the original cast of dancers on each piece of repertoire. Though I have reviewed plenty of shows in big theaters with fancy print programs, I have never before noted this level of care and attention to dancers’ past contributions that live on in performance.
