UBW’s powerful bold residency at Ohio University
Urban Bush Women bring “BOLD” workshops to School of Dance First Year Performance Guarantee program
“[UBW’s] presence brought fresh energy and inspiration, aligning with the school's mission of fostering community and artistic growth.”
By Sophia Rooksberry | OHIO Today
UBW Dance For Every Body Workshop | Photo by James K. Hamilton
“The two BOLD artists in residency at the School of Dance were Kendra J. Ross, a BOLD facilitator, dancer, choreographer and founder of Stoops Art and Community, and Asma Feyijinmi, a BOLD facilitator, dance teaching artist, choreographer and arts educator at the Park Avenue Armory.
BOLD Workshops can take many forms; for this residency, Ross and Feyijinmi brought the CollabLab workshop to the School of Dance.
“It’s all about culling the experience and knowledge of the participants of the workshop and using that to craft a performance together, and it’s really focusing on individual self and the qualities that we bring, the biases that we bring and understanding how to place self, inside of community for the sake of creating together,” Ross said. “Our hope is…to deepen the bonds between folks so they become a solidified cohort to move forward in the next four years collectively and collaboratively, and learn how to both hold onto their individuality but also utilize the collective as a tool and resource too.”
This theme of collaborative composition is only one of Urban Bush Women’s many pillars; another emphasis is social activism through dance.
“Dance has been a vehicle for me in these trying times to process all of the things that are happening to and around me, to give myself a vehicle to dream, to imagine and remind myself where I want to go and what I want to see in the world,” Ross said.
The current climate provides ample opportunities for dancers to exercise advocacy through their art, but the power of dance as an act of protest is nothing new to Feyijinmi.
“I’m old enough to remember the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and whenever I watched people in South Africa take it to the streets in protest…they were dancing,” Feyijinmi said. “At a young age, that taught me protest or speaking truth to power is a joyous thing as well and you can’t disconnect your body, your spirit, your thought process from the progress that you’re seeking.”
According to Camper Moore, this emphasis on empowerment through collaborative creativity is something the School of Dance shares with Urban Bush Women and is one of the reasons she thought the ensemble would be a good fit for a residency.”
