BY KATRINA REID
As published in Dance/USA's eJournal: From the Green Room

As a New York-based performer and choreographer, I am continually amazed at the staggering number of artistic possibilities that exist here. And yet, in an industry so ripe with opportunities, I’m left craving experiences that will help ground and invigorate my choreographic development. As I navigate my identity as a black, female artist, I’m especially interested in creative efforts that prioritize cultural equity and embody more empowering models of community participation.
 

BY TALVIN WILKS

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar during a break from our current project, Walking with ‘Trane, a meditation on the impact and spirit of the great jazz giant, John Coltrane. The timing is perfect, we are caught up in all of the challenges of creating a new work while musing on the process in developing the UBW Choreographic Center, a brainchild of Zollar's in her effort to impact the greater field and address the challenges for women of color choreographers, specifically, African and African American women choreographers.

In 2013, UBW — with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and led by consultants, Dana Whitco and Lizzy Cooper Davis — began formally investigating the experiences of women choreographers of color; barriers of entry in the field for this group; and ways the dance community could better support, foster, and build audiences for these artists. PNG research engaged mostly black women with an eye towards understanding and developing programming to address the experiences of women choreographers of color more broadly.