Inspired Steps

By Maria Di Mento

Photograph by Cylia von Tiedemann

Growing up in a segregated Kansas City in the 1950s, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and her sister spent hours making up dances together as they played. Only years later did she realize that what she was doing was choreographing, a passion that eventually led Ms. Zollar to start her own dance company.

“I was attracted to anything that was movement, but I didn’t take dance seriously until I got to college,” said Ms. Zollar.

After earning a master’s degree in dance at Florida State University, Ms. Zollar moved to New York, where in 1984 she founded Urban Bush Women, a troupe that draws on the experiences of women, African-American history, and African folk traditions for inspiration. A dance critic for The New York Times described the company’s debut performance as a “deeply affecting and stylishly produced work.”

As the company celebrates its 20th-anniversary season, Ms. Zollar remains committed to using dance as a way to communicate the narratives of human history, through education programs and concert performances.

The group’s annual summer institute brings together about 40 young dancers, musicians, college students, grass-roots activists, and even an occasional engineer or doctor to show them how social activism can be promoted through dance. This year’s session, to be held in July, will focus on democracy and voting and will use dance to teach about the struggle of women, blacks, and immigrants to gain the right to vote, as well as explore why so many Americans choose not to exercise that right.

Donations from individuals and government grants account for about 35 percent of the company’s annual $700,000 budget, while the rest comes from money the group makes performing.

Here, Urban Bush Women dancers perform “Hands Singing Song.”