UBW, Inc.
Create Dance | Create Community
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
UBW has been dedicated to dismantling inequality of race and gender since our inception over 34 years ago. In 1984, the act of placing seven Black women of various body shapes and sizes center stage, telling stories of people who have been historically under-heard and undervalued, was radical in itself. UBW has helped change the landscape of who can be seen on stage as a dancer over the past three decades, yet much work remains to be done to decenter the whiteness and maleness that prevails at the core of dance practice in the field today. By working at the intersection of arts and community organizing, UBW seeks to give a voice, equity and agency to the most under-heard and overlooked populations in America – disproportionally women and people of color – who critically lack access to resources and information that could help them to overcome systemic inequality, improve their quality of life, and in turn improve society as a whole.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Summer Leadership Institute
(“SLI”) is our annual 10-day intensive that serves as the foundation for all of UBW’s community engagement activities. SLI builds the global network of community arts practitioners, and what Zollar calls “front line social justice workers,” by connecting dance professionals and community-based artists in a learning experience that leverages the arts as a vehicle for social activism and civic engagement. SLI was begun in 1997 and formalized as an annual UBW program in 2004.
Where we work
External reviews
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Urban Bush Women works to:
- Promote artistic legacies
- Project the voices of the under-heard and people of color
- Bringing attention to and address issues of equity in the dance field and throughout the United States
- Providing platforms and serve as a conduit for culturally and socially relevant experimental art makers
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
UBW STRATEGY STATEMENT
We create learning communities where people, especially women and girls, can find their power through dance. We nurture leadership skills and facilitate the use of art as a means of encouraging social responsibility and civic engagement. We aspire to ensure continuity by strengthening and expanding our community via ongoing professional education, development of new audiences, nurturing young talent and presenting bold, life-affirming dance works as a vehicle for self-expression and catalyst for social change.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
UBW has built a network of exceptionally talented and committed company members, staff members, board members, SLI faculty and BOLD Facilitators to meet the needs of its performance and community engagement activities.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
During the fiscal year, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and the UBW company actively developed two new works: Scat! and Hair & Other Stories (H&OS). Scat! is a dance-driven musical that tells a love story of two people making their way during the Great Migration through song, dance, and storytelling. H&OS was choreographed by UBW Associate Artistic Directors Samantha Speis and Chanon Judson in collaboration with the company. H&OS explores perceptions of body image, race, gender identity, economic inequities and what constitutes freedom, liberation and release in our everyday struggles to rise to our Extra-ordinary Selves in extraordinary times.
The UBW Choreographic Center Initiative provides specific activities designed to assist women choreographers of color during differing stages in their careers. UBW BOLD includes the Summer Leadership Institute, restaging UBW works at academic institutions and facilitated workshops such as “Entering, Building and Exiting Community (EBX),”
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
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UBW, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 12/13/2019
Tammy Bormann
The TLB Collective
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
Urban Bush Women
Tammy Bormann
The TLB Collective
Jennifer Smith
City of New York
Yvahn Martin
GiorgioArmaniBeauty-USA.com
Ashly Nikkole Davis
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Ngozi Ogbonna
Today Tix
Debra Brookes
New York State Department of Financial Services