For four days in early October, members of the Urban Bush Women (UBW) performed as artists in residence at the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA). They shared an adapted version of their latest dance-theatre work Haint Blu and collaborated with Assistant Professor of Art Pallavi Sen, whose WCMA exhibition “Pallavi Sen: Colour Theory” opened on Sept. 20. The group also led a class, “Dance for Every Body,” at the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance on Oct. 3.
UBW, which was started 40 years ago by choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, is a “groundbreaking Black women-led theatrical dance company and social activism ensemble,” according to its website.
“The mission [of UBW] has always been to share, uphold, and tell undertold stories, in particular [in relation] to Black culture and Black history,” UBW Producer Jonathan Secor said. In practice, such a mission has resulted in dozens of original dance and theatrical works, many of which have gained international recognition.
The group developed Haint Blu over the course of five years, working with Black and Indigenous communities in Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Martha’s Vineyard, and the Berkshires. They also worked with local partners MASS MoCA, Jacob’s Pillow, and the College’s dance department.
Informed by personal stories, the dances were imbued with emotional richness. For UBW performer Mikaila Ware, the dance allowed her to explore her own ancestry, as a projection of a newspaper article about her ancestor evading capture during Prohibition served as the dance’s backdrop. “I wanted to relive the memory of my great-great-grandfather — who he was as a person, as a father — and share how he was navigating this time,” she said.
According to Secor, Director of Dance at the College Sandra Burton originally connected UBW with WCMA, which resulted in a pop-up performance in the museum in 2022. “The company — in particular, Chanon [Judson, UBW’s co-artistic director] — really loved some of the philosophy around it being a learning museum and the ability for students to really access the art directly,” Secor said.
At the event on Saturday, organizers began by inviting visitors to navigate the museum halls with hand-drawn maps inspired by the Green Book, a popular guidebook to aid Black travelers in the Jim Crow South. The maps, which invited conversation among visitors, served as a storytelling device that invoked the hardships Black Americans faced during segregation and their search for refuge.
Visitors were then drawn further into the museum by the sound of UBW Music Director Grace Galu Kalambay singing and playing guitar. In a room that had instructions projected onto the wall, visitors were encouraged to discuss questions such as, “What will you destroy?,” “With whom shall you build?,” and “How do you repair resilience?”
Judson guided guests through this process, encouraging participants to collaborate as they developed answers to the questions. When guests finished answering questions, they rang a bell and were invited into Sen’s exhibit.
“It was sort of an icing on the cake,” Secor said of the collaboration between Sen’s exhibit and the dance group. “That there was this artist who was working [with] lots of similar themes — around history, around family, around culture, around crafting and home — was great.”
For WCMA, the workshop served as the perfect opportunity to invite students into the creative and artistic process. “We’re interested in bringing students into conversation with living artists,” WCMA Associate Curator of Programs Roz Crews said. “I think there’s so much to be learned from seeing artists working and their processes unfolding.”
At the “Dance for Every Body” class on Oct. 3, leaders encouraged participants to embrace instability as they moved through the space. The class culminated in the creation of several collaborative dances based on rain.
“It was a wonderful class,” participant Candy Ongaro ’28 said. “[I was] really out of my comfort zone, which is wonderful once in a while.”
“I felt accepted and at peace with myself,” Sara Fevrier ’28, another participant, added.
