The Fisher Center at Bard Presents the World Premiere of Urban Bush Women’s Dance-Driven Jazz Club Spectacular, SCAT! The Complex Lives Of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar, as Part of Summerscape 2024, June 28–30

The Fisher Center at Bard, one of the country’s leading multidisciplinary producing houses, offering extraordinary support to artists to realize ambitious and visionary projects, presents Urban Bush Women’s SCAT! The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar, June 28–30, part of SummerScape 2024. Conceived, choreographed, and directed by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, SCAT! tells the story of two people making their way in Kansas City—from the Great Migration to the present. A SummerScape commission, this world premiere work from Urban Bush Women's legendary founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar also marks the culmination of her decades-long stewardship of the company, which has continued under the dynamic co-artistic directorship of Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis. For this dance-driven jazz club spectacular, Zollar reunites with frequent collaborator, composer Craig Harris. In Urban Bush Woman’s 40th Anniversary Year, SCAT! builds upon a repertoire of bold, life-affirming dance works, and serves as a celebration of Zollar’s extraordinary artistic vision.

Dance, music, and text drive the performance as it interlaces histories of the Great Migration and jazz. Here, Zollar tells a story of our country through a “biomythography” (in the vein of Audre Lorde) of her parents. Performed with a live band to Harris’ original jazz score, SCAT! brings audiences into the powerful journey of the Zollar family and what happens when dreams encounter the harsh realities of American life in the 1940s & 50s.

Zollar, who “has had a consistent and innovative interest in mining tradition and creating new ritual” (The New York Times), describes, “I grew up performing in floor shows in Black neighborhoods in a segregated Kansas City in the 1950s & 60s. My mother was a dancer and a jazz singer, and my father sold real estate and ran a bar called Al and Bud’s. During this era, Black businesses were booming, and there was great hope for upward mobility after World War II. SCAT! is modeled after the structure and content of the great tradition of the Black floor show, which included comic MCs (like Moms Mabley and Pigmeat Markham), flash acts (think the Nicholas Brothers or the Crackerjacks), eccentric dancers (like Earl ‘Snakehips’; Tucker), storytelling orators, kiddie acts, striptease/exotic dancers (à la Josephine Baker or Sahji), and the Shim Sham Shimmy—a traditional tap dance finale.”
 
Zollar says of wanting to develop and premiere this landmark work—which also features Bard alumna Roobi Gaskins ’19—at SummerScape, "We’re iterative, we’re process-based. It's important to me to work with organizations that really get that, and are excited about and comfortable with the unknowns of process-based work, and in investing in the artist and where their journey is going to go. That’s what I felt with The Fisher Center, and it’s more unique in this country than it should be.”
 
Gideon Lester, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Fisher Center at Bard, says, “SummerScape has a history of presenting superb contemporary artists at the height of their game in collaborations with virtuosic ensembles. With SCAT!, Jawole continues to expand her exuberant art in a profoundly moving tribute to working with her company. Combining social dance with music and storytelling, SCAT! is a reflection of a crucial chapter in American history and a search for justice told with a sense of joy, energy, and celebration. It is equally a reflection of a crucial chapter in New York performance history: that of Jawole’s 40 years of creation with the company built from her vision.”

The artistic performers for SCAT! The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar are Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (Choreographer/Writer/Director/Performer), Craig Harris (Composer/Performer, Trombone), Courtney J. Cook (Associate Artistic Director), Company Members Kentoria Earle, Keola Jones, Mikaila Ware, Roobi Gaskins, and Symara Sarai; and Tendayi Kuumba (Performer & Dance Captain) and Stephanie Battle (Performer). Musicians include TW Sample (Keyboard), Jordyn Davis (Bass), Gary Jones III (Drums), Brianna Thomas (Vocals), Charenee Wade (Vocals), and Milton Suggs (Vocals & Music Director).

The design and production team is Vincent E. Thomas (Co-Choreographer), Cheri L. Stokes (Associate Producer), Bill Toles (Sound Designer), Chanon Judson (Costume Visionary), Lori Gassie (Associate Costume Designer), Russell Sandifer (Lighting Designer), Brittany Bland (Projections Designer), and Talvin Wilks (Dramaturg), Jason Kaiser (Production Stage Manager), Shaena Smith (Production Assistant), and Bennalldra Williams (Movement Coach). The administrative team includes Jonathan Secor (Executive Producer), Michelle Coe (Director of Production, Booking & Touring), Jolie Saltiel (Tour + Company Manager), and Arts & Education Continuum, Inc. (Darrell Bridges, Project Coordinator) (Music Management).
 
Bard SummerScape, deemed by The New York Times a “hotbed of intellectual and aesthetic adventure,” brings eight weeks of live music, opera, dance, and theater to the Hudson River Valley. It also serves as an incubator for adventurous works that often go on to have extended lives and make significant impacts on the performance landscape in New York City, across the country, and around the world. This season, the Fisher Center presents work from two iconic New York companies: Urban Bush Women’s SCAT! The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar and Elevator Repair Service’s Ulysses (June 20 – July 14). With these milestone performances—both theatricalizations of staggering journeys—Urban Bush Women and Elevator Repair Service continue to push their distinct styles to new heights.
 
Every production at SummerScape has been commissioned, developed, and is premiering at the Fisher Center, giving audiences an opportunity to catch pivotal works in the idyllic setting where they originate. Praised by The New York Times as “a hothouse for the creation of uncompromising, cross-disciplinary hits,” in recent years, the Fisher Center has developed large-scale works whose momentous journeys were launched from their SummerScape birthplace, including Justin Peck’s arresting music theater interpretation of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise, currently running on Broadway; Pam Tanowitz and David Lang’s Biblical poem-inspired Song of Songs, which recently was presented at New York City Center, and Tanowitz’s take on T. S. Eliot’s masterpiece Four Quartets, which traveled to the Barbican Centre, CAP UCLA, and BAM; and Daniel Fish’s universally acclaimed reconsideration of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, whose life continued at St. Ann’s Warehouse and on Broadway and the West End, as well as a U.S. national tour.

See a full calendar of SummerScape programming, also including the 34th Bard Music Festival Berlioz and His World, a new production of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Le prophète directed by Christian Räth, Spiegeltent performances curated by Caleb Hammons, and more.

Performance Schedule and Ticketing

Performances of SCAT! The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar take place in the Sosnoff Theater at the Fisher Center:

June 28 at 7 pm
June 29 at 7 pm
June 30 at 3 pm

There will be a post-performance party celebrating Urban Bush Women’s 40th Anniversary on Friday, June 28; a pre-performance talk on Sunday, June 30 at 2 pm; and a Summer Kick-Off celebration on Sunday, June 30 at 4:30 pm. Round-trip coach transportation from NYC is available for the Sunday, June 30 performance.

For complete information regarding tickets, series discounts, and more, visit fishercenter.bard.edu or call the Fisher Center’s box office at (845) 758-7900.

Funding Credits
 
Lead commissioning support for the development and creation of SCAT! is provided by Brown Arts Institute at Brown University. Additional commissioning support is generously provided by The Perelman Performing Arts Center, The O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, and the American Dance Festival with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Works.
 
The Fisher Center is generously supported by Jeanne Donovan Fisher, the Martin and Toni Sosnoff Foundation, Felicitas S. Thorne, the Advisory Boards of the Fisher Center at Bard and Bard Music Festival, Fisher Center and Bard Music Festival members, the Educational Foundation of America, the Ettinger Foundation, the Thendara Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. Projects developed through Fisher Center LAB receive funding from members of the Live Arts Bard Creative Council, the Lucille Lortel Foundation, and the Fisher Center's Artistic Innovation Fund, with lead support from Rebecca Gold and additional funding from The William and Lia G. Poorvu Foundation.

About Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

 
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar began a relationship with the Fisher Center in 2020, working with director Daniel Fish on the 2020 production Most Happy in Concert. Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, she earned her B.A. in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and her M.F.A. in dance from Florida State University. In 1980 Jawole moved to New York City to study with Dianne McIntyre at Sounds in Motion. In 1984 Jawole founded Urban Bush Women (UBW) as a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change.
In addition to creating over 34 works for Urban Bush Women, Zollar has created works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Philadanco, and many universities across the United States. Her collaborations include Compagnie Jant-Bi from Senegal and Nora Chipaumire. She was choreographer of Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of American Popular Music. In 2023, Zollar was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera to direct and choreograph a new Jake Heggie opera, Intelligence.

Urban Bush Women has toured five continents and was selected as one of three U.S. dance companies to inaugurate a cultural diplomacy program for the U.S. Department of State in 2010. Zollar serves as director of the UBW Summer Leadership Institute, founding and visioning partner of Urban Bush Women, and as the Nancy Smith Fichter Professor of Dance and Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor at Florida State University. Zollar has been a United States Artists Wynn fellow and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial fellow. She holds honorary degrees from Columbia College Chicago, Tufts University, Rutgers University, and Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.

Zollar has received the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, the Dance Magazine Award, the Dance/USA Honor Award, the “Bessie” Lifetime Achievement in Dance Award for her work in the field, the Dance Teacher Award of Distinction, and the Martha Hill Dance Fund Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, The Ford Foundation declared Urban Bush Women one of America’s Cultural Treasures. Zollar has recently been awarded a 2021 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellow, the 2022 APAP Honors Award of Merit for Achievement in the Performing Arts and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize.

About Craig Harris

Craig Harris exploded onto the jazz scene in 1976, bringing the entire history of the jazz trombone with him. Craig handled the total vernacular the way a skilled orator utilizes the spoken word. He has performed with a veritable Who’s Who of progressive jazz’s most important figures, and his own projects display both a unique sense of concept and a total command of the sweeping expanse of musical expression. Those two qualities have dominated Craig’s forty years of activity, bringing him beyond the confines of the jazz world into multimedia and performance art as a composer, performer, conceptualist, music curator, and artistic director. Craig, who comes from a tradition of art as cultural facilitation to help promote change, has employed his musical voice to comment on social injustice with projects including God’s Trombones, based on James Weldon Johnson’s book of sermons; Souls Within the Veil commemorating the centennial of W.E.B. DuBois’s seminal work; TriHarlenium, a sound portrait and 30-year musical time capsule of Harlem; and Brown Butterfly, a tribute to the exquisite movements of Muhammad Ali.

About Urban Bush Women (UBW)

Urban Bush Women (UBW) is a groundbreaking Black women-led theatrical dance company and social activism ensemble founded in 1984 by visionary choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Through its mission of engaging with artists, activists, audiences, and communities through performances, artist development, education, and community engagement, the award-winning nonprofit has performed throughout the United States, as well as Asia, Australia, Canada, Germany, South America, Europe, and Senegal (in collaboration with Germaine Acogny and her all-male Compagnie JANT-BI). UBW has been an engine and amplifier for the stories of Black Women+ for forty years. UBW affects the overall ecology of the arts by promoting artistic legacies; projecting the voices of the under-heard and people of color; bringing attention to and addressing issues of equity in the dance field and throughout the United States; and by providing platforms and serving as a conduit for experimental art makers. Signature programs run by UBW include the Summer Leadership Institute (SLI), BOLD (Builders, Organizers & Leaders through Dance), and the Choreographic Center Initiative (CCI) and the CCI Producing Program (CCI 2.0). Now directed by artistic leaders Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, UBW combines radical performance, deep engagement, and ancestral knowledge from the African diaspora into a force that is urgent, forward-looking, and essential.
 
About the Fisher Center at Bard
 
The Fisher Center develops, produces, and presents performing arts across disciplines through new productions and context-rich programs that challenge and inspire. As a premier professional performing arts center and a hub for research and education, the Fisher Center supports artists, students, and audiences in the development and examination of artistic ideas, offering perspectives from the past and present as well as visions of the future. The Fisher Center demonstrates Bard’s commitment to the performing arts as a cultural and educational necessity. Home is the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, designed by Frank Gehry and located on the campus of Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley, soon to be complemented by the Maya Lin-designed Performing Arts LAB (opening 2026). The Fisher Center offers outstanding programs to many communities, including the students and faculty of Bard College and audiences in the Hudson Valley, New York City, across the country, and around the world. Building on a 164-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders.

The Center presents more than 200 world-class events and welcomes 50,000 visitors each year. The Fisher Center supports artists at all stages of their careers and employs more than 300 professional artists annually. The Fisher Center is a powerful catalyst for art-making regionally, nationally, and worldwide. Every year, it produces 8 to 10 major new works in various disciplines. Over the past five years, its commissioned productions have been seen in more than 100 communities around the world. During the 2018–2019 season, six Fisher Center productions toured nationally and internationally. In 2019, the Fisher Center won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for Daniel Fish’s production of Oklahoma!, which began its life in 2007 as an undergraduate production at Bard and was produced professionally in the Fisher Center’s SummerScape Festival in 2015 before transferring to New York City.

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For more information, please contact Blake Zidell of Blake Zidell & Associates at [email protected] or 917.572.2943.
 

This event was last updated on 05-15-2024

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