FSU School of Dance graduate student, dance teacher and mother
While fine arts programs around the country are closing, FSU is funding the arts at record levels.
Actors, arts administrators, art educators, art historians, art therapists, choreographers, costume designers, dancers, directors, interior designers, lighting designers, museum and cultural educators, performance artists, scholars, studio artists, technical producers, theatre managers and visual artists are shaping the future of the arts here.
FLORIDA’S HOME FOR THE ARTS IS
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COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
WELCOME FROM THE
OPENING NIGHTS TEAM
We welcome you to the Florida State University Opening Nights 2024-25 Season. This year, we are thrilled to present a vibrant array of performances to captivate your interest, whether you are returning for cherished favorites or exploring new and intriguing options.
Our season features thirty performances across eleven diverse venues in Tallahassee, encompassing nineteen artistic genres. We aim to offer something for everyone in our community, ensuring each performance appeals to a broad spectrum of tastes.
For over 25 years Opening Nights has been a unifying force, bringing together people from across our community, region, and state to celebrate life through exceptional performances. This season, we are excited to showcase world-class talent, from legendary artists to emerging stars shaping the future of the performing arts.
We encourage you to explore new artists and events this season and share your thoughts and feedback. Your feedback is not just important; it's invaluable. It's the compass that guides us in shaping future seasons. Many of our offerings are a result of suggestions from past audience members, staff, and faculty.
Additionally, true to FSU's mission as a premier educational institution, our educational program, Opening Nights in
Class, continues to make a positive impact on K-12 students in Leon County Schools and higher education students alike. This commitment to education enriches our community and aligns with our goal of fostering a love for the arts among younger generations.
Our heartfelt thanks go to our sponsors and members, whose unwavering support not only enables us to present a diverse range of established artists but also allows us to highlight emerging talents. Your contributions are crucial to the success of Opening Nights. We also want to express our deep appreciation to the Development Council and Education Committee along with our community and campus partners. Their unwavering support and collaboration are essential to the evolution of Opening Nights.
As we embark on this exciting season, we celebrate you—our supporters—who are the real stars of Opening Nights. Let's share the magic of live performances with all who wish to be enthralled. Spread the word to your friends and family—we would love to welcome them into our Opening Nights community.
Enjoy the season and thank you for your continued support.
Warmly,
The Opening Nights Team
D.W. Gregory
Florida State University
Richard McCullough President
Opening Nights Staff
Kathleen Daly Interim Director
Allison Jordan Development Director
Grace Atkins
Artistic Programming Manager
Brad Lister
Business & Patron Services Manager
Calla MacNamara
Education & Engagement Manager
Hillary Gaultney
Media & Communications Manager
Jordan Phillips
Ticket Office Coordinator
Robbie Sulzer
Patron Services Coordinator
Amanda Cole
Senior Marketing Designer, University Marketing
Rodney H. Johnson
Director of Digital Design & UX, University Marketing
Opening Nights Development Council
Eric Friall, Chair
Susan Stratton, Secretary
Gus Corbella
Kathleen Daly
Brooke Hallock
Matt Mohler
Lauren Bacon
Nan Nagy
Susanne Dudley
Ruth Akers
Stuart Nagy-Kato
Lee Hinkle
Florida State University Partners Office of the President
College of Fine Arts
College of Music
English Department
University Communications
University Marketing
University Relations
Cover: Samara Joy, Photo by Meredith Truax
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ON Member for 15+ years H Member for 10+ years ✽ Member for 5+ years u First year members
Extend a Hearty Congratulations to FSU for Another Blockbuster Season of Shows
LAUREN DAIGLE
Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Lauren Daigle is a two-time GRAMMY®, eight-time Billboard Music Award, four-time American Music Award, and twelve-time GMA Dove Music Awardwinner. With over a billion streams and years of sold-out U.S. and international tours to her name, Daigle continues to cement her status as a modern vocal powerhouse with a global, ever-growing fanbase. Her latest Grammy-nominated album, Lauren Daigle, consists of 23 new songs including the recent RIAA gold-certified single, “Thank God I Do.” The Grammynominated single earned Daigle her sixth Billboard No. 1, making her the first artist to have two songs top the chart for 20+ weeks. Since the release of her Grammy Award-winning, 2x platinum-certified 2018 album Look Up Child—which includes the breakthrough, 6-time platinum hit single “You Say”—Daigle has been a mainstay on the Billboard charts.
Continued on pg. 29
PHOTO: MICHAEL WILSON
AN EVENING WITH LYLE LOVETT & HIS LARGE BAND
A singer, composer, and actor, Lyle Lovett has broadened the definition of American music in a career that spans 14 albums. Coupled with his gift for storytelling, the Texas-based musician fuses elements of country, swing, jazz, folk, gospel, and blues in a conventiondefying manner that breaks down barriers. Whether touring as a ‘Duo’ or with his ‘Acoustic Group’ or ‘Large Band,’ Lovett’s live performances show not only the breadth of this Texas legend’s deep talents but also the diversity of his influences, making him one of the most compelling and captivating musicians in popular music. Since his self-titled debut in 1986, Lovett has evolved into one of music’s most vibrant and iconic performers. Among his many accolades, besides the four GRAMMY® Awards, he was given the Americana Music Association’s inaugural Trailblazer Award and was named Texas State Musician. His rich and eclectic works are some of the most beloved of any artist working today.
SPONSORED BY
ISATA KANNEH-MASON
Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason is internationally acclaimed as both a soloist and chamber musician. Her repertoire, ranging from classical masters like Haydn and Mozart to modern composers like Gershwin, showcases her versatility. Notable venues include the Barbican, Queen Elizabeth, and Wigmore Halls in London, the Philharmonie Berlin, and the Prinzregententheater in Munich. Kanneh-Mason’s chart-topping debut recording features Clara Schumann’s piano concerto, reflecting her affinity for both traditional and contemporary works. Recognized for her musical prowess, she’s an ECHO Rising Star and recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award and Opus Klassik Award. KannehMason’s collaborative album Muse with her brother Sheku Kanneh-Mason garnered acclaim, and she continues to captivate audiences globally with her exceptional talent and dynamic performances.
Continued on pg. 29
Photo by David Venni
SPONSORED BY JIM LEE & GORDON BEDWELL
AN EVENING WITH KC & THE SUNSHINE BAND
IN COLLABORATION WITH VISIT TALLAHASSEE AND SCOTT CARSWELL PRESENTS
KC and the Sunshine Band are still as widely popular today as they were when they first danced into the music scene. Harry Wayne Casey—KC for short—developed a unique fusion of R&B and funk, with a hint of a Latin percussion groove, giving us an impressive string of hits like “Get Down Tonight,” “That’s The Way (I Like It),” and “Shake Your Booty.” With sales of over 100 million records, nine GRAMMY® nominations, three Grammy Awards and an American Music Award, KC and the Sunshine Band was one of the most progressive bands of the ‘70s and is credited with changing the sound of modern pop music. Today, KC and the Sunshine Band play over 100 live shows annually, circling the country and playing dates regularly throughout Europe, Australia, and South America.
This event is being ticketed by the Adderley Amphitheater. To purchase tickets, visit theadderleyamphitheater.com
SPONSORED BY
HENHOUSE PROWLERS
Founded nearly two decades ago with the simple desire to play original and powerful bluegrass, this Chicago-bred quartet now finds itself at the intersection of performance, diplomacy, and education. Onstage, the group’s enthralling performances give audiences a sense of how much they love what they do. On record—including their latest offering, 2023’s Lead and Iron, released via Dark Shadow Recording—the band explores their collective life experiences through songwriting and intricate instrumentation. While bluegrass is the undeniable foundation of the Prowlers’ music, the band bends and squeezes the traditional form into a keenly developed sound of their own. Working with the U.S. State Department and under their own nonprofit, Bluegrass Ambassadors, the Prowlers have toured over 25 countries across the globe. The group’s experiences with people and musicians across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East have shaped the band’s worldview and broadened the group’s direction toward bridging cultural gaps with music, educational programs, and workshops.
Continued on pg. 31
SPONSORED BY CHRIS & SUSANNE DUDLEY
SAMARA JOY
With her GRAMMY® Award-winning Verve Records debut, Linger Awhile, 24-year-old Bronx native Samara Joy has positioned herself to join the likes of Sarah, Ella, and Billie as the next mononymous jazz singing sensation recorded by the venerable label. Her voice, rich and velvety yet precociously refined, has already earned her fans like Regina King and Elton John, appearances on the Today show, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS Mornings, The Kelly Clarkson Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show, The Drew Barrymore Show, etc., in addition to millions of likes on TikTok—cementing her status as perhaps the first Gen Z jazz singing star. Linger Awhile introduced that massive audience to a slew of classic standards several times older than she is through her timeless, irresistible sound. In 2024, Joy won a third Grammy Award for her take on the Betty Carter classic “Tight” and is currently in preparation for her full-length follow-up. The New York Times praised the “silky-voiced rising star” for “helping jazz take a youthful turn” while NPR All Things Considered named her a “classic jazz singer from a new generation.”
Continued on pg. 33
Photo by Ambe
J. Williams
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24 & FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25
by
URBAN BUSH WOMEN
IN COLLABORATION WITH FSU SCHOOL OF DANCE
Urban Bush Women (UBW) burst onto the dance scene in 1984, with bold, demanding and exciting works that brought undertold stories to life through the art and vision of its award-winning Founder, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. The Company weaves contemporary dance, music, and text with the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of the African Diaspora. Celebrating 40 years of shining light on untold and under-told stories, This is Risk takes the audience through intentional storytelling to the next space of our collective brilliance. This energetically charged evening features a new work by Co-Artistic Directors Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, and iconic works by Founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar.
Photo
Jason Williams
HENRY CHO FROM HERE TO THERE TOUR 2024
Comedian Henry Cho’s career reached new heights on February 11 when he became the 229th member of the Grand Ole Opry, marking the first comedian to receive this honor since 1973. With notable TV appearances on NBC’s The Tonight Show and CBS’s The Late, Late Show, Cho’s comedic prowess has earned him recognition as host of NBC’s Friday Night Videos and creator of The Henry Cho Show on GAC. His one-hour Comedy Central Special, What’s That Clickin’ Noise? and film credits in productions such as Universal’s McHale’s Navy and Material Girls underscore his versatility. Cho’s clean comedy has garnered him key performances at the 59th Annual Radio & Television Correspondents’ Dinner and collaborations with notable artists like Vince Gill and Amy Grant. He continues to expand his repertoire with recent projects like the faith-based film Saving Faith and the Hallmark movie The Farmer and the Belle - Saving Santaland
Photo by Tim Skipper
Herb & Mary Jervis
We believe that our country is currently divided, be it politically, racially, economically, or polarized by social media. The performing arts can bring us together in ways that little else can. Thank you, Opening Nights, for all you do for our community.
THE KINGDOM CHOIR
London’s The Kingdom Choir™ is best known for their show-stopping performance at the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2018. The group’s performance of “Stand by Me,” seen by a global audience of over two billion, instantly catapulted the Choir to worldwide fame. Founded in 1994 by award-winning conductor Karen Gibson, the Choir draws from various Christian traditions to create a sound that reflects the community they share through their warm energy and enthusiastic performances. Gibson is an award-winning gospel choir conductor who has conducted some of the most prestigious, large-scale choirs in the UK. The high standard of her work has taken her across Europe and further—Japan, Rwanda, Nigeria, Guyana, and the U.S. Gibson’s choirs are regular finalists or winners of choir competitions, including BBC Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year. The Kingdom Choir is one of her many choirs that have spread the joy of the genre.
Lauren Daigle
Continued from pg. 11
Daigle was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and grew up in Lafayette, singing constantly and absorbing the local zydeco, blues, and Cajun music. She loved pop stars like Celine Dion and Whitney Houston and soul icons like Aretha Franklin, Al Green and James Brown. At her elementary school, they played “Respect” every morning before the Pledge of Allegiance.
But she didn’t take music seriously until an illness kept her out of high school for two years, and she began taking voice lessons. She planned to enter the medical field and did mission work in Brazil before starting at Louisiana State University, where she would go on to lead the choir and commit to a lifetime in music. The success that started with her 2015 platinum debut album, How Can It Be, which produced three No. 1 songs: “First,” “O’ Lord,” and the Grammy-nominated “Trust in You,” accelerated with the Grammy-winning Look Up Child, making Daigle a mainstay on the Billboard charts.
Off stage, Daigle remains committed to promoting music education, working with at-risk youth, and providing care for children, the elderly, and those in need through The Price Fund, which she founded in 2018. To date, she has distributed over $2.5 million to 42 nonprofits around the world, from programs in New Orleans to the construction of a school in Congo, which will serve more than 300 children in Goma, a conflict zone near the border of Rwanda.
Isata Kanneh-Mason
Continued from pg. 15
In 2022–2023, Kanneh-Mason made successful debuts at the Barbican, Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore halls in London, the Philharmonie Berlin, National Concert Hall Dublin, Perth Concert Hall and Prinzregententheater in Munich. As concerto soloist, she appeared with orchestras such as the New World Symphony Miami, City of Birmingham Symphony, Barcelona Symphony, Geneva Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and was the Artist in Residence with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Kanneh-Mason is a Decca Classics recording artist. Her 2019 album, Romance – the Piano Music of Clara Schumann, entered the UK classical charts at No. 1, with Gramophone magazine extolling the recording as “one of the most charming and engaging debuts.” This was followed by 2021’s Summertime, featuring 20th-century American repertoire including a world premiere recording of Samuel ColeridgeTaylor’s “Impromptu in B minor.” 2023’s endearingly titled album Childhood Tales is a tour-de-force showcase of music inspired by a nostalgia for youth.
2021 also saw the release of Kanneh-Mason’s first duo album, Muse, with her brother Sheku Kanneh-Mason, demonstrating the siblings’ musical empathy and rapport from years of playing and performing together. Isata and Sheku were selected to perform in recital during the 2020 BBC Proms, which was a vastly reduced festival due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and they performed for the cameras in an empty auditorium. 2023 saw her BBC Proms solo debut, this time to a fully open Royal Albert Hall, alongside Ryan Bancroft and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Kanneh-Mason was an ECHO Rising Star in 2021–2022, performing in many of Europe’s finest halls. She is also the recipient of the coveted Leonard Bernstein Award, an Opus Klassik award for best young artist and is one of the Konzerthaus Dortmund’s Junge Wilde artists.
KC and the Sunshine Band
Continued from pg. 17
In the last decade, KC has continued to influence the dance and disco scene by releasing new music, most recently his single, “Unconditional Love featuring Bimbo Jones.” In March of 2015, KC and the Sunshine Band released Feeling You! The 60s. The album was a tribute to the era that shaped KC into the revolutionary artist he became in the ‘70s.
Henhouse Prowlers
Continued from pg. 19
Onstage, the group’s enthralling performances give audiences a sense of how much they love what they do. On record— including their latest offering, 2023’s Lead and Iron, released via Dark Shadow Recording—the band explores their collective life experiences through songwriting and intricate instrumentation. While bluegrass is the undeniable foundation of the Prowlers’ music, the band bends and squeezes the traditional form into a keenly developed sound all their own.
Working with the U.S. State Department and under their own nonprofit, Bluegrass Ambassadors, the Prowlers have toured over 25 countries across the globe. The group’s experiences with people and musicians across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East have shaped the band’s worldview and broadened the group’s direction towards bridging cultural gaps with
“The widespread social and political issues of the 1960s was, in part, the inspiration to do something that would make people forget about their problems and be happy,” said Casey. “People were looking for something that would divert their attention from the negative aspects of everyday life surrounding them.”
KC started working in the music business at age 17, performing menial tasks around the T.K. Records/Studio complex in his hometown of Miami. The Sunshine Band’s first record, Blow Your Whistle, made the Top 15 on the R&B chart. Their second, self-titled album was released in 1975 and went triple platinum, containing the No. 1 hits “Get Down Tonight,” “That’s the Way (I Like It),” “Boogie Shoes,” and “Rock Your Baby.” KC and the Sunshine Band became the first act to score four No. 1 pop singles in one 12-month period since the Beatles in 1964. Three of those singles also crossed over to become No. 1 R&B tracks.
KC’s third album, Part 3, released in 1976, also went triple platinum and contained the No. 1 singles “I’m Your Boogie Man,” “Shake Your Booty,” and “Keep It Comin’ Love.” The band’s string of hit singles continued with “Boogie Shoes,” which was included on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. KC returned to the charts in 1983 with “Give It Up,” which also hit No. 1 in the UK.
You can count on hearing his music on the radio, at a nightclub, at the movies, in a sports arena or at one of the 100-plus concerts KC and the Sunshine Band play every year. It is always fun and truly makes all who hear it happy enough to dance!
music, educational programs, and workshops. Using traditional American music as a foundation, connecting folk music, customs, and history the world over, the Prowlers incorporate international elements into their already robust repertoire of unique traditional American music.
Samara Joy
Continued from pg. 21
Samara Joy is still relatively new to jazz. Growing up in the Castle Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, it was music of the past—the music of her parent’s childhoods, as she put it—that she listened to most. She treasures her musical lineage, which stretches back to her grandparents who performed with
Philadelphia gospel group the Savettes, and runs through her father, who is a vocalist and bassist who toured with gospel artist Andraé Crouch. Though she’s young, she relishes the process of digging through the music’s history. “I think maybe people connect with the fact that I’m not faking it, that I already feel embedded in it,” Joy says. “Maybe I’m able to reach people in person and on social media because it’s real.”
On her debut album Linger Awhile, which was produced by Pierson and recorded by Chris Allen at Sear Sound in NYC, Joy is accompanied by esteemed veterans: her former professors, guitarist Pasquale Grasso and drummer Kenny Washington, form the core of the band, which also includes bassist David Wong and pianist Ben Paterson. With ease and a preternatural assurance, Joy swings right alongside them through understated yet powerful renditions of this creative collection of standards.
In February 2023, Joy took home two Grammys: Best Jazz Vocal Album for Linger Awhile and the highly sought after Best New Artist statuette. In a relatively short time, Joy has toured throughout Europe and the United States. 2023 also saw Joy headlining iconic venues, including sold out shows in her native New York at The Village Vanguard, The Apollo, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall, and the Blue Note Jazz Club.
In 2024, at the 66th Grammy Awards, she added on to her growing collection of accolades by taking home Best Jazz Performance for her single “Tight.” The self-produced track features Joy with her working band (pianist Luther Allison, bassist Mikey Migliore and drummer Evan Sherman), and was recorded at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in NYC.
Most recently, Joy released the original single “Why I’m Here.” This incredibly triumphant and rousing track from the Netflix film Shirley (starring Oscarwinner Regina King), further establishes Joy as a voice to be reckoned with, not just in the world of jazz but effortlessly across genres. Written by Joy and fellow Grammy-winner PJ Morton, the anthemic song plays over Shirley’s end title credits.
Score Big With Westminster Oaks
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URBAN BUSH WOMEN’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY:
Continued from pg. 23
ORIGINAL CHOREOGRAPHY BY
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Founder
DIRECTED BY
Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, Co-Artistic Directors
ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Courtney J. Cook
COMPANY
Kentoria Earle, Roobi Gaskins, Symara Sarai, Keola Jones, and Mikaila Ware
MUSICIAN/PERFORMER
Grace Galu Kalambay
PERCUSSIONIST
Lucianna Padmore
LIGHTING SUPERVISOR
Evan Spigelman
PRODUCTION MANAGER
James Lanius III
PROGRAM REPERTORY
I DON’T KNOW, BUT I BEEN TOLD, IF YOU KEEP ON DANCIN’ YOU NEVER GROW OLD, 1989
The opening solo of I Don’t Know… is an excerpt from, Visible by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and nora chipaumire with Marguerite Hemmings
Give Your Hands to Struggle was originally choreographed and developed at the Florida State University School of Dance for Cathy Horta. It is an excerpt from the evening-length work, Hands Singing Song (1998), commissioned by the American Dance Festival through the Doris Duke Awards for New Work, with additional support from the Philip Morris New Works Fund.
WOMEN’S RESISTANCE, 2008
Choreography: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar & Germaine Acogny (Compagnie Jant-Bi)
Music: Fabrice Bouillon-LaForest with Frederic Bobin
Lighting: Russell Sandifer
Costumes: Naoko Nagata
Women’s Resistance is an excerpt of the evening-length work, les écailles de la mémoire (Scales of Memory, 2008), co-commissioned by DANCECleveland with funding from the 2006 Joyce Award and Christopher Newport University’s Ferguson Center for the Arts. It was developed via creative residencies hosted by the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and L’Ecole des Sables. Additional funding: National Dance Project, The MAP Fund, and Florida State University Cornerstone Arts and Humanities Program Enhancement Grant.
HAINT BLU: EPISODE 1 - LISTENIN’ AND DREAMIN’: DO YOU HEAR ME NOW?, 2023
Choreography by Chanon Judson & Mame Diarra Speis, Co-Artistic Directors, in collaboration with the company: Courtney J. Cook, Kentoria Earle, Roobi Gaskins, Symara Sarai, Bianca Leticia Medina, and Mikaila Ware
Writer: Nina Angela Mercer
Producer: Jonathan D. Secor
Dramaturg: Talvin Wilks
Projections Designer: Nicholas Hussong
Music: Percussion performed by Lucianna Padmore
Guitar and vocals performed by Grace Galu Kalambay
Lighting: John D. Alexander
Costume Coordinator: Lori Gassie
ABOUT URBAN BUSH WOMEN
UBW performs regularly in New York City and tours nationally and internationally. The Company has been commissioned by presenters nationwide, and includes among its honors a New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”); the Capezio Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance; a Black Theater Alliance Award; two Doris Duke Awards for New Work from the American Dance Festival; and named one of America’s Cultural Treasures by the Ford Foundation. Zollar is a recipient of the 2021 DanceTeacher Award of Distinction, the 2021 Martha Hill Dance Fund Lifetime Achievement Award, and named a 2021 MacArthur Fellow. Speis is the recipient of the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer with the ensemble skeleton architecture. Judson received the APAP Leadership Fellowship and the Director’s Lab Chicago Fellowship in 2018. Off the concert stage, UBW has developed an extensive community engagement program called BOLD (Builders, Organizers, and Leaders through Dance). UBW’s largest community engagement project is its Summer Leadership Institute (SLI), established in 1997. This 10-day intensive training program serves as the foundation for all of the company’s community engagement activities. Ultimately the SLI program connects dance professionals and community-based artists/activists in a learning experience to leverage the arts as a vehicle for civic engagement. UBW launched the Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative Producing Program (CCI 2.0) in March 2022. The CCI 2.0 fellowships support the development of women choreographers and producers of color and other underheard voices.
THE COMPANY
CHANON JUDSON (CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR) has been growing with the acclaimed Urban Bush Women since 2001, as performer and now Co-Artistic Director. She’s a director’s fellow with New Perspective Theatre Women’s Work Lab, Chicago Director’s Lab, and APAP’s Leadership Fellowship Program. Choreographic credits include Times Up! (commissioned by Flea Theatre), The Hang (Taylor Mac, Here Arts), Cannabis: A Viper Vaudeville (Collaborator/Performer - Baba Israel/Grace Galu/ Talvin Wilks), Orlando (Barnard College), Chronicle X (Nia Witherspoon), Prometheus Bound (Tank Theatre), The Invention of Tragedy (Flea Theatre), and Nurturing the Nurturer, her original performance-ritual/ gathering for mothers. Chanon has worked with Mickie Davidson, Talvin Wilks, Kwame Ross, Barak adé Soleil, Sita Frederick, Sandra Burton, and Allyne Gartrell. Performance credits include A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, God’s Trombone (Craig Harris), Cotton Club Parade, Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Concert, and the Tony award-winning musical Fela!
Chanon is an avid arts educator and has served as faculty with AileyCamp (Site Director), Alvin Ailey Arts in Education, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts. Chanon is the founder of Cumbe Center for Diasporic Arts’ Dance Drum and Imagination Camp for Children and co-founder of Family Arts (FAM). Alongside her husband, they offer spaces for families to learn, explore, and create. Chanon is a newly appointed Visiting Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo where she is investigating jazz embodiment, education, and organizing aesthetics as well as leading a charge to redesign the jazz curriculum to better reflect the rich contributions of the African Diaspora.
MAME DIARRA SPEIS (CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR) is a mother and movement improviser intrigued with play, risk, rigor, and experimentation. She is currently a performer and the Co-Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed Urban Bush Women. Speis has had the pleasure of working with Gesel Mason, The Dance Exchange, jumatatu poe, Deborah
Hay (as part of “Some Sweet Day” curated by Ralph Lemon at The Museum of Modern Art), Baba Israel, Marjani Forte-Saunders, and Liz Lerman. She recently performed as a guest artist with MBDance in the Motherboard Suite with artist Saul Williams, under the direction of Bill T. Jones. Speis was the recipient of the Alvin Ailey New Directions Choreography Lab and was awarded a Bessie for Outstanding Performer in 2017. Her work has been featured at The Kennedy Center, Long Island University, The Joyce SoHo, Hollins University, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Danspace Project, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dixon Place, BRIC, Dance Place, and The Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Speis has developed a movement and teaching practice that explores pelvic mobility as the root of powerful locomotion and as a point of connection to the stories, experiences and lineages that reside in each of us. She has been a guest artist and teacher throughout the United States, South America, Senegal, and Europe. Speis has also taught at Princeton University as a Lecturer in Dance. She has been fortunate to continue building a strong relationship with her alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), in various capacities and was the commencement speaker for the VCUarts graduating class of 2020-2021. Her recent projects include Walking with Trane cochoreographed with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and her collaboration with Chanon Judson-Johnson on Hair and Other Stories and Haint Blu.
JAWOLE WILLA JO ZOLLAR (FOUNDER)
After earning her B.A. in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, Zollar received her M.F.A. in dance from Florida State University. In 1984 Zollar founded Urban Bush Women (UBW) as a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. Zollar developed a unique approach to enable artists to strengthen effective involvement in cultural organizing and civic engagement, which evolved into UBW’s acclaimed Summer Leadership Institute. She serves as director of the Institute, founding artistic director, and visioning partner of UBW, and currently holds the position of the Nancy Smith Fichter Professor of Dance and Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor at Florida State University.
AWARDS: 2008 United States Artists Wynn fellowship, 2009 fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial, 2013 Arthur L. Johnson Memorial award by Sphinx Organization, 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, 2014 Meadows Prize from Southern Methodist University, 2015 Dance Magazine Award, 2016 Dance/USA Honor Award, 2016 Black Theater Alliance Award, 2017 Bessie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance, 2018 American Conference on Diversity Performing Arts Humanitarian Award, 2021 fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 2021 Dance Teacher Award of Distinction, and the 2021 Martha Hill Dance Fund Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2022 Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize.
COURTNEY J. COOK (ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR) is a Virginia Native now residing
in Brooklyn, NY. She is a graduate of the Virginia Governor’s School of the Arts and holds a B.F.A. in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is now Associate Artistic Director, BOLD facilitator, and performing company member with Urban Bush Women, was a company member with MBDance (Maria Bauman), and a featured artist with Marguerite Hemmings (we free). She is honored to be a recipient of the 2018 “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Performance for her work with all three of these organizations. As a creator, she has had the privilege of performing her solo work, PoolPITT, as a featured artist in ModArts Dance Collective’s Collective Thread ‘17, the Estrogenious Festival ‘17, curated by Maura Donohue, and BDAC’s Creative Emancipation Collaboration, curated by Ebony Noelle Golden. She also has been able to create in collaboration with interdisciplinary artists Tendayi Kuumba and Greg Purnell (FLUXX), presented by BRICLab and Harlem Stage (2019). In 2022, Cook was involved as performer/choreographic collaborator and vocalist in Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville, created by Baba Israel and Grace Galu Kalambay (Soul Inscribed).
KENTORIA EARLE (PERFORMER) was raised in Winter Haven, Florida and is the proud daughter of Kent Earle and Victoria Wilson. She recently graduated from Florida State University where she obtained her Master of Arts in Dance and Studio Related Studies. Since graduating she has had the opportunity to work with choreographers/ artists such as Renegade Performance Group, Abigail Levine, and Urban Bush Women as an apprentice. Kentoria has spent her first few years post-grad entering the field as a Brooklyn-based performing artist and collaborator. She is working to build an artistic process that looks at solo and improvisational practices as a way to tap into ancestry and lineage-based movement exploration. Kentoria believes these practices support and open up spaces where artists can be fully present for what often results in holistic and sustainable approaches to our healing, individually and collectively.
ROOBI GASKINS (PERFORMER) is a New York City-based artist, who specializes in dance, choreography, and garment construction. Although she has always had a passion for dance, she owes her movement genesis and training to 14 years of competitive figure skating, where she competed internationally as a member of the Puerto Rican national team. She began her formal dance training at Bard College where she received a B.A. in Dance. She was an apprentice with Urban Bush Women in their 2019-2020 season, and has also performed works with various artists including Abby Z and the New Utility, Brownbody, 7NMS, and Trisha Brown.
SYMARA SARAI (PERFORMER) a Portland, Oregon native currently residing in Brooklyn, has immersed herself in interdisciplinary and choreographic studies globally. Her work varies due to the different influences she has embraced throughout her life. A 2023 Bessie Winner for Breakout Choreographer, Symara
is also a recipient of the Dai Ailian Foundation Scholarship based in Trinidad and Tobago. The scholarship led her to Beijing, China where she spent two years gaining an associate degree in modern choreography at the renowned Beijing Dance Academy. Symara is a graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance Program. She was a resident artist for Bearnstow, Gibney 6.2 Work Up, Gallim’s 2022 Moving Artist’s Residency, BAX’s Fall 2022 Space Grant Program, and Center for Performance Research’s 2022 AIR Program. She is a 2023 Women in Motion Commissioned Artist. Their work as a performer and maker has been reviewed and featured in the NY Times, Dance Enthusiast, Fjord, as well as promoted through Forbes. She has had multiple film works commissioned by Berlin-based choreographer Christoph Winkler.
KEOLA JONES (PERFORMER) born in Glen Allen, VA, land of the Powhatan people, is a 2022 graduate of the Dance & Choreography B.F.A. program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Keola is a movement artist, performer, researcher, filmmaker, choreographer and educator. Keola’s movement practice is deeply influenced by research of how Black bodies hold and release emotions and trauma. She was recently an Inaugural Fellow with Johnnie Cruise Mercer’s company TheRedprojectNYC in 2022 and now works for the company. She also works as an adjunct professor of dance at The College of William & Mary and is a company member of the Leah Glenn Dance Theatre.
MIKAILA WARE (PERFORMER) (B.F.A. Florida State University) began her dance training at Fort Stewart, Georgia at the age of five. Now a New York-based movement artist, Ware has worked in the mediums of dance and film with choreographers such as Davalois Fearon, Kayla Farrish, André Zachery, and Johnnie Cruise Mercer. Ware’s performances have been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Dance Magazine, and Dance Enthusiast Additionally, Ware completed the Accessibility Partnerships and Programs Fellowship at The Lincoln Center and is an alumna of the Diversity in Arts Leadership program with the Arts and Business Council of New York.
GRACE GALU KALAMBAY (MUSICIAN/ PERFORMER) is a vocalist, actor, guitarist, and composer. She combines the sounds of her Irish and Congolese heritage with her LES upbringing in a soulful and gritty twist. Kalambay was recently featured in Buskerball 2022, and recorded Firelight with Fearless Music. Her composition, “Ordinary Sentiment” was featured in the Ed Burns film, Purple Violets’ which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Grace devised The Mendelssohn Electric with Trusty Sidekick, and was cast as the lead in their production, The Gospel Electric, commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory. She is a core member of the band Soul Inscribed, and has for the third time been selected as a cultural ambassador for the American Music Abroad program. Kalambay is also a recipient of the NEFA NTP grant. Soul Inscribed has recently been signed to the music label, Tokyo Dawn and just released their EP, Tune UP.
Dr. James & Susan Walton
Proud Sponsors of Opening Nights
Proud Sponsors of Opening Nights
Kalambay is an artist in residence at HERE Arts Center and the composer for Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville. Kalambay voiced Wisdom in Nia Witherspoon’s production, The Dark Girl Chronicles (2021 at The Shed). She is currently touring Haint Blu with Urban Bush Women.
LUCIANNA PADMORE (MUSICIAN/ PERFORMER) A Bronx native, New York-based drummer Lucianna Padmore has been praised by Modern Drummer magazine for “Deep grooves and serious fusion chops.” Lucianna’s versatile drumming is featured with artists in the Jazz, Hip-Hop, Funk, Rock, Pop, and Fusion genres. An alumnus of LaGuardia High School for Music and the Performing Arts and the New School University, she has received awards from Jazz at Lincoln Center and BMI for her jazz improvisation. Lucianna’s live and studio projects include residencies in and around the Tri-state area with the John Smith Trio, a member of HotJazz Jumpers, drummer for Singer-Songwriter Alyson Murray, Bertha Hope’s Nu Trio, and Quintet The Fiery String Sista. She also leads her own Quartet and releases music as an independent artist, with the current release of the single, “Life Long Love Affair” featuring Saxophonist Gerald Albright. As an educator, she is active in drum instruction and jazz outreach in N.Y. Tri-state area. Lucianna is featured in the book Sticks and Skins, Endorses Soul Tone cymbals, and plays Scorpion signature 3a Drum sticks.
JOHN D. ALEXANDER (LIGHTING DESIGNER, I DON’T KNOW BUT I BEEN TOLD…) OFF-BROADWAY: Migration, Reflections on Jacob Lawrence (National Tour). DC AREA: Daphne’s Dive, TRANS AM, Detroit 67, Children of Eden, This Bitter Earth, Topdog/Under Dog (Helen Hayes Nomination), Fabulation or the Re-Education of Undine, Marie and Rosetta, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Airness, Darius and Twig, Black Nativity, Disgraced, HERstory, Black Berry Winter, The Gospel at Colonus, Happiness (and Other Reasons to Die), King Lear, Broke-ology, American Moor, Anne and Emmett (National and European Tour). REGIONAL: SWEAT, Kill Move Paradise, Once, Paradise Blue, Skeleton Crew, Royale and The Snowy Day and Other Stories TV: No Child (PBS). UPCOMING REGIONAL: Chad Deity, Mary’s Seacole and Sheepdog. UPCOMING WORLD PREMIERE: Crying on Television, Quamino’s Map, House of the Negro Insane, B.R.O.K.E.N. Code B.I.R.D Switching and Hoola Hoopin Queen johndalexanderlightingdesign.com
NICHOLAS HUSSONG (PROJECTIONS DESIGNER, HAINT BLU) is a creator of video, projections and film for live (and now digital) performance and events. Creative Producer at Dwight Street Book Club. Broadway: Skeleton Crew. Other regional credits include: Until the Flood (13 regional and international locations); Haint Blu, Hair & Other Stories (Urban Bush Women); These Paper Bullets, Drama Desk Nomination (Yale Rep, Atlantic Theater Company, Geffen Playhouse); Woman’s Party (Clubbed Thumb); Grounded (Alley); Arden Theater, Playmakers Rep, Berkshires Theatre
Group, Marc Jacobs, Nashville Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Tony Awards (CBS). He also designed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, China, Canada, and Vienna. CoCreator of FEAST, an immersive dining experience with Listen&Breathe (Nantucket, Ireland, and please, hopefully, someday, the United States). Adjunct Lecturer New School of Drama and USC. Yale M.F.A. UAW and USA829. nickhussong.com
JAMES LANIUS III (PRODUCTION MANAGER) is a freelance Production Manager, Video Engineer, and Designer. Management credits include Le Petit Theatre; Solomon Group including Dick Clark’s Rocking New Years’ Eve, First Robotics World Championships, and Essence Festival of Culture. Video engineering credits include Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle Dec 2022 Tour, Le Petit Theatre, United States Army Field Band, Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre, and many more. James also teaches at Loyola and Tulane Universities and produces videos for the YouTube channel Free Tours by Foot New Orleans.
NINA ANGELA MERCER (WRITER, HAINT BLU) is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker. Her plays include Gutta Beautiful; ITAGUA MEJI: A ROAD AND A PRAYER; Gypsy & The Bully Door; and A Compulsion for Breathing. Her writing is published in Black Renaissance Noire; Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre and Performance; BreakBeat Poets Vol 2: Black Girl Magic (Haymarket Press); Are You Entertained? Black Popular Culture in the 21st Century (Duke University Press); Performance Research Journal; Represent! New Plays for Multicultural Young People (Bloomsbury Press); and A Gathering of the Tribes Online Magazine ninaangelamercer.com.
JOLIE SALTIEL (TOUR + COMPANY MANAGER) is an arts administrator, dance artist and cultural producer. A NYC-native, Jolie holds a B.F.A. in Dance and Business Administration from The State University of New York at Brockport. She has since worked across NYC and abroad to bring arts performances and installations to life. In her work activating performances and advocating for artists, Jolie has contributed to the NYC FREE festival at Little Island, Mark Morris Dance Group, Americans for the Arts’ Diversity in Arts Leadership program, Hivewild and INSITU Site-Specific Dance Festival. As a mover and dance maker, Jolie is passionate about bringing art to public spaces and engaging with and contributing to communal joy, growth and rebellion. She is thrilled to join the UBW community and to work with the powerful people involved.
JONATHAN D. SECOR (PRODUCER) has worked in and around the arts for over three decades as a facilitator for creative artists and ideas. He is delighted to once again be working with Urban Bush Women. As a creative producer, Jonathan has been part of projects large and small, including as producer for the recent New York CityFree Festival on Little Island, as Artistic Director for the Mahaiwe
Performing Arts Center, Director of Performing Arts at MASS MoCA, Director of Programming at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Founder and Director of the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center in North Adams, MA. Jonathan was instrumental in the creation of the arts management major at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA), and has taught at SUNY Purchase, Yale School of Drama, and MCLA. Jonathan was General Manager for 651, and started his career as a production manager and stage manager, working throughout the United States and Europe. Jonathan splits his time between Florida Mountain, MA and Harlem, NYC and is the proud father of Alegra Dora and Christina Gabriela.
EVAN SPIGELMAN (LIGHTING SUPERVISOR) is an actor, cabaret artist, drag mess, DIY filmmaker and theater technician based in Brooklyn, New York. Previously residing in New Orleans, they are a co-founder of New Orleans performance collective Skin Horse Theater and of LOUD, the New Orleans Queer Youth Theater. When not performing, they are continuing their journey to fulfill their lifelong aspiration: to become an agitprop surrealist anti-fascist clown. This title is exactly as pretentious as it sounds. Evan is a proud nonbinary performer, as they are no longer comprised of zeros and ones. In their capacity as theater technician, they have worked primarily at St. Ann’s Warehouse, where they served as interim Lighting Supervisor. Recent Off Broadway and Regional credits: the upcoming HILMA (Wilma Theater), Ocean Filibuster (A.R.T/Pearl D’Amour), Taylor Mac’s A 24 Decade History of Popular Music (Pomegranate Arts), The Faghag and Her Friends in the Summer of Love (Penny Arcade), And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens (Southern Rep), The Lily’s Revenge (Southern Rep), The Mutilated (Contemporary Arts Center), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Skin Horse Theater). Off-Off Broadway: Mouthbrain (Barnett Cohen), Creep Cuts (self-produced). TV/Film: “Creep Cuts in Freeze Response” (codirector, Mx. Asa Metric). Constantly stalking around in drag as Mx Asa Metric. Instagram: @ evspig
FOR BOOKING: Michelle Coe, Director of Production, Booking & Touring: mcoe@urbanbushwomen.org
MAJOR FUNDING FOR UBW IS PROVIDED BY: Anonymous; Acton Family Giving; Bloomberg Philanthropies; David Rockefeller Fund; Doris Duke Foundation; Ford Foundation; Howard Gilman Foundation; The Institute of Museum and Library Services; International Association of Blacks in Dance; Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Mellon Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund; New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project; The New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship Program; New York State Council on the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; The Shubert Foundation; Solidaire Black Liberation Pooled Fund; William Talbott Hillman Foundation; Barnard College Center for Research on Women, Barnard College Office of Community Engagement & Inclusion; The O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation; The Harkness Foundation for Dance. UBW 40th Anniversary leadership funding provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Additional funding is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation. UBW Company Apprentices are supported by The New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowships: Kashia Kancey, J’nae Simmons, Synead Cidney Nichols, Mikayla Young, and Mawu Ama Ma’at G. Oyesii. Urbanbushwomen.org
We love Opening Nights and the staff!
Recognizing and supporting art as culture.
The Kingdom Choir
Continued from pg. 27
Founded in 1994 by award-winning conductor Karen Gibson, the choir draws from various Christian traditions and is dedicated to creating a sound that reflects the community they share through their warm energy and enthusiastic performances. The Choir’s recording of “Stand By Me” went straight to the top of the Billboard charts.
Gibson, a highly-acclaimed choir conductor and workshop leader, is a powerhouse of inspiration and energy. Proclaimed “Britain’s Godmother of Gospel” by The Guardian, Gibson’s
experience is extensive. She has been involved with vocal groups and choirs for over 30 years, conducting gospel workshops across the UK and Europe as well as Nigeria, Japan, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and the United States. She has been instrumental in drawing together and conducting some of the most prestigious largescale choirs for a variety of gospel and community initiatives. Gibson has also run workshops for aspiring gospel conductors in the U.K., Poland, Norway and Italy.
Gibson has been privileged to witness the joy of gospel via the many community gospel choirs she
has worked with across England, including the choir she established in her own local community—Gospel on The Rise. Her passion for the genre has seen her delivering sessions in schools, teaching singing and training future leaders in the art of singing and leading gospel music.
The Kingdom Choir’s holiday program will include soulful renditions of traditional gospel classics and popular contemporary music with their own inspirational versions of holiday works including “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “This Christmas,” “Silent Night,” “Joy to the World,” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
Debby Kearney
Looking forward to bathing my soul in a season of great performances. Thank you to the performers, crew, and Opening Nights staff.
