February 4 & 5, 2020 10:30am & 12:30pm
Urban Bush Women
Black History Month at The Town Hall In Partnership with Con Edison
Photo: © Hayim Heron
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About the artists
Photo: © C. Roesing
Chanon Judson (Co-Artistic Director/Performer) joined UBW in 2001. Additional credits: Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Prophecy Dance Company, Cotton Club Parade, and Fela!. Commercial credits: L’Oreal Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Michael Jackson’s 30th Anniversary Concert. Chanon was part of the APAP Leadership Fellows Program and DirectorsLabChicago. She was an arts educator with Alvin Ailey Arts in Education and BAM. Chanon is founder of Cumbe Center’s Dance Drum and Imagination Camp for Children and Family Arts Movement.
Samantha Speis (Co-Artistic Director/Performer) is a movement improviser and the mother of Aminata and Aicha. She has worked with Gesel Mason, The Dance Exchange, Jumatatu Poe, Deborah Hay, Marjani Forte, and Liz Lerman. Speis was the recipient of the Alvin Ailey New Directions Choreography Lab and was awarded a Bessie for Outstanding Performer. Her work has been featured at the Kennedy Center, Long Island University, Joyce SoHo, Hollins University, Danspace Project, Dixon Place, Dance Place, and The Kelly Strayhorn Theater. She has been a guest artist and teacher throughout the U.S., South America, Senegal, and Europe. Courtney J. Cook (Performer) studied at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has performed with choreographers Maria Bauman and Marguerite Hemmings, and with ModArts Dance Collective and Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, among others. In 2018, she received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award: Outstanding Performer. She is currently collaborating with Tendayi Kuumba and Greg Purnell on FLUXX .
Elaisa van der Kust (Performer), born and raised in Amsterdam, Netherlands, started her dance training at the age of 16 at Art & Entertainment College Amsterdam. After graduation from college, she continued her dance study in Paris at The Institution Formation Professionnelle Rick Odums. After studying in Paris for one year she got accepted for the Independent Study Program at the Ailey School. In 2017 she received a full level 2 scholarship to the Ailey School. In November of 2018 she started apprenticing for EVIDENCE, A Dance Company. She currently studies Afro Cuban dance under Danis Perez Prades (La Mora) and her company Oyu Oro Afro Cuban Experimental Dance Ensemble. She has recently joined Urban Bush Women.
Jasmine Hearn (Performer) a native Houstonian, graduated from Point Park University. A choreographer, performer, teaching artist, and dancer, she/they currently collaborates with BANDportier and visual artist Alisha B. Wormsley. A new member of Urban Bush Women, Jasmine has also worked and performed with David Dorfman Dance, Alesandra Seutin’s Vocab Dance, Solange Knowles, Kate Watson Wallace, STAYCEE PEARL dance project, Marjani Forte Saunders, Nick Mauss, Claudette Johnson, Jenn Meridian, Helen Simoneau Danse, and Lovie Olivia. Awarded a 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance with Skeleton Architecture, Jasmine is a 2018 Movement Research AIR and a 2019 Jerome Foundation Jerome Hill Artist Fellow.
Love Muwwakkil (Performer) received a B.F.A in Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She performed as a company member with Urban Bush Women for two seasons. Thereafter, Love went on to perform in HairSpray on the largest cruise ship in the world, as well as perform in several Off-Broadway productions. She has been a member of contemporary pole dance company The Pulse Project and had the pleasure of working with Taylor Mac in The 24-Decade History of Popular Music. Currently, she is a freelance performer, teacher, choreographer, and UBW BOLD Facilitator.
Melissa Cobblah Gutierrez (Understudy), born in Cuba and raised in Ghana and Cape Verde, began her formal dance training at age 18. After graduating with her Associate of Arts from Miami Dade College Kendall Campus, she continued her dance studies at Florida State University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with her B.F.A in Dance. During her time at Miami Dade College she started working as a company member with Olujimi Dance Theatre in 2016. Ms. Cobblah Gutierrez has worked and studied under the direction of many recognized artists such as Michelle Grant-Murray, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Nia Love, A’Keitha Carey, Kehinde Ishangi, Jorge Luis Morejon, Tiffany Rhynard, Clarice Young, Anjali Austin, and Charles Anderson. Her choreography, Spiritual Warfare, was selected to be presented at American College Dance Association in 2017. She worked as the Rehearsal Assistant for Millicent Johnnie in 2018, for the premiere of the Opera Parable of the Sower in NYC. She is a two-time leadership scholarship recipient of American Dance Festival for the summers of 2016 and 2018. Ms. Cobblah Gutierrez is the founder of the recognized student organization Hewale Dance Company at Florida State University. She is grateful and blessed for starting her new journey with UBW.
Mikaila Ware (Performer) is a graduate of Florida State University where she obtained her B.F.A in Dance. Upon moving to New York, Mikaila has worked in the mediums of dance and film with choreographers and producers such as André Zachery/ Renegade Performance Group, Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDprojectNYC, Kayla Farrish/ Decent Structures Arts, and Monticello Park Productions. Additionally, Mikaila completed the Diversity in Arts Leadership program with the Arts and Business Council of New York and the Accessibility Partnerships and Programs Fellowship at Lincoln Center. Currently, Mikaila is a company member of Urban Bush Women and Davalois Fearon Dance.
STUDENT POSTER & ESSAY CONTEST Students are encouraged to enter The Town Hall and Con Edison’s Black History Month Student Poster & Essay Contest following the performance. Six winners will receive an award of $50, to be presented at an award ceremony. Winners will have their posters and essays featured for one year on The Town Hall website. Teachers should review and correct grammar, but not suggest or alter content. Teachers must collect and submit all posters and essays. All submissions must include the student’s name, school, grade, teacher, and school phone number on the back of each entry in pencil. Only posters or essays from students who attended the performance will be accepted.
POSTER GUIDELINES Design a poster for Black History Month that illustrates your own Marching Band. Size: 8.5” x 11” Medium: crayon, marker, colored pencil, tempera paint
Art: Musrical Anwar - MS664 BEES, Grade 8 Teacher: Ms. Lauren Barth
ESSAY GUIDELINES Write an essay on one of the following topics: • When you heard the drum for the first time during the performance, what did you think of? • Where are some places that you see people dancing? How does it make you feel? Can you describe what you see? • During the performance, I was most surprised by _________________.
Art: Fortune Akinsiku - PS 114x, Grade 5 Teacher: Ms. Laurie Griffel
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Entries must be postmarked no later than Friday, March 20, 2020. Please remit to: BRITNI MONTALBANO | The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036 For more information, contact: Britni Montalbano at 212-997-1003 x17 or bmontalbano@thetownhall.org.
Black History Month is sponsored by Con Edison. This and other programs are made possible, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. Town Hall’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.