Dance Center to Host Jazz/Dance/Improv Brunch, 10/26

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, as part of a 2014 Exploration grant through the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Building Demand for the Arts program, presents a one-time-only Jazz/Dance/Improv Brunch featuring Urban Bush Women and the Kahil El'Zabar Double Bass Quartet. The event takes place Sunday, October 26 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Chicago Artists Coalition Gallery, 217 N. Carpenter Street, Chicago.

Guests will enjoy a light brunch buffet and performances and collaborative improvisation by Urban Bush Women and the Kahil El'Zabar Double Bass Quartet, featuring Corey Wilkes/trumpet; Junius Paul/double bass; Harrison Bankhead/double bass and Kahil El'Zabar/multi-percussion-composition-voice.

Urban Bush Women (UBW), under the direction of founder and choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, brings the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance. With a woman-centered perspective, and as members of the African Diaspora community, UBW seeks to create a more equitable balance of power in the dance world and beyond.

Zollar and several UBW dancers are spending several weeks in Chicago to find ways to connect with jazz audiences and artists; Columbia College Chicago dance, music and theatre students and faculty; and students and artists in other disciplines to cultivate new demand for contemporary dance and jazz music through explorations of their intersections.

UBW returns to The Dance Center March 19-21, 2015 with a program of mixed repertoire, anchored by Walking with 'Trane: Chapter 2, part of a series of works based on the music and legacy of John Coltrane and inspired by the making of and the music from Coltrane's 1965 album A Love Supreme. Also on the program is Zollar's Hep Hep Sweet Sweet and Nora Chipaumire's dark swan. Solo pianist George Caldwell provides live accompaniment for Walking with 'Trane and Hep Hep Sweet Sweet.