Jawole Willa Jo Zollar in conversation with Melanie George on Dance, Blackness, and Black Dance, Past, Present, and Future.

SummerStage Anywhere is privileged to host a conversation between two pillars of American dance, Melanie George and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. George is an educator, choreographer, dramaturg, and scholar; as the founder and director of “Jazz Is… Dance Project,” she works to broaden the jazz dance’s scope and visibility beyond its most immediate and contemporary forms and venues, and disrupting traditional hierarchies in dance on both the stage and the page. Zollar has been the artistic director for the performance ensemble Urban Bush Women since she founded it in 1984. Across five decades she created 34 works for the company, exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. The Kennedy Center Master of Choreography has also created works for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Philadanco, the University of Maryland, the Virginia Commonwealth University and others.