FirstWorks Artistic Icons Series to Continue with WALKING WITH 'TRANE

The FirstWorks Artistic Icons Series continues in 12 days with "Walking with 'Trane," a new live music/dance event created by the electrifying, Brooklyn-based Urban Bush Women dance troupe in tribute to the life of legendary jazz saxophonist John Coltrane and his seminal jazz suite, "A Love Supreme." "Walking with 'Trane" has its New England premiere on Saturday, February 27, 8 p.m. at The Vets in downtown Providence. Doors will open at 7 p.m. for JumpStart festivities in the venue lobby, featuring performances by The Leland Baker 4tet, Edgar Viloria's Thr3e Live Dance Company and Central Falls High School Africana Arts students. Tickets, which start at $38, are on sale now at 401-421-ARTS (2787) and at first-works.org.

Special ticket offers include a $75 "Premium Experience" ticket, which includes the best seats plus complimentary admission to your choice of a morning-after Jazz Brunch with Urban Bush Women at The Dorrance on Sunday, February 28; or their studio performance of "dark swan" at Southside Cultural Center on Wednesday, February 24.

Set to a Coltrane-inspired score, composed by Philip White (Side A: "JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH 'TRANE") and George O. Caldwell (Side B: "FREED(OM)"), and featuring the Grammy Award-winning pianist Mr. Caldwell playing live during Side B (second act), "Walking with 'Trane" premiered in September 2015 at Opening Nights at Florida State University, then later had its NYC premiere in December at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, where it was considered one of the most important works of the season.

Informed by the unpredictability of the bandstand-the risky place that can take musicians into a transcendent state-this ethereal investigation fuses Urban Bush Women's inventive movement with Coltrane's evolutionary, post-bop spirit that has audiences erupting with "an audible gasp of joy" (Brooklyn Magazine).

"Walking with 'Trane" is choreographed by Urban Bush Women Founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Samantha Speis. The music is composed by Philip White and George O. Caldwell. The design team includes Wendall K. Harrington (projections), Helen Lucille Collen (costumes) and Russell Sandifer (lighting). The dramaturg is Talvin Wilks. The company of dancers features Du'Bois A'Keen, Amanda Castro, Courtney J. Cook, Chanon Judson, Tendayi Kuumba, Stephanie Mas, Love Muwwakkil, and Samantha Speis.

"Walking with 'Trane" is the culmination of a month-long Urban Bush Women residency that includes hands-on workshops and humanities panels. Remaining events include a Community Renewal Event, emceed by Valerie Tutson of Rhode Island Black Storytellers, and featuring a performance of Nora Chipaumire's "dark swan" with Urban Bush Women, as well as performances by local artists Becky Bass, Christopher Johnson, Melodie Thompson, Rose Weaver, Ricardo Pitts-Wiley, Sidy Maiga and Rod Luther; Talking the Walk: Black Dance and Social Justice, a conversation between Duke University Professor Tommy DeFrantz (formerly of MIT) and UBW Founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar; and a Jazz Brunch with Urban Bush Women at The Dorrance, featuring live music by Travis Colby Band. For more information on the residency events please visit first-works.org/events/urban-bush-women-in-rhode-island/.

FirstWorks' Urban Bush Women in RI: Art Activating Community is made possible with lead support from Dance USA/The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Brown University Creative Arts Council, RISD CSI, Carter Family Charitable Trust, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Project is presented as a Widening the Circle initiative, a partnership with the American Dance Legacy Initiative and Rites and Reason Theatre with support from Brown's Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. Additional partners include Artists and Scientists as Partners and The Rhythm of Change Festival.

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