Dance troupe Urban Bush Women to amplify Black voices at APSU on Oct. 14
By: Dr. Andrea Spofford October 5, 2026
Urban Bush Women performs “Shelter” at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 27, 2026. | Photo by Stephen Cohen Photography
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Austin Peay State University’s Department of Theatre & Dance, with support from the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, will host the theatrical dance troupe Urban Bush Women for a studio performance and masterclass from 10 a.m. to noon on Oct. 14, in the Memorial Health Building’s dance studios. This program is free and open to the public.
"Urban Bush Women has been a part of my journey since I was an undergraduate dance major, and I am so excited to bring this visionary company to Clarksville,” said Eboné Amos, chair of the Department of Theatre & Dance. “Their work is essential, and I cannot wait to share this experience with our students.”
About Urban Bush Women
Urban Bush Women is a groundbreaking Black women-led theatrical dance company founded in 1984 by visionary choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar as an engine and an amplifier for the unheard stories of Black women+. UBW combines revolutionary performance, deep-healing community engagement, and ancestral knowledge from the African diaspora into a cultural force that is urgent, forward-looking, and essential. For the last four decades, UBW has defied expectations and easy categorization with its bold, narrative storytelling. The very bodies of the seven founding members of UBW (Black women of various shapes and sizes) challenged and changed the landscape of who could be seen on stage as a dancer. The subject matter of the work placed the stories of such women, historically overlooked and undervalued in America, front and center stage. Similarly, UBW remains committed to ensuring that underserved audiences, especially people of color who face systemic barriers to accessing conventional performance, are engaged, invited, and made welcome wherever the company tours.
For more information about this production, contact Amos at amose@apsu.edu. To learn about future CECA events and productions, visit https://www.apsu.edu/ceca/.
About the Department of Theatre and Dance
The Department of Theatre and Dance is a training program that focuses on the professional skills expected on any stage, set, studio, audition, or in any dance company. It offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts with concentrations in acting, dance, design, musical theatre, and stage management, as well as a Bachelor of Arts with concentrations in theatre and dance.
About the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts
Since 1985, the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA, or "seek-ah") has been providing students, the Clarksville community, and the Middle Tennessee region with engaging experiences through the Art + Design, Creative Writing, Music, and Theatre & Dance programs at APSU. CECA brings as many as 85 guest artists to Clarksville each year and presents up to 100 public arts and culture events annually, including concerts, exhibitions, artist lectures, master classes, artist residencies, and more. In addition, CECA provides the arts faculty at APSU with research opportunities to enhance their professional growth, as well as numerous student scholarships each year to support APSU's own emerging artists. To learn more about CECA, contact Dr. Andrea Spofford at spofforda@apsu.edu.