Kyle Abraham’s dance biography
In the Vimeo trailer shot by visual artist Carrie Schneider for choreographer Kyle Abraham’s new work, Live! The Realest MC, a young boy hurries along a lonely city street, interrupted by images of cracked pavement and barbed wire. The camera stutters, stops and starts, switching quickly from his face to boys racing around a corner. He picks a delicate white flower and squeezes it in his hand.
Dancer-choreographer Kyle Abraham. Photo by Ian Douglas
The boy in the video could have been Abraham as he was growing up in Pittsburgh, fearful that being gay might get him beaten up and ostracized by the hip-hop community. In the story of Pinocchio he found an allegory on which to base his excursion into the dark and lonely place of his childhood.
“I was inspired by Pinocchio’s quest to be a so-called real boy,” Abraham says on the phone from Ireland, where he is choreographing a work for the Irish Modern Dance Theater. “I put it in a gay context, with a boy struggling with his identity when surrounded by hip-hop bravado. I remember lowering my voice in my teens to make it sound deeper so I would fit in.”
Abraham has long interwoven his own personal history with larger themes, first as a student at the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts High School and later at SUNY Purchase and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. In Radio Show, which won a Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) in 2010, he explored his father’s Alzheimer’s and the end of old-time radio stations in Pittsburgh.
This time around, he gives his stand-in, Pinocchio, a hip-hop persona. He is related to the title character in his smashing solo, Inventing Pookie Jenkins, from 2006. “He struggles with the difference between who he is when he’s alone and who he is in public,” Abraham explains.
For Live! The Realest MC and his previous work, Opus 1, an homage to photographer Eadweard Muybridge, Abraham collaborated with Schneider. “Kyle knows how distracting video can be in performances,” she says, “so he uses it differently. He breaks it up and fractures it unconventionally. He turns it into dream sequence. He’s bold; he’s not afraid. He breaks rules in powerful ways.”
This isn’t surprising for an artist who takes inspiration from Merce Cunningham and Ralph Lemon and who danced with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and David Dorfman Dance. But he wants people to know that his new work has comedic elements and a soundtrack, which he produced, with the flavor of ’90s rap as well some tunes from jazz pianist Bill Evans.
From Ireland, Abraham goes on to nonstop work back home, his career booming. Asked how he feels about being today’s hot young choreographer, he replies, “I’ve been caught off guard at how many great things can happen.”
Live! The Realest MC
Dec. 8–10. at The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, www.thekitchen.org
Dances Patrelle: The company presents its 16th annual production of “The Yorkville Nutcracker,” in which dancers age 5–65 & featured dancers from The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Staatsballett Berlin, & New York City Ballet transport the audience to the Upper East Side of 1895. Dec. 8–11, The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, 68th St. betw. Park & Lexington Aves., 212-772-4448, dancespatrelle.org; $45+.
Kelley Donovan & Dancers: In the new evening-length work “Fractured Realm,” the company employs its signature weight-shifting techniques in an exploration of “creation, destruction & connection.” Dec. 10, PMT House of Dance, 69 W. 14th St., 617-388-3247, kddcompany.wordpress.com.
LAVA: The acrobatic 8-woman performance troupe collaborates with visual artist Tony Feher in “Atlas,” navigating through space with trampolines, wheels & water bottles. Dec. 1–11, Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie St., 212-219-0736, dixonplace.org; $10+.
Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company: The company celebrates its 40th anniversary with screenings of past performances & live performances of original work. The performance will be followed by a reception & silent auction of some of the company’s costumes to benefit a dance organization in northern Japan. Dec. 3, Ailey Citigroup Theatre, 405 W. 55th St., 212-868-4444, www.ichinohedance.org; 7, $30 (performance only), $70 (performance & reception).
WestFest Dance Festival: 21 mid-career & advanced choreographers—including featured guests TAKE Dance, David Parker and the Bang Group, Gibney Dance Company & Urban Bush Women—present works in two alternating programs. Dec. 8–11, Merce Cunningham Studio Theater, 212-427-627, westbeth.org; $20.
Theater LISTINGS
Happy Hour: Oscar-winner Ethan Coen’s evening of short plays receives its world premiere courtesy of the Atlantic Theater Company with an ensemble cast including Amanda Quaid, Joey Slotnick and Ana Reeder. Ends Dec. 31, Peter Norton Space, 552 W. 42nd St., atlantictheater.org.
A Christmas Carol: Reid Farrington presents a trippy remix of the classic holiday show, uniting live performance & clips from 35 different film versions of the tale on moving screens to form a massive “magic lantern.” Dec. 1–18, Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand St., 212-598-0400, abronsartscenter.org.
Angry Women in Low Rise Jeans with High Class Issues: This witty, woman-centered comedy takes on first world problems from bikini waxes to birth control side effects. Dec. 1–18, Theater for the New City, 155 1st Ave., 212-254-1109, angryyoungwomen.net.
Cosi fan tutte: The Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater gives three performances of Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte,” conducted by MSM graduate Israel Gursky. Dec. 7, 9 & 11, Borden Auditorium, 120 Claremont Ave., 212-749-2802, msmnyc.edu.
