Kyle Abraham brings ‘The Radio Show’ to Dance Place
(Chris Cameron/MANCC/ MANCC ) - Choreographer Kyle Abraham with dancer Rena Butler during rehearsal at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University.
“It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen. Structurally, choreographically, it’s the first of its kind,” said Chalvar Monteiro, one of the dancers who will be performing with “Abraham.in.Motion” this weekend. Monteiro, a SUNY Purchase graduate who left Elisa Monte’s decades-old company to focus on dancing for Abraham, is quite forthcoming about why. “He has a new, fresh take on the human experience and how that translates into dancing,” Monteiro said. “It was hard for me to chose, but the factor that kept me here is that I love Kyle and that he always makes a point to make works that are socially relevant, but also timeless.”
That’s high praise for a choreographer whose company repertory is essentially just two works. Abraham spent his 20s dancing for the likes of Bill T. Jones and David Dorfman. In 2008, he started taking more guest artist and temporary teaching gigs, with the goal of not only making his own living, but funding his own company. “Radio Show,” which was partially funded by the Heinz Endowments, premiered in Pittsburgh, and debuted in New York a month later, in the middle of a snowstorm. Abraham remembers looking out at the audience, and thinking it was a decent house for Danspace Project. The next day, the New York Times ran a positive review. “After that review, it was so sold out. I started the show, and I just started crying,” Abraham said. “Now, me crying is just part of the show. It was overwhelming, that support. I was thinking, ‘Wow. People came to see my work.’”
They’ve been coming ever since, to venues across the country, plus government-funded tours in Ecuador and Jordan. This year, a fellowship from the Joyce Foundation entitles him to 100 hours of free studio time, but with so many touring opportunities, it’s actually gotten tough to squeeze those hours in, making it all the more important that his dancers — who do not have written contracts — show up for rehearsal. “Pavement” is scheduled to premiere November, and it’s already been booked, sight unseen, by arts presenters across the country, including Dance Place, the Northeast District venue that presents mostly local dance companies, but also saves a few weekends for up-and-coming touring artists.
When A.I.M. arrives in D.C. on Wednesday, Dance Place founding director Carla Perlo will be meeting Abraham for the first time, even though she’s already committed to present his company for three years.
“Kyle and I have a very 21st-century relationship,” Perlo said. “We e-mail constantly, but I feel like I already know him. He’s very warm and friendly. He’s got good management (Pentacle), a great Web site, and he sends high-quality samples of his work.”
Through the National Performance Network, a nonprofit organization that matches artists with presenters, Dance Place was able to join the venerable Bates Dance Festival in co-comissioning “Live! The Realest MC.” That work, which looks at black gay identity through the Pinocchio story, and a puppet’s quest to be real, premiered last year, although Dance Place audiences aren’t scheduled to see it until 2014. In 2013, A.I.M. will bring “Pavement” to Washington.
Founded in 2006 by Mirenka Cechova and Radim Vizvary, Tantehorse is a physical mime theatre company based in the Czech Republic. The black comedy, “Dante: Light in a Darkness” is part of Tantehorse’s “Dark Trilogy.”
Preview of “Eveningland,” a collaborative work by D.C.-based contemporary dance company Christopher K. Morgan & Artists and New York’s Skybetter and Associates.
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