For Immediate Release Contact: Elizabeth Cooke, Communications Manager [email protected] (212) 691-6500 x210

New York Live Arts Announces the World Premiere of The Watershed and When the Wolves Came In Created by 2012-2014 Resident Commissioned Artist Kyle Abraham

Works Feature Visual Design by and Original Music Performed Live by , and Celebrate 150 Years of the Emancipation Proclamation and 20 Years of the Abolishment of Apartheid in South Africa

September 23 – 27 and September 30 – October 4, 2014 at New York Live Arts

Photos by Steven Schreiber

New York, NY, March 21, 2014 – New York Live Arts today announced the world premiere of works created by 2012-2014 Resident Commissioned Artist Kyle Abraham. Presented in two programs at New York Live Arts from September 23 through 27 and September 30 through October 4, 2014, this new repertory pays homage to the 150 year anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 20 year anniversary of the abolishment of apartheid in South Africa. The two programs will include the evening length work The Watershed, and When the Wolves Came In, a mixed repertory program including the ensemble work The Gettin’, featuring original music performed live by world renowned artist Robert Glasper; and a solo work Hallowed.

Each of the works will feature visual design by acclaimed conceptual artist Glenn Ligon and take inspiration from ’s protest “We Insist: Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite,” which celebrated the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation and shined a light on the growing Civil Rights Movement of that period in South Africa and the U.S. The powerful themes inherent in these historical milestones—in tandem with Abraham’s choreography and Roach’s music—connect ideas postured in a cross-cultural exploration of freedom and its progression from the 1960s to present day. Additional collaborators and performance details will be announced at a later date. New York Live Arts’ Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA) program identifies and supports outstanding mid- career artists and is one of the most generous and supportive awards offered to a choreographer in the , providing nearly $280,000 in direct support, including a salary each year for two years plus full health benefits, two years of residency time and a commission of a new work or works to premiere at New York Live Arts. Launched in 2011, the RCA program was created to help address a field-wide lack of infrastructure for mid-career artists and to support the evolving needs of the next generation of artists. The program is by invitation only and artists are selected by Live Arts Executive Artistic Director Bill. T. Jones and Artistic Director Carla Peterson.

“Kyle has an incredible choreographic voice and is a true leader in the field,” said Jones. “He represents exactly what New York Live Arts is—the exploration of culture and ideas through movement in a way that engages audiences of all kinds—and we’re thrilled to have him as our second Resident Commissioned Artist.”

“The fact that the RCA award gives mid-career artists the opportunity and breathing room to take a step back, thoughtfully reflect, and delve more deeply and courageously into their artistic ambitions and process is a very important one,” said Peterson. “With the too common story of ever-dwindling resources for the arts and artists in today’s world, I’m so pleased that we, as an institution, can continually provide artists with this substantial opportunity to hone their craft and bring their singular visions to audiences.”

"I look forward to premiering The Watershed and the mixed repertory program, When the Wolves Came In at New York Live Arts this fall,” said Abraham. “As I continue to develop these works I am grateful for the support the Resident Commissioned Artist program offers me. It pushes me to challenge myself in new ways creatively, and gives me the time and encouragement to discover new facets of my artistry."

Photo by Alex Escalante About the Repertory The Watershed is an evening-length work created for nine dancers, with a score ranging from a contemporary cello suite to the soulful sounds of Otis Redding. The movement highlights Abraham’s signature style of mellifluous fluidity juxtaposed with sharp accents.

When the Wolves Came In features The Gettin’ and Hallowed. The Gettin’, an ensemble work of five vignettes created in collaboration with Glasper, incorporates movement influenced by kinetic references taken from Abraham’s love of social dancing, and movement exploration rooted in the themes of freedom and civil rights. Glasper’s original score, which he will perform live with several musicians, will directly source Roach’s “We Insist: Freedom Now Suite” album. Hallowed is a solo work that explores queer urban dance aesthetics and uses movement ranging from whacking to voguing to popping and locking, interspersed with traditional modern dance forms. The musical score is comprised of various church sermons as well as music specifically referenced throughout the Civil Rights Movement.

Costumes for The Watershed, The Gettin’, and Hallowed will be designed by Karen Young.

The Watershed, The Gettin’, and Hallowed are commissioned and produced by New York Live Arts through its Resident Commissioned Artist Program, which receives lead support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital, and the New England Foundation for the Art’s National Dance Project, both with major support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The project is also underwritten, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, and by contributors to the Dance Theater Workshop Commissioning Fund at New York Live Arts.

About Kyle Abraham Kyle Abraham, New York Live Arts’ 2012-2014 Resident Commissioned Artist and 2013 MacArthur Fellow, began his dance training at the Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School in , Pennsylvania. He continued his dance studies in New York, receiving a B.F.A. from SUNY Purchase and an M.F.A. from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Abraham was named the 2012 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient and the 2012 USA Ford Fellow. In December 2013, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater premiered Abraham’s work, Another Night at New York’s City Center to rave reviews. Rebecca Bengal of Vogue wrote, “What Abraham brings to Ailey is an avant-garde aesthetic, an original and politically minded downtown sensibility that doesn’t distinguish between genres but freely draws on a vocabulary that is as much Merce and Martha as it is Eadweard Muybridge and Michael Jackson.”

Abraham received a prestigious New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance for his work in The Radio Show and a Princess Grace Award for Choreography in 2010. The previous year, he was selected as one of Dance Magazine’s 25 To Watch for 2009, and received a Jerome Travel and Study Grant in 2008.

His choreography has been presented throughout the United States and abroad, most recently at On The Boards, South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, REDCAT, Philly Live Arts, Portland’s Time Based Arts Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, Bates Dance Festival, Harlem Stage, Fall for Dance Festival at New York’s City Center, in Montreal, , Jordan, Ecuador, Dublin’s Project Arts Center, The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum located in Okinawa , The Andy Warhol Museum and The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.

In addition to performing and developing new works for his company, Abraham.In.Motion, Abraham recently premiered The Serpent and The Smoke, a new pas de deux for himself and acclaimed New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award winning dancer and Principal Dancer Wendy Whelan as part of Restless Creature at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.

In 2011, OUT Magazine labeled Abraham as the “best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama.”

About Glenn Ligon Glenn Ligon lives and works in New York. Ligon received a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University in 1982, and attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 1985.

A mid-career retrospective of Ligon’s work, Glenn Ligon: AMERICA, organized by Scott Rothkopf, opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art in March 2011. The exhibition traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the fall of 2011, and to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in early 2012. Ligon has been the subject of solo museum exhibitions at the Power Plant in Toronto, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and the Kunstverein Munich. His work was included in Documenta XI in 2002, and the 1991 and 1993 Whitney Biennials.

Glenn Ligon has earned numerous awards and recognition for his work, including the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant in 1997, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2003, the Skowhegan Medal for Painting in 2006, and the Studio Museum’s Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize in 2009.

Monographs of Ligon’s work include Glenn Ligon: AMERICA published by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Yourself in the World: Selected Writings and Interviews published by Yale University Press, New Haven, CT; Glenn Ligon – Some Changes published by the Power Plant, Toronto; Glenn Ligon: Unbecoming published by the ICA Philadelphia; and Coloring: New Work by Glenn Ligon published by the Walker Art Center.

Selected public collections include Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; Fisher Landau Center, Long Island City, NY; Harvard Art Museum, Boston, MA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth, TX; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.

About Robert Glasper Robert Glasper grew up in Houston, Texas, playing piano in church at the age of 12 to accompany his mother who was a gospel, jazz and R&B singer. He went on to sharpen his prodigal chops at the Houston High School for the Performing Arts and New School University in NYC, allowing his developing affinity for pop, hip-hop, and rock to inform his musical sensibilities. By 2003, Glasper had already racked up spots in the bands of prominent jazz artists such as Christian McBride, Kenny Garrett, Terence Blanchard and Roy Hargrove. In addition, his deep appreciation of hip-hop and R&B allowed him to form lateral bonds in those respective worlds. Guided by his mother’s example, Glasper simultaneously performed jazz while taking gigs as a touring musician and musical director for artists such as Maxwell, Yasiin Bey, Q-Tip and Bilal.

Glasper released two acclaimed acoustic jazz trio on before he captured his unique duality with 2009’s Double-Booked, which juxtaposed his acoustic trio and hip hop-infused Experiment band. RGX’s 2012 breakout Black Radio, featuring Yasiin Bey, , , Bilal, , KING, and others, laid out a new paradigm for creative music reaching beyond entrenched genre boundaries to create a singular vision that drew from all reaches of contemporary black music. Black Radio won Best R&B Album at the 2013 GRAMMY Awards.

RGX upped the ante with Black Radio 2 (2013), featuring Snoop Dogg, Anthony Hamilton, Luke James, Patrick Stump, Common, Jill Scott, Norah Jones, Emeli Sande, Faith Evans, Brandy and others. It is another genre-defying effort that took the Black Radio blueprint and built to even greater heights. A delight to critics and fans alike, Black Radio 2 brazenly traverses the genres of jazz, hip hop and R&B, creating a vibrant new chasm, brilliantly contrasting it’s predecessor in the process.

Glasper recently performed a duo piano concert at The Town Hall in NYC with label mate, Jason Moran, for Blue Note Records’ 75th Anniversary, and with Jill Scott and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music. He is currently touring with the Experiment band and working a numerous production projects for 2014/2015, including Kim Burrell and Yasiin Bey.

ABOUT NEW YORK LIVE ARTS New York Live Arts is an internationally recognized destination for innovative movement-based artistry offering audiences access to art and artists notable for their conceptual rigor, formal experimentation and active engagement with the social, political and cultural currents of our times. At the center of this identity is Bill T. Jones, Executive Artistic Director, a world-renowned choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer.

We commission, produce and present performances in our 20,000 square foot home, which includes a 184- seat theater and two 1,200 square foot studios that can be combined into one large studio. New York Live Arts serves as home base for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, provides an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people and supports the continuing professional development of artists. Our influence extends beyond NYC through our international cultural exchange program that currently places artists in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Funding Support for New York Live Arts Major support for New York Live Arts is provided by: Bloomberg Philanthropies; The Brownstone Foundation; The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation; Con Edison; The Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; The Ford Foundation; The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; Florence Gould Foundation; Japan Foundation; Jerome Foundation; Lambent Foundation; MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Mertz Gilmore Foundation; Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation; New England Foundation for the Arts; The New York Community Trust; Robert Rauschenberg Foundation; The Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Fund; The Jerome Robbins Foundation; The Scherman Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. New York Live Arts is supported by public funds administered by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. PRESS KITS AND DIGITAL IMAGES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

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