Press Release Tuesday January 20, 2014 Contact: Jessica Wolf 310.825.7789 [email protected]

Award-Winning Choreographer Kyle Abraham Brings West Coast Premieres of ‘The Watershed’ and ‘When the Wolves Came In’ to Royce Hall Feb. 12-13

Works Celebrate Anniversaries of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Abolishment of Apartheid in South Africa; Feature Visual Design by , Original Music by Robert Glasper

Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA presents the West Coast premiere of new work from choreographer and recent Macarthur Genius Award winner Kyle Abraham in two compelling dance programs that explore themes of freedom centered around two totemic triumphs in the international history of the civil rights, the 150-year anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 20-year anniversary of the abolishment of apartheid in South Africa. Abraham and his company, Abraham.In.Motion, will present four works— including the new evening-length program “The Watershed” Thursday Feb. 12 at Royce Hall. The Friday Feb. 13 repertory program “When the Wolves Came In” is comprised of two ensemble works and one trio, featuring original music by world renowned jazz artist Robert Glasper. Both programs feature visual design by acclaimed conceptual artist Glenn Ligon.

Tickets ($29-$69) are now available at cap.ucla.edu , Ticketmaster or the UCLA Central Ticket Office (310.825.2101). Shows start at 8 p.m.

Both programs take inspiration from jazz great ’s protest album “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. Both programs were commissioned and produced by New York Live Arts, through its Resident Commissioned Artist program, which Abraham was awarded in 2012. “The Watershed” and “When the Wolves Came In” premiered at New York Live Arts in September of this year.

The first of the two programs, “The Watershed,” is an evening-length work for nine dancers that shares a musical likeness to Abraham’s 2010 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award- winning work “The Radio Show.” “The Watershed” blends an eclectic score of 1960s R&B with contemporary classical and hip hop to create a historically referential work rooted in our current cultural, historical and political milieu. A dialogue on the universal aspiration toward freedom, the work references the emancipation following the Civil War, the political tumult of the 1960s and civil rights challenges of our present day, ultimately expanding upon the question: “Are we yet free?”

The repertory-based program on Friday Feb. 13, “When the Wolves Came In,” includes three works--“When the Wolves Came In,” “The Gettin’” and “Hallowed.” The newest of these, “When the Wolves Came In,” is an ensemble work for six dancers set to the music of The Los Angeles Master Chorale’s “A Good Understanding” (composed by the acclaimed American contemporary classical music composer Nico Muhly). The piece abstractly attempts to un-tether civil rights from issues of race, examining them more pointedly within the politics of power. Boasting highly articulated movement, dancers elegantly bedecked in beehives and elevated dress (by costume designer Karen Young), this generous and emotional abstraction seeks to not only neutralize the racialization of human rights, but also exaggerate the universally human impact that the loss of freedom entails.

All repertory works feature visual design by acclaimed conceptual artist Glenn Ligon, marking his first collaboration with a dance company. The sets take visual cues culled from an array of images and points in American history including the civil rights era, doo-wop and other cultural phenomena, as well as slavery and its history and iconography

“The Gettin’” is a five-section group work comprised of duets in conversation with a seven- dancer ensemble and features original music by Robert Glasper, drawing inspiration and themes from Roach’s opus. Incorporating movement influenced by kinetic references taken from Abraham’s love of social dancing and integrated with his signature style of mellifluous fluidity juxtaposed with sharp accents, the movement exploration is rooted in the themes of freedom and civil rights.

The third work,” Hallowed,” is a trio 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 during the years 1963–1967.

Funding Support for “The Watershed” and “When the Wolves Came In” were commissioned and produced by New York Live Arts through its Resident Commissioned Artist Program, with lead support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Watershed and When the Wolves Came In is supported, in part, by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The works were developed, in part, through a production residency at On the Boards with support from the National Dance Project, with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Additional support for CAP UCLA’s presentation of Abraham.In.Motion comes from the National Endowment for the Arts and AVK Arts Antonia & Vladimer Kulaev Heritage Fund.

Performance information: Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion The Watershed West Coast Premiere Thursday February 12 at 8 pm Royce Hall

When the Wolves Came In (Mixed Repertory Evening) West Coast Premiere Friday February 13 at 8 pm Royce Hall

General tickets ($29-$69) are available at cap.ucla.edu, all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 310.825.2101 or in person at the UCLA Central Ticket Office located in the southwest corner of the James West Alumni Center. Student rush tickets, subject to availability, are offered at $15 one hour before show time to all students with valid ID.

While at CAP UCLA Abraham.In.Motion will also create a special Demonstration Performance on Friday Feb. 13 at 11:30 a.m. for local middle school students as part of the Center’s K-12 education program Design for Sharing. Kyle Abraham will visit and speak to a UCLA class of non- arts majors as part of the Center’s Art in Action outreach programming. And, immediately following the Feb. 13 performance of “When the Wolves Came In” CAP UCLA will celebrate the company with “Movement,” a post-show dance party in the Royce Hall rehearsal room, free open to the public, featuring KCRW’s Garth Trinidad.

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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’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 2014, he also received an honorary doctorate from Washington & Jefferson University in Pittsburgh. In 2012, Abraham was named the 2012 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient and 2012 USA Ford Fellow. Later that year, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater premiered Abraham’s newest work, Another Night at New York’s City Center to rave reviews. Rebecca Bengal of Vogue writes, “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 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, Montreal, , Jordan, Ecuador, Dublin’s Project Arts Center, The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum located in Okinawa , The Andy Warhol Museum, The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater and Byham 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 Bessie Award winning dancer and New York City Principle, 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 albums on Blue Note Records 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, Erykah Badu, Lupe Fiasco, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway, 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 its 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 on numerous production projects for 2014/2015, including scoring the Don Cheadle film, “Miles Ahead,” and producing a Miles Davis remix album.

About CAP UCLA Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (CAP UCLA) is dedicated to the advancement of contemporary performing arts in all disciplines — dance, music, spoken word and theater, as well the emerging digital, collaborative and cross-art platforms inspired by today's leading artists and creators. CAP supports the creation, presentation and critical dialogues vital to the ongoing innovation and expressive potential of artists whose work, whether vibrantly emerging or internationally acclaimed, forms the dynamic and evolving heritage of contemporary performance. Based in UCLA's iconic Royce Hall, CAP UCLA is the university's public center for the presentation of the performing arts and contributes to the cultural life of the campus and greater Los Angeles, promoting civic dialogue and creative inquiry. Through an annual season of performing arts programs and extensive community-engagement events — including artist fellows and residency programs, K–12 arts education (Design for Sharing), student mentorship (Student Committee for the Arts), and art-making and experiential activities (Art in Action) — CAP UCLA advances the importance of art in society by celebrating and deepening the connection between artist and audience.

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