Award-Winning Choreographer Kyle Abraham Brings West Coast Premieres of ‘The Watershed’ and ‘When the Wolves Came In’ to Royce Hall Feb
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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 Glenn Ligon, 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 Max Roach’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. PRESS REVIEW TICKETS/PHOTO PASSES/INTERVIEW REQUESTS Contact Jessica Wolf at [email protected]/ IMAGES Available for download at cap.ucla.edu/press-images . Register for access. 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 Pittsburgh, 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 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, Montreal, Germany, Jordan, Ecuador, Dublin’s Project Arts Center, The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum located in Okinawa Japan, 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.