Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: There was a reception committee for native son and international choreographer Kyle Abraham onstage Friday night at the August Wilson Center. Along with Pittsburgh Dance Council executive director Randal Miller and LGBTQ advocate and businessman Richard Parsakian, Councilman Dan Gilman proclaimed Friday as Kyle Abraham Day in the city.
2 comments:
I was fortunate enough to see one of Abraham's shows in Nashville sometime last year, and it was truly stunning. Coming from someone who has little to no technical knowledge of dance, I can say that even though I am sure I missed a fair amount of the subtle nuance that goes into his work, it was still unbelievably moving and enthralling. In the show I saw, title something about wolves... I can not quite remember... he used these wigs that must have been three feet tall on them, and they were remarkable. Seeing these graceful dancers deal with these ridiculous burdens on their heads and do so seamlessly was truly fascinating. I have never seen a dance piece that has stuck with me as much as this one did. I did not know the Abraham was from Pittsburgh, but that is really exciting to me. This city is growing on me more and more each day, and seeing artists, especially ones I am familiar with and appreciate greatly is really uplifting and exciting.
Based upon the short promo clip only, it is really interesting to see how Abraham's choreography seems to mesh so fully with the production's technical elements. The use of media in dance shows either works really well or is a complete failure. The media design of Abraham's show looks really promising. Media is a really great way to san the disconnect contemporary or abstract choreography sometimes creates between the director's intent and the audience's perception. I think this was done especially well at CMU in Medea/Schulie. I was not previously aware of Schulie's works, nor really that knowledgeable about the myth of Medea, but the Media design of that show (along with the stellar sound, costumes, and choreography) really tied those two worlds together for me in a way that I could understand pretty completely. Kudos and congratulations to all the designers and crew members that worked on that show.
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