Pittsburgh native Kyle Abraham earns spot on Dance Magazine's list of top works from last 20 years
Kyle Abraham joined the World Arts and Cultures/Dance faculty in 2016. Abraham’s choreography draws on social politics and personal history to create original work. Born into hip-hop culture in the late 1970s and grounded in an broad artistic upbringing in music and the visual arts, his unique, evocative, and interdisciplinary vision entwines a sensual and provocative vocabulary with an emphasis on sound, human behavior, and all things visual to create an avenue for personal investigation that comes to life on stage. Abraham’s honors include the Doris Duke Artist Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, a USA Ford Fellowship, a Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, a Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance, a Princess Grace Award, and OUT Magazine called Abraham the “best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama”.
"The spread of COVID-19 has postponed a lot in the performing arts world, but it didn’t stop Dance Magazine from publishing its list of “20 Top Works of the Last 20 Years” — which included an evening-length production by Pittsburgh native Kyle Abraham.
Mr. Abraham, a product of Pittsburgh CAPA and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera who’s now in his early 40s, earned a spot on the list for his 2012 show “Pavement.”
"Pavement" premiered at Harlem Stage Gatehouse in New York, just days after Superstorm Sandy walloped the Northeast. Part of the set got stuck in New Jersey, and some audience members coming from across the country had flights canceled because of the storm. The show, however, went on with sold-out crowds. The Pittsburgh Dance Council presented “Pavement” at Byham Theater as part of its 2012-13 season.
In a 2013 interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mr. Abraham described “Pavement” as “a juxtaposition of ‘The Souls of Black Folk’ by W.E.B. Du Bois from 1903 and John Singleton's 1991 film ‘Boyz n the Hood.’" Together, these pieces create a timeline of where African-Americans were then, where they are now and where their communities could be heading, he said. The work also is inspired by his upbringing in Pittsburgh’s East End.— Sara Bauknecht, Mar. 18, 2020
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Pittsburgh Post Gazette website.
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