Review: Kyle Abraham's Calm Control of Bodies and Space
Made during his recent “bubble” residency in the Hudson Valley, Kyle Abraham's new dance for the New York City Ballet is a tranquil, contemplative work filmed entirely on 16 mm black and white film.
"Not just snow falling, but snow falling on a silent sea. In its first moments, “When We Fell,” Kyle Abraham’s new dance film for New York City Ballet, establishes its tone: muted, attuned to melting subtleties.
Lauren Lovette and Taylor Stanley in “When We Fell.” Credit: Ryan Marie Helfant In interviews, Abraham has said that for this film — available through April 22 on the company’s website and YouTube channel — he deliberately avoided the more flamboyant aspects of “The Runaway,” his 2018 hit for City Ballet. He has said that he was influenced instead by the environment in which the new work was made: during a February “bubble” residency in the Hudson Valley, where the quiet of quarantine was compounded by snow.
This is all apparent in the 16-minute work, set to spare piano pieces by Morton Feldman and Nico Muhly, sandwiching a raucous one by Jason Moran. But because this dance had to be a film, Abraham’s most crucial decision may have been his choice of a co-director, the cinematographer Ryan Marie Helfant. “When We Fell,” shot in 16 mm black-and-white, is among the most beautiful dance films of the pandemic.
After the snow and sea, it positions the dancers on the promenade of City Ballet’s home theater at Lincoln Center, taking full advantage of the site’s clarity and elegance, the geometric floor designs and balcony ironwork. Unlike many recent dance films, this one establishes and maintains bodies in relation to the space around them. When it cuts to a different point of view, the editing is calm, musical, coherent. Even shifts as ostentatious and potentially disorienting as toggles between side and overhead views are subsumed into the film’s tranquil rhythms."— Brian Seibert, Apr. 9, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the New York Times website.
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