{"id":6475,"date":"2019-08-05T15:39:19","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T19:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/?p=6475"},"modified":"2019-08-11T13:28:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-11T17:28:38","slug":"anthologizing-abraham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/2019\/08\/anthologizing-abraham\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthologizing Abraham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Kyle Abraham’s Drive. <\/em>(L to R): Tamisha Guy, Catherine Ellis Kirk, Donovan Reed, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Marcella Lewis, Matthew Baker, Claude “CJ” Johnson, and (hidden) Jada Jenai Williams. Photo: Grace Kathryn Landefeld
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When I watch a dance that I\u2019ve also seen a few years earlier, I perceive it differently. Maybe I hear it differently too. Has it changed? Maybe. Have I changed? Of course. So has the world. I\u2019ve viewed and written about all but one of the works dating from 2011, 2017, and 2018 that members of A.I.M (Abraham in Motion) performed this past week at Jacob\u2019s Pillow. Some new dancers have taken on the roles designed by the company\u2019s Artistic Director, Kyle Abraham, and by guest choreographer Andrea Miller, director of Gallim, and things catch my attention that evaded it before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(And here\u2019s another question: do I only remember what I wrote about and forget what I didn\u2019t mention earlier?) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Jacob\u2019s Pillow, where A.I.M has appeared four times, why would I not have paid more attention to the vivid, changeable lighting designed by Dan Scully or Nicole Pearce? Scully\u2019s lighting for Drive <\/em>(2017) begins with a row of red footlights at the back of the stage and above them four sets of eight lamps arranged like windows. Smoke pours onto the stage. And that\u2019s just the beginning. Certain aspects of Abraham\u2019s choreography seem not to have imprinted themselves on my mind. For instance, the dancers\u2019 arms are often very busy and wonderfully fluid. In The Quiet Dance <\/em>(2011), their fleeting gestures may suggest pulling fabric around themselves or slipping a scarf about their necks; these aren\u2019t pantomimic, simply components of a muscular lyricism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marcella Lewis in Kyle Abraham’s Show Pony. <\/em>Photo: Grace Kathryn Landefeld <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Abraham\u2019s style draws on\nballet, modern dance, hip-hop, various vernacular forms, but, molded by his own\nunique sensibility, rarely do these sneak into the foreground.  You feel the movements\u2014sensuous,\nweighty\u2014rippling out from deep in the dancers\u2019 bodies. Sudden steps flash out\nand subside. You don\u2019t think, \u201coh, a leap;\u201d instead you watch an eruption.  In the solo Show Pony<\/em> (2018), set to Jlin\u2019s \u201cHatshepsut,\u201d terrific Marcella\nLewis (who alternates in the role with the equally terrific Tamisha Guy), wears\na skin-tight, shiny gold unitard. Her legs may flash into the air, catching the\nlight, but you see every bone of her mobile spine, a kind of generator pressing\nher into motion, seeking crevices of air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kyle Abraham in his INDY. <\/em>Photo: Kathryn Grace Landefeld<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not the only solo on the program. Abraham reprises his 2018 INDY<\/em>, and I don\u2019t know which of many meanings of that word he was choosing. He\u2019s wearing a black sleeveless top and matching pants, both of them fringed like buckskins of the old West, but infinitely more elegant. What I hadn\u2019t remembered is that he almost never stops walking\u2014crossing the stage on diagonals or straight lines toward and away from us. Those walks are revelatory. He could be revisiting his life as if it were a condensed travelogue. Sometimes he strides with a kind of leisurely boys-in-the-hood confidence; occasionally, he affects (or perhaps signals) clich\u00e9s of femininity:  tiny  steps, a coy glance, a kissy mouth, a finger smoothing his eyebrow. Jerome Begin\u2019s potent score mingles piano notes with occasional human voices, thunder, a sudden squawk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abraham never lets us forget\nthat things are happening to him in Pearce\u2019s shifting paths and beams of light.\nHe slows down, speeds up. Pauses. He may talk silently, smile, laugh; he may\ntravel upstage, where a mysterious light glows high up, and the black curtains\nopen to reveal grayness. Toward the end, he removes and carefully folds his\nshirt and pants. And then he\u2019s cold, but not in response to the weather. He\u2019s\njerking, curling his body over, his movements halting. He puts the shirt back\non, and soon, after walking away from us, bends over, his back to us, subtly\nconvulsing. Maybe sobbing. But when he comes toward again, he\u2019s smiling, even\nthough one of his hands can\u2019t stop shaking. The music fades. The lights dim to\nblack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Andrea Miller’s state<\/em>: L to R: Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Catherine Ellis Kirk, and Marcella Lewis. Photo: Hayim Heron<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

You can marvel at how Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Catherine Ellis Kirk, and \nLewis move in perfect synchrony during the first two sections 2018 state<\/em>,\n by guest choreographer Andrea Miller. Attended by Reggie Wilkins\u2019s \nscore, whose first sounds are crowd noises and voices rising above them,\n the three women\u2014bent over, their backs to us\u2014tread the floor, \nsilhouetted by Pearce\u2019s lighting. Gradually they turn to face us, take \nlittle side steps, little kicks, plant their feet in a wide stance, move\n their arms, sway their hips. Their gaze is often upward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second section, they\nbegin sitting on the floor, facing on a diagonal, arched back until their heads\ntouch the floor. Imagine an exercise class in hell. At one point, facing the\nfloor, they balance on their knees and elbows, their hands  pressed against their faces.  Oddly, I can imagine the dance performed as a\nsolo; Some of these moves suggest ones you\u2019d make when alone. Yet, although the\nthree women dance in unison until the last section, they come across as\nindividuals. In that final part, Ellis Kirk dances with her own shadow,\nprojected on the cyclorama. Still, before returning to their initial treading,\nthe three cluster holding hands and, heads together, lift their wreathed arms\noverhead and lower them into a group embrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abraham\u2019s The Quiet Dance<\/em>, mentioned earlier, is quiet both aurally and visually. It\u2019s performed to a recording of Bill Evans playing a piano rendition of Leonard Bernstein\u2019s \u201cSome Other Time\u201d from On The Town. <\/em>Ellis Kirk works alone on one side of the stage for much of its duration, while various of the others\u2014Baker, Guy, Jinakunwiphat, and Claude \u201cCJ\u201d Johnson\u2014come and go on the opposite side. In this work, dancers are often in unison, but small breaks occur. For instance, four paired dancers are packed close together, facing us, but for a short time, the two in back turn to dance face to face. Later, two stop and hug.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toward the end, you feel the\ntenderness among these people, even though they rarely touch, as they fit\nthemselves into patterns. Ellis Kirk echoes elements of these only briefly\nbefore returning to her own musing. She\u2019s the only person onstage when the\nlights go out, walking away from us. Perhaps she dreamed the others up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Catherine Ellis Kirk on the attack in Kyle Abraham’s Drive. <\/em>Photo: Grace Kathryn Landefeld<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dan Scully\u2019s lighting for\nAbraham\u2019s 2017 Drive<\/em> (also mentioned\nearlier) turns the stage into a dangerous place. One in flames. You can\u2019t\nalways see the opening in the rear curtains through the smoke. Sometimes the\nperformers don\u2019t just exit back there; they seem to get swallowed up. The music\nby Theo Parrish and Mobb Deep plus additional sounds by Sam Crawford add to the\natmosphere of danger. From deep in it, voices occasionally whisper or cry out\n(did I hear \u201cTry yourself try\u201d). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that Donovan Reed and\nJada Jenai Williams have joined those already mentioned, there are eight\npeople\u2014all splendid performers. In this dangerous climate, they try to be\norderly, do what they usually do\u2014that is, dance. But you also see them clump\ntogether. You spot two of them sparring, one of them helping another. Does the\ntitle Drive<\/em> mean get the hell out of\nhere? Could be. But, strangely, near the end, four white neon tubes, suspended\nvertically, mitigate the disastrous lighting. Is that a hopeful sign? Or just a\nwish? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abraham\u2014born in Pittsburgh, a\nstudent of art and the cello as well as of dance, the recipient of a MacArthur\nFellowship and other awards\u2014has built a rich career of world-wide touring for\nA.I.M. and ventures for himself as a choreographer (the Alvin Ailey American\nDance Company has an Abraham; so does the New York City Ballet). Some members\nof the Jacob\u2019s Pillow audience were heard nervously asking one another, \u201cWhat\ndo you think it means<\/em>?\u201d But they\nstood up and cheered, so I\u2019ll bet that, deep down, they knew the answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I watch a dance that I\u2019ve also seen a few years earlier, I perceive it differently. Maybe I hear it differently too. Has it changed? Maybe. Have I changed? Of course. So has the world. I\u2019ve viewed and written about all but one of the works dating from 2011, 2017, and 2018 that members […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,199,1],"tags":[3044,803,1288,3047,907,3179,1656,3180,3046,126,2763,908,1847,1808],"class_list":{"0":"post-6475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-contemporary-dance","8":"category-postmodern-views","9":"category-uncategorized","10":"tag-a-i-m","11":"tag-andrea-miller","12":"tag-catherine-ellis-kirk","13":"tag-claude-cj-johnson","14":"tag-dan-scully","15":"tag-donovan-reed","16":"tag-jacobs-pillow-dance-festival","17":"tag-jada-jenai-williams","18":"tag-keerati-jinakunwiphat","19":"tag-kyle-abraham","20":"tag-marcella-lewis","21":"tag-matthew-baker","22":"tag-nicole-pearce","23":"tag-tamisha-guy","24":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6475"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6509,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions\/6509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}