A.I.M by Kyle Abraham: Cassette Vol. 1

NEW YORK CITY PREMIERE

“What Abraham brings … 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.” – Vogue

ABOUT THE WORK

Nostalgia isn’t just a feeling, it’s a rhythm, a groove, a dance that lives in the body. Weaving together the pop, R&B, and New Wave sounds of his youth, Kyle Abraham crafts a work that moves between camp and critique, honoring the influences that shaped him, from M/A/R/R/S to Prince, from Trisha Brown to Bill T. Jones. Ballet technique meets release-based articulation in a hybrid movement language that speaks to the non-monolithic Black experience and the cultural collisions of the 1980s and 1990s. Equal parts joy and reflection, Cassette Vol. 1 invites us to laugh at the extremes, mourn what’s lost, and move with the music that made us.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kyle Abraham and his choreography have been featured in Document Journal, Ebony, Kinfolk, O Magazine, Vogue, and Vogue UK among other publications. Abraham is the proud recipient of a Princess Grace Statue Award (2018), Doris Duke Award (2016), and MacArthur Fellowship (2013). He serves as the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professor in Dance at The University of Southern California, Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Abraham also sits on the advisory boards for Dance Magazine and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the inaugural Black Genius Brain Trust, and the inaugural cohort of the Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab, a partnership between the Prada Group, Theaster Gates Studio, Dorchester Industries, and Rebuild Foundation. His company, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, is widely considered “one of the most consistently excellent troupes working today” (The New York Times). Led by Abraham’s innovative vision, the work of A.I.M is galvanized by Black culture and history and grounded in a conglomeration of unique perspectives. Abraham has been commissioned by dance companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The National Ballet of Cuba, New York City Ballet, and The Royal Ballet. Abraham has also choreographed for many of the leading dancers of our time, including Misty Copeland, Calvin Royal III, and Wendy Whelan. For more information, visit aimbykyleabraham.org.

CREATIVE CREDITS

CHOREOGRAPHY Kyle Abraham in collaboration with A.I.M

Scenic, Lighting Design and Video Design Dan Scully

Costume Design Karen Young and Kyle Abraham

Sound Editor Sam Crawford and Kyle Abraham

Video Editor Simon Harding

Artistic Advisors Risa Steinberg

Premiere Cast Jamaal Bowman, Amari Frazier, Mykiah Goree, Catherine Kirk, Faith Joy Mondesire, William Okajima, Donovan Reed, Keturah Stephen, Gianna Theodore, Olivia Wang

PREMIERE Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany