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"The Devil Ties My Tongue" SKETCH Series 2013 | photo: David DeSilva
Dance Magazine: Kyle Abraham Is Dance Magazine’s Guest Editor This Week
By Jennifer Stahl
16 November 2020
During my first year at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, there was a grad student in my ballet class who mystified me. At the end of almost every across-the-floor combination, he’d drop the classical positions and improvise for an additional count of eight, mixing hip-hop swagger with contemporary abandon. In ballet class! As a sheltered bunhead who’d always strictly followed the teacher’s combinations like they were The Law, watching him find his own groove in the corner blew my mind. Partly because it felt so rebellious, but also because his movement was simply mesmerizing to watch.
That guy was Kyle Abraham. And even back then in 2003, he was already making his own rules.
He would go on to win a MacArthur “genius” grant 10 years later for his bold, haunting works about police brutality and violence, intimacy and vulnerability. And he endeared himself to the dance community by using that money to help fund his A.I.M dancers’ 52-week contracts (with health insurance and vacation days—even through a pandemic). Then he became even more beloved by refusing to be presented on any rep program that didn’t also include a work by a female choreographer.
I’m thrilled to announce that this week, he’s Dance Magazine‘s first-ever guest editor for our website, taking over starting today with stories that were all his ideas. Stay tuned for pieces about what it’s like to join a new company during the pandemic, what goes into titling a dance work, how directors choose rep, what happens to a choreographer after they “emerge” into mid-career and more. It’s an exciting lineup with lots of insight for anyone in the dance field.
Read the full story here.
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