Homecoming
Kyle Abraham returns to his roots
Celebrated choreographer Kyle Abraham is from Pittsburgh, but these days home is wherever the movement takes him.
Part of the year, he lives in California, where he teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles. Other times, he lives out of a suitcase as his NewYork City-based company Abraham.In.Motion tours the world.
This weekend, Mr. Abraham will return to his roots when his troupe performs two shows Downtown at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture as part of the Pittsburgh Dance Council’s 201718 season. He was last featured on a Dance Council program in 2013.
A lot has changed for the 40-yearold Pittsburgh native since then. He received the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award, along with $625,000. Last year, he was one of 21 recipients of the fifth annual Doris Duke Artist Awards. His company received $275,000 along with legal and financial counseling, professional development activities and peer-to-peer learning provided by Creative Capital, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s partner.
In the meantime, Abraham.In.Motion premiered eight works and Mr. Abraham was one of four choreographers involved with Wendy Whelan’s “Restless Creature” project. In August, Abraham.In.Motion was on the cover of Dance Magazine. Mr. Abraham also is particularly proud that he’s now in a position to provide his dancers with health insurance.
But the path to success doesn’t come without bumps in the road.
“It’s a lot more eyes on me. It’s people who just want you to fail because they don’t think you were deserving to begin with and having to deal with all of that;s a struggle,” he says. “I don’t need to work with people who don’t bring me joy.”
Even returning to Pittsburgh — many of his works are inspired by his early years here — is bittersweet.”I’m excited and stressed and sad,” he says.
He’s sad because both of his parents are now deceased, so coming home is “different.” The stress is partly because one of his last shows at the August Wilson Center didn’t go so well.
“There were so many mistakes that the show had to be stopped in the middle of it,” he recalls about the 2011 performance of “The Radio Show,” a work about his father’s battle with Alzheimer’s and the demise of the radio station WAMO. “I always have the fear that something like that could happen again.”