CALLING ALL DANCERS!
MacArthur Fellow and UCLA Professor Kyle Abraham curates free dance workshop open to all On the occasion of UCLA’s centennial celebration, the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance (WACD) is opening its studio doors and emphasizing the public in public university.
Professional/university-level dancers from within the UCLA student body and beyond are invited to join us for a series of free two-hour dance workshops with leading choreographers and dance-makers, enabling students to create stronger connections within the dance world and explore ideas and techniques together.
Curated by WACD professor and MacArthur Fellow Kyle Abraham, workshops will take place on the first Saturday of every month from March to June. Capacity for each workshop is limited to 35 participants; preregistration is strongly encouraged.
FREE DANCE WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Saturday, Mar. 7: Kyle Abraham
Saturday, Apr. 4: Micaela Taylor
Saturday, May 2: Genevieve Carson
Saturday, Jun. 6: Jacob Jonas
All workshops are from 12 pm – 2pm
Glorya Kaufman Hall, Room 200
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dance-workshops-curated-by-kyle-abraham-tickets-97405830461
Kyle Abraham Recently featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, Kinfolk and Vogue Italia, 2018 Princess Grace Statue Award recipient and Lincoln Center Education Artist in Residence, Kyle Abraham is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and 2016 Doris Duke recipient who began his dance training at the Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He continuedhis dance studies in New York, receiving a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Washington Jefferson College, and is currently serving as a visiting professor in residence at UCLA. Mr Abraham is the founding Artistic Director of A.I.M, an American contemporary dance company, created in honor his history, experiences and artistic interests.
In November 2012, Abraham was named the newly appointed New York Live Arts Resident Commissioned Artist for 2012–2014. Just one month later, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater premiered Abraham’s newest work, Another Night, at New York’s City Center to rave reviews. Rebecca Bengal of Vogue writes, “What Abraham brings to Ailey 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.”
That same year, Abraham was named the 2012 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient and 2012 United States Artist Ford Fellow, before serving as a choreographic contributor for Beyoncé’s 2013 British Vogue cover shoot. Abraham received a prestigious Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance for his work in The Radio Show, and a Princess Grace Award for Choreography in 2010. The previous year, he was selected as one of Dance Magazine’s 25 To Watch for 2009, and received a Jerome Travel and Study Grant in 2008.
In addition to performing and developing new works for A.I.M in 2019, he also choreographed and premiered The Bystander for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Only The Lonely for Paul Taylor American Modern Dance Company and Ash, a new solo work for American Ballet Theater principle, Misty Copeland to rave reviews.
Other commissioned works include; Untitled America, a 3-part commissioned work for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2016, The Runaway for New York City Ballet in 2018, The Serpent and The Smoke, a pas de deux for himself and former New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Wendy Whelan as part of Restless Creature and choreographed for the feature-length film, The Book of Henry with acclaimed director, Colin Trevorrow.
In 2011, OUT Magazine labeled Abraham as the “best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama”.