Kyle Abraham

Bio content provided by individual

Teacher Bio

The 2012 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient, Kyle Abraham, began his training at the Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He continued his dance studies in New York, receiving a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Over the past few years, Abraham has received tremendous accolades and awards for his dancing and choreography including a 2010 Bessie Award for Outstandin...read more

The 2012 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient, Kyle Abraham, began his training at the Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He continued his dance studies in New York, receiving a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Over the past few years, Abraham has received tremendous accolades and awards for his dancing and choreography including a 2010 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance for his work in The Radio Show, a 2010 Princess Grace Award for Choreography, a BUILD grant and an individual artist fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, and selected in 2009 as one of Dance Magazine’s 25 To Watch.

In 2011, OUT Magazine labeled Abraham as the “best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama”.

His choreography has been presented throughout the United States and abroad, most recently at On The Boards, South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, REDCAT, Philly Live Arts, Portland’s Time Based Arts Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, Bates Dance Festival, Harlem Stage, Fall for Dance Festival at New York's City Center, Montreal, Germany, Jordan, Ecuador, Dublin’s Project Arts Center, The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum located in Okinawa Japan, The Andy Warhol Museum and The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.

As a performer, Abraham has worked with acclaimed modern dance companies including David Dorfman Dance, Burnt Sugar Dance Conduction Continuum, Nathan Trice/Rituals, Mimi Garrard Dance Theater, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Dance Alloy, The Kevin Wynn Collection and Attack Theatre. In addition to performing and developing new works for his company, Abraham.In.Motion, Abraham also teaches his unique approach to post-modern dance in various schools and studios throughout the United States.

He is currently working on a commission by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and a new pas de deux for himself and acclaimed Bessie Award winning dancer and New York City Principle, Wendy Whelan, while still creating new works for his company A/I/M.

For more information please visit AbrahamInMotion.org

Read less

Class Descriptions

Class Description

Kyle Abraham is an artist whose works as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer have been presented throughout Europe and the United States. Abraham draws from his experiences with diverse dance companies such as David Dorfman Dance, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and The Kevin Wynn Collection and applies this insight to his own teaching. Abraham is best known for dynamic phrase work based on his own self-intuitive movement sensibility often viewed at a hybrid of Hip Hop, Limon, and Cunningham technique. His class emphasizes four specific core values: exploration, musicality, abandonment, and intuition. The opening warm-up sequence focuses on the fluidity of the spine, articulation, and core body strengthening and then builds up to challenging, creative and invigorating phrase work. Students experience a personalized post-modern movement vocabulary full of intricate gestures and fearless floor work.