Kelly Strayhorn Theater festival showcases local dance legend Kyle Abraham
Renowned dancer and choreographer Kyle Abraham is returning to his hometown for Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s My People: A QTPOC Festival of the Arts, running Nov. 10-13.
The annual multi-disciplinary festival was created in honor of the theater’s namesake, Billy Strayhorn, and showcases the work of queer and transgender artists of color. Abraham’s work is at the forefront this year.
A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Abraham began his dance training at Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School before moving to New York City. He is the founder of the contemporary dance company, A.I.M, and has created works for companies including the Royal Ballet and New York City Ballet.
During the festival, he will premiere a new dance work and a film showcasing A.I.M dancers, along with teaching a community dance class.
“So much of the work I have made over the years is, in a lot of ways, rooted in a street or many streets in Pittsburgh. And this is one of those works,” Abraham said. “This is Pittsburgh.”
“Love is a recurring theme in this year’s festival,” said KST programming director Ben Pryor. “(The programs) are looking at the complexities of self love and Black love, and the range of different representations of that love, and really exploring how love and relationships function across various perspectives.”
The programming is offered not just for queer and Black audiences, but for people across the community, he said.
“The pieces reveal more about different perspectives across communities and courses of life, the ways love and relationships are the same and different,” Pryor said. “Pittsburgh is a very complex place where different folks have very different experiences within a small geographic space.
“There are some harsh landscapes and lots of challenges, true, but also a really thriving (Black and queer) community within that,” he said, which points back to Billy Strayhorn’s life.
Born in 1915, Strayhorn was a jazz musician and composer known for his longtime association with Duke Ellington and his enduring jazz standards like “Take the ‘A’ Train”and “Lush Life.”
“Billy Strayhorn was a revolutionary because he was living as an out, queer, Black artist in a time when it was challenging enough to live freely as a Black person in segregationist United States, let alone be open about one’s sexuality and identity,” said KST executive director Joseph Hall. “We celebrate his life and legacy by boldly celebrating the art and stories of queer and transgender people of color here in his hometown of Pittsburgh.”
My People programs and performances include:
Love and Relationships: A Screening and Conversation
Abraham’s new 30-minute dance film will screen at 7 p.m. Nov. 10 at KST’s Alloy Studios, 5530 Penn Ave. Set to a soundtrack of songs by Nina Simone, the film was created by Abraham in collaboration with A.I.M dancers and filmmaker Dehanza Rogers.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion with Abraham and Pittsburgh-based artists including Brian Broome, Staycee Pearl, Akasha L. Van Cartier and sarah huny young exploring queer relationships in Pittsburgh.
Get Ur Spades On: An Immersive Card Playing Experience
Trini Massie will lead a tournament of the card game spades from 7-11 p.m. Nov. 11 at Alloy Studios. Players can sign up with a partner in advance or at the door and compete for prizes including tickets to My People’s Friday and Saturday night performances.
Community dance class
Kyle Abraham will lead the session from 10 a.m.-noon Nov. 12 at Alloy Studios, emphasizing A.I.M’s core movement values: exploration, musicality, abandonment and intuition. Class begins with a focus on the fluidity of the spine, articulation and core body strengthening, and builds to more challenging and creative phrase work using more intricate gestures and signature A.I.M moves.
Black, Queer, Here
Live performance curated by sarah huny young starts at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at Alloy Studios. The program is based on young’s queer extravaganza for TQ Live presented in September at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
An Untitled Love
A.I.M will perform Abraham’s newest evening-length work, presented in partnership with Pittsburgh Dance Council, at 8 p.m. Nov. 13 in the Byham Theater in downtown Pittsburgh. “Drawing from the catalogue of Grammy Award-winning R&B legend D’Angelo, this creative exaltation pays homage to the complexities of self love and Black love, while serving as a thumping mixtape celebrating our culture, family, and community,” KST says.
Tickets for “An Untitled Love” are $10-$65, available from Pittsburgh Cultural Trust at 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.
The fee for all other festival programs is “pay what makes you happy.” For more information and registration, visit kelly-strayhorn.org.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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