A.I.M BY KYLE ABRAHAM

“Is nostalgia just the mental pullover that we wear over the memories we dance in our heads?“ Does an idealised perspective prevent us taking a realistic view of our own past? Cassette Vol. 1 by Kyle Abraham, one of the most sought-after choreographers and dancers of our time, revolves around the ambivalence of what we remember and how we remember it. Memories – for example of his first dance experiences – are inseparably linked with the music Abrahams grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s, that he uses to create a soundtrack as a kind of mixtape: ranging from Suzanne Vega’s folk to hip-hop by Salt-N-Pepa and on to the unique songs of Prince. The electic nature of the musical references is matched by the movement vocabulary that stretches from street dance and hip-hop to ballet. Inspired by such contrasting choreographers as Trisha Brown with her minimalist aesthetic and the political choreography of Bill T. Jones or master teachers such as Kevin Wynn, Abraham examines the lived realities of Black and queer people in the USA with his customary fluidity. A work that is as personal as it is emotional, looking back at the past with one eye laughing and the other crying.