![\"Kyle](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2018\/02\/Kyle-and-Keshia-Abraham.jpg?ssl=1\" "\\"Kyle")
<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> \r\nAlways moving\r\n<\/h3>\n
Before he ever took a dance class, Mr. Abraham thought he could be a choreographer. Or a fashion designer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose were the two things that always interested me for whatever reason,\u201d he said in a recent phone interview from his office at UCLA. \u201cI loved making up dances.\u201d<\/p>\n
His family nicknamed him Cagey because he couldn’t be controlled. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just busy moving all the time. He couldn’t sit still,\u201d said his older sister, Keshia Abraham, who spoke proudly of her brother’s accomplishments in a phone call from her home in Miami, where she is the director of strategic initiatives for the Council of International Education Exchange. <\/p>\n
Back then, Lincoln-Larimer was called \u201cthe end of East Liberty before you get to Penn Hills,\u201d she said. There weren’t a lot of kids in the neighborhood close to his age, so he hung around with his sister.<\/p>\n
They were encouraged by their parents, the late Samuel Gregory Abraham and Henrietta \u201cJackie\u201d Abraham. He was a social worker for the Pittsburgh board of education and she held various positions in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, retiring as a principal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had asked for a little sister and was very specific. Then they called me from the hospital and said, ‘You got a brother.’ I said, \u2018Take it back. I didn’t ask for a brother,\u201d she said, laughing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I wouldn’t give him back for anything. He was just around all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Abraham kids were busy with lots of classes \u2014 piano, cello, French horn, singing, painting.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents were pretty progressive. They were really pushing the arts,” Mr. Abraham said. <\/p>\n
He loved the music of Prince. So when the Pittsburgh Dance Council brought Joffrey Ballet here to stage “Billboards,” he had to see it. The Dance Council also introduced him to the work of famed choreographer Bill T. Jones. Watching a friend perform in a musical at Schenley High School cinched it: Mr. Abraham took his first formal dance class a month or so before he turned 17.<\/p>\n
Instantly hooked, he went on to earn a summer jazz dance scholarship to Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera and began splitting his school days between Pittsburgh CAPA, then in Homewood, and Schenley.<\/p>\n
\u201cKyle had this unique style of movement,\u201d said Leslie Anderson Braswell, the first dance teacher hired at Pittsburgh CAPA and still there 38 years later. \u201cKyle had that instinct of\u2018 \u2018I\u2019m not afraid. I\u2019m going to go for it.\u2019 That\u2019s why he\u2019s the genius that he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
His early days in dance earned him another nickname, Energizer Bunny. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe never got tired. If you said, \u2018Kyle, we\u2019re going to dance until midnight,\u2019 he\u2019d be happy because he had such energy,\u201d Ms. Anderson Braswell recalled. <\/p>\n
He was ambitious, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe used to tell me everything he was going to do. He wanted to be a clothing designer. He wanted to own a restaurant,\u201d said Buddy Thompson, another of Mr. Abraham\u2019s early instructors, who was director of education at Pittsburgh CLO at the time and taught at Pittsburgh CAPA. These days, he owns and operates Butler Center for the Performing Arts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to say, \u2018OK, but right now you\u2019re going to be a dancer.\u2019 He sort of had that magnetism to him. He was new to the disciplines of ballet, jazz and modern, but he had those sorts of qualities in him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their mentorship \u2014 on and off the dance floor -\u2014 motivated Mr. Abraham to keep on moving.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter school at CAPA I would get in their car, and they\u2019d take me to Civic Light Opera. Leslie would give me a ride home sometimes. That\u2019s a whole other level of support. That\u2019s so rare to have people believe in you that much.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> \r\nFinding a path\r\n<\/h3>\n
His sister saw that same spark his teachers did.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I saw him really perform on stage, it was clear to me then that this was something he needed to keep doing,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
But how?<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of my parents were very clear about us having academic backgrounds, so the challenge was, \u2018OK, so now this kid who is college age [is on a different] path and needs our support in a completely different realm than we\u2019re used to,\u201d said Ms. Abraham, who holds a doctorate in comparative literature from Binghamton University – State University of New York. <\/p>\n
Everyone else in the family had attended historically black colleges, so he tried to find a dance program at one. He picked Morgan State University in Baltimore because he was told he could take extra dance classes at a nearby college. He also wanted to study business and anthropology. He soon discovered that Morgan State had only one dance class and that he had to walk or bus to off-campus classes.<\/p>\n
Mr. Abraham had a friend who was studying visual arts at the State University of New York at Purchase. He also knew that many dancers from the Bill T. Jones\/Arnie Zane Company had attended that college, so he checked it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just fell in love. The school is and was more than I ever could have imagined,\u201d he said. \u201cI love the techniques the students are exposed to. The student body is really diverse, and it\u2019s really inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n
His family supported the switch, often driving or flying there to see him dance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he figured out it was Purchase, well, we\u2019ll all go up to Purchase,\u201d said his sister. \u201cI don\u2019t know how many not good performances of his we went to. But we went.\u201d<\/p>\n
He graduated from SUNY Purchase in 2000, still unsure of his future. Should he stick with dance? Maybe try to make it as a music producer? He loved the music of the early 1990s rave and club scenes.<\/p>\n
Through a series of serendipitous events \u2014 one dancer was injured and another fired \u2014 he was hired by the Bill T. Jones\/Arnie Zane Dance Company. But he soon learned that liking a dance company doesn\u2019t mean you will like dancing with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I realized my goal was to be in the room creating with [Mr. Jones] but not to be a dancer in the company.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was fired the same day he signed a lease for an apartment in New York City. Around that same time, he found out his father back in Pittsburgh had been diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease. It was Christmas 2000.<\/p>\n
\r\nStruggling\r\n<\/h3>\n
He stayed in New York City for a while, working minimum wage jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had enough money for subway tokens to Tower Records and would rent a whole TV series,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t afford to go anywhere, so I\u2019d eat a can of tuna and watch those shows all night. That was even before the binge-watching trend.\u201d<\/p>\n
He took a break from dance and eventually from New York. He returned to Pittsburgh and did more odd jobs, including a stint at The Andy Warhol Museum on the North Side. He spent time in England, too. <\/p>\n
Eventually he found his way back to dance -\u2014 or maybe dance found him again. He was hired to perform a solo at The Warhol to accompany the exhibition \u201cWithout Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America,\u201d which opened in September 2001. He also worked a bit with the now-defunct Dance Alloy company.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started thinking about the idea of [starting] a company,\u201d he said. \u201cDo I want to make dance? Do I want to be a dancer? Do I want to be in New York?\u201d<\/p>\n
To find an answer, he enrolled in graduate school at New York University\u2019s Tisch School for the Arts. By 2005, he was building his own company, Abraham.In.Motion. He graduated with a master\u2019s degree in fine arts in 2006.<\/p>\n
The burgeoning troupe\u2019s first evening-length work, \u201cThe Radio Show,\u201d debuted at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty in 2010. It dealt with the demise of Pittsburgh\u2019s urban radio station WAMO and his father\u2019s battle with Alzheimer\u2019s disease. He later took the show on the road to New York City.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat show really catapulted the company in the craziest way,\u201d Mr. Abraham said. \u201cLots of opportunities came after doing that show.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he churned out new works, more opportunities came his way, along with some prestigious awards. In addition to his own company he danced with the David Dorfman Dance company for five seasons. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was still on food stamps when those accolades were coming in. That\u2019s just the reality of being an artist in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
\r\nBittersweet success\r\n<\/h3>\n
Today, Mr. Abraham has unequivocally made it in the dance world. His shows garner national headlines in newspapers and dance industry magazines and are in demand worldwide. He takes it all in stride, quick to acknowledge those who\u2019ve helped him along the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing is promised. I’m not one to be resting on any kind of laurels.\u201d<\/p>\n
His goals range from choreographing an opera to getting back into yoga, sleeping more and brushing up on his French. Improving the quality of life for his dancers is another constant on his to-do list.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lofty goal for me is to figure out how to set up some kind of retirement plan for the dancers in the company and figure out how to increase their pay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Personally, a \u201cmajor beast\u201d is balancing his professional and personal life, particularly while on the road much of the year. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to figure out how to do that without the work suffering,\u201d he said. \u201cI am longing for love in my life, but I want it to be the right person and the right way. I don’t want to be in another relationship where I’m feeling pulled too often in a way that can be a distraction from either thing being successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t get back to Pittsburgh as much as he\u2019d like, but home isn\u2019t quite the same anymore. His father and mother died in 2011 and 2016, respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I had more time with my mother and father before they both passed. My mother didn’t want me to know how ill she was because she didn’t want me to miss an opportunity,\u201d he said. \u201cI never missed a Christmas with my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s hoping to make up for lost time in Pittsburgh with more shows, more often. His company last performed here in fall 2017 at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo see people who were my parents’ friends who I consider to be aunts and uncles, it definitely was one of my first times to not get super depressed about my parents not being there because I felt their presence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to see so many familiar faces and to feel so supported and to feel that people are excited about what I have to say and what I’m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sara Bauknecht: sbauknecht@post-gazette.com or on Twitter and Instagram @SaraB_PG.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No matter where Kyle Abraham goes, Pittsburgh is never far from his mind. These days, the 40-year-old dancer\/choreographer goes lots of places. For much of the year, he tours the world with his New York-based company, Abraham.In.Motion. When he’s not creating for his dancers, he’s making dances for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"coauthors":[10],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2018\/02\/Kyle-Abraham-in-reherasal.jpg?fit=4372%2C2459&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"Even when he was just a boy in Lincoln-Larimer, people saw something special in Kyle Abraham and have been cheering him on ever since.","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9EDbT-E","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}