“Where will you be in five years?” This is the opening line of music producer Kyle Abraham's show note for his new evening work Dear Lord, Make Me Beautifulhas its world premiere today (Dec. 3) at the Park Avenue Armory. Those words may suggest the dread of a difficult job interview, but for Abraham, they are much more than that. Since 2021, when he began to build a great commission in earnest, that question has haunted him, whispering its many meanings—from the personal to the political to the universal—in his ear. It threw him into the Afrofuturist work of Octavia Butler and brought him to Richard Powers' cautionary novel. The Overstory. It left him pondering the aging body and mind, worrying about the possible future, the wonder of trees and nature and humanity and compassion and the fragile uncertainty of life.
Although a lot has changed since it was created Dear Lord, Make Me Beautifulespecially the dancing actors, those original songs and themes have not changed. The resulting dance-based performance, which includes a live score commissioned by a sextet chamber ensemble and stunning nature-based video projections, promises to hold space for all of those things and more.
Movement
Abraham is an in-demand American choreographer (and MacArthur Fellow) known for his cool fusion of contemporary dance styles, from ballet to hip hop. He has created work for world-class dance companies such as the New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and The Royal Ballet, and is the Artistic Director of Kyle Abraham's AIM, which he founded in 2006.
Although this is Abraham's first time performing for the Wade Thompson Drill Hall at the Park Avenue Armory, he has many evening performances under his belt. His creative process, he told the Observer, always starts the same way. “It usually starts with me sitting down and writing what I want to say and do. In some ways it is like a scientist writing a hypothesis. I put these different things together, and then I plan to try and see if something sticks or rings true.”
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He then shares this narrative with his dancers and artistic collaborators so that everyone understands the roots of the work in progress. His choreography grows from those words, images and ideas. As to whether the movement comes from his body or the bodies of his dancers depends on the piece. Untitled Love (2022), he explained, was a choreography he created before joining his company. His next job, Prerequisites: Fire in the Air of Earth (2022), was made largely in collaboration with the company. Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful It's a mix of both of those choreographic approaches, he said, “but it still depends a lot on what's coming from my body.”
This is a personal episode of Abraham. “All my work is personal, in different ways. But these are my feelings. What I am going through right now.” Yes, the 'present' has changed over the past few years, which has been part of the artistic challenge he has set for himself: to connect as much as possible with his ever-changing present. And because of this, he decided he had to do work—something he hadn't done ten years ago. “If I face all these things that I face and struggle with, it would be disrespecting what I want to say, not being there and not sharing that weakness and that sadness and that frustration. .”
Singing with Abraham are sixteen dancers, some from his company and some independent dancers he has worked with in the past or hopes to work with.
Music
Abraham was first introduced to yMusic by composer Ryan Lott, a mutual friend. He has long admired the new, genre-defying American chamber ensemble and knew he wanted to collaborate with them on this piece. “Just thinking about what their team composition is,” he said, “it seemed like it would connect and fit well with what I was hoping to do in the studio.”
The composition of the ensemble's instruments is quite unusual: flute, clarinet, trumpet, French horn, violin, guitar, viola and cello. “Certain instruments for our band didn't exist, to our knowledge, before we started our band,” yMusic violist Nadia Sirota told the Observer. Because of this, they had to send a lot of work that they have played in the last sixteen years. In 2023, however, they were released MUSICthe first album composed entirely of music they composed themselves. Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful marks their first opportunity to compose an evening-length score, and the process has been “very fruitful.”
The creative collaboration began when Abraham sent his written story. Sirota recalls a long document with thoughts of aging and mental toughness and trees and dust and leaves and communication. “And that was a good and encouraging place to jump from,” he said. They started composing sections based on those ideas without seeing the choreography.
Then, for about a year, they maintained a “creative pen-pal,” yMusic's Alex Sopp explained. Abraham would send them videos of song arrangements, and they would send him audio files of the parts they were working on. “He was also really helpful with the emotions and the descriptions of not looking like a dance,” says Sopp, “but like little sentences of what he's thinking while he's doing it. It was a lot of thought, but that's actually very helpful creatively.”
Sirota talked about the unexpected changes that occurred in the collaborative process. Sometimes they would read Abraham's sentence or see a practice video, and it would make them think about something else and change the way they composed. “And maybe that's not how he intended it, but I love this kind of weird interpretation that leads us to do things we wouldn't do otherwise, and then he responds to that, hopefully in a way he wouldn't. have more.”
Creating an evening-length dance effect was a “really fun” challenge for yMusic. Accustomed to the structure of cohesive songs, they must play with stretching, building tension, and combining slow sections with fast-paced bursts. CJ Camieri, A yMusic and French trumpet player, he likened it to scoring a movie. “We want the listener to be able to sit back, take a breath, let the sound wash over him and come back to something else. We're happy with it for the listener, but it also resonates well with us because of that.” Camiereri also spoke about the joy of seeing their music interpreted by dancers. “It's very exciting to see. Like this one piece, where we're playing a line together, and then we're slowly drifting apart. One person echoes, two people echo, and see them translate that action into dance. It's like, oh my god! It's really happening!”
What is seen
Abraham first encountered the work of new media artist Cao Yuxi (JAMES) at an exhibition in London called “LUX: New Wave of Contemporary Art.” There, he saw Cao's “Shan Shui Paintings By AI” that used an artificial intelligence algorithm to produce ever-changing Chinese ink-style paintings on giant curved LED screens. Abraham was impressed and immediately reached out after consulting the partnership. When he received the Park Avenue Armory commission, he knew he had found his chance.
Cao is an artist and coder based in Shenzhen and New York City who describes himself as “a thinker trying to redeem his promise under the pressure of social pragmatism.” His works, from installations to live performances, from soundscapes to real-time visual installations, have been presented in museums and festivals around the world. In 2022, he had the honor of being the director of visual effects at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
“I'm trying to bring this left brain and right brain together,” Cao told the Observer, “and make something computer-aided. It's not commercial,” he clarified. “It's good art. Weird stuff.”
When creating a digital scenic design for Dear Lord, Make Me BeautifulCao relied not only on Abraham's narration and rehearsals but also on yMusic's score. Even though composition was still being created along with his creations, Cao relied on music for emotional and plot cues. “I got a lot of inspiration, especially about running, from music,” he said. “For me, walking is very calm, a little sad, actually.”
Cao has created many modern dance and theater installations but feels that this piece is unique because the visual element is “not just showing off, like 'Hey, I'm a particle, I can move! Look at me, I'm so beautiful'!” It's about connecting with the dancers and the choreography, “making it a whole piece.”
The system Cao is using to make real-time particle images can move quickly, he explained. “But this time, we want to go gently. We want to go slow. We want a kind of magical moment where the audience sees the piece. They don't see video or particle animation. No, we want them to feel like a magic carpet, or a magic texture, slowly changing without you noticing,”
When trying to explain how his system works and whether the particle images are exactly the same as the rest of the operation, Cao said, “Cao thought if we were making a real waterfall stage. Real water falls. So, each time, when you see water, the volume of water is different, right? Because water falls naturally, in real time. So, in the same ways, the visuals that you see here, each chapter is set, the cue is set, the vibe is set, but the particle structure is a little different.” He described real-time particle morphing as taking a long time, “like a Birdman movie,” providing a unique experience for viewers.
For Cao, the creative process is not complete until there is an audience. “Then, for me, the whole atmosphere, the chi, the vibe is gone. It's like they're part of the event.” He paused and then added: “Performing live, for me, is magic.”
Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful begins December 14 at the Park Avenue Armory.
