Kyle Abraham's DEAREST HOME Gets NYC Premiere 6/28

LUMBERYARD Contemporary Performing Arts will conclude its second annual LUMBERYARD in the City festival with the New York premiere ofDearest Home, a new work from 2013 MacArthur "Genius" Award-winner Kyle Abraham and his company Abraham.In.Motion, June 28 - July 2. An interactive dance work developed over multiple years, through conversations with people from a variety of age groups and subcultures, Dearest Home focuses on love, longing and loss, and explores the different ways we experience and talk about them.

Abraham.In.Motion performs Dearest Home June 28, 29 and 30 and July 1 at 8pm; and July 1 and 2 at 2pm. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased at www.thelumberyard.org or 855-4LYDTIX. The Kitchen is located at 512 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011. There is no late-seating for these performances.

Abraham created Dearest Home in conversation and collaboration with a variety of age groups and communities He also drew upon new research into the concept of scientific empathy. Ironically, after he first choreographed Dearest Home, Abraham experienced a series of personal losses, including the passing of his mother, a breakup with his romantic partner and the death of Prince, who inspired Abraham's first dance and remains a key influence on Abraham's artistry. He considers Dearest Home his most personal work to date.

The cast of Dearest Home, which consists primarily of solos and duets, includes Matthew Baker, Tamisha Guy, Catherine Ellis Kirk, Marcella Lewis, Jeremy "Jae" Neal and Connie Shiau. The work features set and lighting design by Dan Scully and an original score by Jerome Begin.

Dearest Home made its world premiere at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in May 2017.

Kyle Abraham, a Pittsburgh native, is a 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient and a 2013 MacArthur Fellow. Among many other accolades, he was selected to be the 2015 City Center Choreographer in residence, was a 2012 USA Ford Fellow, is a Creative Capital grantee, and received a Jacob's Pillow Dance Award in 2012. In 2010, he received a Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance for his work in The Radio Show and a Princess Grace Award for Choreography in 2010. The previous year, he was selected as one of Dance Magazine's 25 To Watch for 2009. In 2011, OUT Magazine named Abraham the "best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama.

The mission of Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion is to create an evocative interdisciplinary body of work. Born into hip-hop culture in the late 1970s and grounded in Abraham's artistic upbringing in classical cello, piano and the visual arts, the goal of the movement is to delve into identity in relation to a personal history. The work entwines a sensual and provocative vocabulary with a strong emphasis on sound, human behavior and all things visual, in an effort to create an avenue for personal investigation and exposing it on stage. A.I.M. is a representation of dancers from various disciplines and diverse personal backgrounds. In combination, these individualities create movement that is manipulated and molded into something fresh and unique.

About LUMBERYARD Contemporary Performing Arts

LUMBERYARDContemporary Performing Arts, based in New York City and led by Executive and Artistic Director Adrienne Willis, is a national non-profit organization that evaluates the needs of artists throughout their creation process and fills gaps in the structures that exist to support them. LUMBERYARDwelcomes audiences of all experience levels into the inner world of the contemporary performing arts, giving them opportunities to witness the creation, as well as the performance, of new work.

Among LUMBERYARD's varied and ever-expanding offerings are an acclaimed residency program that gives artists and companies from across the U.S. housing, space, time, and other resources to develop new work before a New York or national premiere; LUMBERYARD in The City, an annual New York City festival of premieres; and the Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography.

LUMBERYARDis developing a state-of-the-art facility in Catskill, New York. When it opens in the spring of 2019, the four-building facility on the Hudson River waterfront will allow the organization to drastically expand its activities, especially its residency program. LUMBERYARD will make a significant contribution to the village's revitalization efforts. The complex consists of a main lumberyard building in Catskill and three large adjacent barns along Catskill Creek. There will be a large, column-free, flexible theater, a lobby, administrative offices, housing for up to 20 resident artists, a chef's kitchen, an artist lounge and a public courtyard. Phase II will encompass the three adjacent structures, which LUMBERYARD will develop in collaboration with the Village of Catskill and in line with the Village's Downtown and Waterfront Revitalization Strategy.

Each year in Catskill, LUMBERYARD will present a summer season consisting of premiere and work-in-progress performances by celebrated professional artists and companies, serving local residents and attracting tourists from across New York and beyond. From October through April, the facility will be available for collaborative residencies, subsidized and commercial rentals, and community programming.

Funding Credits

Dearest Home was commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Hopkins Center for the Arts, and with a grant from The O'Donnell-Green Music & Dance Foundation. Dearest Home is a project of Creative Capital. Additional generous support for the creation and presentation of Dearest Home was provided by The MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; New York State Council on the Arts; and a Princess Grace Foundation-USA Special Project Grant. Dearest Home was developed during residencies at The Hopkins Center for the Arts, University of Arizona, University Musical Society, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

LUMBERYARD in the City receives generous support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Photo credit: Carrie Schneider

Connect with LUMBERYARD Contemporary Performing Arts

Web: thelumberyard.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LumberyardContemporaryPerformingArts/
Twitter: @Lumberyard
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lumberyard_catskill/