NYU Skirball Presents LIVE! THE REALEST MC

NYU Skirball will present Live! The Realest MC, an evening-length ensemble work choreographed in 2011 by Bessie Award-winning choreographer Kyle Abraham in collaboration with A.I.M, running April 4 - 6 at 7:30 pm at NYU Skirball. Live! The Realest MC comes to Skirball after a year and a half of international touring with Abraham's current company of dancers.

Live! The Realest MC takes a darkly humorous approach to gender roles and masculinity in the black community and the quest for acceptance in the world of hip-hop celebrity. It blends a fast and furious contemporary dance with athletic movement derived from the street, pondering the price of conformity and the ways that identity is formed. Promo Video

"Live! The Realest MC is inspired by both the story of Pinocchio and an early solo work of mine entitled

Inventing Pookie Jenkins. These characters share a quest for acceptance. For one, it's a quest to become a "real boy"; for the other, it's a quest for "realness," said Abraham. "Since remounting this work on my current dancers, I realized the importance of re-casting my previously performed role from me to company member Jeremy "Jae" Neal. This shift has been eye-opening! And as a result, I've found a way to address a much larger issue and conversation rooted in identity and equality"

Kyle Abraham is a 2017-18 Joyce Creative Residency Artist, 2016 Doris Duke Recipient, 2015 City Center Choreographer in Residence, and a 2013 MacArthur Fellow. In November 2012, Abraham was New York Live Arts Resident Commissioned Artist for 2012-2014. Abraham received a prestigious Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance for his work in The Radio Show and a Princess Grace Award for Choreography in 2010. He was selected as one ofDance Magazine's "25 To Watch" for 2009. His choreography has been presented throughout the United States and abroad. In 2011, OUT magazine labeled Abraham the "best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama. "abrahaminmotion.org

The mission of A.I.M 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 that on stage. A.I.M is a representation of dancers from various disciplines and diverse personal backgrounds. Combined together, these individualities create movement that is manipulated and molded into something fresh and unique.

LIVE! THE REALEST MC will run from April 4, 5 and 6 at 7:30 pm. Tickets begin at $55, and can be purchased online at www.nyuskirball.org, by phone at 212.998.4941, or in person at the Box Office, 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square: Tuesday-Saturday, 12:00-6:00 P.M. NYU Skirball is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square, New York, New York 10012. www.nyuskirball.org

Photo by Julien Benhamou

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