San Diego Union Tribune
By Marcia Luttrell
June 4, 2022
Best-selling author and award-winning humorist David Sedaris can still get his readers to giggle in his new book, “Happy-Go-Lucky,” even when writing personal, poignant truths.
Author: Joanna
News: In ‘An Untitled Love,’ Kyle Abraham and A.I.M create a dance show around the music of D’Angelo
San Diego Union Tribune
By Marcia Luttrell
January 29, 2022
Choreographer Kyle Abraham has described his dance-making as a “kitchen sink” of influences: a potent mix of classical ballet’s grace and precision, the swagger and syncopation seen in jazz and the fierce, freestyle athleticism of hip-hop.
Review: Blacktronika: Sound for Humanity
The Wire
By Raymond Cummings
June 2021
An outgrowth of a University of California San Diego course King James Britt created in his capacity as an assistant teaching professor, Blacktronika: Sound For Humanity proves less interested in demonstrating music’s outer limits than in emphasising that limits are strictly theoritical.
Review: In “5 Soldiers,” 5 Dancers Offer Gripping Take on Military Life
San Diego Story
By Janice Steinberg
March 6, 2020
Dance and the military may inhabit separate worlds, but when British choreographer Rosie Kay was recovering from an injury, she was struck by the way that both dancers and soldiers put their bodies on the line. That led her to doing movement research by training with the British Army and creating the gripping, powerful “5 Soldiers: The Body is the Frontline.”
The piece debuted 10 years ago and has received some of Britain’s top dance honors. And it’s running here for two more nights. Go!
News: Black String, straight outta Seoul, mixes traditional Korean music, edgy improvisation and electronics
San Diego Tribune
By George Varga
February 22, 2020
Yoon Jeong Heo is so active that it’s almost surprising she doesn’t single-handedly generate combustible energy during the course of one of her average working days.
But there is nothing remotely average about this visionary master of the 1,300-year-old geomungo, an intricate, Korean string instrument whose legacy Heo simultaneously salutes and extends with singular skill, reverence and daring. That she has done so in such a conservative, patriarchal country as Korea — and had an international impact — makes her trailblazing achievements all the more impressive.
News: Black String
Korean Daily
By Hannah Cho
February 19, 2020
Review: A.I.M Offers a Bonus: A Performance by Kyle Abraham
San Diego Story
By Janice Steinberg
February 6, 2020
Kyle Abraham took us in his arms and invited us in with three intimate pieces danced by his superb A.I.M (Abraham.In.Motion) company at the Balboa Theatre on Thursday. Then, before anyone could get too comfortable, he ignited the stage with the propulsive, hip hop-flavored “Drive.”
The program, presented by UCSD ArtPower didn’t just showcase the New York dance maker’s range, it offered a rare treat: Abraham himself, filling in—in “The Quiet Dance”—for a company member who couldn’t perform that night.
News: Choreographer Kyle Abraham: Making connections through dance
San Diego Tribune
By Marcia Manna
January 23, 2020
Choreographer and artistic director Kyle Abraham wants the dancers of his company A.I.M (Abraham in Motion) to develop an important skill — and it’s more about the mind than the body.
The New York-based troupe is already visually captivating, technically skilled in what Abraham defines as a gumbo of movement styles, seamlessly linking classical ballet and contemporary dance techniques with hip-hop swagger.
It’s not enough. Abraham asks that his dancers be “emotionally present,” a quality that summons a sense of shared humanity.
“I think the goal is to be connected with each other,” says Abraham, a MacArthur Fellow (2013) and a Doris Duke Artist Award-winner (2016) who describes himself as an “outspoken, black, gay, American man.”
News: The Haden Triplets achieve unique musical harmony, as only sisters can
San Diego Tribune
By George Varga
January 22, 2020
Listening to the Haden Triplets converse during an interview is almost as enjoyable as hearing them sing together in luminous harmony.
The three sisters — Petra, Rachel and Tanya — spur each other on in conversation, listening thoughtfully, then punctuating each other’s comments with thoughtful interjections, sly asides and hearty laughter.
One would expect no less from these gifted singing siblings, who between them have worked with a dizzying assortment of other musicians and perform Thursday night at UC San Diego’s Price Center East Ballroom.
News: ‘Magnetic Dancers’ of A.I.M (Abraham.In.Motion) on Jan. 30 at Balboa Theatre
Times of San Diego
By Debbie L. Sklar
January 13, 2020
The repertory includes The Quiet Dance, a quintet set to Bill Evans’s sentimental rendition of the Bernstein classic Some Other Time; Show Pony, an energetic new piece performed by Princess Grace Award winner Marcella Lewis; Meditation: A Silent Prayer, a group work featuring voice-over recording by Carrie Mae Weems, MFA ‘84 and visual artwork by Titus Kaphar; Drive, a high energy, propulsive work set to thumping club beats; and a duet excerpt from Dearest Home, Kyle Abraham’s 2017 evening-length work that explores the concepts of love, longing, and loss.