Imagining Digital | Deeper Duet: Kyle Abraham and Sydnie Liggett Dennis

Deeper Duet:  Kyle Abraham and Sydnie Liggett Dennis

Early Bird price through December 16- January 15: $15
General Price: $20

ONLINE

Artistic Director Kyle Abraham creates transformative choreography that investigates the overarching systems and traditions that connect people from various backgrounds. A.I.M’s Executive Director Sydnie Liggett-Dennis will join Abraham for an engaging Duet conversation.

About Kyle Abraham

Kyle Abraham (Artistic Director, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham) and his choreography have been featured in Document Journal, Ebony, Kinfolk, O Magazine, Vogue, and Vogue UK, amongst other publications. Abraham is the proud recipient of a Princess Grace Statue Award (2018), Doris Duke Award (2016), and MacArthur Fellowship (2013). He currently serves as the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professor in Dance at The University of Southern California (USC) Glorya Kaufman School of Dance (2021-). Abraham also sits on the advisory board for Dance Magazine and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the ​​inaugural Black Genius Brain Trust, and the inaugural cohort of the Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab, a partnership between the Prada Group, Theaster Gates Studio, Dorchester Industries, and Rebuild Foundation.

Rebecca Bengal of Vogue wrote, “What Abraham brings … is an avant-garde aesthetic, an original and politically minded downtown sensibility that doesn’t distinguish between genres but freely draws on a vocabulary that is as much Merce [Cunningham] and Martha [Graham] as it is Eadweard Muybridge and Michael Jackson.”

His company, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, is widely considered “one of the most consistently excellent troupes working today” (The New York Times). Led by Abraham’s innovative vision, the work of A.I.M is galvanized by Black culture and history and grounded in a conglomeration of unique perspectives; described as a “post-modern gumbo” of movement exploration. The company’s recent works include An Untitled Love (2021), a thumping mixtape celebrating culture, family, and community, and A.I.M’s Emmy-nominated film If We Were a Love Song (2021), a series of poetic vignettes set to the music of Nina Simone.

Abraham has been commissioned by a wide variety of dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The National Ballet of Cuba, New York City Ballet, and The Royal Ballet. Highlights include Abraham’s collaborations with NYCB—When We Fell (2021), reviewed by The New York Times as “among the most beautiful dance films of the pandemic” and The Runaway (2018), recognized on the “Best Dance of 2018” list by The New York Times. Abraham was the final choreographer commissioned by Paul Taylor before his passing, creating Only The Lonely (2019) for Paul Taylor American Modern Dance. In addition to his work for A.I.M and other major dance companies, Abraham has choreographed for many of the leading dancers of our time including Misty Copeland, Calvin Royal III, and Wendy Whelan.

For more information, please visit http://aimbykyleabraham.org.

About Sydnie Liggett Dennis

Sydnie Liggett Dennis is the Executive Director of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham. In 2019, she joined A.I.M and, in a short time, reorganized the operations teams, re-set the strategic direction, and implemented operational efficiencies for a more agile organizational flow. Her previous non-profit positions include School Assistant at the Mark Morris Dance Center, Programs Coordinator of Dance New Amsterdam, and member of Dance/NYC’s 2015-2016 Junior Committee.

Sydnie’s 12 years of experience in arts administration, management, and programming includes her previous position as the Director of Programs at Dance/USA. Prior to her time at Dance/USA, Sydnie served as School Director of The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, New York. In 2022, Sydnie was selected as a fellow of The DeVos Institute of Global Arts Management. That same year, Sydnie was honored as one of Crain’s New York Business 2022 Notable Black Leaders.

We encourage you to join this digital event in real time to participate in discussion and artist Q&As! However, if you are unable to join us at the time of the event, the full recording will be made available to all attendees 48 hours after the live event. Patrons will have access to that recording for 10 days via Gibney’s Vimeo account.

Each Deeper Duet session, curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa, engages two special guests in a lively and provocative conversation about artistic life, artistic practice, and the urgent social concerns that drive creative expression.

Photo of Kyle Abraham by Tatiana Wills. Photo of Sydnie Liggett-Dennis by Joel Cadet.