Rachelle Rafailedes (in forefront) in Abraham.In.Motion's The Radio Show, through June 22 at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Photo by Steven Schreiber.
The Radio Show
Presented by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas through June 22 at the Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel St., New Haven. http://artidea.org/
Dance created by Kyle Abraham and Abraham.In.Motion. Costume design by Sarah Cubbage. Lighting design by Dan Scully. Lighting Supervisor/Technical Director: Michael Jarrett. Performed by Kyle Abraham, Brittanie Brown, Rena Butler, Chalvar Monteiro, Elyse Morris, Rachelle Rafailedes and Maleek Washington.
The Radio Show, which has rapidly become a signature piece for the ever-climbing choreographer Kyle Abraham, has dual inspirations: the demise of a Pittsburgh radio station, WAMO, which had served that city’s African-American community for decades on both the AM & FM bands; and the choreographer’s father, who had Alzheimer’s and aphasia.
These are not contradictory or jarring impulses. You realize even before the show has formally begun, when old black pop hits blare on the PA while Abraham wanders the auditorium silently mimicking the gestures of a stroke victim. The Radio Show is about losing the power to audibly communicate, and about how much we communicate when we’re not even thinking about how important our “voice” is.
But The Radio Show is a much grander statement event than that. It’s about dance itself. The Abraham.In.Motion ensemble can boogie to the beat with the best of them, but they also dance to radio static, and to silence, and to the cacaphonic sampling which occurs when you twist the radio dial. The show is further structured by being divided into sections: “Preshow,” “AM860” and “106.7FM,” each with their own overall pacings and textures.
This isn’t about dancing to music. It’s about the very nature of performance, and about how we simplify dance as something you do to records.
The Radio Show delivers a balletic duet to the soul classic “Reunited.” There’s a solo to a slow-building Aretha Franklin live concert track. There’s audience interaction, not just with that anguished pre-show image of the stricken Kyle Abraham but in a highly comic mode mid-show when a call-in DJ show allows audience members (via a working telephone, brought to their seats) to actually make “Make it or break it!” decisions about programming choices.
Personally speaking, The Radio Show had me from the get-go, spinning to one of my all-time favorite girl-group singles, The Velvelette’s “Needle in a Haystack.” The song choices, which number in the dozens and range from seconds-long samples to whole verses and choruses, veer deliciously from obscure to ubiquitous. But in all cases, Abraham.In.Motion’s relation to the sound at hand is unique. There are no obvious choices here. It’s a genuine exploration of how we listen, react and move.
The dancers dress identically, in dress slacks and backless loose tank tops. Four of them are women, three are men, and one of the seven (thin, blonde Rachelle Rafailedes) is white. As with the soundtrack, there’s a uniformity and a sense of expectation to this set-up, but one which has been conjured in order to be subverted. We get an immediate sense of the differences among these dancers—what makes them relate, what unites them, and what sets them apart. There are gender-evident confrontations, competitions, mind-melding and deep connections.
At the Q&A after the opening night performance, a situation ripe for generalities, a lot of the questions were instead focused on specifics of technique and process. How, for instance, do the dancers synchronize movements so expertly yet maintain individuality? (One possible explanation: they prefer not to work with mirrors.)
The company of The Radio Show, showing off their symmetry. (Not all the dancers are the same in the current Arts & Ideas rendition.) Photo by Steven Schreiber.
What I personally marveled at was, in a show with a lot of abrupt transitions, how the company moved fluidly from bit to bit and didn’t brashly change up. It’s a subtle distinction, but one which is really impressive when you notice it. They move from jumpy to poised to relaxed to blissed-out in the blink of an eye, but you can feel that change. When they start up again, they may be in a different work phase but they’ve maintained the same spark and spirit and inner identity.
Abraham was awarded the 2012 Jacob’s Pillow prize earlier this month, and it’s easy to see why. He brings things out of dancers that add an aura and resonance to the entire work. He challenges modern dance conventions which you didn’t even realize WERE conventions, or challengeable.
The Radio Show gives new expression to the phrase “Turn on your radio.”
One Response to Arts & Ideas: The Radio Show review