{"id":91396,"date":"2025-12-12T06:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T06:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/91396\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T06:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T06:16:10","slug":"carpenter-center-takes-a-i-m-at-contemporary-dance-this-saturday-eat-see-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/91396\/","title":{"rendered":"Carpenter Center takes A.I.M at contemporary dance this Saturday \u2022 Eat. See. Do."},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Theater News, a regular column by longtime reviewer Anita W. Harris. Look for it most Thursdays. Or\u00a0sign up<\/a>\u00a0for our Eat See Do newsletter to get it in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Amid a plethora of local holiday shows this month \u2014 including Christmas plays<\/a> and musical<\/a> events \u2014 it may be refreshing to see award-winning contemporary dance at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center this Saturday, Dec. 13.<\/p>\n

In its fifth visit to the venue on the Cal State Long Beach campus, \u201cA.I.M by Kyle Abraham\u201d will showcase three dance works by choreographers Kyle Abraham and Jermaine Spivey that \u201celevate diverse artistic voices,\u201d according to the Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first, \u201cIn the act of undoing,\u201d is a new piece by Spivey co-commissioned by the Center that explores \u201cunity and diversity of movement\u201d among dancers in collaboration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo animate the essence of what moves people, and elaborately demonstrate the rigor, unity and diversity of our movements when we all remain on task,\u201d Spivey says of the work\u2019s purpose. \u201cTask is paramount, and at times should welcome discomfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abraham said in a recent interview<\/a> that he loves to bring in choreographers like Spivey with different approaches than his own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJermaine works with a lot of improvisational scoring,\u201d Abraham said. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting to see the dancers dive into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gettin\u2019\u201d by Abraham is the second piece in the program, a work for six dancers set to the music of Grammy Award-winning jazz artist Robert Glasper and his trio, who reimagine Max Roach\u2019s avant-garde \u201cWe Insist! Freedom Now Suite.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the third dance, an excerpt of \u201cDearest Home\u201d also by Abraham, is an intimate work that focuses \u201con love, longing and loss, and is a love letter to relationships, a meditation on memories, and ultimately, a source of healing,\u201d according to the Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Dancers perform \u201cDearest Home,\u201d choreographed by Kyle Abraham. Photo courtesy of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham.<\/p>\n

A.I.M stands for \u201cAbraham in Motion,\u201d the contemporary dance company Abraham founded nearly 20 years ago in 2016. Abraham received a MacArthur \u201cgenius grant\u201d in 2013 and multiple dance awards since. He is also an endowed professor at USC\u2019s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAbraham\u2019s work is galvanized by Black culture and what he calls a \u2018postmodern gumbo\u2019 of movement exploration,\u201d the Center says. \u201cThrough A.I.M, Abraham elevates diverse artistic voices, using his own experiences to weave together music and dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October, Abraham choreographed a new work for groundbreaking Black ballerina Misty Copeland<\/a>\u2019s farewell performance at the American Ballet Theatre. And Harper\u2019s Bazaar magazine\u00a0featured A.I.M in its cover profile<\/a> last spring, in which Abraham said he believes in hope right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are living in some very dark and scary times, but I have to find hope,\u201d he said. \u201cI have to be able to get out of bed in the morning and hope that there is something positive, not only that I can put forward in this world but that someone else will be open to receive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA.I.M by Kyle Abraham\u201d will perform at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $38.75 to $68.75 and can be purchased by calling the box office at 562-985-7000 or visiting\u00a0CarpenterArts.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Theater News, a regular column by longtime reviewer Anita W. Harris. Look for it most Thursdays.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-91396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}