Inside the Pillow Lab: A.I.M by Kyle Abraham

During this Pillow Lab residency, choreographer Kyle Abraham created a new dance work for his company A.I.M entitled "White Space," an evening-length dance-theater work for 12 dancers that makes space for humor, solitude, comfort and catastrophe. Equal parts a conversation and an intentional contradiction, "White Space" features an original commissioned score by composers Jason Moran and Nico Muhly, and explores the uncomfortable space of belonging and the often unwelcome acknowledgment of “the other.” This 50-plus minute dance work, rooted in a “post-modern gumbo” of social dance practices, questions what constitutes “contemporary experience”, and defines it as the casual and passive observance of what surrounds us, but more so our collective participation. A MacArthur Fellow and recipient of the 2012 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, Kyle Abraham and his company have performed many times at Jacob’s Pillow, most recently in the company’s Ted Shawn Theatre engagement in 2022 and in Abraham’s appearance in Merce Cunningham’s Three Duets on the Henry J. Leir Stage in 2024. Abraham has received the Princess Grace Statue Award and the Doris Duke Award Recipient, and served as a visiting professor in residence at UCLA’s World Arts Cultures in Dance program from 2016 to 2021. In 2021, he was named the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professorship in Dance at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. He currently sits on the advisory board for Dance Magazine and the artist advisory board for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In addition to performing and developing new works for his company, Abraham has been commissioned by companies including New York City Ballet, the National Ballet of Cuba, The Royal Ballet, Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Residency Dates: December 1 – 7, 2025 Video by Nel Shelby Productions.