New faculty member encourages students to use dance for self-expression

Kyle Abraham has danced from Brooklyn to Paris – but this year, he will be calling UCLA home base.

Abraham joined the faculty of the world arts and cultures/dance department this year. The MacArthur fellow, dancer, choreographer and founder of the Abraham.In.Motion dance company said he hopes to use his new university position to teach the next generation of dancers to use dance to find their identities. Having toured all around the world, Abraham said he brings the insight of a professional dancer to the classroom.

At age 17, Abraham attended a class with a friend and began dancing at Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. His dance company, Abraham.In.Motion, took off in 2010 and he began teaching and touring around the world, including a stop that involved teaching a master class at UCLA.

“Teaching shouldn’t be me regurgitating the same movements every time. It should be me sharing what I do and and getting to know what you do,” Abraham said. “Then it’s about figuring out how I can help you do what you do better and how I can open your mind up to new possibilities.”

Abraham said after international tours and master classes, he was drawn to teaching full time because of the potential he saw in his young students. He said college students are especially open-minded and willing to experiment with their art.

[Read more: Dancer challenges sexuality stereotypes through choreography]

Abraham’s own dancing encompasses genres including modern, jazz, hip hop and street dancing, said Connie Shiau, a dancer and education assistant at Abraham.In.Motion. She called his style a post-modern jumbo.

But regardless of genre, Abraham said all his work has a political slant, where the meaning expressed through his movements comes from his personal experiences as an openly gay, black man. His interpretations cause many to view his work as a source of sociopolitical commentary, he said.

“I’m not trying to make a dance about being gay or being black or being a man but you know that’s who I am so the work has that lens to it,” Abraham said. “People are going to perceive it or make certain assumptions about what they’re seeing.”

Shiau, who took classes from Abraham at Purchase State College, said Abraham likes for his students to be fearless and take risks in class by adding their own personality to his choreography.

“He is really captivated by those dancers who are willing to break the rules,” Shiau said. “He can bring a lot of diversity to UCLA in terms of dance style and more awareness of what is happening in the world.”

One of Abraham’s hopes is to help students learn what inspires them and how to express their identities through dance.

“I’m very open with who I am and how I am, and hope my students will be the same way,” Abraham said. “I’m not necessarily asking them to go that far in regards to their sexuality, but if that’s a big part of who you are, then I think it’s important for you to own that.”

Marcella Lewis, a dance apprentice at Abraham.In.Motion, said she is excited about Abraham teaching at UCLA because she believes he can help spark important conversations about social awareness and issues currently facing society, including stereotyping based on race and sexuality.

In one rehearsal, Abraham told the group about a news story he read about a black man being shot, even though he had his hands up, Lewis said.

Although Lewis already had an inclination towards dance, she is discovering more about herself through his techniques and movements.

Abraham most wants to impart a sense of artistic identity into his students. Honesty and self-discovery are crucial to dance through movement, he said, which is found by exploring the rhythm and emotion in physical expressions.

“I’m an open book,” he said. “The most important thing to being a real, honest artist is to be honest with yourself and be who you are.”