MAKING SPACE AT THE ARMORY ARTIST TALK: DEAR LORD, MAKE ME BEAUTIFUL
Wednesday, December 4, 2024 at 7:30pm
VETERANS ROOM
featuring choreographer and MacArthur fellow Kyle Abraham in conversation with
Guggenheim and Bessie award-winning dancer and choreographer Bebe Miller
Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by the Thompson Family Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation, Wescustogo Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, Mary W. Harriman Foundation, the Reed Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature as well as the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.
Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful is made possible with support from Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, Denise Littlefield Sobel, Sarah Arison, a commissioning grant from the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, Jody and John Arnhold, and the Harkness Foundation for Dance.
Making Space at the Armory is made possible with support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF).
Cover image by Alexander Sargent.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
KYLE ABRAHAM
(Founder and Artistic Director, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham) He/ Him/His. Kyle Abraham has been profiled in Document Journal, Vanity Fair, Ebony, Harper’s Bazaar, Kinfolk, O Magazine, PAPER, Surface, Vogue and Vogue UK, W Magazine, among many other publications. He is the proud recipient of a National Dance Critics Award for Choreography (2024—Are You in Your Feelings? / Alvin Ailey Dance Theater); Dance Magazine Award (2022); Princess Grace Statue Award (2018); Doris Duke Award (2016); and The MacArthur Fellowship (2013). In addition to performing and developing new works for his company, Abraham has been commissioned by a wide variety of dance companies, including American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The National Ballet of Cuba, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, and The Royal Ballet. He holds a BFA, SUNY Purchase; MFA NYU Tisch; honorary doctorate, Washington Jefferson; and currently serves as the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professor in Dance at The Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. 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.
BEBE MILLER
Bebe Miller’s vision of dance resides in her faith in the moving body as a record of thought, experience, and beauty. A native New Yorker, she formed Bebe Miller Company in 1985. The Company has been commissioned by leading venues including BAM Next Wave, 651 ARTS, New York Live Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Wexner Center for the Arts and has performed worldwide. Her choreography has been performed by A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Oregon Ballet Theater, Philadanco, and PACT Dance of Johannesburg, among others. Named a Master of African American Choreography by the Kennedy Center, Miller is a Professor Emerita at Ohio State University, and 651 ARTS, and currently lives on Vashon Island, Washington.
NEXT AT THE ARMORY
IN WAVES
JANUARY 9 – 12
Forward-thinking beatmaker, producer, and Mercury Music Prize-winner Jamie xx returns to the Armory following his unforgettable residency with the xx in 2014 after 25 sell-out performances to kick off the world tour of his new release In Waves, his first solo album in 10 years. Reflecting the life- and world-changing events of the past decade—waves everyone has experienced both together and alone—the album encapsulates fun, joy, and introspection all at once in a way that can best be experienced on the dance floor.
Co-presented with Bowery Presents
WISH TREE FEBRUARY 14 – 17
Yoko Ono is a groundbreaking and influential artist and activist, with a multidisciplinary career spanning conceptual art, film, and performance. A trailblazer of participatory work, a celebrated musician, and a formidable campaigner for world peace, her practice centers on ideas over objects, often expressed in poetic, humorous, profound, and radical ways. The Armory presents the largest installation to date in North America of Ono’s ongoing work Wish Tree for her 92nd birthday, inviting visitors to contribute by tying personal wishes to the trees, creating a large scale, civic activation of her social practice work.
