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Review: Kyle Abraham, Looking Gorgeous While Stuck in Place

Mr. Abraham’s program at the Joyce was partly hopeful, partly disappointing.

Javon Jones and Tamisha Guy in “Studies on a Farewell.”Credit...Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

Kyle Abraham’s new program at the Joyce Theater is not short on big-ticket items. There’s a new solo that Mr. Abraham, dancing as gorgeously as ever, has made for himself, accompanied by an a cappella choir singing Björk. There’s a new group piece that he has choreographed for his company, A.I.M., one of the most consistently excellent troupes working today. Also, for opening night on Tuesday only, there was Misty Copeland.

And that’s just the second half of the program. The surprise of the show, partly disappointing and partly hopeful, is that the first half — without Mr. Abraham and focused largely on the work of other choreographers — is stronger.

To finish with Ms. Copeland, the American Ballet Theater superstar, is to end on a high. No surprise there. “Ash,” the searching solo that Mr. Abraham created for her for this year’s Fall for Dance festival, brings out her strength and sensuality. Borrowing freely and with equal authority from ballet and hip-hop gesture, it has the contemporary freshness that has made Mr. Abraham a choreographer in demand.

And yet, if you’ve seen much of Mr. Abraham’s recent work, “Ash” may seem too familiar, nearly an extension of earlier solos, still meandering in the same troubled melancholy. His new solo, “Cocoon,” is a lesser example of that mode.

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Kyle Abraham in his solo “Cocoon.”Credit...Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

The live choir should help, and help is what it seems to offer — the smooth yet vulnerable tenor of Nicholas Ryan Gant (who also did the simple choral arrangement) progressing from lyrics about confusing emotional landscapes to assurances that love is all around. Mr. Abraham, balled up and fetal at the start, gradually unfurls before briefly exploding in a frenzy, buoyed by the air of an offstage fan.

The unfurling is not just slow, though. It’s slight. The music doesn’t help Mr. Abraham out of his rut, and neither does the Nico Muhly score (“Four Studies”) he has chosen for the ensemble premiere, “Studies on a Farewell.” The electronic drone under two live violinists is becoming a kind of comforting cocoon for Mr. Abraham. It supports a beautiful floating quality in this series of tender duets, almost a continuous surrender in backbends and dips, but it encourages and highlights the lack of development.

Yet where that work ends is, in a sense, where the program begins. Keerati Jinakunwiphat, the last dancer onstage in “Studies,” is the choreographer of the program opener, “Big Rings.” The rings in question are hoops, as this is a basketball-themed dance complete with team hoodies and colorfully retro jerseys (courtesy of Karen Young, who, like all of the company’s designers, makes it look fashion-forward). The choreography plays enjoyably with the game’s silky grace, relay action and formations. Although it falls into some rookie-choreographer traps, it has more shape than Mr. Abraham’s efforts.

Those include “Show Pony,” a 2018 solo about the pressures of being on display and having to deliver. The shiny-suited dancer (Marcella Lewis, amazing on Tuesday, alternates with the extraordinary Tamisha Guy) becomes a robot of ripples, her humanity more hidden than revealed in forced smiles and “who, me?” gestures. It’s a striking effect, and one that, typically for Mr. Abraham, goes nowhere.

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From left, Catherine Ellis Kirk, Javon Jones and Claude Johnson.Credit...Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

That lack of forward motion makes it especially interesting to watch Mr. Abraham reaching backward to end the first half with Trisha Brown’s 1976 piece “Solo Olos.” The selection reveals a kinship between Brown’s loose-swinging limbs and Mr. Abraham’s (and Ms. Jinakunwiphat’s) love of release. But the game in “Solo Olos” is more baldly cerebral. One dancer calls out impromptu commands — “reverse,” “branch” — to the others, individually and collectively, and they comply without hesitation. When they snap into unison, it’s as if a complex equation has been solved.

This, exposed and underlined, is a lesson in choreographic form and logic, which viewers can sense if not always follow. Mr. Abraham clearly admires it, and his dancers rise to its challenges with relish. His work needs more of it, and maybe he knows.

A.I.M.

Through Oct. 20 at the Joyce Theater, Manhattan; joyce.org.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 2 of the New York edition with the headline: Gorgeously Stuck in Place. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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