Kyle Marshall, whose company, Kyle Marshall Choreography (KMC), makes its Joyce Theater premiere November 8–12 with a bill of three New York premieres, is a choreographer, performer, teacher, and the artistic director of a company that sees the dancing body as a container of history, an igniter of social reform, and a site of celebration.
Since inception in 2014, KMC has performed at venues including the BAM Next Wave Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Actors Fund Arts Center, NJPAC, Little Island, and Roulette.
Marshall has received choreographic and dance film commissions from the Baryshnikov Arts Center, “Dance on the Lawn” (Montclair’s Dance Festival), Harlem Stage, and THE SHED. He is a recipient of a 2020 Dance magazine Harkness Promise Award and 2018 NY Juried “Bessie” Award. As a teacher, Marshall has conducted masterclasses and creative workshops, and set choreography at schools such as ADF, Rutgers University, Ailey/Fordham University, and more. He is currently a Caroline Hearst Choreographer-In-Residence at Princeton University and is in residence at the Center for Ballet and Arts at NYU.
In a recent interview with the Amsterdam News, Marshall and KMC Creative Director Edo Tastic spoke about the work to be performed this month, which is the product of a creative collaboration between them, as well as a company of talented dancers. The upcoming performance features a trio of unique works — “Ruin,” “Alice,” and “Onyx” — that showcase the results of that collaboration, best described as both innovative and thought-provoking.
“Ruin” reflects on the natural rhythms and elemental rituals that shape humankind by excavating body percussion and the physical relationship to sound. Dynamic listening devices designed and constructed by sound collaborator Cal Fish will be used throughout the dance. Through their magic, the ground and air become sources of sound and amplification.
In real time, music is cultivated by performers Bree Breeden, Jose Lapaz-Rodriguez, Nik Owens, Cayleen Del Rosario, and Marshall. ”Ruin” will have costumes, hair, and make-up designed by Tastic, costume construction by Meagan Woods, and lighting by Itohan Edoloyi.
“Alice” is a solo work about the spiritual journey to self-acceptance, dedicated to those on the verge of transformation, guided by the music of jazz great Alice Coltrane, and inspired by KMC’s Tastic.
“Onyx” delves into the origins of rock and roll, revealing the Black and brown people whose sounds, performances, and personalities created the revolutionary genre. Through improvisational scores, character embodiment, and flowing phrase work,“Onyx” reflects on the fame, influence, appropriation, and erasure that riddles the legacy of so many Black and brown artists. Through this embodiment of history,“Onyx” recognizes and celebrates these groundbreaking musicians while widening the perspective of the Black American cultural experience.
The soundscape collage by Kwami Winfield offers samples from groundbreaking artists Little Richard, Betty Davis, Death, James Brown, LaVern Baker, Tina Turner, Big Mama Thornton, Ann Peebles, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Asked what he wants people to know about his work, Marshall said, “One of the key things is that it is rooted in history, especially the history of Black and brown people. Also, it embraces the cutting-edge sense of collaboration, movement, storytelling, and abstraction.” Marshall said Tastic, who has worked with the company for the last couple of years brings, “a kind of embrace of a visual esthetic and a more visual experimentation (that0 has been a new space for us to play with.”
For his part, Tastic said his visual esthetic is “deeply rooted in research and an appreciation for abstract story-telling.” He described some of the details in “Onyx” as being like those that symbolize the essence of music legend Tina Turner’s iconic fight for artistic agency and emancipation by deploying an imaginative use of make-up and props that are “rooted in the research of the persona and trying to reach a new layer for the audience to see.”
Noting the collaboration that is at the center of his work, Marshall said that not only does Tastic’s visual contribution allow him creative freedom, but his own work with the dancers has a deep collaborative aspect as well.
“The people I work with as performers are involved in the building of the work. I’m very interested in how they’re interpreting it. For ‘Onyx,’ for instance, a lot of it came out of improvisations and the dancers’ response to certain artists and certain music as well as who they, themselves, are, so Cayleen Del Rosario kind of sits in that thrashing moment. Bree Breeden really is embodying Tina Turner. Nik Owens is thinking about Little Richard and that queer persona…Niara as Betty Davis is a kind of sultry performer.
“It was cool to see how we innately connect to a variety of different artists but also what they’re saying in the work. The unique thing about ‘Alice’ was that it was a way of thinking about a solo—my first solo on another performer, but also what does this person or this body want to say in this moment about their own spiritual journey.”
When asked about the meaning of his work as a reflection of a belief that the body is a container of history, Marshall explained, “I’ve always been curious about how history influences our body, how the past influences the present, and how we move into the future. Also, I think that the body is a space of the politic, a space of identity, and culture and humanhood. And, as we’re a predominantly queer organization, predominantly Black and brown, and proudly so, we can’t ignore things that are happening out in the world, outside the studio. Consequently, the work can pose basic questions about some of these moments in our current time to open our humanity up to seeing different perspectives and make people aware of things they need to be aware of. Art can be a space of learning, a space of processing, and a space of spiritual healing.”
At the same time, to make sure folks realize his performance is a dance concert, not a lecture, “in the end, it’s joyful,” Marshall said. There is something rewarding about giving people an experience that they can both digest as food for thought and, at the same time, enjoy.
For more info, visit www.joyce.org/performances.