Kyle Abraham on The Balkan Dance Platform

On October 9, 2007, I boarded a plane headed for Athens, Greece. After finishing a whirlwind of 30 performances in a matter of two and a half weeks, I was thrilled to know that for the next 7 days, I would be living it up in one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the world watching dance instead of sweating it out under the stage myself.

The first couple of days were spent hitting the clubs and hanging out with my friends that I met about an hour or two after setting my bags down…it’s all about a “cultural perspective”…

Before getting into any discussions about dance at all we spent a few hours discussing music and what the music scene was like in Athens and then on to dance…. I can’t even begin to tell you how many Youtube videos I must have watched upon their recommendation…oi!!!

Anyways…by the time the 11th rolled around, I had experienced a fine share of “cultural perspective” and was ready to check out the 4th Annual Balkan Dance Platform. Having not seen much dance or per formative art from this region, I was really looking forward to catching the vibe and finding some inspiration for my own work.

Attending the Balkan Dance Platform was such a great opportunity for me as a young artist to really get an understanding of how young artists from this region take to creative process and how their daily life is spent in connection with who they are as artists. One of those connections was so strong that I decided to build a working relationship with Greek dancer/choroegraper, Kyriakos Hadjiioannou, on a new collaborative project.

Most of the performances throughout the 3 nights of the Platform were either solo or larger group works with the exception of 2 or 3 duets. I gotta say, out of everything in the festival, 2 solos really stood out for me. Romanian choreographer, Alexandra Pirici’s Show, was a quietly intriguing study that managed to be extremely captivating without ever facing the audience or making any real dynamic shifts in the phrasing of the material. It was exactly the absence or those elements and any other supportive media that made the piece work.

In the complete opposite direction, however, was Serbian chorographer, Sasa Asentic’s My Private Biopolitics, who’s solo work managed to address multimedia dance works and dance in general with the funniest and most creative performance I’ve seen in rally long time. I’m even giggling to myself just thinking about it. Smart, witty, engaging, interactive…I loved it love it love it!!!

Sasa’s solo closed the Platform. Then my fellow American peeps, Sara Nash, Abby Harris, Juliana May and I closed out the platform after party with all of our new friends from the platform…and a random appearance from one of my favorite comedian’s, Rachel Dratch…random. I know…but what can you say?… She even danced with us!