The music of 90s neo-soul star D’Angelo is sparse but luscious, full of falsetto-crooned adoration and lazily infectious groove. Those songs form the soundtrack of US choreographer Kyle Abraham’s An Untitled Love, a piece that’s like eavesdropping on a house party, full of convivial warmth, glowing light, oozing music and the tactility of friends and nascent relationships. On stage, a sofa, rug and plant – a domestic setup where people gather and part, confess, conspire, laugh and flirt. A slice of African American life that’s both specific and universal.
There’s a clear romcom influence (Abraham has cited the films of actor Sanaa Lathan) and we hear their chat as well as see them dance: a gossip about a couple from church, a debate about what outfit to wear, a caddish charmer trying to woo a girl out of his league. The dancing is delicious: honeyed limbs and snaking muscularity and hips finding the funk. A dancer might sashay into a pirouette; retiré before a soft shoe shuffle, in Abraham’s inimitable way of merging styles, classical, modern, social, street, into what feels like a naturalistic language on his dancers.
