Kyle Abraham, 2012 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient and 2012 USA Ford Fellow, began his training at the Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He continued his dance studies in New York, receiving a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

In November 2012, Abraham was named the newly appointed New York Live Arts Resident Commissioned Artist for 2012–2014. Just one month later, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater premiered Abraham’s newest work, Another Night at New York’s City Center to rave reviews. Rebecca Bengal of Vogue writes, “What Abraham brings to Ailey is an avant-garde aesthetic, a original and politically minded downtown sensibility that doesn’t distinguish between genres but freely draws on a vocabulary that is as much Merce and Martha as it is Eadweard Muybridge and Michael Jackson.”

In 2010, Abraham received a prestigious Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance for his work in The Radio Show, and 2010 Princess Grace Award for Choreography and was selected as one of Dance Magazine’s 25 To Watch in 2009.

In 2011, OUT Magazine labeled Abraham as the “best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama.”

His choreography has been presented throughout the United States and abroad, most recently at On The Boards, South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, REDCAT, Philly Live Arts, Portland’s Time Based Arts Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, Bates Dance Festival, Harlem Stage, Fall for Dance Festival at New York’s City Center, Montreal, Germany, Jordan, Ecuador, Dublin’s Project Arts Center, The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum located in Okinawa Japan, The Andy Warhol Museum and The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.

In addition to performing and developing new works for his company, Abraham.In.Motion, Abraham also teaches his unique approach to post-modern dance in various schools and studios throughout the United States and is currently working on a new pas de deux for himself and acclaimed Bessie Award winning dancer and New York City Ballet Principle Wendy Whelan while creating new works for his company A/I/M.

Matthew Baker originates from Ann Arbor, Michigan, where, before launching into the dance world, he began his movement exploration as a gymnast and soccer player. Prior to relocating to New York City, Matthew received his BFA in Dance from Western Michigan University in April 2008. In addition to his work with Abraham In Motion. Matthew dances with Keigwin + Company in NYC. In 2012 you can catch Matthew at such venues as The Kennedy Center, The Joyce, American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, and on the cover of Dance Spirit’s Feb Issue. Matthew continues to work with collaborators Liz Riga, and Rachel McKinstry in Launch Movement Experiment. Matthew recently enjoyed assisting Larry Keigwin in choreographing Vogue’s “Fashion Night Out: The Show”, New York’s largest fashion show in history. Matthew thanks Kyle and the rest of the A.I.M. family for this opportunity to grow and enjoy! He would like to thank his family and friends for their love and continued support.

Charlotte Brathwaite, a native of Toronto, Canada, is a freelance director whose works in theater and performance have been presented in New York and internationally in Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, India, the West Indies and Croatia. Recently, she directed the workshop production of Woman Bomb at the Baryshnikov Arts Center; The Coming… at the Living Theater; Kleopatra: The Dead Don’t Bite with Naturaleza Humana and the Aarshi Theater Company in Kolkata, India; Smile Orange by Trevor Rhone at the Little Carib Theatre in Trinidad, West Indies; American Schemes by Radha Blank at New York City Summerstage; Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. She holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama and is recipient of the Julian Milton Kaufman Prize for Directing and a Princess Grace Foundation George C. Wolfe Award. For more information, visit her website.

Rena Butler is a native of Chicago, IL. She studied at the Chicago Academy for the Arts under the instruction of Anna Paskevska and Randy Duncan. In 2006, during her tenure at the Academy, Rena performed as a guest artist with Luna Negra Dance Theater. She has also danced and toured with salsa dance company, Pasos Con Sabor to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Rena is the recipient of the Bert Terborgh Award and graduated cum laude in 2011 from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. She has had the great privilege of studying dance, choreography, kung fu, and chinese opera abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts in Taipei, Taiwan. Ms. Butler has worked with choreographers such as Doug Varone, Kevin Wynn, Luca Vegetti, Eduardo Vilaro, and Pam Tanowitz. She joined Abraham.In.Motion in January 2011 as a member/collaborator.

Sam Crawford completed both his B.A. in English and A.S. in Audio Technology at Indiana University in 2003. A move to New York City led him to Looking Glass Studios where he worked on film projects with Philip Glass and Björk. His recent sound designs and compositions have included works for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (Venice Biennale, 2010), Yin Mei Dance (Beijing, 2010), Jennifer Nugent, and David Dorfman Dance. He currently resides in Brooklyn where he works as a freelance composer, designer, and engineer. He also plays lap steel and banjo in the groups Bowery Boy Blue (Brooklyn) and Corpus Christi (Rome).

Chalvar Monteiro a native of New Jersey, began his formal dance training at Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts. He went on to study at The Ailey School under the direction of Denise Jefferson, and earned a degree in dance from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. He was a member of Sidra Bell Dance New York, The Kevin Wynn Collection, and Elisa Monte Dance. He has performed works by Judith Jamison, Thaddeus Davis, Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, George Balanchine, Doug Varone and Helen Pickett. Chalvar joined the company in June 2010 and is happy to be working with this group of artists!

Maritza Mosquera, artist community-transformation partner, has developed, organized, and presented new practices in arts education and artist-led community collaborations with several organizations including: Chicago Arts Partners in Education, Finding History in Ourselves, Dialogues for Democracy, and the Andy Warhol Museum. She has taught in various schools and universities across the country including University of Pennsylvania, Temple University and Perspectives and Noble Academies.

Mosquera is currently developing community engagement programs for Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion’s Pavement, presenting dialogue programs for Word of God at The Warhol Museum, and teaching with the TALL program, Pittsburgh. Mosquera has received grants from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, The National Endowments for the Arts, The Ford Foundation, and The Multi-Cultural Arts Initiative for her own work, which she exhibits internationally.

She received an MFA from University of Pennsylvania and BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. She studied at Skowhegan School of Painting in Maine. For more information, visit her website.

Jeremy “Jae” Nealwas born and raised in Michigan and received his training from Western Michigan University. There he performed in professional works such as Strict Love by Doug Varone, Temporal Trance by Frank Chavez and Harrison McEldowney’s Dance Sport. Since relocating to New York Jeremy has had the privilege of working with SYREN Modern Dance, ChristinaNoel Reaves, Catapult Entertainment, Katherine Helen Fisher Dance, Nathan Trice and now Abraham.In.Motion Jeremy would like to thank his family and friends for their consistent encouragement and support.

Dan Scully is a New York based lighting and projection designer, and has been designing for Kyle Abraham and Abraham in Motion for over six years, including the Bessie Award winning “The Radio Show”. Recent work includes 1969 (Alarm Will Sound/Carnegie Hall), The Witch of Edmonton (Red Bull Theater), The Orchestra Rocks! (Carnegie Hall), Seven Last Words (Lincoln Center Chamber Orchestra Society), The Wii Plays (Ars Nova), among other credits. Regional: Trinity Rep., GEVA, Asolo Rep., Cleveland Playhouse, and Two River Theater Company. Dan is also the resident lighting designer for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. MFA-NYU/Tisch.

Maleek Washington was born in the Bronx, New York, and at seven years old was introduced to dance at Broadway Dance Center and the Harlem School of the Arts. After attending Laguradia High School for Performing Arts, Maleek continued his education at The Boston Conservatory while performing with the Commonwealth Ballet and working with Complexions. He attended Jacob’s Pillow for 2 consecutive years and has collaborated with CityDance Ensemble, touring to over 8 countries with them. Recently Maleek attended SpringBoard Danse where he was able to join Jose Novas’s Company Flak for a season of European tours. In addition, he has interacted with choreographers such as Azure Barton, Helen Pickett, Michael Utoff, Milton Meyers, Yuriko Takata, and Tim Rushton of the Danish Dance Theater. This is Maleek’s First season with Abraham in Motion. Maleek would like to dedicate his season in the loving memory of his late Grandmother Duella Smith.

Alexandra Wells toured the world and formed lasting partnerships with Rudolf Nureyev and Patrick Dupont as principal dancer of the Ballet National de Nancy. Following her performing career, she returned to the United States first as rehearsal director with Ballet Hispanico and then as faculty member of l’École Supérieure de Danse du Québec. In 2002 she co-founded Springboard Danse Montréal with Susan Alexander. The mission of this project is to connect Emerging artists to job opportunities while providing professional companies with dancers. In 2009 Alexandra designed the Movement Invention Project in NYC, under the umbrella of NJDTE. Its focus is on collaborative and improvisational skills.

Since 1998 Ms. Wells has been a full-time faculty member at The Juilliard School in New York City. In 2012 she was recognized for her entrepreneurial work with Springboard Danse Montreal in the Juilliard Convocation.

Eric Williams is a movement researcher, educator and expresser. He began his professional training at the HARID conservatory under the tutelage of Oliver Pardina and Svetlana Osiyeva. He continued his studies at the University of South Florida. There he studied with Michael Foley, Gretchen Ward Warren and John Parks while performing works by such artists as Donald McKayle, Rick McCullough, Bill T. Jones and Doug Varone. Since his conferral from that school, Eric’s exploration of dance has taken him to New York City. While there he has had the pleasure of working with such artists as Jennifer Muller/The Works, Cherylyn Lavagnino and Darcy Naganuma. This is Eric’s first season with Abraham.In.Motion and he is looking forward to immersing himself in the company’s wonderful creative ethos and dynamic.