We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
It’s tragic but true: For all their amazing physicality, most dance performances could hardly be dubbed “smart.” Conveying complex concepts through movement is, it seems, simply too tough. That’s why Kyle Abraham and his company Abraham.In.Motion are making such a big splash these days. The New York-based choreographer and current It Dude got kudos all around for last year’s The Radio Show, which managed to successfully braid together several not-obviously-related topics, including music and Alzheimer’s disease. He’s at it again this year with Pavement, a piece that combines the ideas of W.E.B Du Bois with themes from the movie Boyz N the Hood, all set in a couple of neighborhoods in his native Pittsburgh. With a muscular but fluid movement style that’s just a little off balance, Abraham is making an incisive statement about black culture in 2013—one that won’t be lost on his audience. $8–$22.