An Untitled Love, Kyle Abraham
Kyle Abraham, An Untitled Love, © Jassy Earl
Entering Sadler’s Wells was like stepping into a club night. Smooth soul and R&B blasted through the auditorium as pink lights danced over the audience and we sat and wondered why on earth a plastic-covered pink sofa was chilling alone on stage. As I posted, hyped with incredibly high expectations, on my Instagram Stories, the vibes were immaculate.
This was Kyle Abraham’s Rose Prize-nominated work An Untitled Love and the show hadn’t even started. With £40,000 at stake should his work prove victorious against the other award nominees, I couldn’t think of a stronger start.
An Untitled Love ‘depicts life and love in the USA’. ‘Life and love’ is about as generic a term as you can get in the arts world, so it was a pleasing surprise to discover that this was an accurate and literal description. It was like watching a 90s sit-com. Across the evening we watched as one couple got together through a series of humorous interactions wherein the man (who is a bit of a ‘lowlife’ – girl, raise your standards!) successfully pursues her. Spliced in between this, their friend group partied hard (including an inspired, slow-mo scene where one dancer fell over the sofa), indulged in gossip and slowly coupled up.
The dancing itself was lyrical with attitude. In each dance interval, limbs were extended to their fullest potential as dancers spun and leaped and slow-danced with their lover (across the evening more and more dancers coupled up). The performers were dynamic and engaging, able to sell the narrative and spoken sections with attitude, picking up laughs from the audience as they went along.
Fun stuff, right? It should have been a riot, right? Rightttt?
So, tell me why I was bored?
Kyle Abraham, An Untitled Love © Christopher Duggan
Frustratingly, the piece got stuck. The choreographic scope felt limited and the repetitive mix of dance breaks, narrative and sofa gossiping soon became tired. These dance breaks often felt overly long, especially when the movement differentiated little between each one, meaning the main couple’s story was given much less air time despite being the narrative thread of the work. Additionally, their ‘first night together’ was timid, with less passion than you would expect from such a scene (they were apart for most of it). An odd choice.
The score (D’Angelo’s back catalogue - fun and unexpected) didn’t help matters. Although a great scene setter, the novelty soon wore off and its mellow tone didn’t offer enough dynamic interest to help drive the narrative forward where the choreography struggled.
I know I am in the minority here. Opening night saw standing ovations from some and, having committed the ultimate reviewer sin and seen what my fellow critics thought, I know that the work is very well loved (I mean, it has been nominated for the dance world’s answer to the Turner Prize). But, despite me being a rom-com connoisseur and all-round girly-pop girl, I just couldn’t get into this. The concept was fantastic, just too slow paced to hold my interest.
★★★
An Untitled Love by Kyle Abraham, performed by A.I.M.
Sadler’s Wells, London / 29 January 2025
Press ticket
Part of the Rose International Dance Prize Find out more →
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