Choreographer and MacArthur Fellow Kyle Abraham and pioneering producer, composer, and electronic music pioneer Jlin have come together to create a new work through a reimagining of Mozart’s Requiem in d minor.

In the wake of 2020 — marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests — Abraham and Jlin explore the central theme of one of the most canonical works of white Western classical music — death and the myths of reincarnation — from an explicitly Black perspective.

In his fluid choreographic language, Abraham draws from the repertoire of classical ballet, hip-hop, modern dance, and street dance while Jlin takes Mozart’s classic requiem and turns it into an electronic dance piece, building her sound on a style of house dance and street dance that originated in Chicago in the 1990s.

In collaboration with fashion designer Giles Deacon, an innovator of the Paris couture scene with his expansive prints and pop references for both his own label and numerous fashion houses, 10 dancers and Jlin transform Mozart’s music into an electronic opus that memorializes ritual, mourning, and rebirth.