“As Above”
A duet between Maya Kell-Abrams and the Salesforce Tower
“As Above” is a collaboration between Maya Kell-Abrams and Adam Agostino, made possible by the “Day for Night” program facilitated by Jim Campbell and Emma Streble. This piece was displayed on the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco for the whole month of October in 2023.
Originally, the film was meant to have one dancer on the screen at a time, however, because the Salesforce canvas is a 360 degree screen the necessary introduction of multiple copies of the dancer created a new direction for the film. Size of the dancer, speed of choreography, point of entrance into the screen, and combination of movement were all considered for the film.
The idea for “As Above” originated from a concept explored with Sadie Wilking. The choreography explores depth, traveling, and a vocabulary that responds to a birds eye view. The green screen offered a variety of options for the background of the film and limited any variables that could affect piecing together the different shots.
After its 3 month long journey through choreographing, shooting, editing, site visits, and re-editing, “As Above” premiered on the Salesforce Tower, making its debut on the San Francisco skyline for the month of October 2023.
A huge thank you to Adam Agostino who helped (monumentally) to execute this idea, spent long hours editing with me in coffeeshops, brainstormed with me during site visits, and captured all of this process in the summary videos. Also a big thank you Kris Haro and Justin Epstein for their incredible behind the scenes shots. This project would not have been possible without the Day for Night program created by Jim Campbell as well as the helpful insight from Jim and Emma Strebel.
