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  • 30.09.2016

    San Francisco's Alonzo King LINES Ballet returns for performance

    • Description

      After 15 years, Alonzo King LINES Ballet returns.

      The renowned San Francisco ballet company will present two works at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Phillips Center.

      Both program works were choreographed by Alonzo King, who founded the San Francisco company in 1982. “Sand” is a collaboration with famous jazz musicians Charles Lloyd and Jason Moran. “Biophony” (a reference to the collective sound produced by all vocal organisms in a habitat) is set to soundscapes by acoustician Bernie Krauss.

      Krauss, whose come from areas ranging from the Arctic to the Amazon, writes in the program notes: “This is the tuning of the great animal orchestra — the inspiration for the ballet ... It is likely that the origins of every rhythm and composition to which we dance come, at some point, from this collective voice. At one time there was no other acoustic inspiration.”

      Director Alonzo King, who spoke in an interview last week, says that “nature is the supplier of ballet form and technique.” 

      “The majority of people look at ballet as a style from a particular period,” he says. "But it’s not a style. It’s a science of movement that can be manipulated in endless ways. And the forms of ballet, every single one of them, come from nature. Whirlpools, eddies, the way the sun is fixed and the earth and other planets revolve around it; that is ballet’s original source of inspiration. Ballet’s inspiration comes from the same place as that of Copernicus, who got his inspiration from looking at the stars.”

      “I think what the audience is going to see is some of the world’s most extraordinary dancers at the top of their game," he says. "And you don’t need to see much to also understand that they are dancing with deep concentration and beautiful movement. And I think that is what people mean when they say that LINES dancers have a particular ‘look’. They have tremendous focus and control.

      "In different classical cultures, that ability to move well and with control was seen as criteria for a potential leader. Because if someone could not govern your own body, your own universe, with complete control, then how could you be considered able to govern others? I think every person has their own unique contribution they have to express in this world, and that it is part of each person’s life mission to be able to do that.

      “What I’m doing as a director and choreographer is I’m looking for artists, for dancers, who are originals," King says. "They are not originals in that they have quirks, but that they are able to be and express their true selves … That is the fight which is against the grain, against the current upstream. To fight against that current and to be one’s true self is the birthright and the direction that we at LINES are following.

      The company's 10 dancers hail from the likes of National Ballet of Canada, Complexions Contemporary Ballet and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. Members include a Prix de Lausanne gold medalist and a former Princess Grace Award recipient.

      King himself trained on full scholarship and stipend at School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Harkness House and Joffrey Ballet.

      “I had wonderful teachers, some of the best in the nation and in the world," he says. "But what I really consider the beginning of my true dance education was when I took up the study and discipline of yoga. It is through yoga that I learned about the psycho-physiological changes and currents in the body, and how I came to understand the body-mind-spirit conundrum.

      “Yoga was originally discovered by rishis who wanted to understand how spirit entered physical form. The mission of the rishis was to figure out how to use the body as the root to return to spirit. And that is something we can all use. They, the rishis ... studied what is the hierarchy of body, mind, and soul. What eventually came from these studies were different movements — what people now call defenses. Tai Chi , the Shaolin warriors — the original purpose of these physical disciplines was actually to strengthen the body to be able to sit still for long periods of time.

      "And the wisdom of those modalities can also be applied to ballet," King says. "So when ballet — or what I prefer to call western classical dance, because that’s what it is — is combined with yoga, it is an infused, formative union because you’re getting the best of both worlds. Something that was neglected in ballet training, which we at LINES use, is this emphasis on spirit. It gives the depth and kindness of yoga to our dancers.

      “That union of east and west is another thing I think you’ll notice in our company," he adds. "We are not interested in an outward presentation; we are participating in an internal world. So that there’s a real experience and a real honesty in our dancing, instead of entertaining or showing off skill. The audience is invited to participate in that internal world visually with us. That is one of the precepts of the LINES company.”

      The result is what the Los Angeles Times calls “the most sophisticated modernism in classical dance.” The Dublin Examiner puts it more simply: “Believe the hype.”

      “Alonzo King is one of the few, true Ballet Masters of our times,” says legendary choreographer William Forsythe. Balanchine ballerina Violette Verdy wrote, “He gives a new look to people and steps we thought we knew.”

      King’s works are in the repertoires of Hong Kong Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Swedish Royal Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and more.

      “We are very excited to come to Gainesville,” King says. “Please thank the presenter (University of Florida Performing Arts). It is the same presenter who brought us in 2001, with the BaAka people (of Central Africa, who appeared in King’s “People of the Forest”), which was extraordinary. It was right after 9/11 and there was a great deal going on. We look forward to this, our second appearance.”

      Following its performance in Gainesville, LINES Ballet will spend the remainder of 2016 touring Russia, France, Switzerland and Italy.

      — Sarah Ingley can be reached at [email protected].

      http://www.gainesville.com/entertainment/20160929/san-franciscos-alonzo-king-lines-ballet-returns-for-performance