UW News

November 9, 2011

Alonzo King LINES Ballet to perform at Meany

The Alonzo King LINES Ballet will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 17-19, at Meany Hall. This celebrated contemporary ballet company is guided by its global artistic vision, drawing on a diverse set of deeply rooted cultural traditions.

A company member performs 'Dust and Light.'

A company member performs "Dust and Light."Marty Sohl

Alonzo Kings visionary choreography is renowned for its ability to connect audiences to a profound sense of shared humanity—of vulnerability and tenderness, but also of furious abandon and exhilarating freedom. The companys program includes Scheherazade, about which a reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle says “[Alonzo] King has created nothing finer in years.” It is a re-envisioning of the ancient collection of Persian, Sanskrit, and Arabic stories of 1,001 Nights. Also on the program is Dust and Light.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom presented the Mayors Art Award to Alonzo King in 2008, calling him a “San Francisco treasure.” That year Alonzo King was also honored with the Jacob’s Pillow Creativity Award, in recognition of his contribution to “moving ballet in a very 21st-century direction.” In 2006, King received the US Artists award, just after being given New Yorks Bessie Award for Choreographer/Creator in 2005. He is also the recipient of the NEA Choreographer’s Fellowship, Irvine Fellowship in Dance, National Dance Project and the National Dance Residency Program, and five Isadora Duncan Awards.

About the name of his company, King said this: “The term LINES alludes to all that is visible in the phenomenal world. There is nothing that is made or formed without line. Straight and Circle encompass all that we see. Whatever can be seen is formed by line. In mathematics it is a straight or curved continuous extent of length without breadth. Lines are in our fingerprints, the shapes of our bodies, constellations, geometry. It implies genealogical connection, progeny and spoken word. It marks the starting point and a finish. It addresses direction, communication, and design. A line of thought. A boundary or eternity. A melodic line. The equator. From vibration or dot to dot it is the visible organization of what we see.”

Tickets for the concert are $41 ($20 for students) and  may be purchased by phone at 206-543-4880, online, or in person at the UW Arts Ticket Office.