Alonzo King’s collaboration with the Grammy Award winning composer and bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer is a welcoming piece of stunning moments, heart-piercing melodies, and touches of narrative rarely seen in King’s choreography.

Created for the Company’s 30th anniversary, Meyer is lusciously textured with a striking backdrop of synchronized water created by the Academy Award winning designer Jim Doyle. Meyer speaks of the complexities of human behavior in a piece that pulses with playfulness. King’s solos and duets alternate from exhilarating tear-up-the-space dancing to his sensitive and at times contentious partnering.

Meyer’s commissioned score, an appealing mix of classical and jazz for cello, violin, double bass, and piano, gives the piece and the performers a feeling of improvisational freedom uniquely honoring the roots of both contemporary dance and classical ballet.

Combining a classical technique with personal intervention, Alonzo King projects his performers in a nonstop dance translating into a staggering articulation of bodies. After a dancer's career at Alvin Ailey company and American Ballet Theatre, Alonzo King moved to San Francisco and in 1982 founded LINES Ballet which today is one of the most prestigious and exciting companies in North America. Highly recognized in the United States, he has worked regularly with opera, television and cinema. At the same time he is invited to work with the largest companies around the world. William Forsythe stated that "Alonzo King is one of the few, true Ballet Masters of our times."  Admirer of Balanchine, he creates bridges between tradition and modernity and developes an inventive, sensual and vibrant dance with impeccable classically trained dancers.  Through his collaborations with artists from different disciplines and cultures, he proposes a work that is always new and fed by cultural diversity. As a visionary choreographer, Alonzo King is renowned for his incredible ability to grip the audience with a real humanity and a deep sense of freedom. The company 's repertoire includes 13 pieces, especially Meyer (2013), Biophony (2015), Sand et Art Song (2016) et Figures of speech (2017).

Source : Le Trait d'Union

More information : linesballet.org

Following his cinema studies in Aix en Provence, he partnered with the film director Thierry Graton and together they created a production structure that enabled him to associate his two passions at the Opéra de Marseille, the Festival d'Aix, the Festival d'Avignon, etc.


At the beginning of the 1990s, he met Angelin Preljocaj who initiated him to a world that he knew nothing of: contemporary dance. They worked together on around fifteen productions. Together, they were awarded the Grand Prix from the Video Dance Festival for Le Parc.


Since 2000, he is frequently called upon for musical and dance programmes that are filmed live and direct.
 

Source: University of Rennes 2
 

Artistic Direction: Alonzo King

Creation: 1982

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is a celebrated contemporary ballet company that has been guided since 1982 by the unique artistic vision of Alonzo King. Collaborating with noted composers, musicians, and visual artists from around the world, Alonzo King creates works that draw on a diverse set of deeply rooted cultural traditions, imbuing classical ballet with new expressive potential. Alonzo King understands ballet as a science – founded on universal, geometric principles of energy and evolution – and continues to develop a new language of movement from its classical forms and techniques. Alonzo King’s visionary choreography, brought to life by the extraordinary LINES Ballet dancers, is renowned for connecting audiences to a profound sense of shared humanity.
 

"The term LINES alludes to all that is visible in the phenomenal world. There is nothing that is made or formed without a line. Straight and Circle encompass all that we see. Whatever can be seen is formed by a 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 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." Alonzo King

Source: Alonzo King LINES Ballet 's website

More information : linesballet.org