Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Alonzo King LINES Ballet
...feeling — its emotional and kinetic weight — underlies King’s choreographic vision.

Born in Georgia to Civil Rights activists, raised in California, and trained at the School of American Ballet, choreographer Alonzo King planted his company, LINES, in what may seem an unlikely place for ballet — San Francisco — in 1982. The city, he has said in conversation with the Kronos Quartet’s David Harrington, had a “unique feeling” to it. 37 years on, feeling — its emotional and kinetic weight — underlies King’s choreographic vision. Onstage, dancers push and comb space; elongations function like cantilevers, balancing meticulous partnered arrangements. Last at Duke Performances in 2010 with Jason Moran and the Bandwagon, LINES returns for a paired program at Reynolds Industries Theater. On the bill: the company’s 2018 world premiere Common Ground, a lively, winding work whose score combines several Kronos-commissioned pieces, as well as repertory classic Handel, a set of movement studies created for the Swedish Royal Ballet in 2005.

As the first residency installment in Duke Performances’ yearlong Ballet Futures thematic initiative, LINES Ballet will make visits to Duke classes as well as offer public movement workshops and conversations on topics related to the past, present, and future of ballet. Schedule TBA.

Performances in Reynolds Industries Theater:

  • Friday, November 15, 8pm
  • Friday, November 16, 8pm
  • Tickets