The sleek, San Francisco-based LINES Ballet, led by brilliant dancemaker Alonzo King, brings its exquisitely refined contemporary ballet to the intimate NOCCA stage. The incomparable choreographer and celebrated company return to New Orleans on January 21 and 22 in three performances at NOCCA's Freda Lupin MemoriAl Hall. Co-presented by the New Orleans Ballet Association and The NOCCA Institute, the event marks the dynamic company's first return to New Orleans since 1994.
Famous for blending music and dance styles from many cultures, King creates gorgeous ballets that are dazzling and sophisticated. His intrepid company of 11 dancers, praised by The New Yorker as "hyperkinetic and exceptional," brings a program featuring two of King's most recent collaborations, Scheherazade and Refraction.
Scheherazade is a masterfully reimagined tale of the Arabian Nights that was originally premiered at the opening of the Monaco Dance Forum Festival in December 2009. Featuring a score by King's frequent collaborator and renowned tabla master Zakir Hussain, the new music reinterprets the original score by Rimsky-Korsakov, incorporating traditional Persian as well as Western instruments. "The dancing thrills, but you emerge from the ballet impressed with dramatic contrasts and musicality of the piece. King has created nothing finer in years." (SF Gate)
The original ballet adaptation of Scheherazade premiered in 1910 by the Ballets Russes at the Opéra Garnier in Paris, and featured choreography by Michel Fokine to Rimsky-Korsakov's existing musical score. Commissioned by Jean-Christophe Maillot of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and the Monaco Dance Forum to inaugurate the Centenary of the Ballets Russes
de Monte Carlo, Alonzo King LINES Ballet's Scheherazade honors Diaghilev's spirit of cutting-edge artistic collaboration, immersing audiences in a luminescent and richly textured world. "Scheherazade...was extremely beautiful, a visual feast, an evening of dreams..." (Monaco-Matin)
On the process of creating Scheherazade, choreographer King wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle, "Very little is known, or even spoken of, regarding Scheherazade herself. My main interest was Scheherazade as woman and symbol. Research informed me about the long-held abuse and oppression that occurs to this day of women and girls across the globe. It was mind-boggling."
The second work on the program, Refraction (2009), was created with New York-based jazz pianist Jason Moran. Recently named "the most provocative thinker in current jazz" by Rolling Stone magazine, Moran is known for combining an astute technical virtuosity with an open-ended approach to jazz. In Refraction, which markEd Moran's first composition for dance, King's signature style of blending movement with music is apparent, and the Voice of Dance says "an astonishingly flexible and fearless team of dancers, arresting choices of music, an intense, brooding atmosphere, and a movement style that begins with a ballet base, subjects the body to all manner of non-balletic flourishes, yet ultimately remains faithful to a classical ideal."
The Friday and Saturday evening performances are SOLD OUT. Limited tickets are available for the Saturday matinee performance. The Friday and Saturday evening performances begin at 8pm; the Saturday matinee performance begins at 2pm. For tickets or information, call the New Orleans Ballet Association Box Office at (504) 522-0996.
In addition to performances at NOCCA, LINES Ballet is also presenting a student performance for local schools at 1:30pm on Friday. The student performance is open to local schools as a field trip opportunity. The company will conduct a master class on Thursday, January 20 for NOCCA students and on Saturday, January 22 for the NORD/NOBA Center For Dance. For more information about master classes or field trip opportunities call (504) 522-0996 x 207 or email afloyd@nobadance.com.
Scheherazade is funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation.
