Alonzo King LINES Ballet: Deep River

Alonzo King LINES Ballet returns to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts with Deep River by company co-founder, artistic director, and visionary choreographer Alonzo King, on Friday, June 9, and Saturday, June 10, 2023, 7:30 pm, in The Wallis’ Bram Goldsmith Theater. The full-length work is set to a score by jazz pianist, composer, and MacArthur Fellow Jason Moran featuring Grammy Award-winning vocalist Lisa Fischer. This is King’s second collaboration with Fischer and his ninth collaboration with Moran, which he created as a part of LINES Ballet’s recent 40th anniversary season. Bending the lines between classical and contemporary ballet, King draws on the strengths of his extraordinary dancers altering the way we look at ballet today. Hailed for its evocative work and unique artistic vision, LINES Ballet adheres to the classical form—the linear, mathematical and geometrical principles deeply rooted in the East-West continuum.  An artist talk back will immediately follow the performance on June 9.

Deep River is a call to keep hope and to look at each other as a family of souls. The moving work melds dance with Black spirituals and invites audiences to look at human beings as the pinnacle of creation. King says that on the highest level the work is a reminder that “love is the ocean that we rose from, swim in, and will one day return to — and that love can set us free.”

King added, “As we look back on 40 years of work in the community, in ourselves, the programs, classes, and performances, both live and on film, we recognize that it is the same vision and belief that have carried us to this moment and will continue to carry this organization into the future. We have strived to make obvious that art is the inheritance of every individual, that art activates evolutionary growth, is an intellectual virtue, and the fostering principle for all that is made, done, or known.”

Tickets, $39 to $125, are on sale now. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills. To purchase tickets and for more information, please call 310-746-4000 or visit TheWallis.org/Alonzo. The company will also perform Deep River May 27, at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa – scfta.org. 

The health and safety of patrons, staff, and artists inside and outside the venue are a top priority for The Wallis. Masks are optional, and proof of full COVID vaccination is no longer required; however, guests are welcome to wear masks in our spaces.

The Wallis' health and safety protocols are also subject to change at the venue's sole discretion or in accordance with LA County and City of Beverly Hills regulations. Current Health & Safety Protocols and updates may also be accessed at TheWallis.org/Safety. Policies are subject to change.

About Alonzo King LINES Ballet:

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is a celebrated contemporary dance company that has been guided since 1982 by the unique artistic vision of Alonzo King.  Alonzo King LINES Ballet has collaborated with noted composers, musicians and visual artists from around the world to create performances that alter the way we look at ballet today. Its unique artistic vision adheres to the classical form — the linear, mathematical and geometrical principles that are deeply rooted in the pre-existing East-West continuum.

Forty years of outstanding, multi-disciplinary collaborations for the stage place the LINES Ballet company at the forefront of artistic innovation in ballet. With each collaboration, LINES Ballet investigates deeply rooted affinities between Western and Eastern classical forms, elemental materials, the natural world, and the human spirit. At LINES Ballet, the artistic investigation is infinite and essential for it leads to what unites us as human beings: empathy, joy, and the ability to transcend. LINES Ballet’s spring and fall home seasons and global tours share this vision of transformative, revelatory dance with 50,000 audience members worldwide every year.

King said, “The term LINES alludes to all that is visible in the phenomenal world. There is nothing that is made or formed without a line. Lines are in our fingerprints, the shapes of our bodies, constellations, geometry. It implies genealogical connection, progeny and spoken word. It addresses direction, communication, and design. A line of thought. A boundary or eternity. A melodic line. From vibration or dot to dot it is the visible organization of what we see.”

The Company has been featured at venues such as the Venice Biennale, Monaco Dance Forum, Maison de la Dance de Lyon, the Edinburgh International Festival, Montpellier Danse, the Wolfsburg Festival, the Holland Dance Festival, and most recently the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris.

Alonzo King has been called a visionary choreographer, who is altering the way we look at ballet. King calls his works “thought structures” created by the manipulation of energies that exist in matter through laws, which govern the shapes and movement directions of everything that exists. Named as a choreographer with “astonishing originality” by The New York Times, Alonzo King LINES Ballet has been guided by his unique artistic vision since 1982.

King has works in the repertories of the world’s leading ballet and modern companies and has collaborated with distinguished visual artists, musicians, and composers across the globe. His work has been recognized for its impact on the cultural fabric of the company’s home in San Francisco, as well as internationally by the dance world’s most prestigious institutions.

King was honored with a Dance Magazine Award in 2020. He received Honorary Doctorates from The Juilliard School, Dominican University of California, and California Institute of the Arts in recognition of his significant contribution to the field of dance. Renowned for his skill as a teacher, King was also honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Corps de Ballet International Teacher Conference in 2012. Joining historic icons in the field, King was named one of America’s “Irreplaceable Dance Treasures” by the Dance Heritage Coalition. An internationally acclaimed guest ballet master, his training philosophy undergirds the educational programming at the Alonzo King LINES Dance Center of San Francisco, which includes the pre-professional Training Program, Summer Program, and the BFA Program at Dominican University of California.