Classical dance meets African soul — and dancers as ferociously sleek and fearsomely virtuosic as cheetahs take ballet technique to new extremes — when Dance St. Louis and Edison Theatre’s OVATIONS! Series present the St. Louis debut of Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet April 21-23.
The rich Baroque structures of George Frideric Handel and the vibrant drumming and song of North African folk traditions find common ground in two recent works by the San Francisco choreographer, who is known as a superb and profoundly original craftsman who creates dances with a global attitude and honed-steel kinetic edge.
Performances will begin at 8 p.m. April 21-22 and at 2 p.m. April 23.
The program will highlight King’s The Moroccan Project (2005), which draws on the extraordinarily diverse dance forms of North African music to express the intricate rhythms of emotion and community. The vibrant drumming of the ceremonies of the Gnawa people, who originated in West Africa and came to Morocco as slaves in the 16th century, serves as backdrop for the haunting strains of oud (lute), violin and women’s devotional singing, creating a landscape of shifting rhythms and echoing voices.
The work also includes Berber (Amazigh) songs from the Middle Atlas Mountains; Chaabit, a form of popular song that is the Moroccan equivalent of American country music; classical Arabic music rooted in the ninth century; and catchy, highly danceable Algerian Ra’i music, which combines North African rhythms with a solid bass line and synthesizer.
The program also will feature Handel (2005), an exploration of the drama and elegance of Baroque music inspired by the 18th-century German composer. King’s evocative choreography is deeply resonant with the nobility of Handel’s work.
In 1741, the composer said of his latest composition, “Whether I was in my body or out of my body as I wrote it, I know not. God knows.”
In his own Handel, King seeks to give audiences that same sense of ethereal beauty given shape and form — of being present in the moment when creativity is embodied and experienced.
King’s dancers are among the most extraordinary on stage today. They produce “dancing of sleekness, fervid sensuality and commitment so deep you suspect these performers would jeté off the nearest cliff if King requested it,” said Allan Ulrich of Voice of Dance.
“A dancer in Lines Ballet, Alonzo King’s San Francisco company, has to have lines and then some,” echoed Deborah Jowitt in The Village Voice. “When his nine company members dance, I think of diamonds — twisting in the light or rapidly scratching complex codes on glass.”
King’s work has increasingly been coming into the international spotlight. He has made dances for companies including Frankfurt Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Hong Kong Ballet.
An entirely new voice in contemporary ballet, he is especially known for his unusual collaborations with world musicians, including Bernice Johnson Reagon, the founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock; tabla master Zakir Hussain, one of India’s national treasures; and Nzamba Lela, a group of 16 BaAka musicians from the forests of the Central African Republic.
Tickets are $28 for the general public — $24 for students and seniors — and are available at the Edison Theatre Box Office, the Dance St. Louis Box Office, 3547 Olive Blvd., and all MetroTix outlets. Tickets are also available by calling Edison Theatre at 935-6543, Dance St. Louis at 534-6622 or MetroTix at 534-1111, and online at dancestlouis.org.