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.
Eat + Drink to the Beat inside the Theater during this fast-paced, hour-long performance, with signature cocktails from the Harris and good eats from Chicago’s hottest food trucks available on Lower Randolph.
PROGRAM:
Concerto for Two Violins — Chicago Premiere
Choreographed to Bach’s concerto in D Minor (utilized famously by George Balanchine in 1941), Concerto for Two Violins is a sleek and sharp salute to ballet’s past while marking the continued evolution of neoclassicism. Balanchine’s training in music theory provided one visual conception of the score. As King investigates the densely layered contrapuntal voices for himself, we hear beloved melodies anew. San Francisco Chronicle dance critic Alan Ulrich wrote that the piece delivered what LINES Ballet audiences have come to expect: “dancing of immense pliancy and emotional resonance by a team of amazingly resilient performers who relish the challenges that King’s choreography throws their way.”
Shostakovich — Chicago Premiere
Like an arrow poised for flight, an undercurrent of restless agitation pervades Alonzo King’s latest work set to four Shostakovich string quartets. The music wavers in a state of crystalline suspension, pushing the dancers’ tensile strength to the limit as they revel in the space between harmony and discord, in the long arc before an earthbound fall.
