Alonzo King LINES Ballet: Collective Strength on Writing Ground

An awareness of community, manifested in numerous ways, pervades nearly every aspect of  Alonzo King LINES Ballet's stunning  fall season program, which opened last weekend at YBCA's LAM Research Theater.

In King's program note he quotes John Muir:

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."

The existence of these connections, the danger which comes from threatening them, and the power resulting from their maintenance, forms the spine of Writing Ground, King's collaboration with writer Colum MCCann. The latter's poetry inspired the program's design of fourteen verses, titled to invoke religious and historical points of reference or states of mind. Music and movement are sometimes juxtaposed, somtimes combined to pinpoint the fragile and complex nature of the universe as suggested by Muir's quote. The musical selections, especially when the Quran's Sura XVII is preceded and followed by sacred Jewish texts, and the drama which accompanies them, is breathtaking, bordering on heartbreaking. At 40 minutes and fourteen sections, it's a long piece, but it feels like every aspect has been well thought out- the dancers, costumes, and lighting, are fully engaged to make every moment feel vital to the whole. Writing Ground is one the most thought-provoking, rewarding works I've seen in a long time.

Also on the program is the world premiere of Concerto for Two Violins, titled after, and propelled by Bach's music of the same name. As the company moves through its paces in the outer movements, there are nods to both Balanchine and Lucinda Childs and there's a sharp focus in King's choreography which makes everything here seem essential. However, the heart of the work is its central Largo movement, performed by Meredith Webster, Kara Wilkes, David Harvey and Michael Montgomery. Here the four dancers take turns engaging, entwining, releasing and surrendering to each other in a series of gorgeously executed waves which rise to crests on the verge of crashing at any moment, suggesting the precarious nature of being, and how the support, and perhaps presence, of others keeps the individual afloat. It's simply magnificent to watch.

Go see this. Five performances remain from October 30 through November 3. Tickets and more informaton can be found here.

Squinch this!

If you had told me prior to walking into the Novellus Theater last night that the world premiere of Alonzo King's Lines Ballet Triangle of the Squinches was going to be an early candidate for worst thing I've seen this year I wouldn't have believed you. After all, on Thursday night the Swede and I left at the intermission of Killing My Lobster: the Reboot and never looked back. It's all in the expectations. While mine weren't tremendously high for the comedy troupe, they were for Lines Ballet, so the disappointment runs deeper.

How bad was it? In a word- terrible! So, I know some fan of King's is going to leave some comment claiming I obviously don't know what I'm talking about- the audience loved it! And that's true- at least 80% audience was applauding enthusiastically for something, but I think it was sympathy for the dancers. At least that's what I hope it was, because the company has extremely talented dancers who worked tremendously hard at giving some life and meaning to a work that contains little of either. I respect the dancers so much I am not even going to name any of them so when they google themselves they won't find their names linked to such a horrid and insensitive review.

In King's almost largely incomprehensible notes, I believe he tried to explain what the work was about but frankly I read the notes three times and was still at a loss to understand what the hell he was saying. I turned to Penelope (who went to some pretty good schools) and asked if they made any sense to her.

"Nope," she said.

Oh well. I thought maybe it would all become clear once the show started.

The props by architect Christopher were certainly interesting- giant loom-like backdrops with white elastic strings the dancers walked through, leaned into, got tangled up in, and did this and that within the strings, all to Mickey Hart's boring, ambient music that added absolutely nothing to anything whatsoever except made me want to go to sleep or find the chill-out room.

After half an hour of this nonsense the curtain came down. I guess, one could say there was some message in there about how entangled we can become in our own lives, and how when we're falling it's good to have the support of others, but for half an hour? There were only 5 or so "acts"to this half and the second part had more than a dozen. Like what we had just witnessed, something seemed seriously out of balance.

We stood outside at intermission and talked about what people were wearing and debated whether or not we should stay for more. We decided two things: the first is that no matter how young you are, most women do not look good in these ultra-minis currently in vogue and if you have to keep tugging your skirt down you have on the wrong skirt, ladies; the second was that we would stay for the rest because it had to get better, right?

Wrong, though Penelope did think the second half marginally not-as-awful as the first. I disagree and think the whole thing was dreck. Haas's set for the second part (an hour long!) was some weird cardboard wall that resembled a set of interlocking hex wrenches, or something of that nature. There were slats where the dancers reached out from behind to whomever was moving along the front, or people lept from the top, but it was really just a bunch of people moving around, rarely with each other, and Hart's "music" gave them absolutely no queues to work from. That any of them were in synch at all is a testament to their talent because King and Hart gave them little to work with or explore in any meaningful way. At the end the dancers rolled the backdrop off to the side of the stage as if it were a tank wheel, while one wildly pirouetted his arms as if to say "NO! Stop this inevitable progress!" Good grief.

As we were leaving, we wondered why or at what people seemed to be so enthusiastic about. Maybe it's because the tickets weren't cheap and no one likes to feel like they were suckered, but this time, the emperor had no clothes. Oh, yes- and the costumes? Horrible!

When we returned home we decided to look up the reviews (now wishing we had done so ahead of buying the tickets) and they were all fairly tepid in their criticism but much kinder toward this mess than I feel it deserves. I felt sorry for the kids in the audience, who now can say to their parents with complete justification "but you took me to that awful ballet the last time and it made no sense! I don't want anymore culture- let's go to a tractor pull!"

And the kids would be right.

Dust and Light, Scheherazade from Lines Ballet

Alonzo King's Lines Ballet have a huge hit on their hand with this pairing which has proven almost impossible to get a ticket for, but we prevailed and ended up with some decent tickets for tonight's performance. Hint: show up at 6 and be willing to buy high-priced seats from the woman manning the Donor/VIP table. After securing three tickets, Chad and I repaired to Samovar for tea and food whilst waiting for Penelope to take her leave from a political fundraiser. The view and ambiance were splendid, as was the tea and food, but I had to wonder about tea that costs the equivalent of a cocktail from a hotel bar. But I would go back.

The first part of the show was Dust and Light from 2008. The program states the stage is "filled with a dozen moons- or perhaps a dozen suns... immersing the audience in a luminous grace." At times yes, but while Meredith Webster and Keelan Whitmore danced and another dancer crawled across the stage in pitiable, crippled movements defying what the human body seemed capable of, my mind was reminded of the horror film "Martyrs" which believe me is that last thing one wants to associate with ballet and dance. Yet once lodged in my brain, the connection stuck, releasing itself only to return again.

Ricardo Zayas and Michael Montgomery paired to portray the shifting dynamics and support of couples in my favorite section of the twelve part piece, proving that love can be shown in many guises. Well done guys. Later, a menage a trios gave a devastating account of betrayal and its aftermath which was almost heartbreaking to watch. It's a fabulous work that was only undermined for me by my personal hatred of the sound of the harpsichord, which was inescapable in the Corelli-based score. Chad however, being a fan of the Baroque and attending his first balletic performance, was ensnared. All of the dancers were fantastic, moving their incredibly fit and well-showcased figures in ways I've never witnessed.

 After the intermission came what was for many the main draw, Scheherazade, featuring Rimsky-Korsakov's four movment scorere-imagined and performed mostly live by Zakir Hussain. Musically this was fantastic. Conceptually it didn't work that well for me, but that may be due to the soft-porn movie in my own mind this music creates which has proven remarkably durable over the past 20 years. Meredith Webster and Corey Scott-Gilbert had a fascinating pas de deux lasting maybe ten minutes as Scheherazade told the Sultan 1001 tales, exhausting herself, while other dancers enacted them. Then it all came to a rather abrupt end which left me thinking "that's it? But where's the climax?"

I guess that was it, because as Penelope pointed out, the dancers onstage had just worked their asses off for an hour and a half and had only grown larger and stronger with each passing movement and minute- it was a breathtaking display of physical virtuosity, even if in my own mind it left me wanting one more story with a less ambiguous, if not necessarily happy, ending.

There are three more performances, all sold out, but where there's a will there's a way.