Acclaimed dancer/choreographer Alonzo King, founder and artistic director of Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in San Francisco, will take part in a public panel discussion on “Understanding Dance as the Language We Embody” at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22.
The talk comes as part of a residency sponsored by a grant from the National College Choreography Initiative. The grant will support a variety of workshops and master classes with both King and Arturo Fernandez, ballet master for LINES, Sept. 12-23.
In addition, King and Fernandez will set excerpts from two of King’s works — “In To Get Out” and “Koto” — on students in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences’ Dance Program. Both pieces will be performed later this semester as part of Reach/Rebound, the 2005 Washington University Dance Theatre (WUDT) concert, which takes place in Edison Theatre Dec. 2-4.
The panel discussion, part of the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences’ Translation Series, is free and open to the public and takes place in Ann W. Olin Women’s Building Formal Lounge. The Women’s Building is located just north of Olin Library on the university’s Hilltop Campus. For more information call (314) 935-5576.
Other panelists are theater director Ron Himes, the Henry E. Hampton, Jr. Artist-in-Residence and founder of the St. Louis Black Repertory Company; dancer Cecil Slaughter, artist-in-residence and director of WUDT; and Gerald Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences and director of the Center for the Humanities.
In addition, Fernandez will host an open showing of “In To Get Out” and “Koto” at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, in the Annelise Mertz Dance Studio, located in Room 207, Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. The showing is free and open to the public and also will include a short video, “Alonzo King Goes to Venice.” For more information, call (314) 935-5858.
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WHO: Dancer/choreographer Alonzo King WHAT: Panel discussion, “Understanding Dance as the Language We Embody” WHEN: 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22 WHERE: Ann W. Olin Women’s Building Formal Lounge COST: Free and open to the public SPONSOR: Center for the Humanities INFORMATION: (314) 935-5576 |
The National College Choreography Initiative, now in its sixth year, is underwritten by Dance/USA, a national service organization for professional dance, in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This year the initiative awarded 35 grants totaling $280,000. Mary Jean Cowell, director of the Dance Program, is project director for the King grant, while Slaughter serves as rehearsal director for the WUDT works.
Alonzo King
King has choreographed dances for many of many of the world’s finest companies, including the Joffrey Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. He has worked extensively in opera and television and served as guest ballet master for the National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, San Francisco Ballet and others.
LINES Ballet, which King founded in 1982, has since emerged as an international touring company and worked with musicians ranging from jazz great Pharoah Sanders to India’s Zakir Hussain and Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock. In 1989, King inaugurated the San Francisco Dance Center, now one of west coast’s largest dance facilities. In 2001 he launched the LINES Ballet School and Pre-Professional Program.
King’s numerous honors include four Isadora Duncan Awards, an NEA Choreographer’s Fellowship and an Irvine Fellowship in Dance. In 2005 he was named a Master of African-American Choreography by the Kennedy Center.
Next April, Edison Theatre and Dance St. Louis will present LINES Ballet as part of the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series. For more information, call (314) 935-6543.
Arturo Fernandez
Fernandez has danced in both ballet and modern companies including San Diego Ballet, Arizona Ballet, New Jersey Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Les Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo, Oakland Ballet and ODC/San Francisco. In 1991 he collaborated with Brenda Way and KT Nelson of ODC to create Krazy Kat for the San Francisco Ballet and in 1992 became ballet master for LINES.
Fernandez has choreographed Inland Pacific Ballet, Los Angeles Dance Theater, San Francisco’s School of the Arts, Alabama School of Fine Arts and LINES Ballet. He also has set ballets by King on companies throughout the United States and works side by side with him in the creation of new work.