Decades before Alonzo King had an inkling of his future as an internationally celebrated choreographer, he discovered the transformative power of music. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, King served as an altar boy in St. Cyprian’s Parish, where the choir’s Gregorian chants left the communicants “drunk with devotion,” King recalls. “There was an alchemy there in the room.”
Since founding his San Francisco company LINES Ballet in 1984, King has made it a central mission to capture the fusion of live music and movement by collaborating with an array of extraordinary sonic explorers. Last fall, powerhouse vocalist Lisa Fischer (a central subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary 20 Feet From Stardom) performed with LINES on “The Propelled Heart,” joining a glittering roster of King’s far-flung musical muses that over time have included tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, oud master Hamza El Din, tenor saxophone titan Pharoah Sanders, Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart and Baka artists from the Central African Republic.
The world premiere of King’s latest choreographic sojourn takes place at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, running April 21–30, when the company performs with pianist Jason Moran and tenor saxophonist/flutist Charles Lloyd. For the first week of the run (April 21–24) the duo delivers their original music live on stage, while the second week (April 27–30) features their recorded score.
A recipient of a 2010 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, Moran first collaborated with King on 2009’s “Refraction,” the pianist’s maiden voyage composing for dance. He connected with LINES through his wife, the vocalist, composer and actress Alicia Hall Moran, and found that King’s ability to create visual analogies for rhythmic forms provided insight into his own creative process.
“I was working on music for my ‘blues’ recording, Same Mother, and Alicia read that Alonzo was also investigating the blues through contemporary ballet,” writes Moran, 41, via email. “I was overwhelmed during the performance. The company was superb and the music was divine. One score was by Pharaoh Sanders, and the other by Zakir Hussain. Alonzo was able to see and hear the common language in the music, driven by rhythm and spirituality.”