January 02, 2013

Alonzo King LINES Ballet press release

Celebrated LINES Ballet to Perform in Cleveland Jan. 26-27

Versatile San Francisco Company Led by Artistic Vision of Alonzo King

"King has extraordinary dancers: beautifully trained, physically elegant" -- The New Republic

"The most sophisticated modernism in classical ballet" -- Los Angeles Times

CLEVELAND (Dec. 13, 2012) The acclaimed LINES Ballet, led by visionary choreographer and artistic director Alonzo King, will come to the Ohio Theatre for two performances, Jan. 26-27, presented by DANCECleveland and PlayhouseSquare.

Tickets for the Saturday evening performance at 8 p.m. and the Sunday matinee at 3 p.m. are available at the PlayhouseSquare ticket office, 216-241-6000 or online at www.playhousesquare.org.

Additionally, "Pick two for $40" mini-subscription packages are also available. Purchasers can save up to 50% off single ticket prices by selecting two of the three remaining performances on DANCECleveland's season -- LINES Ballet (January 27 performance only), Mark Morris Dance Group (March 2) and Lucky Plush (May 3 performance only). Seating for all "Pick two for $40" packages will be located in Section C of each venue. For information call 216- 991-9000 or visit www.dancecleveland.org

The LINES Ballet program will include two recent King dances: Scheherazade, created in 2009, and Resin from 2011. Scheherazade is a re-envisioning of the ancient collection of Persian, Sanskrit and Arabic stories. It is set to a new score by tabla master Zakir Hussain, who re-interprets the original music by Rimsky-Korsakov. Commissioned by the Monaco Dance Forum, the dance honors Sergei Diaghilev's spirit of cutting-edge artistic collaboration.

In Resin, King explores the possibilities of the vast and diverse field of Sephardic music. Rare archival field recordings are interwoven with Judeo-Spanish songs, and the stage is transformed into a timeless landscape.

These performances, as part of the company's 30th anniversary tour, mark the company's Cleveland debut. LINES was presented by DANCECleveland six years ago at Akron's E.J. Thomas Hall.

Founded in 1982, the celebrated contemporary ballet company based in San Francisco is guided by the unique artistic vision of King, who creates works that draw on deeply rooted cultural traditions, imbuing classical ballet with new expressive potential. Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as "one of the few bona fide visionaries in the ballet world today," King has created more than 170 ballets, including a remarkable repertory for LINES, often working in collaboration with world-renowned musicians and artists.

King's works are represented in the repertories of such companies as the Swedish Royal Ballet, Ballets de Monte Carlo, Frankfurt Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Ballet and Hong Kong Ballet, among others.

LINES Ballet has been featured at numerous venues, including the Venice Biennale, Monaco Dance Forum, the Edinburgh Festival and the Holland Dance Festival, among others. In the spring of 2012, the first full-length film of the company's performances was released in Europe to inaugurate the company's 30th anniversary season.

DANCECleveland, a Cleveland, Ohio based non-profit, is one of a handful of presenters nationally that is dedicated solely to the presentation of modern and contemporary dance. The centerpiece of the organization's programming is its annual performance series. The performances are surrounded by an array of educational outreach events including artist-run master classes, residency programs, student matiness, pre-performance lectures and post-performance Q&A sessions, designed both to break artistic boundaries and provide community access to the dance aesthetic and dance luminaries that DANCECleveland brings to Northeast Ohio.

For more information about LINES Ballet, visit: www.linesballet.org

For more information about DANCECleveland, visit: www.dancecleveland.org

ELECTRONIC PHOTOS AVAILABLE FROM PAM BARR AT 216-932-5060 or barrp@roadrunner.com

Funding for this presentation is generously provided by:

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, Cleveland Foundation, George W. Codrington Charitable Foundation, George Gund Foundation, Kulas Foundation, John P. Murphy Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Ohio Arts Council.