Alonzo King LINES Ballet Reveals Programming For Spring 2024 Season

Alonzo King LINES Ballet has announced the programming for its Spring 2024 Season. The renowned contemporary ballet company will present a captivating triple bill that includes a world premiere by choreographer Alonzo King; a reimagined version of The Collective Agreement; and King’s 2013 work, Concerto for Two Violins. Performances run April 5–April 14, 2024 at the Blue Shield of California Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. 

The Collective Agreement, Alonzo King’s acclaimed collaboration with jazz pianist Jason Moran, takes on new life as it undergoes a transformative collaboration between King and the LINES Ballet dancers. The Collective Agreement was commissioned by San Francisco Ballet for the 2018 Unbound Festival and set on the National Ballet of Canada four years later, but the alchemy between King and the company dancers will infuse it with new resonance. “When a ballet is done by other dancers, it still holds up as beautiful,” King says. “But when you have artists who are able to read your every gesture and absorb your consciousness, it is a completely different message.”

The message transmitted in The Collective Agreement is understanding—a theme that holds profound resonance in the current moment. “We are, as a community, trying to reach wholeness,” King says. “How do we come together?” The ever-changing balance of interdependence and individuality is embodied in the choreography, at once nuanced and dynamic. The work opens with an intimate duet, then expands into growing ensembles and the rising tempi of Moran’s original score—his first for a symphony orchestra, and his eighth collaboration with LINES—before culminating in a reprise of the duet. The score was recorded live for this performance by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, with Moran on piano.

The reimagined Collective Agreement is an endeavor shared by King and the dancers, Moran, designer Robert Rosenwasser, and installation artist Jim Campbell, but it will come fully to life in concert with the audience. “In Indigenous cultures, the circles on planet Earth are replicated in the dances, and we’re bringing that to the rectangle of the stage,” says King. “That experience is the collective agreement.”

The program also includes a world premiere work by King set to music by Bernice Johnson Reagon and a selection of Black spirituals; and Concerto for Two Violins, King’s 2013 work that turns the layers of fugue and counterpoint Johann Sebastian Bach’s 1730 work into metaphors of human relationships. 

LINES Ballet's 2024 Gala, a festive evening benefiting the performance company and education programs, takes place on April 6. The Gala begins at 5pm with registration and a pre-show beverage followed by a 6pm performance in the Theater. Guests will then head to the YBCA Forum for a cocktail reception and dinner with paddle raise. The Gala committee includes Christopher Dydyk, Chair, Pattie Lawton, Jeff Schlarb, and Al Wong. Terrace-level tickets, which include the performance and a post-performance toast are available for $125, and full evening, dinner sponsorship packages begin at $1,000 per individual and $10,000 per table.

Other special events include a BFA Senior Showcase on Tuesday, April 9 at 7:30pm for $35 featuring the BFA at Dominican University seniors and the second-year students of the LINES Ballet Training Program; a post-performance Q&A on Wednesday, April 10 and Thursday, April 11; and a Family Experience on Sunday, April 5 at 2:30pm for $20. Geared for families and children ages 4-12 the Family Experience features an immersive dance workshop for the whole family, guided by LINES Ballet Teaching Artists. Participants will also get a sneak peek of the LINES Ballet Company dancers in rehearsal before the show and a rare behind-the-scenes tour of the theater. 

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