Alonzo King LINES Ballet Will Broadcast CONSTELLATION

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is pleased to announce it will broadcast Constellation, a collaboration between renowned choreographer Alonzo King, visual electronic artist Jim Campbell, and mezzo-soprano Maya Layhani, bringing the artistry of LINES Ballet to homes around the world. The broadcast will be free of charge to the public and will stream in two parts. The first part will stream from October 2 - October 16, 2020 and the second part will stream from October 9 - October 23, 2020.

In Constellation, internationally acclaimed choreographer Alonzo King explores the orientation of our bodies to light. Campbell, a contemporary artist whose work is part of public collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art , among others, and whose 2010 work Scattered Light was installed in The Madison Square Park Conservancy in Manhattan, lights up the stage with 1,300 LED spheres. Israeli mezzo-sporano Lahyani, one of today's most sought-after young singers, sings to a score that meshes Baroque music with contemporary music by composers Leslie Stuck, Somei Satoh and Benjamin Juodvalkis.

Together, with LINES Ballet's dancers, these artists offer a work that is luminous and lucid, encompassing and intimate. Over the course of the piece, the dancers interact with the LED spheres - strings of light drape the dancers' bodies and lighted globes are tucked in their hands or the crooks of their knees.

Constellation features costumes by LINES Ballet Creative Director Robert Rosenwasser and couturière Colleen Quen and lighting design by Axel Morgenthaler. Filmed in 2013 at the Théâtre de Chaillot in Paris, Constellation features a stunning roster of current and former LINES Ballet dancers, which includes Robb Beresford, David Harvey, Courtney Henry, Ashley Jackson, Babatunji Johnson, Yujin Kim, Michael Montgomery, Caroline Rocher, Jeffrey Van Sciver, Meredith Webster, Keelan Whitmore and Kara Wilkes.

To complement the broadcast, LINES Ballet has prepared a number of supplementary materials for the public . These include a digital interactive program book, printable activities for kids, and a study guide for middle/high school students. All the materials will be available at linesballet.org/constellation/.

The broadcast is free, but LINES Ballet is asking viewers to consider making a donation of any size to the LINES Community Relief Fund, an ongoing campaign to support the artists and the organization through the uncertainty of the pandemic.

Photo credit: Margo Moritz

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