Through-LINES: The Art of Ballet at 836M Gallery

As part of its 35thAnniversary celebration, Alonzo King LINES Ballet presents Through-LINES: The Art of Ballet, a retrospective exhibition highlighting the company's outstanding multi-disciplinary collaborations at the non-profit gallery 836M. Developed in partnership with 836M, the exhibition features the work of artists such as photographer RJ Muna, architect Christopher Haas, bio-acoustician Bernie Krause, and visual artist Jim Campbell. Through-LINES is an immersive journey along the creative strands that have sustained the growth of LINES Ballet and the work of its founders, Doris Duke Artist-awardee choreographer Alonzo King and creative director Robert Rosenwasser over more than three decades.

A focal point of the exhibition is a new video installation on four glass panels by filmmaker Kate Duhamel. Life-size moving images of LINES Ballet dancers imbue the gallery space through a play of translucence and superimposed projections. Accompanying Duhamel's piece is a model of Exploded Views(2011-12), an LED sculptural installation created by acclaimed artist Jim Campbell in collaboration with LINES Ballet for SFMOMA. In this installation, Campbell explodes the moving images of the dancers into a 6x3x3ft grid of flickering LED lights, creating a three-dimensional space of light and shadow modulated by the moving bodies of the dancers.

Also included in the exhibition are a series of 40 iconic digital images by award-winning photographer RJ Muna. The unique, ten-year-long collaboration between LINES Ballet and RJ Muna conveys the singular artistry of the LINES Ballet dancers and choreographic voice of King. Muna's photographs, taken between 2009 and 2018, retrace LINES's unending quest to explore the fearless, the luminous, and the singular in each and everyone through dance.

On view is also an innovative kinetic set, created by San Francisco cutting-edge architect Christopher Haas in 2011 for King's ballet, Triangle of the Squinches. In the gallery, a part of the set anchors multiple video screens recalling live performances of the ballet.

The gallery also displays a sound installation honoring the recent collaboration with sound pioneer and bio-acoustician Bernie Krause. This installation combines the soundscape of ecosystems that LINES Ballet uses for the ballet Biophony (2015) with spectrograms.

Unique to the exhibition is a floor-to-ceiling scroll handwritten by Alonzo King, imparting his thoughts about movement, body, shape, space, consciousness, and the spirit.

Visitors will be able to take home stunning new posters featuring site-specific images by photographer/director Jamie Lyons that place the LINES dancers into San Francisco's natural and architectural landscape.

Celebrating its 35thAnniversary this year, Alonzo King LINES Ballet has been guided by the unique artistic vision of Alonzo King since 1982. Collaborating with noted composers, musicians, and visual artists from around the world, King creates works that draw on a diverse set of deeply rooted cultural traditions, channeling the powerful understanding that ballet is part art, part science, and part primal intuition. His choreography, brought to life by the extraordinary LINES Ballet dancers, is branded with exceptional artistic excellence and bold imagination and shows us the meaningful ways that art connects us to each other and the world around us. While great dance captures the human form, LINES Ballet captures the human spirit, showcasing the art form at its very best.

Alonzo King has been called a visionary choreographer, who is altering the way we look at ballet. King calls his works "thought structures" created by the manipulation of energies that exist in matter through laws, which govern the shapes and movement directions of everything that exists.Alonzo King's work has been honored by the dance world's most prestigious institutions for its impact on the cultural fabric of the company's home in San Francisco, as well as nationally and internationally for over more than three decades. Named a Master of Choreography by the Kennedy Center in 2005, King is the recipient of the Doris Duke Foundation Artist Award, the NEA Choreographer's Fellowship, the Jacob's Pillow Creativity Award, the Irvine Fellowship in Dance, the US Artist Award in Dance, and the National Dance Project's Residency and Touring Awards. King has works in the repertories of San Francisco Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Béjart Ballet Lausanne, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Hong Kong Ballet, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, among others. More information atwww.linesballet.org.

836M is an innovative, non-profit gallery that combines artistic excellence with philanthropic impact. The gallery-cofounded by Sébastien and Julie Lépinard along with curator Agnès Faure-pairs renowned artists and evocative themes to enthrall and inspire those who visit. Throughout the year, 836M offers a carefully curated selection of art, conversations and events to private and public audiences alike in a modern, contemporary and warm space. 836M's founders believe that by experiencing the arts together, we can share new ideas, create a community and broaden our social awareness. Housed in the middle of vibrant Jackson Square, 836M showcases artists who push boundaries and create astonishing art. The carefully curated exhibits and events are designed to reflect the scope of contemporary art and broaden social awareness. 836M is located at 836 Montgomery Street in San Francisco. More information www.836m.org

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