Two dancers pose against a grey backdrop

HTP Mainstage

Deep River

Alonzo King LINES Ballet with Lisa Fischer + Jason Moran

Performances

May 5 Fri

May 6 Sat

Alonzo King LINES Ballet performs a new work featuring Grammy Award-winning vocalist Lisa Fischer performing live alongside the LINES Ballet dancers. The work is set to a score by jazz pianist, composer, and MacArthur Fellow Jason Moran. This is King’s second collaboration with Fischer and his ninth collaboration with Moran, created in celebration of LINES Ballet's 40th anniversary season.

As we look back on 40 years of work in the community, in ourselves, the programs, classes, and performances, both live and on film, we recognize that it is the same vision and belief that have carried us to this moment and will continue to carry this organization into the future. We have strived to make obvious that art is the inheritance of every individual, that art activates evolutionary growth, is an intellectual virtue, and the fostering principle for all that is made, done, or known. The intention behind the work is to remind me, the artists, and the viewers that love is the ocean that we rose from, swim in, and will one day return to, and that love, if listened to and deeply cultured, can bring us to liberation.
— Alonzo King

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is a celebrated contemporary ballet company that has been guided since 1982 by the artistic vision of acclaimed choreographer Alonzo King. Collaborating with noted composers, musicians, writers, and visual artists from around the world, King draws on a diverse set of deeply rooted cultural traditions, imbuing classical ballet with new expressive potential. He has been heralded as a visionary and thought leader on topics that reach far beyond dance, receiving numerous accolades such as a 2020 Dance Magazine Award. The company brings new works of illuminating beauty to Bay Area audiences in bi-annual home seasons. LINES Ballet’s national and international tours allow the company to share its vision of transformative, revelatory dance through performances worldwide. LINES Ballet is dedicated to training the next generation of artists through its pre-professional Summer Program, Training Program, Teens Program (Teens at LINES), and Bachelor of Fine Arts Program with Dominican University of California.

Lisa Fischer is a brilliant vocalist who has shared the stage with musical luminaries of nearly every genre, including Mick Jagger, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Beyoncé, and Sting, is also an accomplished solo artist. Her 1991 album So Intense garnered her a Grammy Award for the single “How Can I Ease the Pain.” She was also featured in the Academy Award-winning documentary, Twenty Feet from Stardom. Fischer is an exciting artistic partner for King, who is noted for his collaborations with celebrated composers, musicians, and visual artists.

Jason Moran is heralded as one of the country’s leading jazz innovators, transmuting his personal experience of the world into dynamic musical compositions that challenge the formal conventions of the medium. His experimental approach to art-making embraces the intersection of objects and sound, pushing beyond the traditional in ways that are inherently theatrical.

In almost every category that matters — improvisation, composition, group concept, repertoire, technique, and experimentation — Moran and his group The Bandwagon, with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, have challenged the status quo.

A graduate of New York's Manhattan School of Music, Moran was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 2010, and is the Kennedy Center's Artistic Director for Jazz. He has since performed and/or recorded with artists such as Cassandra Wilson, Wayne Shorter, Charles Lloyd, Dave Holland, Marian McPartland, Don Byron, Uri Caine (duo), Bunky Green, Sam Rivers, Jenny Scheinman, Christian McBride, and Stefon Harris. This project is Moran's ninth collaboration with Alonzo King.