Big-time sensuality in Alonzo King’s ballet with no tutus

Alonzo King’s version of ballet stretches beyond beauty. His fascination with science, mathematics and history informs and shapes his unique vision. When King established his San Francisco-based company 32 years ago, he began creating dances set to atypical music infused with unusual movement rhythms by dancers who could morph from elegant to primordial with a simple head turn. All of this while remaining firmly rooted in classical ballet.

The 12 dancers in Alonzo King Lines Ballet bring two ballets, Shostakovich and Rasa, to the Dublin Dance Festival this month, and the polarity between these two exemplifies King's work.

“Ballet is like a push-pull between feeling and logic,” King says. “Every human being has both, and ballet is a balancing act between the two. If you get too much logic it defies what you might be feeling, and yet with too much feeling things become unbelievable.”

For some, seeing a ballet company with no tutus and no narrative storyline might be unusual. Until the arrival of Benjamin Perchet, the Dublin Dance Festival's new director, ballet on the big stage in Ireland was most often equated with "white ballets" such as Swan Lake and Giselle, in which the dancers wear long white tutus synonymous with the art form's Romantic era.

In King’s company, that whiteness goes out the window. His multicultural company comprises dancers of African-American, Asian and Hawaiian heritage, espousing the notion that ballet is done by dancers who all look the same.

King expects sensuality and virtuosity from his dancers. “Ballet training itself is the place of peace and perfection,” King says. “You can’t get away from it. Everyone has their own vision of what this is. To some, it is ballerinas in white tutus.”

King is committed to evolving with ballet by bringing together what were once seen as disparate influences. He often collaborates with Middle Eastern singers, African musicians and visual artists from around the world.

“I think this is all evolving, and as nations and civilisations further understand science, our belief systems change. They change based on what we understand about physics, somatics, and also science and history. Culturally we have been taught that we go from an inferior place to a higher place, but really we go more in circles. For instance, there are civilisations much more developed than we are that existed long before we did. I fully believe that as we learn more about all of these things it will change the way we look and move and perform.”

Civil rights movement

King grew up in Georgia to parents who were active in the American civil rights movement. He earned recognition as a dancer at some of the best schools in New York, with stints at the School of American Ballet and Harkness Ballet. His performing career led him to choreography. He still accepts commissions, in addition to the demands of directing his own company and a growing school and dance education programme in California.

His collaborations with singers and musicians embrace concepts from astronomy to anatomy and music in all its incarnations. One example is the 2013 premiere of a ballet called Writing Ground. The dance, inspired by author Colum McCann's poems, is accompanied by sacred early music from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Tibetan Buddhist traditions.

Dublin audiences will see Shostakovich, one of King's company's most popular works. Set to four of the composer's string quartets, it explores the space between harmony and discord, stripping dancers of elaborate costumes and sets while still harnessing the power of classical ballet.

“The way I work, my dancers have to decide, ‘Am I going to show off or get myself out of the way and let the movement become the thing’,” King says. “Most dancers are not exhibitionists. They may show off their skill to a point, but at some point that becomes boring, and they want to go some place deep. That’s when the honeymoon is over and it becomes about hard work and transformation. Just like in any relationship, after that initial period is over you dive deeper and begin to work and change. Art is like relationships that show us where we are small and can go deeper.”

Perchet and King both contend that audiences need no in-depth knowledge of classical ballet, or dance for that matter, to appreciate what King brings to the stage.

“You have to see a lot of different styles of dance, especially in what I do,” says Perchet, “but because I’m open-minded, I love dance in all its forms. I’m not an expert in classical ballet, but what I like is that Alonzo does not create narrative pieces, but abstract dances within the classical technique.”

Rasa perhaps epitomises King's penchant for abstraction. The ballet, set to an original score by Grammy Award-winning Indian tabla musician Zakir Hussain, features the earthbound undulations and primeval couplings that connect King's choreography so closely with his music and ideas.

Trademark style

Perchet deliberately juxtaposed the two ballets on the same programme. His previous experience leading two major dance institutions, Maison de la Danse and Biennale de la Danse, both in Lyon, helped shape his artistic vision, and also introduced him to King and his trademark style. King is sanguine about presenting his choreography to audiences who may be unfamiliar with his style.

“One of the things about looking at works of art is that it’s like meeting people,” King says. “Someone might say, ‘I met Elizabeth and she’s brilliant’. Someone else might say, ‘I met Elizabeth and she’s beautiful’. Still someone else might say, ‘I met her and she’s honest’. When you meet people it’s just like when you meet art. Get rid of your preconceived notions. Look for the motive, look for the sincerity. Just like when you meet people, be open and receive.

“And remember, it’s okay to feel. Dance and music make their place where words aren’t enough. Dance is speaking the soul language. That is beyond intellect.”

• Dublin Dance Festival presents Alonzo King Lines Ballet at the BGE Theatre, Dublin, on May 22nd at 7.30pm. The festival also presents a film screening at Project Arts Centre of King's Constellation, followed by a Q&A session with King, on May 23rd at 7pm