Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, Before the Blues
Nov 10, 2004
By
ALLAN ULRICH
allan@voiceofdance.com
Alonzo King's LINES Ballet in Before the Blues. Photo by Marty Sohl.
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A year ago, Alonzo King rounded up everybody he could find, including your mother-in-law, turned on a recording of one of the seminal works of 20th century music, and voil', you got The Rite of Spring, another of those dozens of primal romps that failed to connect with Igor Stravinsky's muse in the past 91 years. It was an unhappy experience that left you feeling bummed because it looked so conventional in its audacity. This was a rite of passage, let alone spring, that didn't need to be witnessed.
Flash forward a year to San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, where, last weekend, King's Lines Ballet premiered Before the Blues, a 50-minute mosaic of the post-Civil War African American experience. Everything is right this time, in fact, after more than two decades bringing his illuminations to the local scene, this may be one of the choreographer's most artfully constructed and inventive creations, a magnificent effort at collaboration. I kept thinking this was the dance King meant to create in his Rite of Spring.
Reading the press release before the show Saturday (Nov. 6), one noted the sundry talents involved in the project. The sound score included original contributions by jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders (on tape in San Francisco, live in selected tour cities), archival field recordings from the late 19th century, contributions from Bernice Johnson Reagon (Sweet Honey in the Rock), an excerpt from a Corelli Concerto Grosso, environmental chirping and texts read by actor Danny Glover. In addition, Axel Morgenthaler's lighting and video design and Robert Rosenwasser's production design favor film sequences and extensive use of silhouette.
Miraculously, these accouterments, which might stifle a less confident choreographer, complement the dance every step of the way. King is working with only eight dancers here and the number seems exactly right. It helped Saturday that this was dancing to take your breath away; even without Maurya Kerr, who has canceled the home season for a hip operation. Featured performers included Chiharu Shibata, Laurel Keen, Lauren Porter, Drew Jacoby, Gregory Dawson, Prince Credell, Brett Conway and John Michael Schert - all giving performances on which to build careers.
King created Before the Blues at White Oak Plantation in Northern Florida (in between hurricanes) and it is footage of that area of the world we see at the beginning of the piece, projected on twin rear screens, images of nature at its most serene. Sanders offers "Let Us Go Into The House of the Lord," a mournful sax commentary, a threnody, really. King has structured the work as a 15-part suite, each section distilling a particular moment or suggesting a historical situation. Working with small complements of dancers - all eight rarely appear together - has focused the choreographer's craft and his intentions in a manner that recalls the splendid pieces commissioned from him recently by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
From the moment that Dawson and Schert, topless in Colleen Quen's earth-toned culottes, meet in an extended, playful duet, there's a feeling that the Eden that Africa represented for blacks has vanished in the new world. Jacoby dominates the women in the fourth section. As Before the Blues proceeds, the movement acquires a darker tone. King gives us a stunning episode when the milling dancers without transition or props become slaves tethered with chains moving robotically. Enigmatic moments - like the folks rolling a hoop across the stage -resonate with concealed meaning. There are messages, too: Dawson, toting a knapsack is seduced by a woman, who lusts after the contents of his luggage. She and her cohorts waylay him and make off with his goods. From the pack falls a cone, which is salvaged and triumphantly carried off by Credell.
Prince Credell in Alonzo King's Before the Blues. Photo by Marty Sohl.
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One is not accustomed to this kind of literalism in King's choreography, but when this dancer appears a minute later, bathed in bright sunlight and accompanied by baroque music, switching directions and flirting with his balances, the feeling of jubilation cannot be ignored. King avoids here, also, the problems he faces with large ensembles; all eight of the dancers seem to possess a place in the scheme. What's also different in this work is the dynamic of the duet. A more supportive quality has supplanted the old between-the-sexes (or between the same sex) tension. The best and most mature of King will be found in Before the Blues.
It is, however, a difficult work to program with another piece. For this run, King has chosen to pair it with the 1998 Who Dressed You Like a Foreigner? in a reduced version for eight dancers, set to original music and words by tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain. Invention runs high in these six numbers, but the one that gets under the skin is the final "Ma," a life cycle duet of extraordinary difficulty and instant emotional appeal. On Saturday, Keen and Conway did themselves and Lines proud.
Company note: on its national tour this season, Lines will be joined by Alicia Graf, a member of Dance Theater of Harlem (currently on hiatus). For the European tour, the guest will be Misty Copland of American Ballet Theater.
Lines Ballet continues its YBC Theater engagement Wednesday-Saturday (Nov. 10-13) at 8 p.m. and Sunday (Nov. 14) at 2 p.m. Next stop for the company is the University of California, Santa Barbara, Tuesday, Nov. 16. For tickets, call (415) 978-2787.
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