Sat 1/26 + Sun 1/27 @ 8pm
By Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas
Nothing like history for restoring perspective. Look back a few hundred or a few thousand years and everything seems clearer. But if we use that approach on classical ballet, the traditional narrative begins with a bunch of scheming European aristocrats who — let’s face it — hijacked ballet as an advertisement for the preservation of their own inherited wealth and privilege.
So when DanceCleveland booked Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet we jumped at a chance to interview King, who’s well known for looking beyond the studio and the traditional narrative to a much wider world.
Cool Cleveland: What is ballet, anyway? Must we look to European aristocracy for the origins of ballet? We gather that you have an alternative thesis.
Alonzo King: I think that we forget the contributions of Arabs. The term “arabesque,” where does it come from? The pavan, which predated the waltz, it too speaks of other origins. I think the development of ballet is informed via Persian, Indian, and Islamic cultures. So much of mathematics and science came to Europe through the Arabs. The genius of Grecian thought and literature was preserved in Arabic and those translations are what brought it back. It would be laughable to say that ballet, the science of movement, had its origins only with Catherine de Medici. That would be cutting off its long history.
How do you do what you do with ballet dancers? Please describe your process.
Whatever endeavor you choose to pursue is going to become a mirror that shows you your shortcomings and what needs to be developed. Back to your question about the dancer; if you haven’t begun a query into who you are and why you’re here, then what do you have to say? You don’t have a voice. Many people were trained in ballet as an external skill that was not connected with their voice; they feel that what’s inside isn’t important and dancing is only an approximation, an appearance. It doesn’t work that way. One performer moves us and another does not. Why? We listen to who people are. Your presence and consciousness emanates even more than the words or the steps. You have to be coming from some point of view and communicating it clearly.
Your company is known for its diversity, a marked contrast to nearly all other ballet companies. Why do you think other ballet companies have been so slow to integrate?
You’d have to ask them.
Who influenced you? Family? Professional experiences? Others?
My parents, who actually lived what they believed in, which is incredibly intimidating. And Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi. Those two things and observations from nature.
So in listing your influences you don’t even name School of American Ballet and New York City Ballet?
You asked me. I’m telling you the sources of inspiration. Those are the things that informed me. I loved my training. I’m not diminishing it, but how is this related to the world?
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LINES’ concerts this weekend present Resin (2011) and Scheherazade (2009), in both of which choreographer King rescues ballet from the confines of European courts.
Music for Resin looks back to Sephardic music of the Mediterranean world, interweaving archival field recordings with Judeo-Spanish songs by early-music artist Jordi Savall and his group Hesperion XXI. Cleveland music audiences may remember Savall et co. from their concert at Cleveland Museum of Art last November.
Scheherazade reimagines the Scheherazade of Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe with a new score by tabla master Zakir Hussain using ancient Persian instruments. Familiar Rimsky-Korsakov melodies are still present but the unwatchable 1910 scenario with its kitsch-fest of sex and violence is mercifully absent.
See LINES dancers perform a pas dedeux from Scheherazade here.
LINES performs both Resin and Scheherazade at 8 PM Sat 1/26 and Sun 1/27/13 at PlayhouseSquare. Tickets are available at the PlayhouseSquare ticket office, 216-241-6000 or online at http://playhousesquare.org. All manner of savings on mini-subscriptions available through DanceCleveland call 216-991-9000 or visit http://dancecleveland.org.
From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.
Cleveland, OH 44115