Alonzo King Receives Prestigious Dance Magazine Award

Alonzo King LINES Ballet has announced that Founder and Artistic Director Alonzo King is the recipient of the 2020 Dance Magazine Award. King will be honored at a virtual award ceremony on December 7, 2020.

Since 1954 the Dance Magazine Awards have celebrated living legends who've made a lasting impact on dance. Previous recipients have included celebrated artists such as Misty Copeland, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Tommy Tune, Alvin Ailey, Wendy Whelan, Ohad Naharin, Philip Glass, Chita Rivera, Fred Astaire, Bob Fosse, and more. This year's honorees include Carlos Acosta, Debbie Allen, Camille A. Brown, and Laurieann Gibson.

"It is an honor to receive this year's Dance Magazine Award," said King. "It is an even greater honor to be placed in the company of some of the past honorees - an esteemed group of artists that have made many wonderful contributions to dance." "In this challenging environment nothing is more important than recognizing the extraordinary careers of our awardees," states Frederic Seegal, CEO/Chairman of Dance Media. The selection committee for the 2020 Dance Magazine Awards includes Dance Magazine contributor Joseph Carman, The Dance Editeditor in chief Margaret Fuhrer, Dance Media publisher/CFO Joanna Harp, MoBBallet founder Theresa Ruth Howard, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre artistic director Susan Jaffe, Dance Magazine editor at large Wendy Perron, former American Dance Festival director Charles L. Reinhart and Dance Magazine editor in chief and Dance Media content director Jennifer Stahl.

For more information on the Dance Magazine Awards or to purchase tickets, please visit www.dancemediafoundation.org. For more information on Alonzo King LINES Ballet, please visit www.linesballet.org.

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. Named as a choreographer with "astonishing originality" by the New York Times, Alonzo King LINES Ballet has been guided by his unique artistic vision since 1982.

King has works in the repertories of the Royal Swedish Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Ballet Bejart, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey, Hong Kong Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and many others. He has collaborated with distinguished visual artists, musicians, and composers across the globe including legendary jazz saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders, Hamza al Din, Pawel Szymanski, Jason Moran, Charles Lloyd, Kronos Quartet, Mezzo soprano Maya Lahyani, architect Chris Haas, artist Jim Campbell, and tabla master Zakir Hussain.Named Choreographer of the Year by Danza & Danza in Italy and a Master of Choreography by the Kennedy Center in 2005, King is the recipient of the NEA Choreographer's Fellowship, the Jacob's Pillow Creativity Award, the Irvine Fellowship in Dance, the USArtistAward in Dance, NY Bessie Award, and the National Dance Project's Residency and Touring Awards. In 2014, King was appointed to the advisory council of the newly established Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University; in 2015 he received the Doris Duke Artist Award in recognition of his ongoing contributions to the advancement of contemporary dance. Joining historic icons in the field, King was named one of America's "Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition in 2015. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom presented the 2nd Annual Mayor's Art Award to Alonzo King in October 2008. He also received the Barney Choreographic Prize from White Bird Dance in April 2013, numerous Isadora Duncan awards, the San Francisco Foundation's 2007 Community Leadership Award, the Hero Award from Union Bank, the Lehman Award, and the Excellence Award from KGO. In October, 2012 the San Francisco Museum & Historical Society named Alonzo King a "San Francisco Treasure." He is a former commissioner for the city and county of San Francisco, and a writer and lecturer on the art of dance; his contributions appear in the books Masters of Movement: Portraits of American Choreographers and in Dance Masters: Interviews with Legends of Dance. In 2005, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate by Dominican University of California, the Green Honors Chair Professorship from Texas Christian University as well as an honorary Doctorate from CalArts, Juilliard, and Dominican University.

An Internationally acclaimed guest ballet master, his training philosophy undergirds the educational programming at the Alonzo King LINES Dance Center of San Francisco, which includes the pre-professional Training Program, Summer Program, and the BFA Program at Dominican University of California.