San Francisco's Vibrant Alonzo King LINES Ballet Blends Science And Art For Northrop's Season FinalE

Contemporary dance company Alonzo King LINES Ballet will explore how science and art interact for the season finale to Northrop's 2017//18 Dance Season on Tue, May 1, at 7:30 pm. The exciting San Francisco-based company examines the kinetics of the human voice as an instrument in its piece The Propelled Heart, while LINES dancers become otherworldly creatures alongside a score of natural soundscapes in Biophony.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet was founded in 1982 by artistic director Alonzo King, who considers ballet a science based on universal, geometric principles of energy and evolution. King's visionary choreography, brought to life by the extraordinary technique of LINES Ballet dancers, connects audiences through a sense of shared humanity. Over the decades, the company has worked with noted composers, musicians and visual artists worldwide.

The first piece on the May 1 program at Northrop, The Propelled Heart, pays tribute to the power of song. Grammy Award-winning singer Lisa Fischer, who was a former back-up artist for Aretha Franklin, sings in a recording to arrangements and accompaniment by J.C. Maillard . On stage, 12 dancers channel Fischer's inspiration and explore the kinetics of the human voice and the communicative potential of the body as an instrument.

The second piece, Biophony, studies the sounds in various biomes and expands on those through dance. Called "riveting" by the San Francisco Chronicle, Biophony was created in partnership with natural soundscape artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford . For almost 50 years, Krause traveled across the globe to gather sounds of the earth and its creatures. From the rainforests of Borneo to a waterhole in Kenya, from the Alaskan tundra to a meadow high in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Krause's recordings carry imprints of habitats in peril. Dancers crawl, fly, elongate, flutter and somersault to his collected natural soundscape as they tell the story of each sonic environment.

Northrop Presents
Alonzo King LINES Ballet
Tue, May 1, 7:30 pm

The Propelled Heart
Biophony