October 12, 2004
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

The charismatic and expressive Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet performs the new Before the Blues at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet
• Before the Blues
• This beloved San Francisco-based troupe is in its 22nd year
• Its new work, set to an original jazz score by Pharaoh Sanders, evokes the post-Civil War American South
• Tuesday, November 16 / 8 pm
• UCSB Campbell Hall
• General public: $35 / UCSB students: $17
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535

The crowd-pleasing and beautiful Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet will perform on Tuesday, November 16 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. These Santa Barbara favorites return with Before the Blues, King’s new stunning evocation of the historic American South set to an original score by jazz master and frequent collaborator Pharaoh Sanders. The San Francisco-based troupe, now in its 22nd year, thrills audiences with precise, charismatic and expressive performances of the very best of modern dance. The New York Times describes the group as “unpredictable, inventive, dazzling,” while the San Francisco Chronicle calls them “hip and hot, looking good and dancing on the edge.”

Before the Blues is based in early field recordings dating from the decades following the U.S. Civil War. Following the War, in the face of the most brutal kind of oppression and institutionalized racism, African American people found solace in musical expression, uniting their native traditions of pentatonic melody, polyrhythm and responsorial singing with Western harmonic language. The music of this era—roughly 1870 to 1920—in all its various forms is referred to as “pre-blues.” The variety of distinctly folk-based musical forms from the American South—early work songs, prison songs, sacred harp singing, shouts, blues, hymns, chanteys and ballads—are the germ of post-African and pre-spiritual sounds, and these oral and musical traditions hold treasures that are equal to those of any classical tradition. Raw, unproduced field recordings and archival visual elements have been culled from the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution to be layered throughout the performance. Before the Blues is based in the self-expression of people who were denied the practice of their artistic heritage, yet managed to smuggle their forbidden traditions into the creation of an emerging cultural legacy. Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, MacArthur Fellow and Founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, served as a musical advisor for the project. The tone and textures of the music connect with the unique movement vocabulary of King’s choreography for Before the Blues, which was developed with the LINES Company dancers during a residency at the White Oak Dance facility. Before the Blues premieres in San Francisco at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, November 5-14, 2004.

Originally from Albany, Georgia, Alonzo King is a member of the most prominent Black family in the Albany civil rights movement; his grandfather established the NAACP branch in Albany and his father and uncles founded the Albany movement to dismantle legalized racial oppression. Alonzo King first came to San Francisco in 1976. In 1982, he founded LINES Ballet, which has developed into an acclaimed international touring company. He has collaborated with numerous outstanding musicians such as legendary jazz great Pharaoh Sanders, tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, Nubian Oud Master Hamza al Din, and master koto player and composer Miya Masaoka. In 1989, Alonzo King inaugurated the San Francisco Dance Center, which has grown into one of the largest dance facilities on the West Coast, and in 2002 started the LINES Ballet School and Pre-Professional Program.

King is a recipient of the NEA Choreographer’s Fellowship, Irvine Fellowship in Dance, National Dance Project and the National Dance Residency Program. He has received five Isadora Duncan Awards, the Hero Award from Union Bank, and the Excellence Award from KGO in San Francisco. He is a former commissioner for the city and county of San Francisco, and a writer and lecturer on the art of dance.

The audience is welcome to stay after the performance for a Meet-the-Artist discussion with Alonzo King.

Members of the company will teach a Community Dance Class on Monday, November 15 at 7:30 pm at the studio of State Street Ballet, 332 State Street. It costs $15 for participants and $5 for observers. This event is sponsored the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance; for information and to make a reservation, please phone (805) 966-6950.

LINES Ballet is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Casa Santa Barbara and KRUZ Radio. The presentation of LINES Ballet is funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional funding is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Ford Foundation. Tickets for the concert are $35 for the general public and $17 for UCSB students. They are on sale now and can also be purchased at the door, if still available.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.