Alonzo King

Alonzo King is the visionary choreographer and artistic director of Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and has long been noted as an artist who alters 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.

Often working in collaboration with world-renowned musicians and artists, Alonzo King has created more than 170 ballets, including a remarkable repertoire for LINES Ballet. To achieve his visions, he has collaborated with creative stars like Danny Glover, Pharaoh Sanders, Hamza al Din, Pawel Szymanski, Jason Moran, and tabla master Zakir Hussain, among many others. His choreography has been described as “the most sophisticated modernism in classical dance.”

King’s works are represented in the repertoires of many exemplary companies, including the Swedish Royal Ballet, Ballets de Monte Carlo, Frankfurt Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Béjart Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theater, and Washington Ballet.

Renowned for his skill as a teacher, King has been guest ballet master for dance companies around the world. "You see how meticulous and what a perfectionist he is - how clear he is on what he wanted,” noted Judith Jamison, former artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. “And the movement he elicited from the dancers - it was just so delicious, I had never seen them dance that way before.”

Branching out from his busy schedule with LINES Ballet, King has written and lectured on the art of dance, and has also worked in opera, television, and film.

"Alonzo King is one of the few, true Ballet Masters of our times. His intimacy with Ballet's multiple histories has made his choreography rich with the complex refractions that demonstrate a full command of the art's intricacies..." William Forsythe, Frankfurt Ballet

"The most sophisticated modernism in classical dance. The number of ballet choreographers who live - and create - solely in the present are so few that one of his distinction must be accounted the artistic equivalent of a shooting star." Los Angeles Times