INTERNATIONAL SENSATION LINES BALLET - EUROPEAN TOUR 2008

Invited to perform at the finale of the Venice Biennale Dance Festival in Italy, LINES Ballet gave three spectacular, sold-out performances at the Teatro Arsenale. Three years ago, the company was invited to the Venice Biennale by Karole Armitage, that year's Festival Director; this year's Director, Ismael Ivo, extended a warm welcome to Alonzo King, and expressed his profound admiration for the LINES Ballet dancers. Despite the sweltering heat of Venice in late June, the dancers gave stunning performances, including those of guest artists Muriel Maffre and Prince Credell during the world premiere of the pas de deux Adagio Octet.

After the Biennale, the company flew to Montpellier, to meet the Shaolin monks and participate in the flurry of media events organized by the Montpellier Danse festival, in anticipation of the European premiere of Long River, High Sky. Jean-Paul Montanari, the Artistic Director of Montpellier Danse, celebrating his 25th year at the helm of the prestigious festival, emphasized the pride he felt in having invited LINES Ballet for two consecutive years. The company gave two sold-out performances at Le Corum/Opèra Berlioz theater, which seats 2000 people; numerous press members and presenters from all over the world attended the performances, which closed with standing ovations. LINES Ballet dancers Keelan Whitmore and Meredith Webster, who were featured on this year's poster for the Montpellier Danse festival, departed with promises from the festival's staff to send posters and banners for the LINES Ballet studio in San Francisco.

The last performance of the tour took place in Vaison-la-Romaine, in an outdoor Roman amphitheater of 2,800 seats, which was also entirely sold-out. In order to prepare for the performance which would open the festival of Vaison Danses, the LINES Ballet technical staff and the crew of Vaison Danses worked late into the night, since the outdoor venue and the 10 pm sunset made lighting cues impossible to adjust during the day. A beautiful small town in Provence, with a medieval neighborhood high on the hill and a restored Roman bridge over the river, Vaison-la-Romaine gave the dancers and staff of LINES Ballet and the Shaolin monks a sense of the restful, sunny summer afternoons of the south of France, and a few moments to enjoy the tour's success.

2008/2009 TOUR DATES