Alonzo King LINES Ballet at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, May 11, 2017

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents Figures of Speech, featuring the Alonzo King LINES Ballet
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater
701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-3138 USA
7:30 PM, Thursday, May 11, 2017

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[7:39 PM lights down, announcements, waiting]

1. [7:40 PM] Yujin Kim
2. [7:42 PM] Company; (Mountain Maidu)
3. [7:46 PM] Adji Cissoko, Michael Montgomery, Courtney Henry, Shuaib Elhassan, and Yujin Kim; Theft of Fire by Lizzy Enos (Nisenan)
4. [7:49 PM] Madeline DeVries, James Gowan, and Maya Harr with Company
5. [7:54 PM] Babatunji with Company
6. [7:57 PM] Robb Beresford with Company; Theft of Fire by Lizzy Enos (Nisenan)
7. [7:59 PM] Courtney Henry with Company; Numbakulla by Kristian Didgeridoo's Ensemble (Aboriginal Australian)
8. [8:01 PM] Yujin Kim; Sinotcha Followed by a Tus by Sato House and Ihumke by Kiyo Kurokawa (Ainu)
9. [8:04 PM] Company; Comanche Hymn by Members of Petarsey Church (Comanche)
10. [8:06 PM] Adji Cissoko and Michael Montgomery; Red Coil by Cecilia Vicuña (SemiYa)
11. [8:08 PM] Yujin Kim with Shuaib Elhassan, Madeline DeVries, James Gowan, Maya Harr, Babatunji, Courtney Henry, Michael Montgomery, and Robb Beresford; Absence of the Word with voices of: LINES Ballet dancers, Lourdes Unanua, Lucia Choi-Dalton, and Alonzo King
12. [8:12 PM] Adji Cissoko; Birds in Hawaii recorded by Bernie Krause; Isagoa by Lourdes Unanua (Basque); Prayer Song by Dorothy Whitehorse Delaune (Kiowa)
13. [8:14 PM] Maya Harr with Company; Cecilia Vicuña (SemiYa)
14. [8:18 PM] Robb Beresford with Company
15. [8:20 PM] Madeline DeVries and Michael Montgomery with Company
16. [8:24 PM] Courtney Henry and Madeline DeVries; Nani Ni’ihau sung by Kuana Torres (Ni’ihau Native Hawai’ian)
17. [8:26 PM] Babatunji, James Gowan, and Michael Montgomery; Cheyenne Hymn sung by Moses Starr and Creg Lee Hart (Southern Cheyenne)
18. [8:28 PM] Company; Aia la ‘o Pele by The Rose Ensemble (Native Hawai’ian)
19. [8:32 PM] Company
    [show ends 8:35 PM]

[8:40 PM Post-performance Q&A with Alonzo]
[session ends 9:05 PM]

Alonzo King LINES Ballet

• Babatunji
• Robb Beresford
• Adji Cissoko
• Madeline DeVries
• Shuaib Elhassan
• James Gowan
• Maya Harr
• Courtney Henry
• Yujin Kim
• Michael Montgomery
• Jeffrey Van Sciver

• David Finn: lighting and video design;
• Bob Holman: creative consultant;
• Alonzo King: founder, choreographer;
• Alexander MacSween: music;
• David Murakami: video design;
• Philip Perkins: sound design;
• Colleen Quen: salwar design;
• Robert Rosenwasser: costume design.

Interesting show tonight… Very meta: dancers expressing themselves about topics of speech and through movement and physical expression. Accompanied by music and dramatic lighting, possibly telling wordless stories of their own. Or acting in dialog with the other performers. Note and then I had glimpses of language: something I saw would cause an idea to percolate forth: did those thoughts come from my own response to the experience of witnessing the performers, or did the performers transmit an idea to me, to be clothes in thought-words by my monkey mind? I suppose only the shadow knows​.

Alonzo was unusually talkative during the post performance session, practically lecturing to us about creativity and the meaning of artistic expression. Must have been in a rare mood tonight.

And given that the performance occurred in the dark, I was unable to make sure that the performance matched the printed program; it's entirely possible that there was a discrepancy, and that the timings above are incorrect in one way or another.

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2017 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2017 event list! ☸ On to the next event!