Sunday, August 18, 2024

Alonzo King Choreographs Alice Coltrane

According to my records, my only encounters with Alonzo King have taken place at Davies Symphony Hall when members of his LINES Ballet performed with the San Francisco Symphony. The most recent of these was the one-act ballet version of Maurice Ravel’s suite Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) this past June. Recently, I learned that King will be taking his company to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; and the program he has prepared definitely deserves attention.

Alice Coltrane, whose music will be celebrated by LINES Ballet (from the Web page for this program)

Half of the program will involve a return to his Ravel choreography. However, the other half took me by surprise; and the surprise was a pleasant one! King is creating a new work to honor the spiritual leader, composer, pianist, and harpist Alice Coltrane, widow of the late John Coltrane. Presumably, the music will draw upon tracks from her albums for Impulse! Records, including Journey In Satchidananda, A Monastic Trio, Universal Consciousness, Ptah, and El Daoud.

This program will be given four performances, at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 26, Friday, September 27, and Saturday, September 28, and at 5 p.m. on Sunday, September 29. The Sunday performance will be preceded by a “Family Experience” at 2:30 p.m.The venue will be the Blue Shield of California Theater at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The entrance to the theater is at 700 Howard Street, on the northwest corner of Third Street. Ticket prices will range between $42 and $124 and will be sold through City Box Office. A Web page has been created with hyperlinks to the four Web sites for each of the four dates. Tickets for the  “Family Experience” are being sold for $32 through a separate City Box Office Web page.

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