Vivid, visceral collaboration
Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet awed Vail audiences last summer with dance that surpassed the simple melding of movement and music to become a visceral experience. King returns in 2019 to choreograph one of the Festival’s most ambitious collaborations yet: four LINES artists alongside four New York City Ballet artists will dance to a new score by pioneering jazz musician Jason Moran. A previous collaboration with Moran, Sand, was presented last summer to rave responses from Festival audiences.
For King, artistic collaboration is central, and he describes his works as, “for people. It’s an attempt to awaken anything that is sleeping in human beings because we are creatures of habit.”
More than a presentation of technical prowess— which his dancers keenly exhibit— King’s works extend into the realm of philosophy. “One of the wonders of art-making is that… it will make you feel connected once again to the largeness of the universe and the insignificance of our teeny little size in the bigger picture."
King’s collaborations highlight his trust in the interconnectedness of humanity. From Shaolin Monks to a Baroque orchestra, no genre of partnership, if met with sincerity and rigor, is out of the question. Jason Moran is equally unencumbered by the confines of form. The MacArthur Fellow’s creative process is based on one of the essential tenets of jazz music: the “set,” where musicians come together to engage in a collaborative process of improvisation, riffing off of one another to create the musical experience.
Such dialogue-based beginnings transfer into all potential artistic mediums. Moran has worked in the realms of multimedia art and theatrical installations, in addition to appearing on over thirty albums ranging from avant-garde jazz, blues, hip hop, classical music and film soundtracks. As the leader of his own trio, The Bandwagon, Moran has released eight studio albums to much critical acclaim. For Vail, Moran will perform solo.
Both King and Moran compose the past and future into works of art for the present. Their new collaborative work will be performed on two Festival programs, International Evenings of Dance II on August 3, and NOW: Premieres on August 5.