Dance the LINE
Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet is not only a premier West Coast dance fixture, but also one of the top ballet companies in the world. With the development of the LINES Ballet Center six years ago and the addition of the BFA program in conjunction with the Dominican University of California, King seeks to expand his line into an institution. Dancer caught up with him and his education directors to discuss their unique pedagogical approach.
The Philosophy
“What already exists within us is our perfection,” says King. “Training is the work of discovering that perfection and removing anything that inhibits or blocks it.” To that end, he launched the LINES Ballet Center in San Francisco, and with a dedicated faculty of mostly LINES company members, he helps mold young dancers into the best performers and creators they can be. “Alonzo wanted dancers that were being educated in having a mind of their own and making decisions,” says school director Layla Amis. “It’s very much about the individual here. We’re not teaching dance through imitation, but through creation. Every student is a creator and responsible for their gifts.” When King first began summer school education programs in the summer of 2001, he got a good overview of what dance students were looking for. “We instantly saw what they were hungry for, and what was missing from their training,” says BFA director Marina Hotchkiss. “A lot of students were looking for a more progressive approach to ballet. That’s at the heart of our programs: reinvesting ballet with a sense of exploration.”
The Programs
Alonzo King in the studio with Meredith Webster.
Photo by Weiferd Watts
Amis, Hotchkiss and King cater to the individual through four different training programs. The pre-professional summer intensive for ages 11-25 and the two-year repertory and ensemble training program for students aged 17-24 are accessible through audition only. A third brand-new program, called the Discovery Project, offers community outreach-driven master classes for dancers from 11-17 years old. The first workshop took place in Santa Fe, NM, in March, and King has two more planned for Central Florida and the Bay area in the fall. In addition to the LINES Ballet Center, King houses a second affiliated studio in his facility - called the San Francisco Dance Center - where mostly-recreational dancers may choose from a menu of more than 100 open classes per week in diverse genres—from contemporary jazz fusion to Feldenkrais.
Completion of the fourth program grants college dancers a Bachelor of Fine Arts, combining liberal arts studies with comprehensive ballet curriculum, including a heavy emphasis on King’s choreography. In addition to classical ballet, dancers immerse themselves in modern, ethnic dance, improvisation and composition studies, dance history and Gyrotonics. “Many college-bound students expressed frustration that they had to pick either a ballet or modern track for their major,” says Hotchkiss. “In our program, you don’t have to choose. We want to give students every advantage to reach their full potential and become fully realized as dancers.”
The Center
Students invited to the LINES Ballet Center intensive summer and repertory programs have a full plate of powerful, professional-level training. They participate in core classes of classical ballet, pointe, variations, modern, Gyrokinesis and LINES repertory, as well as an enriched curriculum of improvisation, jazz and world dance. Dancers are also exposed to several guest choreographers and attend workshop on wellness, nutrition and résumé-building. With such a heavy load of instruction, how does Amis encourage the philosophy of the individual? “We ask the students to make choices as far as musicality and phrasing is concerned,” she says. “We offer different exercises in retrograding, changing directions and not always facing the mirror, which are a little more untraditional in ballet training. It really forces them to make decisions. We’re asking them to explore.” The Ballet Center faculty places its focus on shaping young performers into mature, professional-ready artists. Yet, dancers who believe attending the school will put them on the fast track to joining the company are sorely mistaken. “The school is not a feeder program,” says Amis. “There’s always a possibility of getting into the company. But, we’re not training LINES dancers. We’re training highly educated artists to go out into the world.”
The Bottom LINE
With his trademark intensity, King stresses the need for dancers to see beyond the immediate gain of training as a means to professional employment, and instead pushes his students to reach a higher plain of understanding. “Dance training can’t be separate from life training,” he says. “[Ralph Waldo] Emerson lucidly states that ‘the aim of art is higher than art.’ Everything that comes into our lives is training. The qualities we admire in great dancing are the same qualities that we admire in honesty, courage, fearlessness, generosity, wisdom, depth, compassion and humanity.”