Alonzo King LINES Ballet: "Deep River" 

A Classic Concert Series Event

Supporting Sponsorship provided by App State Campus Store and Broyhill Family Foundation.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet travels to Boone with a soulful work created in collaboration with Grammy Award®-winning vocalist Lisa Fischer and Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran. At the forefront of artistic innovation in ballet, the celebrated San Francisco-based company is recognized for its impeccable technique, captivating dancers, and rich visual works.

Master choreographer Alonzo King guides the company with a unique artistic vision, bending the lines between classical and contemporary aesthetics and drawing on deeply rooted cultural traditions. Deep River premiered as part of LINES Ballet’s 40th anniversary season. The moving work melds dance with Black spirituals and invites audiences to look at human beings as the pinnacle of creation. King says that the work is a reminder that “love is the ocean that we rose from, swim in, and will one day return to”—and that love can set us free.

About Alonzo King
Alonzo King has been called a visionary choreographer, who is altering the way we look at ballet. King calls his works “thought structures” created by the manipulation of energies that exist in matter through laws, which govern the shapes and movement directions of everything that exists. Named as a choreographer with “astonishing originality” by The New York Times, Alonzo King has guided LINES Ballet by his unique artistic vision since 1982.

King has works in the repertories of the world’s leading ballet and modern companies and has collaborated with distinguished visual artists, musicians, and composers across the globe. His work has been recognized for its impact on the cultural fabric of the company’s home in San Francisco, as well as internationally by the dance world’s most prestigious institutions.

Named a Master of Choreography by the Kennedy Center in 2005, King is the recipient of the NEA Choreographer’s Fellowship, the Jacob’s Pillow Creativity Award, the US Artist Award in Dance, the NY Bessie Award, the SF Arts Medallion Award, and the National Dance Project’s Residency and Touring Awards. In 2015, he received the Doris Duke Artist Award in recognition of his ongoing contributions to the advancement of contemporary dance. King was also named one of America’s “Irreplaceable Dance Treasures” by the Dance Heritage Coalition, joining historic icons in the field. In 2020, he was honored with a Dance Magazine Award, and his choreography appears in the 2023 short film Flower, produced by and starring Misty Copeland. King was also inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2022 and received the Minyon Harlin Award from UCSF in 2024 for his service to women and girls with HIV. Furthermore, Alonzo King’s celebrated ballet Deep River is featured on NEXT at The Kennedy Center—a series on PBS that showcases artists who are at the forefront of their disciplines and serve as culture bearers of the 21st Century.