Lines Contemporary Ballet Draws on Innovative Power

You could have expected the exciting experiments in post-Balanchine neoclassicism that Alonzo King launched in “String Quartet,” one of two local premieres performed by his Lines Contemporary Ballet over the weekend in the Veterans Wadsworth Theater.

King, after all, is widely and justly celebrated for ballet choreography exploring daring extremes of balance as well as partnering innovations that turn every pas de deux into intense metaphysical drama. Set to music by Pawel Szymanski, “String Quartet” offered a generous sampling of this radical, futuristic Lines style--with the highlight, perhaps, an intricate, molten duet danced with ravishing surety Saturday by Chiharu Shibata and Yannis Adoniou.

The big surprise on the program, however, was “Rock,” a suite to unaccompanied spirituals composed and compiled by Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of the choral group Sweet Honey in the Rock. Abandoning post-Balanchine formalism for post-Ailey parables, King created vignettes focused on indomitable human resilience.

To the fervent “Coming Home,” a blindfolded Katherine Warner slowly felt her way across the stage, eventually reaching a large wooden chair that she sank into joyfully. To “David’s Line,” Richard Redlefsen pulled on a long leash and violently yanked Adoniou to the floor every time he tried to reach up into the light or dance out his feelings of hope. Yet Adoniou persisted, for as the pure dance sequences helped emphasize, “Rock” was about gaining strength, integrity and depth of soul through struggle.

Of the two familiar King works, the moody, formalist “Poulenc Pas De Deux” boasted a glamorous guest star: majestic Muriel Maffre of San Francisco Ballet, dancing with Christopher Boatwright brilliantly enough to give every unexpected shift of angle and attack seismic repercussions.

“Ocean” again used a commissioned score by Pharoah Sanders to add both a powerful rhythmic pulse and a rich North African-Middle Eastern atmosphere to a thoughtful, large-scale statement about human dependency--and individuality. In the finale, the combination of Boatwright’s sweetness and reserve with the ensemble’s high-velocity bravura created not only an unusual soloist-corps relationship but also an image of enlightened diversity that has always been at the heart of King’s choreography and company.

No further Lines performances are scheduled in the Southland, but King’s powerful “Signs and Wonders” will be in the repertory of Dance Theatre of Harlem at El Camino College from Feb. 9-11.