LINES Ballet in New Orleans

Join our LINES Ballet company dancers in New Orleans, LA performing at Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, with live symphonic accompaniment!

Grounded on more than 40 years of thought-provoking dance, master choreographer Alonzo King’s unique artistic vision honors and advances the classical form—the linear, mathematical, and geometrical principles deeply rooted in the East-West continuum.

This winter, our company honors legendary spiritual leader, composer, pianist, and harpist Alice Coltrane and the imaginative storytelling of composer Maurice Ravel through Alonzo King’s choreography.

King has been mesmerized by Alice Coltrane’s music since he was a child—he choreographed one of his very first pieces to her composition. He later returned to her body of work to create this ballet as part of “The Year of Alice” in 2024, a nationwide tribute to her legacy that included performances and exhibits by LINES Ballet, Impulse! Records, Detroit Jazz Festival, Hammer Museum, and The New York Historical Society. The San Francisco Chronicle declared Ode to Alice Coltrane to be “a conversation thrilling to behold” that “lifts us… to a higher bliss,” while dance critic Jen Norris proclaimed the piece “rich in kinetic brilliance.”

The performance will also feature Alonzo King’s recent collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony. Here our dancers delve into the enchanting world of Ravel’s 1912 suite Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose), infusing the music with a new interpretation. “I’m not trying to recreate Mother Goose fairy tales,” says King. “My intention is to unearth the deeper allegorical meanings beneath the fairy tales and illustrate those with dance.”

Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancers: Theo Duff-Grant with Maël Amatoul and Amanda Smith | © Chris Hardy