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LINES Ballet’s 2025 Spring Season features choreographer Alonzo King’s first-ever collaboration with American jazz trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire—a spiritual seeker in the grand tradition of musical aspirationalists. Audiences will also have the opportunity to see King’s timeless work Scheherazade, which returns in full to the stage after over a decade.

Akinmusire has proved himself one of the most vital and deft trumpeters of his generation. “Every so often a trumpeter comes along who redraws the instrument’s role within jazz: Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Chet Baker, Wynton Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, etc. Ambrose Akinmusire has the potential to join that crowd,” wrote the All Music Guide. Akinmusire’s music overflows with both beauty and rigor, profound personal feeling, and fiery virtuoso playing. What one hears throughout his work is an artist plumbing the depths of himself and the world around him. According to The New York Times, “Ambrose Akinmusire has been making some of the most intimate spellbinding music of his career…even in its simplicity, Akinmusire’s trumpet can feel almost dangerously tender.”

Alonzo King’s Scheherazade is a re-envisioning of the ancient collection of Persian, Sanskrit, and Arabic stories of One Thousand and One Nights. The exquisite dancers of LINES Ballet present a vision of the intimate transformative potential these stories possess: the way that we are offered a chance to listen to a voice that can change our lives, the power of art to illuminate all the chambers of our hearts. The new score by Grammy Award-winning tabla master Zakir Hussain re-interprets the original music by Rimsky-Korsakov, incorporating traditional Persian as well as Western instruments. Commissioned by the Monaco Dance Forum to inaugurate the Centenary of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Scheherazade honors the company founder Serge Diaghilev’s spirit of cutting-edge artistic collaboration, immersing audiences in a luminescent and richly textured world.

To learn more, visit our Spring Season webpage.

Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Adji Cissoko | © RJ Muna

LINES Ballet’s 2025 Spring Season features choreographer Alonzo King’s first-ever collaboration with American jazz trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire—a spiritual seeker in the grand tradition of musical aspirationalists. Audiences will also have the opportunity to see King’s timeless work Scheherazade, which returns in full to the stage after over a decade.

Akinmusire has proved himself one of the most vital and deft trumpeters of his generation. “Every so often a trumpeter comes along who redraws the instrument’s role within jazz: Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Chet Baker, Wynton Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, etc. Ambrose Akinmusire has the potential to join that crowd,” wrote the All Music Guide. Akinmusire’s music overflows with both beauty and rigor, profound personal feeling, and fiery virtuoso playing. What one hears throughout his work is an artist plumbing the depths of himself and the world around him. According to The New York Times, “Ambrose Akinmusire has been making some of the most intimate spellbinding music of his career…even in its simplicity, Akinmusire’s trumpet can feel almost dangerously tender.”

Alonzo King’s Scheherazade is a re-envisioning of the ancient collection of Persian, Sanskrit, and Arabic stories of One Thousand and One Nights. The exquisite dancers of LINES Ballet present a vision of the intimate transformative potential these stories possess: the way that we are offered a chance to listen to a voice that can change our lives, the power of art to illuminate all the chambers of our hearts. The new score by Grammy Award-winning tabla master Zakir Hussain re-interprets the original music by Rimsky-Korsakov, incorporating traditional Persian as well as Western instruments. Commissioned by the Monaco Dance Forum to inaugurate the Centenary of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Scheherazade honors the company founder Serge Diaghilev’s spirit of cutting-edge artistic collaboration, immersing audiences in a luminescent and richly textured world.

To learn more, visit our Spring Season webpage.

Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Keelan Whitmore | © RJ Muna

LINES Ballet’s 2025 Spring Season features choreographer Alonzo King’s first-ever collaboration with American jazz trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire—a spiritual seeker in the grand tradition of musical aspirationalists. Audiences will also have the opportunity to see King’s timeless work Scheherazade, which returns in full to the stage after over a decade.

Akinmusire has proved himself one of the most vital and deft trumpeters of his generation. “Every so often a trumpeter comes along who redraws the instrument’s role within jazz: Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Chet Baker, Wynton Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, etc. Ambrose Akinmusire has the potential to join that crowd,” wrote the All Music Guide. Akinmusire’s music overflows with both beauty and rigor, profound personal feeling, and fiery virtuoso playing. What one hears throughout his work is an artist plumbing the depths of himself and the world around him. According to The New York Times, “Ambrose Akinmusire has been making some of the most intimate spellbinding music of his career…even in its simplicity, Akinmusire’s trumpet can feel almost dangerously tender.”

Alonzo King’s Scheherazade is a re-envisioning of the ancient collection of Persian, Sanskrit, and Arabic stories of One Thousand and One Nights. The exquisite dancers of LINES Ballet present a vision of the intimate transformative potential these stories possess: the way that we are offered a chance to listen to a voice that can change our lives, the power of art to illuminate all the chambers of our hearts. The new score by Grammy Award-winning tabla master Zakir Hussain re-interprets the original music by Rimsky-Korsakov, incorporating traditional Persian as well as Western instruments. Commissioned by the Monaco Dance Forum to inaugurate the Centenary of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Scheherazade honors the company founder Serge Diaghilev’s spirit of cutting-edge artistic collaboration, immersing audiences in a luminescent and richly textured world.

To learn more, visit our Spring Season webpage.

Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Theo Duff-Grant | © RJ Muna

Save the date for an exquisite evening brimming with dance, beauty, and enduring friendship. Enjoy a world premiere with American jazz trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire along with Alonzo King’s iconic ballet honoring the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Scheherazade—featuring music reinterpreted by Zakir Hussain.

Multiple ticket and sponsorship packages are available. To reserve a Dinner Sponsorship, please contact Jonathan Neumann, Director of Development.

BUY TERRACE TICKETS

Terrace ticket purchases do not include the Gala Dinner. Instead, terrace ticket holders will enjoy a festive toast following the performance.

Proceeds from the 2025 Gala allow LINES Ballet to expand its impact with local and global audiences through the creation of new work, and support LINES Ballet’s transformative educational programs.

Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Keelan Whitmore | @ RJ Muna; Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Caroline Rocher | © RJ Muna

Please join us for the LINES Ballet 2025 Gala!

Save the date for an exquisite evening brimming with dance, beauty, and enduring friendship. Enjoy a world premiere with American jazz trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire along with Alonzo King’s iconic ballet honoring the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Scheherazade—featuring music reinterpreted by Zakir Hussain.

Dinner Sponsorships

Multiple ticket and sponsorship packages are available. To reserve a Dinner Sponsorship, please contact [email protected].

BUY TERRACE TICKETS

Terrace ticket purchases do not include the Gala Dinner. Instead, terrace ticket holders will enjoy a festive toast following the performance.

Proceeds from the 2025 Gala allow LINES Ballet to expand its impact with local and global audiences through the creation of new work, and support LINES Ballet’s transformative educational programs.

Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Josh Francique and Ilaria Guerra | @ RJ Muna; Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Caroline Rocher | © RJ Muna

Alonzo King LINES Ballet will be featured on PBS’s NEXT at The Kennedy Center—a series that showcases artists who are at the forefront of their disciplines and serve as culture bearers of the 21st Century. The episode weaves together LINES’ performance of Alonzo King’s Deep River live at the Kennedy Center with intimate off-stage moments and words from Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre Misty Copeland, Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet Tiler Peck, Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran, Grammy Award-winning vocalist Lisa Fischer, and Damian Woetzel, president of The Juilliard School. 

In this deeply, soulful collaboration with Lisa Fischer and Jason Moran, King invites audiences to look at human beings as the pinnacle of creation. The episode premieres locally on KQED 9 at 9pm PT and can watched on PBS, pbs.org, and the PBS App at 10pm ET. For additional local listings, check out our Broadcast Schedule.

Upcoming Event
You can also join us on Saturday, November 2, for an immersive virtual experience with the LINES Ballet dancers and directors while they’re on tour in Italy. Get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look, including a Q&A and special content, all via Zoom. To attend, please fill out our RSVP form.

Spring Season
LINES Ballet’s 2025 Spring Season features choreographer Alonzo King’s first-ever collaboration with American jazz trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire—a spiritual seeker in the grand tradition of musical aspirationalists. Audiences will also have the opportunity to see King’s timeless work Scheherazade, which returns in full to the stage after over a decade. Spring Season performances run May 10–18, 2025, at YBCA.

TICKETS

Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Lisa Fischer and Company Dancers | Production stills courtesy of The Kennedy Center

This Fall Season 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 Coltrane’s music since he was a child—he choreographed one of his very first pieces to her work. He now returns to her body of work to create a ballet as part of “The Year of Alice,” a nationwide tribute to her legacy that includes performances and exhibits by LINES Ballet, Impulse! Records, Detroit Jazz Festival, Hammer Museum, and New-York Historical Society. “Her musical and spiritual journey helped define and shape a life and an entire musical genre,” says Grammy-nominated harpist and composer Brandee Younger. Coltrane’s iconic works include Journey In Satchidananda (one of Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums), A Monastic Trio, Universal Consciousness, and Ptah, the El Daoud.

Our Fall 2024 Season will also feature Alonzo King’s recent collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony. Here the LINES Ballet dancers delve into the enchanting world of Ravel’s 1912 suite Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose), infusing the musical storyscape 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.”

To learn more, visit our Fall Season webpage.

Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancers: Adji Cissoko and Shuaib Elhassan | © RJ Muna

This Fall Season 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 Coltrane’s music since he was a child—he choreographed one of his very first pieces to her work. He now returns to her body of work to create a ballet as part of “The Year of Alice,” a nationwide tribute to her legacy that includes performances and exhibits by LINES Ballet, Impulse! Records, Detroit Jazz Festival, Hammer Museum, and New-York Historical Society. “Her musical and spiritual journey helped define and shape a life and an entire musical genre,” says Grammy-nominated harpist and composer Brandee Younger. Coltrane’s iconic works include Journey In Satchidananda (one of Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums), A Monastic Trio, Universal Consciousness, Ptah, the El Daoud.

Our Fall 2024 Season will also feature Alonzo King’s recent collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony. Here the LINES Ballet dancers delve into the enchanting world of Ravel’s 1912 suite Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose), infusing the musical storyscape 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.”

To learn more, visit our Fall Season webpage.

Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancers: Ilaria Guerra and Lorris Eichinger | © RJ Muna