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Alonzo King,
Question from the audience concerning the relationship of gender identity and performers. AK: Let's take the White Swan pas de deux in Swan Lake. People say, he's just holding her up from behind. If you have an incredible White Swan in front of you, it is the most amazing experience to be supporting her. What's wrong with the idea of helping someone achieve transcendence and supporting them in that? It's an amazing feeling to assist in that. Also I think there's a cliché when we see a pas de deux that it has to do with romanticism, two people in love. This again is an idea. If I need someone who is free, meaning that there really is no physical limitation; and I want someone strong, I'll put those two combinations together and that means one person as an ideal -- I'd like to be free and strong; let's represent that with these two people. So a pas de deux is really about relationship. We're in a relationship with ourselves, and a pas de deux can be talking about that: a relationship with nature, your lover, your god, your mother. With pas de deux, it's a magnified view of relationship, so it's huge—the interpretation. In the Swan Lake pas de deux, there's a man, Siegfried, who has a choice—and this is all of us—does he go after the spiritual ideal, or does he accept status quo? There are ten women waiting, a crown and a throne. Or does he leave the material and go for this ideal? We face that battle all the time, all of us. And there's that metaphysical truth. It's addressing our battle all the time. Follow-up Q on King’s unconventional use of gender roles, through unisex movement passages and through variations on men’s and women’s roles that express weakness or strength. When I look at artists I really look at their voices. I look at how large their voice is, how clear their voice is. And to be really honest, I'm not really thinking sex at all. When I look at a boy or a girl, I'm looking at where their powers are. And if I put them together, what is the power here? What are the qualities here? So that the idea of man woman—that he's got man and woman in him—there’s already a pas de deux going on. In our society, we have these clichés about men and women—women feeling, men logic. But I'm feeling and I'm logic. I don't think most people think of themselves in only one way. Consciousness — we're much more than our vehicles. So although I'm aware of shape, proportion, symmetry, it's what driving those shapes that I'm interested in. For me it's the manipulation of energy in making shapes, and the understanding of the artist in how they manipulate, what their powers are. There may be someone who, because of who they are, they're strong and they have a leadership, and that may be a woman. And there may be someone who's soft and is able to surrender in the most natural way, and that may be a man. We'll put them together in a certain way. |
 The People of the Forest. Photo courtesy of Marty Sohl. |
Q from audience: How can you make people want to come to the ballet? AK: Why would you be concerned with that—whether they come or they don't come? I've got to stay home, I've got to believe in what's happening, churn the ether, the word will get out. If you're a dance maker, that's where you want to stay, the other thing will pull you away and keep you away and that's what your job will be, marketing and fundraising, that's a whole different career. Dancemaking is a lifetime job. Q from audience: about choreographing a role on a particular dancer or re-setting a work on a different company. AK: If your work is about ideas, then there's more than one way to get at that idea. But if it was really about one gift, you may have to throw it away. I hate when a dance becomes a dance routine. It has to be living art, in the moment, full of spontaneity, so that depends on who the artists are, the amount of time given to the work, how long they're going to do the work. Usually a dance isn't realized until after a season or two. Even the dancers don't realize what it is. As dancemakers, our ideals are so high, we're almost always disappointed. When you go into a different company, it's like going into a different church. Who in this group is bigger than dogma, and can I get to work with them? In dancemaking it's always a mistake to underestimate people. This is an incredible possibility that's right in front of you. And they have tons of information to give you. That early insecurity that America had with classicism — people denied their creativity, their wisdom, their artistry, which could have been contributing to the art. Today so many dancers go around within their head and heart asking, ‘What am I going to get?’ Instead of: ‘What am I going to give and bring to this art?’ ‘What is my idea to add to the pot of this amazing thing called dance?’ Because it's everywhere: the cosmos is rumbling; the ocean is moving; herds of cattle are moving across the plain; stars are shooting; the sun is rising — everything's dancing. The technique is, can you communicate an idea clearly? [He gives the example of Plisetskaya having substituted a different movement, but one that means the same, for the fouettes in Swan Lake.] The idea was first. You facilitate the idea with technique. Misunderstanding what technique is. Technique means being able to communicate the idea. [How many different ways can you open a can of peas, for example.] Whatever is going to get the can open, that’s technique. So if I need heroism, they're ideas — Can this person illustrate this idea? — is what I'm interested in. But if she or he is having trouble with this, let's fix it. Here's the same idea of power, let's change the steps. Let's fix it so the idea is clear. In training we have this idea that who we are is not valuable; so we value what we can measure — we count turns and fouettes. I love the law. But I also know that there's something higher than the law, and that's love. It's the greatest teacher. Any obsession with something is going to give you information. It's that balancing act again, between over indulgence and dryness. There's always balance. |