Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet

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$16.00-$49.00

About This Show

The acclaimed company is returning to the Joyce with a new program of work from the gifted choreographer featuring: “Rasa,” an exhilarating and transformative work set to tabla master Zakir Hussain’s rhythmic beat and another New York Premiere tba.

Tabla music began as dancing music, in Northern Indian courts in the early 1700s, and its hypnotic intensity and complex rhythms convey the strong feeling that they are meant to move the body. There is an enthralling quality to the cyclical, accentual repetitions of rhythms. Zakir Hussain, son of the legendary tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha, has created music with an array of artists from the Karnatic tradition of Southern India, the international Silk Road Project, and Western drummers. He is the preferred accompanist for many of India’s classical musicians and dancers. He began touring before he was twelve, and has received numerous awards including a Grammy for his collaborative album, Planet Drum. This is his third collaboration with Alonzo King. The tabla, with its rich texture of rhythmic patterns, is the main form of percussion in the Hindustani music of North India. The tabla bridges folk, semi-classical, and classical Hindustani music genres, and was intrinsic to the lost dances of the tawaif-s, who performed in 18th-century courts.

Show Details

Dates: Opening Night: May 5, 2009 Final Performance: May 10, 2009