Fall 2010 Gala Celebration. Photo by Drew Altizer.

2010 was a memorable year for LINES Ballet. The stunning beauty and power of Alonzo's Scheherazade is still fresh in our minds. We had the sublime privilege of seeing Zakir Hussain perform the music live at YBCA. The dancers gave their all, and after the opening show, sat down to dinner with our Gala Celebration guests for an elegant and exciting evening. The company's Spring Season project with the Adler Fellows was no less memorable, and we look forward to Alonzo's next daring collaboration with architect Chris Haas this coming spring!
 
Our school programs continue to enjoy enthusiastic attendance and world-class teachers, producing young artists at the highest levels of their art. Dominican BFA graduate Christopher Bordenave and BFA seniors Michael Montgomery and Challyce Brogdon performed with the LINES company this year. Our Dance Center continues to reach out to the Market Street neighborhood and the San Francisco dance community with innovative programming, seminars and partnerships.
 
We couldn't have done it without you. Thank you for your abiding support for LINES Ballet and its ideals. Here's to 2011 and ever-higher leaps and bounds.

Best of the Season,
Ann Marie Nemanich
Executive Director

With the year drawing to a close and the holiday season upon us, please take a moment to consider making a gift to Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Your support allows LINES Ballet to create and present new works to audiences all over the world and provide students of varying ages, backgrounds, and abilities the opportunity to pursue their passions for dance.

We hope that you have been touched by Alonzo's work this year - whether you were captivated by a performance of Scheherazade, thrilled to step behind the scenes and view an open rehearsal, inspired during a class or workshop at the Dance Center, or reinvigorated after participating in one of our educational programs. We invite you to join us as we build toward the future.

Please visit our Giving Page to make a donation today! By doing so, you ensure LINES Ballet's continued artistic excellence and support for emerging young artists in our educational programs. Thank you for your loyal support.

Student Choreography Showcase, December 15 - 16

Second-year LBTP student Casey Turner in Alex Kamerling's new work from the Spring 2010 Student Choreography Showcase. Photo by Jackie Christensen.

The LINES Ballet Training Program presents our Student Choreography Showcase on December 15-16 at KUNST-STOFF Arts at 7:30 pm. This intimate evening, caps off our fall semester and features our student artists in an array of beautiful works. The program captures the starkness of solo work, the warmth of duets, and the energy and varied dynamic of group pieces - all performed and choreographed by our diversely talented pre-professional artists in the year-round program at Alonzo King LINES Ballet School.

Tickets are $5 at the door / general admission. KUNST-STOFF Arts is located at 929 Market Street, 5^th Floor.

After a well-deserved holiday break, we welcome our returning students (and some new faces) into our spring semester. Classes begin January 10, 2011.

Architect Chris Haas creates set with moving LINES

Photo by Dikayl Rimmasch.

Alonzo King's collaboration with architect Chris Haas is gathering energy and excitement, as the company prepares to install rehearsal sets for our Spring Season here in our 7th & Market studios. Haas' sets are of exceptionally lightweight and
enviro-conscious materials, created to allow LINES dancers to interact fully with them, moving them around and changing their configurations. Chris Haas is a preeminent artist in his field of architecture, having explored the interaction of structural lines and planes, the way building materials correlate with their environment, and the interplay of light with his materials. Haas' work on the de Young Museum in San Francisco has been called "mesmerizing" by the San Francisco Chronicle and "striking" by Architecture Week. The insight and expertise he brings to the project will support Alonzo King in his exploration of a new and interesting dimension of choreography. Through this collaboration King and Haas propose a study of the body, movement and space while developing an understanding of how we as humans relate to - or might want to better relate to - our architectural environment. The results promise to positively impact both mediums, offering insights into a more symbiotic relationship between ourselves, our bodies, and our constructed environment.

King and Haas are joint recipients of the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's 2009 Choreographer Collaboration Award. LINES' Spring Season will run April 15 through 24, 2011 at the Novellus Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The Company is dancing its way across the continent!
 

Photo by Jackie Christensen.

LINES Ballet School embarks on our 16-city Summer Program audition tour in early January, starting with a week of visits that includes: Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Silver Springs, our own San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. If you have not pre-registered for one of these auditions, we encourage you send your materials by December 31 (postmark deadline). Please visit our website to see a list of Audition Requirements. Pre-registration is strongly suggested but not required. Only complete submissions with payment will be accepted.

Around the world in Bari, Italy, our own faculty member Carmen Rozestraten will represent LINES Ballet School this weekend as she sits as a juror on the panel of the 1^st San Nicola International Dance Competition on December 11-12, 2010. In recognition of the 10^th Anniversary of the LINES Ballet Summer Program, Rozestraten will award one full tuition scholarship to a competition finalist.

LINES Ballet School will make extended visits to two locations nationwide in early 2011 with Discovery Projects. This outreach project aims to diversify the scope of our reach as an educational institution by providing high caliber arts education at a minimal cost to participants. We will be in Kansas City, MO January 27-30 and will be in Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL February 3-6. Please join us for these workshops!

For more information on the exact location, schedule, and cost of these projects please stay tuned on our website.

Take a look at this spectacular pas de deux: Meredith Webster and
Corey Scott-Gilbert, in the Moroccan Project. This beautiful video was created
by Alley Oop Films.