'Act I' reviews 'Act II' reviews Thomas in reviews Tania in reviews recent Lines Ballet reviews more Renee Renouf reviews

The music is attributed to Les Stuck and Miguel Frasconi, previous Lines'collaborators. There also is the program credit line: "Additional Music by Zbigniew Preisner, Hildegard Von Bingen and Johann Sebastian Bach."

For program notes and titles, there were none, simply the heading of Act I and Act II, who danced what and in which sequence.

Both nights the orchestra was filled to near capacity, with an audience warm and ready to applaud. There is justifiable reason for such enthusiasm, for King's dancers and his guests could not have danced better, nor the musicians aroused more energy and rhythmic complexity. Two hours of constant high energy displayed with skill and panache makes one want to respond.

There is no doubt King is on an all-embracing quest, using ballet for his soul vocabulary. Though I did not see it, his spring season utilized a local koto exponent. In seasons past we have heard Hamsa el-Din and the North Indian tabla master Zakkir Hussain. Such willingness to explore has, of course, fostered a wider audience. Last season was particularly noteworthy, when King brought a pygmy group from the Belgian Congo soon after 9/11, which effort enjoyed a wide range of organizational and fiscal support.

This personal vision displays certain movement signatures. Dancers emerge from the wings and hit a pose, the women on pointe, which usually is either a passé or an attitude en tournant. Elsewhere, the port de bras is often lifted in the beginnings of an en haut position, pausing mid-way while the pointe work and torso execute a description, the arms remaining briefly like unfinished dependent clauses. I have rarely seen better a movement exclamation in dancers than the opening thrusts, which King asks of his women in their pointe work. They can be supreme bursts of momentary elegance. King also uses a particular form of plie, particularly in partnering , requiring a low bend of the torso over the thighs by his women, resulting in an excessive backward thrust of the woman's buttocks.

Another constant in the movement vocabulary is the small torso adjustment. King has established a distinct habit of minimal eye contact amongst the dancers in the complicated interlacings of King's pas de deux. This season this minimalism seems to have shifted slightly. Under-girding this individual approach to the classical ballet vocabulary are well-schooled, talented dancers with an abundance of technique, easily deployed in any direction.

New to the fall season was the absence of two deeply admired company dancers, Marina Hotchkiss and Summer Lee Ratigan. Both retired to teach in the developing school program. For some in the audience, it seemed clear they still provide shape to King's inner muses when creating on those who have moved into greater prominence.

Also new this season was a distinct formalism in stage patterns. The men and women in Act I entered from opposite sides, assuming line formations and diagonals; in solos or pas de deux go to upstage center before commencing Alonzo's vision.

King gave Rasta Thomas both a formal section and an expressive section in Act I, allowing Thomas to give the audience an idea of his range. Having seen Thomas only in the context of the Jackson Competition, seeing his integration into a company was intriguing, for it displayed Thomas as company member, rather than simply star soloist. It is something Thomas did well.

Rasta provides a slight retard to his movements. He does not rush the actual movement itself, but it is clear that he is accustomed to beginning on "and" in the Russian fashion, something particularly appealing in the heavy rhythmic emphasis of King's choreography. In his classical vocabulary there is a distinction in the shoulders and epaulement, again the Russian schooling, and, certainly, assisted by his months working at the Kirov. Even when part of a line, there is containment, a noticeable thoughtfulness. Thomas is not stocky, but strongly built, a sturdiness permitting delivery of his two-part solo with ease. His grand jete seems to happen at waist height with comparatively little preparation, and sometimes to incorporate a distinct jazz style split. I hope his Kirov arrangement will continue, for he obviously has gained much from the association.

La Tania was another distinctive note, displaying more obvious relish in her dancing, and considerable wit. Since the second half of the program belonged to an exposition of North African and Arabic influences, she and Jesus Montoya were there to testify to the strands remaining in Spain. The woman can't make an awkward movement if she tried. The sense of herself in relation to space around her has always been remarkable and did not fail her here, either. I half hoped that King would devise something for Rasta Thomas and La Tania together. They would have enjoyed it hugely. Maybe next time.

In the meantime, the King vision seems to be thriving and eliciting their best from his dancers with a like affirmation from his audience.