Heart Song

Alonzo King sparks the Ailey dancers’ brilliance with a provocative, alluring ballet that delves beneath the physical surface. Through the choreographer’s keen eye and sensitive observation, the invisible is made visible, and the elusive qualities that animate each dancer are revealed.  

“Heart Song is influenced by the individual dancers and the philosophy of the Ailey company,” King explains. “Every company that I work with has a belief system of how they see things and what they think is important. In each company, there’s a different philosophy that I plug into, and I see it in the way the dancers work, what their values are as artists and human beings.”

Music also plays a key role in Heart Song. This inventive new work is flavored with the sounds of original Moroccan music and vocals, the creation of three musicians with whom King collaborated who sing and play violin, percussion, oud (the precursor of the guitar), and gembri. “I wanted music that was as far back as they could remember, music that was passed through generations,” King said. “I wanted it as simple as possible and as heartfelt as possible. I wanted things like your mother would sing to you when she’s alone with you—a lullaby.”  

Hesitant to categorize his ballet as “abstract” or “narrative,” King said, “everything is about something. Even in algebra, the symbols refer to something. I think that the reference in Heart Song is humanity—the human condition, in all that that encompasses.”