Alonzo King has worked with ballet companies throughout the world, including the Frankfurt Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Hong Kong Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, and Washington Ballet. He also worked extensively in opera, television, and film and has choreographed works for prima ballerina Natalia Makarova and film star Patrick Swayze. In 1982, King founded Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, now an international touring company. He has had numerous collaborations with outstanding musicians, including the great Pharoah Sanders, India's tablist Zakir Hussain, Nubian Oud Master Hamza al Din, Polish composer Pavel Syzmanski, and founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, Bernice Johnson Reagon. In 1989, King inaugurated the San Francisco Dance Center, one of the largest dance facilities on the West Coast. The LINES Ballet School and Pre-Professional Program was launched in 2002. King is a recipient of the NEA Choreographer's Fellowship, the Irvine Fellowship in Dance, and has received four Isadora Duncan Awards.

Pharoah Sanders has evolved a style of multiphonic shrieks mixed with a more melodic, lyrical tone that resembles voice. Born Farrell Sanders in Little Rock in 1940, he began playing professionally in high school as a multi-instrumentalist. Moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, Sanders played with r&b and avant-garde jazz bands before moving to New York. Following gigs with Sun Ra, Don Cherry, and Billy Higgins, he went on to play and record with John Coltrane's last bands, from 1965-67, appearing on Live In Seattle and Live At The Village Vanguard Again! After Coltrane's death, Sanders worked with Coltrane's pianist/wife Alice Coltrane and singer Leon Thomas. His solo albums of this period combine free-jazz elements with hypnotic, modal vamps, as on his recording, The Creator Has A Master Plan. In the 70s, he experimented with merging West and South African rhythms into free jazz. After trying to ride the disco dance wave, Sanders re-emerged in the 1980s as a creative jazz artist, recording such albums as Pharoah Sanders Live (Theresa, 1982), Crescent With Love (a John Coltrane tribute, Evidence, 1992), and Message From Home (Verve, 1995), incorporating new sounds of Africa. He has recently worked with African Gnawa musicians.

Sanders is known for a distinctive sound, including a split reed technique. In addition to the tenor sax, he has also recorded on soprano sax, flutes, and percussion. He can coax unearthly sounds from the tenor saxophone, and, according to jazz folklore can cause a saxophone to continue to shriek for minutes after removing it from his mouth.

As part of the U of M Northrop Dance and Jazz Seasons, the collaboration of King and Sanders offers a unique opportunity to enjoy a view of 19^th century social history through the sounds and movements of 21^st century master artists.

For information about the performances of the Alonzo King Lines Ballet and Pharoah Sanders, visit www.northrop.umn.edu or call (612) 624-6325.