Creating New Work

Too often people think of art as whim and fancy. It is more akin to law. It is an intellectual virtue and a knowledge of how things are done. In the artistic process, you are seeking the definitive choice where there could be no other. Beethoven said, "I don't write what I want to write, I write what I should."

When you are building a house, you don't want to walk to the bathroom when you open the front door. So too in constructing a ballet - there is logic and a lot of thought. Dance is thought made visible as music is thought made audible. Because ultimately it is the communication of ideas, you want clear thought.

Art is informed by science and the laws that permeate nature. The distinct difference between science and art is the approach. The artist's approach is from the inside and the scientific approach is from the outside. The artist must fully realize what is being communicated, not intellectually, but by becoming it. It is through the atoms that things are truly understood. - Alonzo King, Artistic Director, LINES Contemporary Ballet