When Deep River premiered in San Francisco in 2022, it was instantly hailed as a masterwork. A year later, Pointe magazine named it one of the “standout performances of 2024.” Missing the premiere became a mark of regret for Bay Area dance aficionados. Thankfully, Deep River returned this fall for Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s 2025 season—though without the live presence of Grammy-winning vocalist Lisa Fischer.
Deep River is bare-bone Alonzo King perfection.
The choreography is spatially generous, fresh with an edge. Dancers wade their way through nearly invisible forces on an empty stage for this hour-long performance. Although the stage is bare (Seah Johnson, Production Designer), Jim French’s textural lighting and the lush score, featuring original music by Jason Moran and Lisa Fischer, create an atmosphere that is spacious and ethereal yet dense enough to push against.
The music deepens the resonance. Pharaoh Sanders, Maurice Ravel, and James Weldon Johnson, among others, intermingle with Fischer’s soulful, haunting vocals, alongside traditional African American spirituals and strains of Jewish liturgy. The result is meditative, searching, tinged with lament—a score that demands multiple listenings, just like the choreography.
Each component is fully realized, fitting harmoniously with the others like separate strokes of genius, including Robert Rosenwasser’s dusty earth-toned costumes in brown, rust, and olive. Minimal costumes that barely cover the dancers allow their athletic physiques to become sculptural. These muted tones provide the only color on stage.
Since its premiere, the company has carried Deep River across major stages—Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the American Dance Festival—and the refinement shows. At YBCA, the dancers gave five performances, each escalating in nuance, culminating in a finale of effortless virtuosity, as if they had reserved a hidden reservoir of energy for the last night. Even returning viewers noticed this arc.
Deep River is King’s timeless legacy, a work that will seem new with each revival, allowing future audiences to reconnect with—or newly discover—his creative essence.
David e. Moreno
