Monks and dancers meld in new ballet by Alonzo King

When Alonzo King had an epiphany that he had to collaborate with the kung fu experts from the Shaolin Temple USA, no one was more skeptical than the monks themselves.

King resisted the notion at first, too, brushing off a friend's initial attempt to arrange a visit to the Zen Buddhist Temple and Shaolin Kung Fu Academy in Fremont, Calif. His acclaimed dance company, LINES Ballet, schedules projects years in advance, and there was no time in the calendar to add a new one. But when King's friend pressed him, the choreographer decided to make a quick trip to the Shaolin temple from his San Francisco office.

"The moment I looked at the monks I said, let's shift projects around," King recalled: "That first group I saw, they were artists and dancers.

"They would laugh when I said that, but they move so beautifully. Like in any group, some were pedantic, but others were sublime. Everything they did had meaning." In that regard, at least, monks and artists have much in common.

King's work with the Shaolin monks resulted in "Long River, High Sky," which LINES Ballet presents on Thursday-Nov. 22 at Meany Hall as part of the UW World Series. Blending King's lithe and athletic movement vocabulary with the dazzling martial arts moves of seven Shaolin acolytes, the ballet features an original score by Melody of China, a San Francisco-based traditional Chinese musical ensemble, and composer Miguel Frasconi.

While the project might seem like an effort at bridging East and West, King sees the collaboration as based in similarities rather than differences. "This group of artists is steeped in a discipline, and like dancers they're obsessed with accuracy of form and statement," King said. "We have exactly the same intention. We're looking for transcendence."

King's search for transcendence has taken him to some fascinating places since founding LINES in 1982. The company has forged a middle ground between modern dance and classical ballet technique, a demanding but highly versatile path that has facilitated several striking cross-cultural collaborations, such as "The People of the Forest," with an Mbuti Pygmy troupe from the Central African Republic. He's worked extensively with tenor sax great Pharoah Sanders and tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain.

While Shaolin kung fu's origins are shrouded in myth, some accounts trace the discipline back to the sixth century. The oldest direct descriptions of warrior monks from the Shaolin Monastery in China's Henan Province appear in the 16th century. The training might be a world away from LINES Ballet, but for King the intensive concentration on movement and the expressiveness that comes through the discipline are powerful points of connection.

"There is no way a choreographer and dancer haven't experienced some of the exact same forms," King says. "We share the same instrument. These monks are individuals, and each has a leaning, a predilection, an opinion and unique point of view."