Reimagining Scheherazade: From Fokine to King

Abstract:

This proposal investigates the evolving aesthetic and ethical values of ballet through a comparative study of two landmark interpretations of Scheherazade. The central research question asks: How does Alonzo King’s twenty-first-century version of Scheherazade both re-envision and transcend Michel Fokine’s 1910 orientalist ballet, revealing ballet’s transformation over time?

The proposal contextualizes Scheherazade as both a choreographic work and a cultural artifact, tracing its trajectory from Fokine’s 1910 creation for the Ballets Russes to King’s re-envisioned version for LINES Ballet a century later.

Drawing from my experience with King’s choreographic process and my scholarly interest in the Ballets Russes, this study argues that King reframes Scheherazade from a narrative grounded in exotic spectacle to one rooted in spiritual and humanist inquiry. In doing so, his work exemplifies ballet’s broader reclamation and re-articulation of its historical inheritances through contemporary practice.
Aligned with CORPS’s mission to promote the integration of scholarship, pedagogy, and creative practice in ballet, this proposal contributes to conversations on historical reclamation, ethics of representation, and artistic innovation. By juxtaposing Fokine’s and King’s Scheherazade, it offers a critical and pedagogically relevant model for understanding how ballet can evolve responsibly; honoring tradition while embracing cultural and aesthetic transformation, which supports the 2026 conference theme, “Reclaiming Ballet Histories: Reimagining Tradition Through Contemporary Practice.”

 

Bibliography:

  • Albright, Ann Cooper. Engaging Bodies: The Politics and Poetics of Corporeality. Wesleyan University Press, 2013.
  • Foster, Susan Leigh. Choreographing Empathy: Kinesthesia in Performance. Routledge, 2011.
  • Garafola, Lynn. Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Oxford University Press, 1989.
  • Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts. Greenwood Press, 1996.
  • King, Alonzo. “Alonzo King on Creating Scheherazade.” LINES Ballet Blog, 2009.
  • Nunes Jensen, Jill. “Alonzo King LINES Ballet: Voicing Dance.” The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet, edited by Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel and Jill Nunes Jensen, Oxford University Press, 2021.


Presented by Caroline Rocher Barnes, Assistant Professor; Towson University

 

Biography:

Caroline Rocher Barnes is an assistant professor of dance at Towson University. She trained at the Conservatoire de Montpellier in France, the Rudra Béjart Art School in Switzerland, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York. In 1999, Mrs. Rocher Barnes joined The Dance Theatre of Harlem under Arthur Mitchell’s mentorship, was promoted to Soloist in 2000, and then Principal Dancer the following year. Her professional career extends to the Bavarian State Ballet in Germany, the Lyon Opera Ballet in France, and Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet in San Francisco. In 2001 Mrs. Rocher Barnes was named “25 to watch” in Dance Magazine. She has taught at numerous dance institutions worldwide, such as the Alonzo King Lines Training and Summer Programs, the University of Oklahoma, the Bates Dance Festival, the J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Washington School of Ballet, the University of Cincinnati Conservatory Program, the George Mason University, the Georgetown University, the LEAP Dance Academy in Cape Town South Africa, the Conservatoire Mozart and Conservatoire de Montpellier in France.

Mrs. Rocher Barnes holds a certification in the Gyrotonic® & Gyrokinesis® expansion systems, the FA® Functional Awareness method, and the Progressing Ballet Technique®. She is an ABT® Certified teacher who has completed the ABT® Teacher training intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 5.

Mrs. Rocher Barnes graduated Summa Cum Laude from Saint Mary’s College of California with a BA in Performing Arts. She holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Maryland, College Park.