Alastair Macaulay of the New York Times takes 700 words to drool over the physical beauty of King’s dancers but concludes that there is little more than “ambiance” to this body of work. King has had great impact on the training and development of West Coast dancers far beyond his own small company, and his genius is evident when he speaks about the creative impulse. But his dances often make only a vague choreographic impression, particularly when he avoids creating formal structures in space, and treats music as an after-thought rather than the wellspring of movement. Ballet to the People’s brain fatigues quickly when she has to listen to a score while watching dancers bourrée to their own internal drummers.
