Upcoming Performances
Adji in the Press
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" Adji Cissoko sustains Lines with her angelic presence.... in its fall season, the company honored the sui generis jazz innovator Alice Coltrane with a celestial, otherworldly King premiere. In both seasons, 10-year company veteran Adji Cissoko made every movement a vision of angelic presence, her emotional openness as transfixing as her endless extensions."
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IN DEEP RIVER“THE PERFORMANCE CONCLUDED UNEXPECTEDLY WITH A COMPELLING PAS DE DEUX FEATURING THE DELICATE STYLINGS OF AN EMOTIONAL ADJI CISSOKO INTRICATELY CAVALIERED BY SHUAIB ELHASSAN. THE TWO TANGLED THEIR ARMS TOGETHER AND UNFURLED THEM, WITH CISSOKO FINDING MOMENTS OF ETHEREAL EXTENSION. WHILE SHE HAD BEGUN THE PERFORMANCE LIMP IN ELHASSAN’S ARMS, CISSOKO NOW SPARKLED AND FLOATED WITH ELHASSAN’S EXPERT SUPPORT.”
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In The Collective Agreement "She is many things — tall, tautly muscled, gifted at the unfurling movement quality King’s ballets depend on — but in “The Collective Agreement” she is also a kind of angel, seeming to beseech for cooperation among the other stage players, her hands shooting up and out in a prayer as partner Shuaib Elhassan spins her."
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In The Collective Agreement "As danced by Cissoko, this figure is more like a loving, worried deity. With the ballet re-costumed by Lines creative director Robert Rosenwasser in earth tones (rather than the original white and teal), Cissoko seems concerned for relations here on this earth, not in some other world."
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In Deep River "Adji Cissoko, who performs a solo and a series of duets on pointe with Shuaib Elhassan, is breathtaking in her combination of precision and delicacy. She can knock off a chain of perfect pirouettes and then bloom right into the next step, giving King’s run-on sentences more dramatic phrasing."
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In Deep River "Cissoko is the heart of the work, really. Early on, she reaches up to the light, collapses and rises again. In her duets with Elhassan, she continually folds over, jackknifed, but then stretches up on her toes, one leg and both arms elongating as much as possible toward the sky. It seems as if she’s yearning to lift off, to leave this world of woe behind, to transcend the illusion of existence."
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In AZOTH "Adji Cissoko in flowing gold and Michael Montgomery in plain brown shorts curl around each other in a long, sometimes edgy, sometimes romantic pas-de-deux seemingly exploring the many ways two human elements can intertwine and relate to each other. If lead, mercury, radiation, and magic can unite in choreography, it is ultimately evident that love is the source of gold."
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"I enter the historic Odd Fellows Building and take the elevator to the third floor, where the LINES Ballet studio is located. I hear piano music floating from the studios as I make my way down the hall to the dancers’ lounge. In the locker room, my colleagues are stretching on the floor, rolling on foam rollers, or finishing breakfast over coffee. I join them for my daily foot exercises and some Pilates before we all gather at 11a for company class in Studio 5. It’s an open class, so we’re joined by other dancers — from teens to seniors — all lined up at the barres, trying to memorize combinations as the teacher demonstrates. After 90 minutes, we’re fully warmed up and ready for our five-hour rehearsal."
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"Cissoko brought Scheherazade’s journey to life, tracing her shift from fear to power with clarity and strength. Opposite her, Elhassan gracefully portrayed Shahryar’s transcendence from a man hell-bent on vengeance to one capable of empathy, shaped by her presence."