Coming: a brave new ballet season
By MOLLY GLENTZER
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Houston Ballet's 2004-2005 season schedule will be the first to bear the signature of new artistic director Stanton Welch -- and it doesn't take a handwriting expert to spot his energy.

Welch will be adding a record 11 works to the company's repertoire. Six are world premieres, including two of his own, plus ballets by Julia Adam, Natalie Weir and newcomers Adrian Burnett, a resident choreographer with the Australian Ballet, and Matjash Mrozewski, an up-and-coming Canadian.

The company will also add dances by Mark Morris, Lila York and Serge Lifar, and artistic associate Maina Gielgud's staging of Giselle, to its repertoire.

Familiar works by Christopher Bruce, Trey McIntyre, Ben Stevenson and James Kudelka will round out the season. The Cullen Series is back from hiatus, and Welch has added a gala of showpieces in December.

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Next season looks very, very good -- all the more reason to visit Houston. There's lots of cutting edge choreography but with some tradition thrown in as well.

Several ballet dancers to take the leap

By MOLLY GLENTZER
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

After a year under director Stanton Welch, several Houston Ballet dancers will be jumping ship when the season ends in June.

Principal Dominic Walsh said last week that he'll focus full-time on his own contemporary dance troupe. Principal Julie Gumbinner and soloist Lucas Priolo are heading to Texas Ballet Theatre, where they'll be reunited with former Houston artistic director Ben Stevenson.

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This company has the advantage of having a young choreographer whose inventiveness and musicality knows no limits, as well perhaps the best ballet master available today, Lazaro Carren~o, former partner of Alicia Alonso, and an academy that actually has a coherent curriculum that produces, um, professional dancers! Then there's the sumptuous Wortham Theater that has no U.S. equal in terms of all-around splendor, comfort, sightlines, and most conveniently, a gourmet pre-performance buffet in its luxurious lobby. If you'd rather dine somewhere else, try any number of Houston's outstanding restaurants--Cuban, Japanese, Turkish, Moroccan, down home barbecue, cajun, etc. The only caveat is to bring deet or if that scares you--a mix of catnip, lemongrass and eucalyptus oils--to keep the seven varieties of mosquitoes at bay, but they are not in evidence between Nutcracker and early Spring. So go for it, y'all, and don't forget to drive to Galveston 45 minutes away for a nice glimpse of the Gulf of Mexico and Galveston's historic residential neighborhood. Because of all the flooding, the pavement is kind of choppy, and one can, if inattentive, break an otherwise perfectly-contoured left foot.

I agree, Toba. There is much to do and see in Houston. It is quite cosmopolitan and rather different from the rest of the state of Texas in that way. I have not seen the company since Stevenson left but they were definitely one of the best companies I've seen, especially in subtle European works where artistry is emphasized over pyrotechnics.

Breaking ballet's glass ceiling

Long ignored, women dancemakers take center stage in Houston Ballet's season opener

By MOLLY GLENTZER
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

When George Balanchine said so famously, "The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman," he was thinking of dancers, not choreographers. Offstage, women still haven't come a long way, baby.

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Houston Ballet – Far from provincial
By Barbara Newman for The Dancing Times

In the late 1940s, just after the war, the architect father of an American friend of mine thought about looking for work in Houston, Texas, where he’d heard there was a lot of space and a lot of money. But he quickly decided against it because, he said, “There’s no orchestra.”

I remembered this story in June, when I went to Houston myself for the first time. Home to about five million people, including substantial Hispanic, Chinese and Vietnamese communities, the metropolitan area sprawls over a perfectly flat landscape, with a few spiky groups of skyscrapers breaking its ground-hugging profile.

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Houston Ballet launches season with fun premieres

By MOLLY GLENTZER
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

If the next eight premieres of Houston Ballet's ambitious 35th season are as intriguing as the three that debuted in Women@Art on Thursday, we're in for a fun ride. Natalie Weir's The Host, Julia Adam's The Accidental (both world premieres) and Lila York's Celts (a company premiere) each bring something different to the repertoire

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I saw Tulsa Ballet perform Celts last season -- it was a major crowd pleaser and a great showcase for the company's men as well. Houston audiences should love that one!

This program represents a giant step into this company's future. The highlight of the Julia Adam piece was a sensual, naturalist pas de deux performed by Ian Cassady and Sara webb. Natalie Weir's "The Host" was a contemporary skewering of the cult of wealth and the collateral degradation of humanity and social relations between and among the pecking order it supports and requires. A demanding piece, it was danced by nine men and one woman, mostly on and off a table that was variously implicated in dinner parties or board meetings or when vertical, a metaphor for social climbing and one-upsmanship. The company seemed to completely throw themselves into Celts and the Timothy Boyd wizardry made it all look dazzling. I loved every minute, and can't wait to see Peter Pan in a few weeks.

Moved from another thread:

Houston Ballet has a new Vogue look under down-under ballet maker Stanton Welch.
<img src="http://www.danceinternational.org/images/winter2004_touched.jpg" alt="" />
Click below for Dance International’s Winter Issue as they delve deeper into Houston Ballet:

Houston Ballet

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Michael Goldbarth

Hmmm...I wonder who's kissing her now?

In the Houston Chronicle, Molly Glentzer previews the "Rock, Roll & Tutus" program, opening Thursday, February 24, 2005:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/ae/dance/3045953

<small>[ 20 February 2005, 11:28 PM: Message edited by: Francis Timlin ]</small>

Marene Gustin reviews the performance in the Houston Press:

http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2005-03-03/theater.html

Sara Webb is interviewed by Nancy Galeota-Wozny in the Houston Chronicle as a preview to her appearance as Juliet in Ben Stevenson's Romeo and Juliet, opening Friday, March 18, 2005:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/entertainment/3088800

In Playbill, Allen Robertson talks to Mark Morris, whose "Sandpaper Ballet" (created for San Francisco Ballet) will be performed by Houston Ballet through this weekend:

Mark Morris Interview