Happy Holidays!

From myself and on behalf of Houston Ballet, I’d like to wish you and your family happy holidays!  As I look back at what 2007 had in store for us, I can’t help but feel excited about starting 2008.  It has been a very blessed and successful year for Houston Ballet, and we could not have done it without you, our audience.  Thank you for your support and patronage!  We look forward to bringing you more fantastic dance in the New Year. 
 
Sincerely,
Stanton Welch
Artistic Director

My favorite Nutcracker memory

Guest writer: Soloist Sharon Teague(Read Ms. Teague’s bio…)

Just recently, I was backstage waiting for the Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker to come to its climactic end.  My mind was playing like a movie of memories from years past.  Suddenly, I remembered when I was a Houston Ballet Academy student and what I used to do in preparation for my role as a rat.

I would wear my huge glasses (that were more than ugly) and duct tape them around my head.  Then I would put the rat head on and proceed to perform the battle scene with my secret spectacles securely in place.  This lasted a good 12 or 13 shows until one night I was wrestling with a soldier and the glasses broke and fell somewhere on the stage, never to be seen again.  I was terrified and relieved all at once.  Relieved the hideous things were gone, terrified as to how I was going to manipulate myself around on stage for the next show.  Fortunately, I had some good friends who dragged me, pushed me, and yelled at me until the very end (and no, I was not the infamous rat who fell into the orchestra pit…amazingly!).

The final notes of the Waltz of the Flowers played and I was smiling because of the funny recollection, but also because I was about to have a dream come true.  I hugged my Prince, principal Connor Walsh, wished him “merde” and thanked him for his work.  Then I took the stage as the opening night Sugar Plum Fairy.  I had come a long way from a blind rat to a Sugar Plum who could see.

-Sharon

Ms. Teague in the role of Sugar Plum Fairy from Houston Ballet’s The Nutcracker.  Photo by Amitava Sarkar.