Scenes from Three Classics, Five Tangos

 

Stanton Welch’s Falling

James Kudelka’s Little Dancer

Hans van Manen’s Five Tangos

From the toes up

Guest writer: Travis Halsey, costume shop patternmaker and co-designer for Stanton Welch’s A Doll’s House

I joined the Houston Ballet costume studio in August 2006 as a cutter/draper. So what is that anyway?  The cutters/drapers in a costume shop are the artists that turn a designer’s costume rendering into a three dimensional garment.  This process begins with a sketch, fabrics selected by the designer, and a piece of brown patterning paper.  Drapers create the different pieces of a garment by draping muslin on a dress form, or drafting them through math and geometry.  A cutter is just that, someone who cuts out the various pieces. Next they oversee that all the pieces are assembled, then they attend costume fittings to make any adjustments, and finally they do the finishing and embellishing.  On a regular day in our shop there are four of us creating patterns at a time: myself, the magnificent Claudia Rodriguez, the amazing Sandy Kreps, and we are guided by the stunning Barbara Joyce-Evans, who is the lead cutter. 

So here is what today was like in the workroom with everyone preparing for Reps 5 & 6 (in layman’s terms: Three Classics, Five Tangos and La Sylphide/A Doll’s House).  Shop Manager Laura Lynch kept us abreast of budgets, deadlines, fitting changes, and ordering materials (making lists and checking them twice, to name a few points of her very large job).  Often Laura has more than just the productions at hand on her plate. Aside from the five ballets coming up, she already has the entire next season to organize and prepare for. Lead cutter Barbara Joyce-Evans and “Seamstress to the Stars” Mary Clair put finishing touches on kilts for Kudelka’s upcoming world premiere.  Claudia, Sandy, and I created and adjusted patterns for A Doll’s House.  Tina, Carol, and Pat assembled the “dolls”: Tina stitched strategic fur patches on “Hannibal Dog”, Pat put finishing touches on “Miley High”, and Carol adjusted a body suit for the “Amazon Empress.”  Monica dyed some new silks for La Sylphide, constructed kilt buckles, and began the leg armor for her “Mohawk Man Doll.”  Barbara and Virginia worked through Falling, Five Tangos and La Sylphide alterations, and Jerry, Erin, and Daniel finished up fittings for Three Classics, Five Tangos.  Oh and Billy swung by with some of his awesome wigs for A Doll’s House.

                 

                   

Okay, okay, I’d better get to the real Tootsie Roll Pop center of this blog: A Doll’s House. Monica Guerra and I designed the show together, and it has been a BLAST. We teamed up to clothe Stanton Welch’s newest world premiere.  We make a great pair, each bringing many varied talents to the process.  Monica is the resident dye, color, and paint artist for the costume studio, and she has a very strong background in fashion. I bring experience from theatre and ballet costumes, and also patterning work that I’ve done.  So together we brought many new ideas to the show. We each have an eye for detail too, so the work load on the entire shop for this show has been very large, but the amount that has been created thus far is astounding.  Also, there is no trick or technique left behind on this one: there all full body suits that have been hand-painted, and we spent hours making embroidery, soft sculpture, hand-made jewelry, glow-in-the-dark paint, neon-lighting, fur, fringe, crystal, leather, French lace, pom-poms, bells, buckles, beading, quilting, smocking, yards of pleating, yarn spinning, etc.  Besides the artisans directly in the Houston Ballet shop working on this production, we also have many items being constructed by crafters literally from coast to coast.  From start to finish each garment easily passed through the hands of five or more people.  But it all makes such a difference; each costume has an exclamation mark to it, and these dolls will really come off the page. They all have their own stories as well, a personal history reflected in their whole look.  I think giving a design a history really finishes a costume.

Okay folks, I’ll stop rambling, as I could go on for days…but make sure you come to the show, and see what the dollies, soldiers, teddies, and wind-up toys really do when no one is looking…

All the BEST,
Travis J. Halsey

                 

                 

Costume sketches from Stanton Welch’s A Doll’s House.  From top to bottom: “Panda”, “Aqua Man”, “Cat Lady”, and “Mohawk Man.” All rights reserved by Travis Halsey and Monica Guerra.

*Click on images to view larger version.

Free Performances of Madame Butterfly This Weekend!

Fresh off their successful tour to Montréal, Houston Ballet will present free performances of Madame Butterfly at Miller Outdoor Theatre this weekend, May 9-11, at 8 PM on all three days.  Free tickets are available at the Miller Theatre Box Office on a first-come, first-serve basis between 11:30 AM and 1:00 PM on the day of the performance. Remaining tickets are given out one hour before curtain.  You do not need a ticket to sit on the lawn.  For more information, please visit www.houstonballet.org.

The Road to Montréal

Guest writer: Jim Nelson, general manager

Houston Ballet’s performances of Madame Butterfly in Montréal mark the second round of exchanges between the two companies. Previously, Houston Ballet presented Les Grands Ballet Canadiens de Montréal at the Cullen Theater in 2005 with Ohad Naharin’s ballet Minus One, and the following spring, Houston Ballet performed the classic Giselle on Les Grands’ 2005-2006 season.  The model of reciprocal exchange is one of the innovative ways Houston Ballet and Les Grands are keeping large-scale touring of dance alive.  Following our performances here over the next three days, Houston Ballet will again present Les Grands in Houston in November 2008 as part of Houston Ballet’s Cullen Series.  They will perform Didy Veldman’s TooT and Stijn Celis’ Noces.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008
While the crew is busy loading in the Butterfly production at Place des Arts, the dancers’ journey north starts with airport bus-calls at 8:00 am from Houston Ballet Academy to IAH.  As there are no direct flights between Houston and Montréal and as Continental Airlines (the official airline of HB) has only smaller aircraft going into YUL with our routing, getting the company to Canada requires a stopover and two separate itineraries.  Half of the group travels through Cleveland and the other half travels through Newark.  Luckily we had no delays and both groups arrive on time (5:30 and 6:15).

The evening is free to recover from the travel day and rest up for the marathon day on Thursday.  Oliver Halkowich, the company’s resident foodie, lead a group of dancers to Le Club Chasse et Peche, while Ballet Mistress Louise Lester and I head to Au Pied de Cochon.  Both groups return with raves for the local fare.

Thursday, May 01, 2008
Thursday morning starts with a master class given by Ballet Master Steven Woodgate to local dance students at Ballet Divertimento.  To deepen our impact on the communities we visit, Houston Ballet provides at least one master class in each city we tour to.  This was the first of two Montréal master classes arranged by our presenter, Les Grands Ballet Canadiens de Montréal and US Consulate General. 

                  

The dancers start their day with company class at noon at Place des Arts followed by their one and only dress rehearsal from 2:30-5:30.

7:00 PM
In a similar format to Houston Ballet’s Dance Talks series, Stanton Welch participates in a pre-performance lecture/discussion about the creation of Madame Butterfly.  I’m impressed with the sophistication and insight of the questions from the audience.  Montréal obviously loves and supports dance, and they are very complimentary of Houston Ballet.

8:00 PM, opening performance
The company, lead by principals Amy Fote and Ian Casady as Cio-Cio San and Pinkerton, danced beautifully.  The audience response in Montréal is quite reserved throughout performances compared to Houston audiences where they respond after solos or pas de deux.  Here they generally wait until the end of the act to respond.  I noticed this when we were here performing Giselle.  Obviously the audience loved Madame Butterfly—they jumped out of their seats and gave the company a standing ovation!

I managed to sneak in a few shots from backstage before the performance:

Friday, May 02, 2008
This morning, Ballet Mistress Louise Lester taught the second master class at École supérieure de ballet contemporain de Montréal.

This afternoon the dancers have a couple hours of rehearsal after company class, and tonight Mimi Hassenboehler and Nicholas Leschke dance Cio-Cio San and Pinkerton. Tomorrow night, Melody Herrera and Connor Walsh have their first full performance of the ballet.

From all accounts, the company is having a great time here in Montréal, and we hope to come back soon.

-Jim