Getting to Know our Summer Video Bloggers: Meet Andrea

Guest Writer: Ellie Weeks, Academy Intern

In addition to regular updates from the Summer Intensive Program, we’ll be bringing you a series of video interviews with two of our Summer Intensive dancers.

In weeks 2 and 4, you will hear from Andrea, a 13-year-old Level 6 student from California. In weeks 3 and 5, you will hear from Caue, an 18-year-old Level 8 student from Brazil. And during week 6, you’ll find a video montage of students’ favorite aspects of the Summer Intensive Program and what they learned during their time here at Houston Ballet.

This week, Andrea discusses what she likes most about dancing and personal goals she has set for her Summer Intensive experience.

Stay tuned!

-Ellie

Dancing Butterfly

Dancers: Simon Ball and Barbara Bears; Photo: Jim Caldwell

From September 6-16, Houston Ballet launches its 2012-13 season with Stanton Welch’s balletic adaption of Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. The title role of the opera is one of the great works of the repertoire for dramatic sopranos. Stanton Welch’s ballet version of Madame Butterfly is also a tour-de-force for the leading ballerina, requiring a dancer who is also a very gifted actress and can convincingly take the audience on the wrenching emotional arc of Cio-Cio San’s journey: from exuberance of first love to the passion of her wedding night in the first act – to her despair at her betrayal by Pinkerton in the ballet’s second act.

The role of Cio-Cio San was first created by principal dancer Vicki Attard of The Australian Ballet in 1995. Since the work’s Houston premiere in 2002, a number of Houston Ballet principal dancers have given memorable interpretations of Butterfly, including Sara Webb, Barbara Bears and Mireille Hassenboehler.

Dancers: Ian Casady and Sara Webb; Photo: Jim Caldwell

But one dancer has a unique connection to Cio-Cio San: principal dancer Amy Fote, who has performed the lead role of Butterfly more frequently around the world than almost any other ballet dancer. Ms. Fote’s first experience with this work was in 2004 in a guest appearance with the Royal New Zealand Ballet where she performed the role 16 times and was coached by Houston Ballet’s Ballet Master Steven Woodgate, who recognized her exceptional talent and set in motion the process of her joining Houston Ballet.

“Madame Butterfly is one of my favorite ballets I have ever danced. It’s a gift to perform the title role in such a beautiful work, observed Ms. Fote. “The emotional arc that Madame Butterfly endures throughout the story is so moving and tragic: experiencing first love and getting married, to defying her religion and becoming an outcast, having a child and holding on to hope for years that Pinkerton will return, to eventually taking her own life.”

Mr. Woodgate, who created the featured role of Goro in the original production of Madame Butterfly in Australia in 1995 and has staged the work for companies across the world, gave Ms. Fote the freedom and space to discover her own conception of Cio-Cio San. “He would offer suggestions and tell you if something didn’t work, but he would let you discover the character on your own,” observed Ms. Fote. “He wanted everyone to be their own artist.”

Dancer: Amy Fote; Photo: Amitava Sarkar

When she returns to Cio-Cio San on September 6 – 16, Ms. Fote will be able to find even more depth, nuance, and power in the beautiful story of Madame Butterfly.

Tickets to Madame Butterfly are on sale via our website at www.houstonballet.org. Tickets go on sale to the general public via phone and walk up on August 6.

LI CUNXIN, MAO’S LAST DANCER: FROM PEKING TO ROMEO

Li Cunxin in Glen Tetley’s The Rite of Spring, photo Jim Caldwell

Interview conducted by Andrew Edmonson, Houston Ballet’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations

From 1979 to 1995, Li Cunxin was one of Houston Ballet’s most popular and beloved stars.  Discovered by Houston Ballet Artistic Director Emeritus Ben Stevenson in China in the late 1970s, Li developed into one of the Houston Ballet’s greatest male dancers, creating many leading roles in works by Ben Stevenson, Christopher Bruce, Gillian Lynne, and Ronald Hynd.

The story of Li’s dramatic defection from China was captured in his memoir Mao’s Last Dancer, and was later immortalized in the enormously popular independent film of the same name.  Today, after a detour into finance when he retired from dancing, Li has returned to the world of dance as artistic director of the Queensland Ballet in Australia.

In September 1987, Li Cunxin and Janie Parker lead the company into Wortham Theater Center, creating the title roles in Ben Stevenson’s landmark production of Romeo and Juliet.  In this interview, Li shares his memories of his magical partnership with Parker, the extraordinary response to Romeo and Juliet on opening night, and the ways in which moving into Wortham Theater Center helped to catapult him – and Houston Ballet – to a higher artistic level.

Li Cunxin and Janie Parker; photo by Jack Mitchell

The role of Romeo in Ben Stevenson’s production of Romeo and Juliet held a special place in your career.  Could you tell us briefly about its significance?   

To work with Ben on his creation of Romeo & Juliet and partner with Janie Parker as my Juliet was one of the highlights on my dancing career.

I could sense the pressure from Ben, as this production was going to open Wortham Theater Center. He started to choreograph the balcony pas de deux with Janie and me. He had tremendous creative energy and imagination, to the point that he had choreographed this particular section of pas de deux in one day.  Both Janie and I felt great. We had dinner with Ben that evening and he also seemed very pleased with what he had choreographed that day.

But he completely changed his mind and started to re-choreograph what we did the day after. I have to admit that what he did that first day was no doubt more musical and more beautiful.

Janie and I shared Ben’s excitement beyond description. We were like two children willing to explore and experiment anything to make Ben’s Romeo and Juliet characters alive and real. Janie was a wonderful partner. She has worked with Ben for many years and understood him so well. We had such chemistry, gained great understanding, trust and respect for each other.  At times we could almost finish each other’s sentence.  Working with Janie on Romeo and Juliet was one of most enjoyable moments of my career, and Romeo and Juliet was a pinnacle of our partnership.

Describe the process of working with Ben to create the role of Romeo.  Were there any special tips or pointers that he gave you that stuck with you? 

Ben was amazing and inspirational during the choreographic process. Some key words that provided me with inspiration and helped me to create Romeo: Romantic, passionate love, fresh, and real. Despair of lost love and disappearing hope.

Ben Stevenson coaches Li Cunxin in rehearsal

What are your strongest memories of performing as Romeo when the work premiered during the opening season of Wortham Theater Center in September 1987? 

The opening night of Romeo and Juliet was electric onstage and in the audience. When Juliet finally laid on top of my body and the curtain fell, there was an eerily dead silence. It seemed that time had stopped,  and the entire audience was in grief. And then, suddenly the audience erupted into thunderous applause, and bravos echoed throughout the new theater. When Janie and I stood up and we looked at each other in front of a cheering audience, we knew then that it was one of those special historical moments that we will forever treasure.

At the post performance reception, quite a few people told me that after the final curtain fell, so many people just sat in their seats, weeping, reflecting and savoring what they had just experienced that night.

It was a night to remember by so many in Houston.

What other special memories do you have of dancing Romeo? 

Yes, dancing Romeo in Beijing on Houston Ballet’s historic China tour in 1995, was truly emotional.  There I was, performing in front of my former teachers, classmates and people whom have taught and nurtured me over my 7 years at the Beijing Dance Academy, and in front of a TV audience of over 500 million people in China.

What added to this emotion was that it was my farewell tour with Ben, Janie and other wonderful people of the Houston Ballet-a company that I danced for nearly 16 years.

Li Cunxin in Ben Stevenson’s Peer Gynt

1987 was a milestone year for Houston Ballet, with the opening of Wortham Theater Center.  What was the psychological impact on the dancers of Houston Ballet moving into a state-of-the-art new home?

Even though I felt emotional leaving Jones Hall, I knew that it was an important turning point in Houston Ballet’s growth and maturity to move to Wortham Theater Center. There was an element of new challenge for the dancers to raise our dancing to a higher level.

For me personally, I felt excited and motivated every time when I stepped into the new theater. It certainly has elevated my dancing standard by performing on the stage of Wortham Theater Center.

What impact did the move to Wortham Theater Center have on you, your personal career and your development as an artist? 

I would attribute some of the highlights and most satisfying performing experiences at Wortham Theater Center.  Also I matured quite rapidly as an artist in that great theater environment.

What other memories and milestones do you carry from the first year of the opening of Wortham Theater Center?   

I performed as the Prince in the new staging of The Nutcracker that Ben Stevenson choreographed and Desmond Heeley designed for our first season in Wortham Theater Center in November 1987.  When the curtain rose in the second act of The Nutcracker and the audience drew a deep breath and started to applaud, we knew that Desmond Heeley’s lavish production has already captured Houston’s imagination.  I remember thinking that I better rise to a higher level of dancing to in order to live up to the audience’s  expectations. And I think that both I — and the company as a whole — did that on that opening might of The Nutcracker.

25 Years Later Janie Parker Remembers Romeo and Juliet

Janie Parker as Juliet, photo by Jack Mitchell

From June 7 – 17, Houston Ballet will revive its stunning staging of Romeo and Juliet choreographed by Ben Stevenson to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the opening of Wortham Theater Center.

In September 1987, Houston Ballet inaugurated its spectacular new home at Wortham Theater Center by unveiling a lavish new production of Romeo and Juliet, featuring designs by Englishman David Walker and showcasing two of the company’s most spectacular stars:  prima ballerina Janie Parker and Li Cunxin, whose memoir Mao’s Last Dancer was an international best seller in 2004 and later made into a movie in 2009.

We spoke recently with Janie Parker about her memories of getting to finally dance her dream role of Juliet; her three sensational Romeos; and what a transformative moment it was for Houston Ballet to step center stage at Wortham Theater Center in 1987.

Artists of Houston Ballet in Romeo and Juliet; photo by Drew Donovan

The role of Juliet in Ben Stevenson’s production of Romeo and Juliet held a special place in your career.  Could you tell us briefly about its significance?

As a student, I watched Franco Zeffirelli’s movie of Romeo and Juliet and absolutely fell in love with the Shakespeare masterpiece. During the summers, when I was attending the School of American Ballet in New York, I would buy tickets to see Stuttgart Ballet perform. Their production of Romeo and Juliet with Marcia Haydee, Richard Cragun, and Egon Madsen left me feeling as though my feet were not touching the ground when I left the theater. These were the seeds that caused me to look at the role of Juliet as THE dream role in all of ballet.

Once I began working for Ben Stevenson, and I realized his enormous talent for creating narrative works (especially romantic works), there was nothing I wanted more than to see him choreograph his own Romeo and Juliet. Initially, whenever I mentioned to Ben how much I wished he would do his own production of the ballet, he would point out how many choreographies already existed. He would ask what he could possibly add that hadn’t already been done. But as any dancer who has had the honor of dancing in one of Ben’s romantic ballets will say, there would be no other story more suited to his talents. His passion and sense of drama infuse even abstract ballets!

Then, lo and behold, the unimaginable came about! Not only did Ben finally decide to do his own Romeo and Juliet, but he cast me in the role of Juliet with Li Cunxin as my Romeo! At that point, I knew I had died and gone to heaven.

Janie Parker and Li Cunixin in Romeo and Juliet; photo by Jack Mitchell

Describe the process of working with Ben Stevenson to create the role of Juliet. 

There is no ballet, no role that I have danced, that is more comfortable than dancing Juliet in Ben’s Romeo and Juliet. From start to finish, it’s like wearing the coziest robe and most comfortable slippers, sitting on a veranda watching the most glorious sunrise unfold.

The rehearsal process could not have been easier. The very best of the best were my cast mates, including assistant directors Carmen Mathe and Hiller Huhn as Lord and Lady Capulet, all perfectly directed by Ben. Each person in the ballet seemed to be tailor made for his/her role. That is the genius of Ben in knowing his company.

Dancing Juliet offered the greatest emotional range of anything I danced. There was the youthful playfulness of Juliet and her Nurse. Juliet’s naive acquiescence in the initial scenes with her arranged betrothal to Paris, the innocent awe and rapture in Juliet’s romance with Romeo, Juliet’s rebellious fit with her parents, the turmoil and passion Juliet and Romeo share upon his exile, Juliet’s forlorn determination in taking the Friar’s potion, and the extreme anguish of Juliet finding her true love dead.

In portraying this palette of emotional turns through dance, I felt that I had gone through the best dramatic training one could receive from a master who knew every corner of the heart. Ben knew when to “turn up the volume” and when to “bring it down to a whisper” for maximum emotional impact. The skill that his coaching demonstrates is evident in the fact that, in a story where some would use melodrama, Ben uses the most sparing touch.

Nothing could have been more satisfying. Everything was dramatically easier after having danced the role of Juliet.

What are your strongest memories of performing as Juliet when the work premiered during the opening season of Wortham Theater Center in September 1987?

One of the great things about dancing Romeo and Juliet in the Wortham is the fact that there are stage level dressing rooms fairly close to the stage. I had my hair long during much of the ballet, and I kept a set of hot curlers on during the whole evening. Every time I could slip away and refresh my limp locks with the hot curlers, I would. And there are several costume changes. So having a close dressing room means not having to waste precious energy running back and forth. There was only one costume change that I did in the wings: the costume change into the ballroom costume for the crypt scene at the end of the ballet.

I also liked the breadth of the stage in the Wortham. Li used the size of the stage to great advantage in his sweeping solos and in partnering me during our pas de deux. And the size of the wings is good so that the dancers can make their way easily through all the scenery that is not onstage.

One of the good things about going back and looking at the archival videos is what you get to see that you missed while dancing. When I got a chance to see Li in the crypt scene (when he was toting me around in the deathlike state) I was astounded by the amount of emotion I saw in his face and in his body. I was always cognizant of Li’s great athletic prowess, but there was nothing but pure, raw emotion in those moments of acting. It was an after-the-fact pride in him as my Romeo that I had missed while my eyes were closed playing dead. The advantages of technology!

What other special memories do you have of dancing Juliet?  

The first time I danced Juliet was with Li Cunxin for the world premiere at the opening of the Wortham. The last time I danced with him was in Romeo and Juliet during our tour to China in 1995. It was a sort of farewell for us, since Li was moving on to Australia, and it was very much a bittersweet moment.

When I sat next to the Minister of Culture at a dinner reception after the opening performance, he told me that the performance was televised to 500 Chinese people. So that was very exciting, but at the same time, it represented the closing of a very special chapter in my life.

At the end of my career, after Li, I had two marvelous partners with whom I had the pleasure of dancing Romeo and Juliet. The first, Phillip Broomhead, was like the male version of me. He was fair, romantic, and very flexible! He even had as much hyperextension in his knees as I had, mine being fairly extreme. He was so helpful during my last years of my career, acting as partner, counselor and friend. He was fun to dance with and kept me laughing, besides offering a very tender side of himself as Romeo.
The second was Carlos Acosta. Carlos was an extremely passionate Romeo and a natural partner, picking up Ben’s style of “body partnering” (as I call it) very quickly and easily. Dancing with him was delicious!

1987 was a milestone year for Houston Ballet, with the opening of Wortham Theater Center.  What was the psychological impact on the dancers of Houston Ballet moving into a state-of-the-art new home?   Did it raise the level of performance of the company?

Having the Wortham as our home theater gave us a place to settle in and go about the business of delivering the best performances we could produce. It was truly a home away from home.  Performing is what all the training and rehearsing is for, so having to squeeze into other venues around other performing arts events limited our main reason for being!