Due to inclement weather, the October 9 performance of Houston Ballet’s Swan Lake + Two program was cancelled. If you purchased tickets to this performance, please visit the Pavilion’s website for more information about refunds. Thank you, and very sorry for any inconvenience!
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Free Performance by HBII This Weekend at Miller Outdoor Theatre
September 24, 2009Join us for the 15th Annual Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance, September 25-26. Presented by Dance Source Houston, this is a free dance festival that will take place at Miller Outdoor Theatre and will showcase Houston’s finest range of choreographic styles set to a variety of music, including Amy Ell’s gravity-defying aerial dance skills in Thread; Freneticore’s dance-on-film, Tetjusin; and Polly Motley’s Charmed Romantics, performed by the Atlanta/Houston company CORE Performance Company. Other works include those by Houston Metropolitan Dance Company, Hope Stone, Urban Souls Dance Company, and many more. For more information about the festival, please visit Dance Source Houston’s website.
HBII, Houston Ballet’s pre-professional training company, will perform “Dance Around the World” on September 26 at 11 AM. This special family matinee is a free event at Miller Outdoor Theatre which will showcase the many talents of our second company.
Come help us celebrate the great dance talent that Houston offers!
Behind the scenes at Houston Ballet’s commercial shoots
September 21, 2009Here is a great blog entry by Locke Bryan Productions about the making of our television commercials. We’ve been working with Locke Bryan for many years, and the results are always fantastic. With their help we’ve won 3 Gold Addy Awards and 1 Silver. Enjoy!
What’s in Amy Fote’s Closet?
September 8, 2009Principal dancer Amy Fote discusses her fashion sense with the Houston Chronicle. Check out the article here. Fote will make her debut as the lead in Manon, running September 10-20.
My Favorite Roles
August 27, 2009Continuing with questions posed to us on Facebook, Nancy Sands asks: What are your dancers’ favorite roles and why?
Soloist Nao Kusuzaki took a break from rehearsal to answer:
I’ve been thinking about your question for a few days–there are so many!–and I’ve narrowed it down to four. They are:
“Red Couple” in Stanton Welch’s Tu Tu. This ballet is simply gorgeous–its movement and music harmoniously creates an exquisite piece of jewelry to be showcased. So just from watching the ballet, Tu Tu was a special piece to me. And it became even more so in dancing the Red Couple. The Red Couple dances a luxurious pas de deux: always flowing and graceful, and unexpectedly dynamic, balancing fragility, strength, searching, yearning. Experiencing and exploring these sensations in studio and on stage, it now holds a special place in my heart.
Suzuki in Stanton Welch’s Madame Butterfly is another one of my favorites. From the beginning of rehearsal, I felt a deep sense of connection to this ballet through my Japanese roots, and while exploring Suzuki’s character I became attached and attracted to her attributes—her strength, integrity, stubbornness, kindness, charm, drama, and character–a true friend who is always on Cio-Cio San’s side. I came to find out how complex this character was and couldn’t leave her alone. I enjoyed nurturing her.
Grandmother in Ben Stevenson’s The Nutcracker–because she is the oldest character I’ve tackled so far! She and the Grandfather are the oldest characters in the ballet, and yet they have as much fun as Clara and Fritz. I love that! Not to mention it has stretched me in a different way than a typical dancing role or a character.
Dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker is a role I love and look forward to every year because it is one of the most elegant, classical, and challenging ballet characters. Every year I’m humbled–it does not get easier! She is the quintessential ballerina role; growing up, I looked up to her, and I’m finding out it’s quite a task portraying and becoming this beauty!
Best Regards,
Nao
HB Receives Stellar Review from Chicago Dancing Festival
August 24, 2009This past weekend, Houston Ballet sent five dancers to Chicago to participate in the Chicago Dancing Festival. Sara Webb, Connor Walsh, Melody Herrera, Jessica Collado, and Joe Walsh performed William Forsythe’s tour-de-force The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude for 9,000 dance fans at Millennium Park. Here’s a stellar review for our great group of dancers!
Dance Advantage Interview with Garrett Smith
June 30, 2009Dancer Garrett Smith, a Houston Ballet II graduate and company apprentice for the 09-10 season, sits down with Dance Advantage to discuss why he started dancing, how he balanced school and dance classes, and why he chose to study at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy.
At 20 years old, Garrett Smith is a recent graduate of Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy and already an accomplished performer and choreographer. He has toured internationally to places like Budapest and Japan. In addition, Garrett has set four works on HB II, often doing double duty as dancer and dance-maker.
Even before being awarded a scholarship to the Academy in 2006, Garrett’s ambition and dedication won him numerous honors. Originally from Riverton, Utah, he has performed off-Broadway and in the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Summer Olympics. Garrett is a national title winner of the New York City Dance Alliance competition, awarded in the Junior category at age 13 and selected as Teen Male Outstanding Dancer at 16. And, as an NFAA youngARTS winner, he was one of 20 students selected as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts in 2007. And those are just his dance achievements!
Clearly, on the fast-track to a bright future, Garrett took some time to talk with me about his early training as a young man in dance, his passion for choreography, and what lies ahead for him.
Dance Advantage: You began dancing at age 9 but you didn’t start with ballet. What prompted you to try dance in the first place and why did you decide later to give ballet a try?
Garrett Smith: Sports just weren’t doing it for me so I tried tap, jazz, and hip hop. I loved it. I was silly at age 9 wanting to be famous. I thought if you were a jazz dancer, it meant you were dancing on screen with the Utah Jazz [laughs]. I tried ballet because the studio I was attending was dying down and I switched to this great ballet school in Utah called Jacqueline’s School of Ballet. I changed so much there, as did my opinion of ballet. I guess I never knew what ballet really was until I was in a correct ballet academy.
Continue reading this interview on the Dance Advantage website…
Melody Herrera is the New Swan in Town
June 11, 2009Article on Sara Webb in Cy-Fair Publication
June 8, 2009Photos from Spain tour
April 20, 2009I’ve set up a Flickr photostream for our tour to Spain, so if you’d like to keep up with the company’s day-to-day experiences, check it out here. Every time we get new images from the road, I’ll upload them straight to that link. Enjoy!
-Sarah
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