A Tribute to Principal Dancer Amy Fote!

Dancer(s): Amy Fote and Artists of Houston Ballet; Photo: Amitava Sarkar 

On Friday, November 30, 2012, Houston Ballet presents its ninth annual Jubilee of Dance: A Tribute to Amy Fote, a special one-night only performance showcasing the talent and artistry of the company dancers in a program of high-energy excerpts from signature works and beloved classics. Principal dancer Amy Fote will be honored at the 2012 Jubilee of Dance. Ms. Fote’s career has taken her from her native Manitowoc, Wisconsin to New Zealand to Houston Ballet, where she joined the company in 2005 as a first soloist and was promoted to principal dancer in 2006. Prior to joining Houston Ballet, she danced with Milwaukee Ballet for fourteen seasons.

“Having this year’s Jubilee of Dance as a tribute to me is a most amazing gift! I feel completely honored and blessed to be recognized in this special way. Jubilee of Dance is a special time for me to say goodbye to the audience and a time to share the stage one last time with my fellow dancers.” - Amy Fote, Principal

We are going to miss you Amy, you are about to start a new and exciting journey…what’s on your mind?

Dancer(s): Amy Fote and Artists of Houston Ballet; Photo: Amitava Sarkar 

“In thinking of my career transition, each day I find myself grateful for the many wonderful opportunities I have had to dance such beautiful ballets with this world class company.  I have grown as a dancer and as an artist over the past 7 years.  I am inspired everyday by the lovely, talented people who surrounded me.  When I look at my career I am completely fulfilled and ready to take that ‘next step’. I look forward to contributing to this art form in other ways and excited to explore my other interests as well.” - Amy Fote, Principal

Dancer(s): Amy Fote as the Sugar Plum Fairy; Photo: Amitava Sarkar 

You can also watch Ballerina Amy Fote make her final appearances as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker!

This years The Nutcracker marks the 25th anniversary of Ben Stevenson’s spectacular production! At select performances Principal dancer Amy Fote will make her final appearances with Houston Ballet as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Here’s what she has to say about dancing the graceful and sweet Sugar Plum Fairy!

“The role of the Sugar Plum Fairy is demanding in many ways. One would think that in performing it year after year it would get easier…it doesn’t.  For starters, it takes a lot of stamina.  Not just the breathing-hard kind of stamina, but also stamina in your left leg.  Also, anytime you wear a tutu you are completely exposed.  Your line needs to be at its most pure and everything pulled up to the nth  degree.   When I was younger I thought this dancing was uptight and didn’t enjoy the restrictive movement.  Now, I feel a great deal of satisfaction performing something so classical, pure and refined.” – Amy Fote, Principal

“Offstage, Fote emanates positive energy, and her Wisconsin accent reveals a Midwestern can-do spirit.”

Molly Glentzer, Houston Chronicle (Nov. 29, 2012)

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Performances of The Nutcracker and Jubilee of Dance will be held in the Brown Theater at Wortham Theater Center in downtown Houston. Tickets may be purchased by calling 713-227-2787 or by visiting www.houstonballet.org.

Countdown to Clear and Madame Butterfly! Are you ready?

Houston Ballet is opening its exciting 2012-2013 season with Clear and Madame Butterfly, September 6-16, 2012 at Wortham Theater Center in Houston, TX.

Dancers: Amy Fote and Artists of Houston Ballet; Photo: Amitava Sarkar

The program starts with Stanton Welch’s Clear –an abstract work, for seven men and one woman, showcasing Houston Ballet’s male dancers and set to Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor and the first and second movements from the Violin Concerto in G minor (Denise Tarrant, Violin; Elizabeth Priestly Siffert, Oboe). Noted fashion designer Michael Kors created the costumes for Clear. Sleek and sexy, Mr. Kors’s flesh-toned designs focus the attention on the dancers, emphasizing the emotional impact of Mr. Welch’s choreography.

Intermission.

Enter Madame Butterfly, the love story of a beautiful Geisha (Cio-Cio San) and handsome American naval officer, Lieutenant Pinkerton is told in an exhilarating two-act ballet. Cio-Cio San renounces her faith and her family to wed Lieutenant Pinkerton, the centerpiece of the work is a ravishing wedding night pas de deux. The production unfolds dramatically on Peter Farmer’s picturesque sets, which beautifully evoke the mystery and languor of nineteenth century Japan.

Dancer: Sara Webb; Photo: Jim Caldwell

Tons of exciting things to look for September 6-16, 2012! Madame Butterfly will feature dancers making their debuts in leading roles. Debuting in the role of Madame Butterfly will be soloist Nao Kusuzaki and debuting as Pinkerton are first soloist Linnar Looris and demi soloist James Gotesky. Principals Amy Fote, Mireille Hassenboehler and Sara Webb will revisit the role of Cio-Cio San, and principals Simon Ball, Ian Casady and Connor Walsh will reprise the role of Pinkerton.

Here’s what some of our dancers and artistic staff have to say about Madame Butterfly:

Principal, Amy Fote –

“Madame Butterfly is one of my favorite ballets I have ever danced. The emotional arc that Madame Butterfly endures throughout the story is so heart moving and tragic – experiencing a 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.”

Dancer: Amy Fote; Photo: Maarten Holl

Soloist, Nao Kusuzaki –

“It is an honor to portray the role of Cio-Cio San through this beautifully poetic ballet Stanton has crafted, […] I am especially excited to share with the audience the Japanese cultural heritage which speaks to me most authentically, and to tell the story of this ballet’s pure beauty, unwavering strength, and passionate drama.”

Ballet Master, Steven Woodgate –

“Madame Butterfly was my first full length ballet that I have ever set and I have now set it on seven different companies. I understand all of the characters and what they do, so I am not struggling to figure out every step; you become more comfortable with it. […] It is a challenging ballet technically dance wise and pas de deux wise.”

Watch the Clear and Madame Butterfly preview to learn more!

Tickets may be purchased by calling 713-227-2787 or by visiting www.houstonballet.org. Please click here to view, print or download casting.

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.

Return of the Masters: A Dancer’s Perspective

Guest Writer: Amy Fote, Principal Dancer

Wow!  It is amazing to think that summer is already over.  Or at least it is for our company, as we often measure time by our reps and of course, our breaks. The few weeks off seem to go by quickly, but your body invariably tells you otherwise.  I always teach back in Wisconsin, thinking it will keep me in shape, but without fail, I still manage to be quite sore and have bruised toenails upon returning to work.  Nonetheless, it is always great to be back with everyone creating and living our passions.

At Houston Ballet, our season is set up where we rehearse a ballet, get it ‘up and running’ and then go on to learn other ones; still finding  random hours here or there to keep the original one in our bodies and minds.  We bounce back and forth form one ballet to the next.  This season proves no different, as the company has already been rehearsing for the three ballets on our mixed rep evening, a full-length ballet, along with Stanton’s Indigo, the annual Woodlands performance, the company’s upcoming New York tour, The Nutcracker and the gala.  Every minute is precious and has been accounted for.  That being said, on our first day back we had two visiting guests, each setting a ballet.

One of them, that I am terrifically excited about, is the Jerome Robbins ballet, In the Night. I have enjoyed his works in the past seasons (The Concert, Afternoon of a Faun, Fancy Free) and am always intrigued by his varying styles.  This ballet is set to Chopin and captivates me every time I see it.  It is a ballet of three couples, each experiencing different stages in relationships.  The couple that I have been rehearsing is in the midst of an argument and it is up to us, as artists, to decide what that is about.  Anita Paciotti, the woman who set the ballet, gave us a lot of thoughts and suggestions, stating that this pas de deux should be different each time you dance it. That is not to say that any of the steps change, but rather that your inner dialogue and the intensity of how you portray the steps will vary.  In this relationship, the woman has a strong voice and is equal to the man.  It is important for her not to play the victim, which can sometimes be challenging, as so often in ballet we strive to be soft and light.

Amy Fote & Artists of Houston Ballet in another Jerome Robbins favorite, The Concert p.Amitava Sarkar

Also in these first two weeks back, we focused on the Sir Frederick Ashton ballet, Les Patineurs, the ice skaters; which was first choreographed in 1937 and is danced in one act.  It shows the playful interactions of a party of skaters one afternoon on an ice pond.  Hilary Cartwright was wonderful in staging this work on us.  She was very particular in capturing the details of the style,  as it would have the audience believe that we are in fact skating.  I also found her very insightful, as she shared her knowledge of how the body works, in our company classes that she taught and in her dancer-based yoga classes on Saturday evenings.  The yoga classes were very therapeutic for your body and mind as we massaged our faces and muscles and learned new techniques.  It was the perfect way to start our weekends, feeling refreshed and taller as we left the studio.

Once those ballets were set, Grant Coyle spent time working here with the company to stage the beautiful ballet, Song of the Earth.  In this work, Sir Kenneth MacMillan explores the human struggle to accept mortality.  It is very powerful when paired with the live performance of Mahler’s song cycle Das Lied von der Erde.   The lyrics are from a collection of eighth-century Chinese poems.  In this ballet, the women’s shapes are often curved, as if to mimic these calligraphic writings. In contrast, the men’s movements are more angular and weighty.

As rehearsals for Song of the Earth started my schedule began to change, as I am not involved in this piece.  During an off hour I find myself spending time in our body conditioning studio doing cardio, core strengthening exercises and stretching.  Each day/week is different, depending on which ballets we are focusing on.  Therefore, it is imperative to always have our bodies ready for anything.

As you can see, I am very excited for the beginning of our ’11-’12 season.  I would love for you to come to Wortham Theater Center and enjoy this wonderfully diverse program (Return of the Masters) of In the Night, Les Patineurs and  the very moving Song of the Earth.  And yes,  I know you might be asking, “How can we be doing an ice skating ballet with our record breaking 100+ degree weather?”  Well truly, that is what the magic of the theater is all about.  It takes you to a place where you forget about what is happening in your real life for a few moments,  and it brings you on a completely different journey and experience.  So maybe with this ballet, for even a brief second,  you just might feel a chill.  Enjoy it!  Because when you leave the theater, chances are great that it will be another balmy Houston night.

Hope to see you there!

Amy Fote & Simon Ball in Sir Frederick Ashton's Les Patineurs p. Amitava Sarkar

Blogging from the Road: The Kennedy Center Tour

Guest writer: Jim Nelson, general manager

Monday, June 14
One hour after the curtain fell on Sunday afternoon’s matinee of La Fille mal gardée, sixteen dancers (including the Sunday performance leads Connor Walsh and Melody Herrera), artistic director Stanton Welch, ballet mistress Louise Lester, and Maestro Ermanno Florio headed to IAH to catch the last flight to D.C. to participate in The Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America II festival which opens tomorrow. 

Houston Ballet will kick off the festival with Stanton Welch’s gorgeous ballet Falling.  Also on the program is The Suzanne Farrell Ballet and North Carolina Dance Theatre.

Houston Ballet was included in the inaugural festival in 2008, and we’re thrilled to be asked back for round two.  The Kennedy Center describes the festival as “an exploration of the breadth and depth of the art form, showcasing companies from across the nation.”  Other ballet companies participating in the festival include Pacific Northwest Ballet, Ballet Arizona, Ballet Memphis, Tulsa Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, and The Joffrey Ballet.

Today the dancers are loosening up with a class with Louise Lester, and they will have the remainder of the day to explore D.C. and to rest.  Maestro is rehearsing The Kennedy Center Orchestra and production manager Brian Walker and lighting designer Lisa Pinkham are focusing lights and preparing cues.  Tomorrow is jam-packed with class, dress rehearsal and the opening performance.

The festival is a shining example of the terrific programming The Kennedy Center presents.  The lineup allows dance-goers to see nine great companies over three nights with diverse rep from nine different choreographers such as Balanchine, Duato, Elo, Millipied, Welch and others.  It’s also a great opportunity for the dancers participating in the festival to interact with each other. Houston Ballet dancers will have the opportunity to take class with the dancers from the Suzanne Farrell Ballet and North Carolina Dance Theatre companies during the three days we’re here.

Tuesday, June 15
The dancers have their one rehearsal on The Kennedy Center stage from 2:30-3:30, and it’s their first time to dance Falling with The Kennedy Center Orchestra.  They have just enough time to run the ballet once, go back and correct a few tempos and spacing and re-run problem sections.  Stanton and Louise give the dancers a few notes and then release them for the afternoon.  Houston Ballet is first on the program, and the theater is absolutely packed.  Tonight’s awesome cast is Ian Casady and Melody Herrera, Peter Franc and Amy Fote, Nao Kusuzaki and Chris Coomer, Elise Judson and Joe Walsh, and Connor Walsh and Kelly Myernick.

I’m always struck by the D.C. audience.  They are well informed dance-goers, and they are so responsive.  In some parts of the world, the audience is extremely quiet throughout the ballet—they do not respond to solos or pas de deux sections, and it’s not until the ballet is concluded that you can judge the audience’s reaction.  D.C., like Houston, is on the other end of the spectrum, and they enjoy responding immediately and generously.  Tonight is no exception, and the audience cheers the Houston dancers on throughout the ballet and resoundingly at the end of the ballet.  The bravos and multiple curtain calls are reflected in the dancers’ beaming faces.

-Jim

Photos from dress rehearsal:

Dancers Connor Walsh and Kelly Myernick

Dancer Melody Herrera

Ballet mistress Louise Lester, Maestro Ermanno Florio, and The Kennedy Center Orchestra

Dancers Connor Walsh (left) and Joe Walsh (right)

Left to right: lighting designer Lisa Pinkham, artistic director Stanton Welch, and ballet mistress Louise Lester

What’s in Amy Fote’s Closet?

Principal 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.