A Word with Caue: Looking Back and What’s Next

Guest Writer: Ellie Weeks, Academy Intern

Welcome back to our 2012 Summer Intensive video blog! The fifth week of Houston Ballet’s Summer Intensive Program is finishing up. The Summer Showcase is next week, and dancers are busy rehearsing for the final performance. In this week’s video, Caue, a level 8 student from Brazil, looks back on the past five weeks at Houston Ballet’s Summer Intensive. He discusses his preparations for the Summer Showcase and what’s next for him!

Come back next week for a final video blog — featuring Andrea, Caue, and other Summer Intensive dancers!

-Ellie

HBII Touring Update from Guatemala and the U.S. Midwest

Guest writer: Jim Nelson, general manager

We are in the home stretch of Houston Ballet II’s fall touring schedule.

Earlier this month, Houston Ballet II gave two performances in Guatemala City at the Universidad Francisco Marroquin. The program featured Stanton Welch’s Long and Winding Road and Blue, Ma Cong’s Calling (created on HBII last season), and Claudio Muñoz’s staging of Act III of Raymonda. The dancers performed beautifully for the two packed performances and were received warmly by the audience. After the first performance, a dinner was held in the company’s honor given by our presenter—Geraldina Baca Spross and her board of directors. Following the second performance, the dancers were congratulated by Stephen McFarland, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, on their tremendous performance, and he thanked Houston Ballet for the outreach activities conducted during HBII’s time in Guatemala.

Ballet master Claudio Munoz teaching a master class in Guatemala

Luckily, we had the very good fortune to be able to fit in an excursion to the ancient former capital of Guatemala, Antigua. The dancers spent the morning learning about Antigua and visiting ruins and restored structures before heading back to Guatemala City for their second performance.

We’re now nearly finished with the 7-performance, 5-city tour of the Midwest, and this hasn’t been a leisurely tour for anyone. With the exception of Kansas City, each location required some significant travel. We left Houston on October 25 and flew to Kansas City. Production manager Brian Walker and I each drove a 15 passenger van filled with dancers and costumes to our first stop in Springfield, Missouri. After a full day of travel, the dancers had an evening class to get their bodies ready for the next day, which involved a 10:00 am student performance followed by a short rehearsal and an evening performance. We performed at a terrific venue called the Juanita K. Hammons Hall on the campus of the Missouri State University to an extremely responsive audience. It was a great performance and a great way to kick off the Midwest tour.

On October 27, we traveled to Emporia, Kansas for Stop #2. In retrospect, I question the wisdom of relying on Google Maps for navigation. We drove for four hours without seeing much of anything other than cows and farmland. It was two lane roads with no gas stations, no fast food, and not a rest stop in sight. The dancers cheered when we pulled up to a Subway about an hour outside of Emporia.

Our view for most of the tour.

The Emporia performance was on the campus of Emporia State University at Albert Taylor Hall, and the dancers were very warmly received. I have to say that I’ve been very impressed with the dedication of the presenting organizations who have booked Houston Ballet II. For a city like Emporia with a population of 26,000 people, I’m encouraged to see arts presenters bringing dance to their communities. The dancers performed a student show on Friday morning before making the two hour drive to Kansas City.

Kansas City was well positioned in the middle of the tour and on Halloween weekend. The dancers enjoyed being in a bit larger city with more food options and with a fraction more free time than the previous two cities. They also raved about their sleep number beds! The afternoon that we arrived, Claudio led a master class at Kansas City Ballet. All of the HBII dancers attended, along with the top level students of Kansas City Ballet.

Ballet master Claudio Munoz teaching a master class at Kansas City Ballet. Photo courtesy of William Jewell.

For the Kansas City engagement, Houston Ballet principal dancers Mireille Hassenboehler and Jun Shuang Huang joined HBII to perform The Sleeping Beauty pas de deux and the lead roles of Raymonda and Jean de Brienne in Raymonda, Act III. I could tell how excited the young dancers were to be performing with our principals, and it was a spectacular performance. Academy director Shelly Power also joined us for Kansas City. Thanks Shelly for the making the trip to support HBII!

On Sunday, we flew from Kansas City to Chicago and Chicago to Duluth, Minnesota. Then we drove an hour and a half from Duluth to Grand Rapids. Grand Rapids is the smallest town on the tour with a population of 8,000. It was a great surprise a few weeks ago to learn that one of our former HBII dancers, Daniel Blake, is now heading the dance program at the Reif Center in Grand Rapids. Daniel and his wife Julia hosted a post-performance party at their home for the HBII dancers.

Today we’re traveling to Winona, Minnesota for the last city in our Midwest tour. It’s a long trek to Winona, and I know the dancers will be glad to get a good night’s sleep before their final show at the Page Theater on the campus of St. Mary’s University.

This year marks the most ambitious touring schedule ever for Houston Ballet II, and having seen every performance so far, I’m thrilled to report that the effort has paid off. Dancers need performances to grow as artists, and these opportunities are golden in developing young dancers. The level of responsibility we’re giving these 16-19 year old dancers is huge, and they have truly risen to the occasion. The next time you see one of the HBII dancers, please give them a word of congratulations for representing Houston Ballet so well.

-Jim

Blogging from the Road: HBII’s Tour to Germany

Guest writer:  Jim Nelson, general manager

It is so gratifying to look back over the past few years and see the growth of our second company, Houston Ballet II (HBII).

While so many dance companies say they have a second company, when you look closely they are generally a group of upper level students who sometimes dance with the first company in larger productions like The Nutcracker, Swan Lake or The Sleeping Beauty.  Rarely are these junior companies giving their own fully-produced performances in professional venues. 

That is what sets Houston Ballet’s second company apart from the majority of dance companies around the globe.  In 2006, we took a leap of faith that our second company was ready to give public performances that had less of a graduation concert feel or educational/outreach focus.  Our first season on the road included a terrific trip to Monterrey, Mexico as part of the Extremadura Gran Festival Internacional de Danza Contemporanea.  Since 2006, HBII has performed internationally in Hungary and China as well as nationally in Louisiana, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma.  Additionally, HBII performs regularly in Houston at Wortham Theater Center, Discovery Green, Miller Outdoor Theatre, and the Moores School of Music at The University of Houston.

From April 18-28, I’ll be accompanying HBII to Germany for a five-performance, two-city tour.  We’re traveling with 12 dancers, ballet master Claudio Muñoz, and production manager Brian Walker.  We will give four performances in Schweinfurt and one performance in Villingen-Schwenningen.  We fly from Houston to Frankfurt and then bus to Schweinfurt.  The repertoire for this tour is Stanton Welch’s Long and Winding Road and Blue, Garrett Smith’s Den III, and Claudio Muñoz’s staging of excerpts from Raymonda (Act III).  And while the dancers are all quite young (16-18), there is nothing junior or watered down when these dancers take the stage.

This tour is a real milestone for HBII, and I’m terribly proud of all they have achieved.  The touring component is only one part of the HBII program, but it serves us in providing additional performance opportunities, expanding our national and international presence, and attracting the best dancers we can find to Houston Ballet and the Houston Ballet Academy.  The success of the program is the result of the great work of the Houston Ballet Academy, which is led by Stanton Welch, Shelly Power and ballet masters Claudio Muñoz and Sabrina Lenzi.  I don’t know of another second company that has the level of dancers we do:  three Prix de Lausanne finalists (including a winner) in a group of twelve dancers!

I’ll be sending photo updates and blogs from overseas.  Follow us while we embark on this great adventure!

-Jim

Our life in pictures

Guest writer: Sarah Meals, marketing manager

Dear HB blog followers,

Please accept our humblest apologies for the lack of bloggage lately!  As you’ll see in this update, we’ve had our hands a bit full since the Prix de Lausanne.  Let’s get started…

In case you missed it, we announced our 2010-2011 season in late January.  We’re incredibly excited about the mix of premieres (like Balanchine’s Jewels) and tried-and-true fan favorites (like Ben Stevenson’s The Sleeping Beauty).  The ticketing department is in high gear taking subscription orders, while the marketing/PR department is already discussing the 2011-2012 season photo shoot.  It’s amazing (and stressful) to be working on three seasons at once!

We opened the world premiere of Stanton Welch’s La Bayadère on February 25 to packed houses and rousing applause.  By the end of the run, the dancers, artistic staff, production crew, and costume shop were completely exhausted, but incredibly pleased with the results.

Sara Webb, Connor Walsh, Nicholas Leschke, and Artists of Houston Ballet in La Bayadere. Photo by Amitava Sarkar.

Snake handler Clint Pustejovsky congratulates his pal on a show well done. Photo by Mary Stephens of the Art Institute of Houston North.

On March 10, we held a topping off ceremony for our new Houston Ballet Center for Dance.  Patrons, staff, and dancers watched as the final steel beam was lifted by crane and drilled into place.  You can see some great images on the Houston Chronicle website, and watch a video documentary of the day on our YouTube channel.  Many thanks to all of you who attended and/or sent us well-wishes on Facebook.

Houston Ballet Center for Dance Topping Off Ceremony

Artistic director Stanton Welch leaves his mark on the final beam. Photo by Jim Caldwell.

Dancers Liao Xiang and Michael McGonegal (as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Nutcracker Prince) take in the view from the top of the Center for Dance. Photo by Jim Caldwell.

On March 11, we opened our winter mixed repertory program American at Heart, which included revivals of two fan favorites (Balanchine’s Apollo and Bruce’s Hush) and a Houston Ballet premiere of Robbins’s Fancy Free.  The rep really showed off the company’s versatility:  you can’t get two more different dance vocabularies than Apollo and Hush.

Kelly Myernick and Nicholas Leschke in Hush. Photo by Amitava Sarkar.

Ian Casady and Artists of Houston Ballet in Fancy Free. Photo by Amitava Sarkar.

 Next up is the Academy Spring Showcase, running April 16-17.  Our students are busily preparing their rep, including Stanton Welch’s Studies and Long and Winding Road.  This Friday, resident choreographer and principal dancer at Tulsa Ballet Ma Cong will be in town rehearsing his new ballet Calling, which will be premiered by our HBII students at the Spring Showcase.

Francesca Forcella and Nayon Iovino rehearsing Ma Cong's Calling. Photo by Mitch Walker.

Next week the professional company will take a much-needed break before diving into rehearsals for our final two productions of the season, Pecos and La Fille mal gardée.  All of the ballets are relatively lighthearted and witty, so hopefully fans and artists alike will end the season with a smile.

That’s a wrap for now!  Hope you enjoyed the photos and we look forward to sharing the rest of our spring season with you all.

Photo by Casey Ayala of the Art Institute of Houston North.

On the road to the Prix de Lausanne, part II

Guest writer: Shelly Power, associate director of Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy

We entered Switzerland and immediately I remembered that I wish I spoke at least one other language. I am traveling with two of three students who speak two languages, and Emanuel speaks four! Now that my ego is totally destroyed I will attempt to have them get me on the right train to Lausanne!

We arrived in Lausanne and Liao said “Oh this is so much fun! It looks like Beijing!” Not sure what reminded her, but her exuberance is delightful. Aaron has never been on a train and is anxious for a snow storm (something about making snow angels).  Emanuel is in his element; he loves to travel and seems to ease into a new climate.

We taxied to our next destination, which is the home of a Houstonian and former Houston Ballet level 8 student Kathleen McClure, who is here studying at the Bejart School. Her family has generously offered a few beds for the week. The Bejart School, by the way, offers a full-on arts program that not only teaches many disciplines of art, but also offers the philosophy of each art form and how it cultivates a dancer’s identity and movement. Kathleen expressed her expanded view of movement and how she is learning to dance from the inside out rather than just the opposite. She is speaking pretty good French now and managed to get us through the grocery store and a 45-minute post office fiasco. She’s definitely given us a better sense of the Suisse way of life! She has been a gracious hostess, and we are so grateful to her family for their generosity.

After you have been in Lausanne even for one hour, it is not hard to hear your conversations reeking of ART! Every nook and cranny has a larger-than-life Prix de Lausanne poster reminding everyone of this fantastic week of dance. If you saw last week’s Houston Chronicle travel section, you may have seen the article on Switzerland. I only wish they had acknowledged this great event!

We stopped by the Theater to get acclimated to what will be our new home for the next few days. The Prix committee is exceptionally organized, and it was evident as soon as we arrived. Packets were assembled; big screen projectors set up for up-and-coming final selection announcements (picture your number up on the board as one of the contestants passing to the next round. It’s very dramatic as the crowd waits with baited breath for results on Saturday); and seminar-like chair groupings for informational sessions on Tuesday, the first day of the Prix.

We toured the theater and studios, then it was time to do some stretching and testing of the new raked studio flooring. The stage being a 5% raked slope may be normal to many European dancers, but for Americans it is quite a change.  Imagine dancing and jumping uphill!  This year the Prix decided to address our concerns about dancing on such a stage with a little rehearsal time; they managed to turn one of the studios into a raked practice floor. Aaron, Liao and Emanuel all were smiling as they jumped and turned, trying to feel a new sense of balance and muscle connection. Each one seemed to adapt quickly with almost a sense of confidence right away. This too is a wonderful trait of young people; they seem to just roll with the punches and enjoy each new experience and challenge as it comes their way, without overthinking any of it.

By 6:00 pm we were all ready for some shuteye, but I advised them all to stay up a little longer. Aaron decided to sleep for the next 15 hours and forego any worries of a 3 am wake-up (he assures me that he can sleep for days).  Emanuel is not going to sleep until his dad arrives, as he is excited that his dad is coming to Lausanne to see him dance.  He has not seen his father in over a year! Liao makes me a quick Chinese noodle delight and confesses that her time awake is over as well.

I, on the other hand, will now await the arrival of our HBII Ballet Master Claudio Munoz, who will take over the duties of overseeing our students so I can concentrate on judging. He and HBII Ballet Mistress Sabrina Lenzi have worked long and hard to prepare these three HBIIs for this competition, and I know they are eager to see the week progress.

At the hotel I meet with my fellow jury members for dinner and prepare for tomorrow’s first day, which begins at 9:00 am and ends around 7:00 pm. Should be a fine first day!

-Shelly

Free Performance by HBII This Weekend at Miller Outdoor Theatre

Join 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!