Rock, Roll & Tutus: Christopher Bruce's Rooster,
Stanton Welch's Divergence and World Premiere

From February 8-18, 2012, Houston Ballet's exhilarating winter repertory program, Rock, Roll & Tutus, features a world premiere by Stanton Welch set to Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 and choreographed to highlight the strengths of Houston Ballet dancers, as well as revivals of Christopher Bruce's Rooster, a fast-paced romp of machismo and nostalgia set to music by The Rolling Stones, and Mr. Welch's sexy and explosive look at the mechanics of ballet in Divergence.

Rooster, the smash hit by Houston Ballet Associate Choreographer Christopher Bruce, received its American premiere by Houston Ballet in 1995. Set to eight classic tracks by The Rolling Stones, including "Sympathy for the Devil," "Paint it Black," and "Ruby Tuesday," Rooster has become a signature piece for the company. Hailed by The Dallas Morning News as "fast, furious and wild," Houston Ballet has electrified audiences from Shanghai to South Carolina with this work. 

On its surface, Rooster is a riotous evocation of the mating rituals of hip young Londoners during the "Swinging Sixties." But critics delving deeper into the work have found other layers of meaning. At its wildly successful American premiere, Margaret Putnam, dance critic for The Dallas Morning News, wrote, "On a superficial level, the subject [of Rooster] is machismo and vanity, about the strut and swagger of young, cocksure males. But behind the bravado is despair, the sense that these youths are staring straight into a future of picket lines and cramped lives. Rooster even manages to transcend the music, no small feat." (May 28, 1995)

Originally premiered by the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève on October 10, 1991, Rooster has been performed to overwhelming popular and critical acclaim worldwide. The London opening of the ballet at Sadler's Wells Theater in November 1992 was a glittering international event. Prince Andrew was in attendance, as was Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger. When asked what he thought of Rooster after the performance, Mr. Jagger responded, "I love it! It was great. I was looking at them and thinking 'that's a good move, I must nick that.'"  He brought his children back to see a matinee performance of Rooster, and hired three of the Rooster dancers to appear in his next video.

The response of the public and the press to Rooster was equally enthusiastic. At a performance in Liverpool, The London Times reported that a group of teenagers greeted the piece with deafening cheers. Judith MacKrell of London's The Independent called Rooster "a sensation," writing that "sex, machismo, parody, and deep, deep nostalgia hung in the air." She also praised Mr. Bruce's "effortless reams of driving, exhilarating dance."

Mr. Welch will reprise his sexy, explosive Divergence. Set to Georges Bizet's L’ Arlésienne, Suites No. 1 & 2 and featuring Vanessa Leyonhjelm's provocative industrial strength costumes, Mr. Welch's Divergence is classical dance with a punch. It is an extraordinarily demanding bravura showpiece for the entire company.

The work, which was created for The Australian Ballet in 1994, had its Houston premiere in 2004, and has emerged as a signature work for the company in performances from Canada to Spain. Molly Glentzer, dance critic for the Houston Chronicle, exclaimed, "Wow. Am I just giddy with love at first sight, or is Divergence the coolest thing Houston Ballet has ever done? If this is 21st century ballet, bring it on." (February 28, 2004)

Mr. Welch comments, "For years I had heard that classical ballet was dying; staggering along like some prehistoric creature, tiredly dragging its old and limited repertoire around. I have never believed this. I was raised on the beauty of classical ballet and have never seen its limitations.

"I wanted to take classical ballet, and diverge from it. The first image in the work is what one would consider very traditional classical ballet. From then on, I kept branching off into different paths. I wanted to show the women working as hard as the men. I wanted to show the inside of ballet, to make it look difficult and athletic. I wanted to show the pain and the strength and the difficulty behind what the dancers were doing, rather than hide it.

"Divergence reveals the mechanics of ballet. So much of classical ballet is about making hard things look easy, so I let the dancers make the hard things look hard – and then made them harder."