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FOR RELEASE AUGUST 3, 2011
CONTACT: SHAUNA TYSOR
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KIM ESPINOSA
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HOUSTON BALLET ANNOUNCES TOURING SCHEDULE
FOR THE 2011-2012 SEASON
Houston Ballet Makes First Appearances at The Joyce Theater
in New York City October 11- 16, 2011
Houston Ballet returns to Minneapolis in March 2012
Houston Ballet II tours to Baton Rouge, Louisiana
and Las Vegas, Nevada
Houston, TX - Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch announced touring plans for both the company and second company's 2011-2012 season today, including Houston Ballet's debut performances at The Joyce Theater in New York City October 11-16; a pas de deux performance at the Career Transition for Dancers' 26th Anniversary Jubilee on October 31; and a return to Minneapolis on March 23-24, 2012. Houston Ballet II gives its first performances in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on October 11; Alexandria, Louisiana on January 22, 2012; and Las Vegas, Nevada on April 14, 2012 as well as around Houston.
The company begins its touring in October 2011 with the company's debut at The Joyce Theater in New York City with a program designed to showcase the company's contemporary repertoire, featuring two pieces which were commissioned especially for Houston Ballet. Known as the country's foremost dance venue The Joyce Theater has honored Houston Ballet with the first ever Rudolph Nureyev Prize - a $25,000 grant in support of the creation of a new contemporary work by Jorma Elo set to music by Mozart, ONE/end/ONE, which premiered in Houston in May 2011.
DanceSourceHouston observed that Elo's ONE/end/ONE "turn[ed] tradition and expectation on their side, if not completely on their head." Elo's ONE/end/ONE will be performed in the intimate space of The Joyce Theater alongside Hush, a celebration of the life of a troupe of travelling theatrical performers created especially for Houston Ballet in 2006 by the celebrated English dance maker Christopher Bruce, who has been Houston Ballet's associate choreographer since 1989; and Falling Angels, one of Czech master Jiří Kylián's celebrated "black and white ballets," created for eight female dancers in 1989 and set to set to the first movement of Steve Reich's Drumming.
The week of performances at the Joyce Theater will also be the first time the company will appear in a full season of performances in New York City in 25 years. (Houston Ballet gave its first performances in New York City at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in April 1981. The company danced Ben Stevenson's staging of Swan Lake and Peer Gynt at City Center in October 1985.) For additional information, visit www.joyce.org.
"I am thrilled to have Houston Ballet receive the first ever Nureyev Prize. This prize has been beneficial in making Houston Ballet's first commissioned work by Jorma Elo," comments Mr. Welch. "Houston Ballet is also honored to be asked perform in New York City at The Joyce Theater. This theater has been such an important part of dance in New York City, America, and the world. We are very much looking forward to our debut season at The Joyce Theater."
On October 31 two of Houston Ballet's dancers will perform a pas de deux from Giselle at the Career Transition for Dancers' 26th Anniversary Jubilee "A Halloween Thriller" at New York City Center's main stage. For additional information, visit www.nycitycenter.org.
From March 23-24, 2012 Houston Ballet will tour a mixed bill to the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On March 23, the company will perform Stanton Welch's Indigo, Elo's ONE/end/ONE, and Christopher Wheeldon's Rush. On March 24 the company will perform Jerome Robbins's In the Night, Elo's ONE/end/ONE, and Wheeldon's Rush. Mr. Welch's Indigo, created in 1999 on Houston Ballet, is described by The Houston Chronicle as "a warp-speed deconstruction of classical ballet movements." Indigo has emerged as a signature work for Houston Ballet, and was performed as part of the company's tour to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 2003. Houston Ballet last performed in Minneapolis in October 2005. For additional information, visit www.hennepintheatretrust.org.
Houston Ballet II's 2011-2012 touring season includes performances in Houston with the Houston Symphony on October 15 at Jones Hall and with Musiqa, the nationally acclaimed contemporary music ensemble, on January 7, 2012 in Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. The second company will be taking various mixed bills to River Center Theatre for the Performing Arts in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on October 11; Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center in Alexandria, Louisiana on January 22, 2012; and Las Vegas, Nevada on April 14, 2012 at the University of Nevada. The youthful and vibrant company aims to brings ballet performances to audiences in smaller communities.
The dancers of Houston Ballet II are coached by the internationally recognized Claudio Munoz, ballet master for Houston Ballet II; Sabrina Lenzi, ballet mistress for Houston Ballet II; Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch; and Houston Ballet's artistic staff. In recent seasons Houston Ballet II has traveled to the Organizacion Para Las Artes in Guatemala City, Guatemala and Folly Theater in Kansas City, Missouri in October 2010; Budapest (International Youth Festival in October 2008 and 2011); and to New York's prestigious City Center for Music & Dance (in January 2007).
Houston Ballet's touring engagements are supported in part by the Fayez Sarofim & Co. Touring Fund.
About Houston Ballet
On February 17, 1969 a troupe of 15 young dancers made its stage debut at Sam Houston State Teacher's College in Huntsville, Texas. Since that time, Houston Ballet has evolved into a company of 52 dancers with a budget of $19.2 million (making it the United States' fourth largest ballet company by number of dancers); a state-of-the-art performance space built especially for the company, Wortham Theater Center; the largest professional dance facility in America, Houston Ballet's $46.6 million Center for Dance which opened in April 2011; and an endowment of just over $57.6 million (as of May 2011).
Australian choreographer Stanton Welch has served as artistic director of Houston Ballet since 2003, raising the level of the company's classical technique and commissioning many new works from dance makers such as Christopher Bruce, Jorma Elo, James Kudelka, Trey McIntyre, Julia Adam, Natalie Weir and Nicolo Fonte. Under the administrative leadership of managing director C.C. Conner since 1995, the company has maintained a strong financial position.
Houston Ballet has toured extensively both nationally and internationally. Over the last decade, the company has appeared in London at Sadler's Wells, at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, in six cities in Spain, in Montréal, at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in New York at City Center, and in cities large and small across the United States. Houston Ballet has emerged as a leader in the expensive, labor-intensive task of nurturing the creation and development of new full-length narrative ballets.
Writing in The Financial Times on March 6, 2006, dance critic Hilary Ostlere praised Houston Ballet as "a strong, reinvigorated company whose male contingent is particularly impressive, a well-drilled corps and an enviable selection of soloists and principals."
Houston Ballet Orchestra was established in the late 1970s and currently consists of 61 professional musicians who play all ballet performances at Wortham Theater Center under music director Ermanno Florio.
Houston Ballet's Education and Outreach Program has reached over 22,000 Houston area students (as of the 2010-2011 season). Houston Ballet's Academy has 419 students and has had four academy students win prizes at the prestigious international ballet competition the Prix de Lausanne, with one student winning the overall competition in 2010.
For more information on Houston Ballet visit www.houstonballet.org.
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HOUSTON BALLET
2011-2012 TOURING
FACT SHEET
Houston Ballet Touring
Houston Ballet's touring engagements are supported in part by the Fayez Sarofim & Co. Touring Fund.
October 11-16, 2011
New York City
Houston Ballet at The Joyce Theater
For additional information, visit www.joyce.org
October 31, 2011
New York City
Houston Ballet at Career Transition for Dancers' 26th Anniversary Jubilee "A Halloween Thriller" at New York City Center
For additional information, visit www.nycitycenter.org.
March 23-24, 2012
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Houston Ballet at Orpheum Theatre
For additional information, visit www.hennepintheatretrust.org
Houston Ballet II Touring
October 11, 2011
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Houston Ballet II at River Center Theatre for the Performing Arts
For additional information, visit www.batonrougeballet.org
October 15, 2011
Houston
Houston Ballet II performs with Houston Symphony at Jones Hall
For additional information, visit www.houstonsymphony.org
January 7, 2012
Houston
Houston Ballet II performs with Musiqa at The Hobby Center
For additional information, visit www.musiqahouston.org
January 22, 2012
Alexandria, Louisiana
Houston Ballet II at Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center
For additional information, visit www.rapidessymphony.org
April 14, 2012
Las Vegas, Nevada
Houston Ballet II at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
For additional information, visit http://pac.unlv.edu/index.php
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