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FOR RELEASE ON JANUARY 23, 2011
CONTACT: SHAUNA TYSOR
713 535 3226
KIM ESPINOSA
713 535 3224
pr@houstonballet.org

HOUSTON BALLET DANCERS
KATHARINE PRECOURT AND LAUREN CIOBANU PROMOTED

Katharine Precourt Rises to Soloist
and Lauren Ciobanu Named a Demi Soloist 

Houston, Texas - Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch promoted Katharine Precourt to the rank of soloist dancer and Lauren Ciobanu to the rank of demi soloist dancer.

"Both Katharine and Lauren have proven to be important assets to the company and are deserving of this opportunity. Katharine was featured as Gamazatti in my premiere of La Bayadére and is a lovely Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen in The Nutcracker. This season she also showed her diversity by performing in both Rubies and Emeralds. She is a unique sort of artist who draws people's attention. There's no limitation with her; she can move at any speed," comments Mr. Welch. "Lauren joined our company with valuable prior experience as a principal dancer at Sarasota Ballet. She shined in the lead role in La Fille mal gardèe as well as in performances as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker and has been noticed by choreographers such as Jorma Elo, who has cast her to learn his world premiere for the company debuting in May."

Ms. Ciobanu remarks on her promotion, "It's really an honor to be promoted. I was really surprised when Stanton and the artistic staff told me. I will try to continue to prove myself worthy and look forward to the new opportunities it might bring me this season." 

Ms. Precourt remarks, "This promotion means a lot to me. It made me very happy and I am thankful to Stanton for it. It is a great feeling to have your work recognized and an added incentive to push forward and set new goals for yourself." 

Katharine Precourt was born in San Diego, California and began her dance training at the San Diego School of Ballet. Ms. Precourt attended summer intensive programs on full merit scholarship at Houston Ballet's Academy, the School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and San Francisco Ballet. In 2002 she continued her training in Houston as a member of Houston Ballet II and was offered an apprenticeship with the company in 2004 and in 2008 was promoted to demi soloist.

With Houston Ballet, Ms. Precourt has danced in Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun, Fancy Free and The Ballerina in The Concert, the leading female role in William Forsythe's In the middle, somewhat elevated, Jiří Kylián's Petite Mort and Falling Angels, the Dark Angel in George Balanchine's Serenade and Calliope in Apollo, the Hungarian and Russian Princesses in Stanton Welch's Swan Lake and Gamzatti in La Bayadère, the Mistress in Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Manon, as well as the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen and Lead Flower in Ben Stevenson's The Nutcracker. She was featured in Mr. Welch's Divergence, Nosotros, Brigade, Punctilious, Cinderella, Mediaeval Babes and Marie, Hans van Manen's Grosse Fuge and Five Tangos, Balanchine's Symphony in C, Ballo della Regina and Jewels, Antony Tudor's The Leaves are Fading, Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room, and Mr. Stevenson's Coppelia. Ms. Precourt was a Ballet Award winner in the 2004 ARTS competition sponsored by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and was invited to perform at the 2005 ARTS Gala in Miami. She was also the recipient of a 2002 Scholarship Award from Regional Dance America.

In Dance Magazine's April 2009 issue, writer Nancy Wozny called Ms. Precourt "dynamic and fearless" and a dancer who "has shown range and depth."

Lauren Ciobanu joined Houston Ballet in 2009. A native of Los Gatos, California she trained at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. and the John Cranko-Schule in Stuttgart, Germany before joining Sarasota Ballet in 2002. So far this season Ms. Ciobanu debuted as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Ben Stevenson's The Nutcracker and was featured in the world premiere of Garrett Smith's Vivacious Dispositions for which Houston Chronicle dance critic Molly Glentzer described her as "strong, supple" with "a plucky attitude."

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