Click here to download pdf

Click here for photo gallery

FOR RELEASE ON AUGUST 22, 2010
CONTACT: SHAUNA TYSOR
KIM ESPINOSA
713 535 3226
pr@houstonballet.org

Houston Ballet II Announces 2010-2011 Touring Schedule 

Houston Ballet II Launches Season with an International Tour to Guatemala, Followed by 9 Cities Across the U.S.

HOUSTON, TEXAS- Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch announces the 2010-2011 touring schedule for HB II including venues in Guatemala, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, South Carolina and Florida. Performances throughout the tour will include Mr. Welch's The Long and Winding Road and Blue, Marius Petipa's Raymonda Act III staged by Claudio Muñoz, Garrett Smith's Den III and Ma Cong's Calling.

On October 12-13, Houston Ballet II kicks off its fall tours in Guatemala City with a mixed repertory performance at the Organizacion Para Las Artes. Houston Ballet's second company is not new to international tours, having made appearances in Mexico in October 2006 (at the Seminario Internacional de Critica de Danza Dance Festival) and Hungary in October 2008 (at the International Youth Festival).

Houston Ballet II will continue its touring schedule by performing at Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts in Springfield, MO on October 26. On October 28-29 the dancers will perform at the Emporia Arts Council in Emporia, KS. Then the company will travel to Kansas City, MO for a performance at the Folly Theater on October 30. The dancers will end their fall tour in Minnesota by performing at The Reif Center in Grand Rapids on November 2, and the Page Theater of St. Mary's University in Winona on November 4.

On January 23, 2011 the Houston Ballet II dancers will perform in Clemson, SC at the Brooks Center. Then, they will travel to Florida to perform at the Coral Lakes Clubhouse Theater in Coral Lakes on January 25, the Palm Isle Theater in Palm Isle on January 26 and their last performance will be at the Big Arts in Sanibel on January 29.

The Long and Winding Road, choreographed by Stanton Welch, is a work set to music by the Beatles and orchestrated by Peter Breiner in the style of Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian Bach. Included in the piece are nine songs, including favorites such as "And I Love Her" and "Goodnight." Shelly Power, associate director of Houston Ballet's Academy, describes The Long and Winding Road as "classical dance expressed in a contemporary way...Stanton has an amazing way of creating language through movement that speaks to the dynamics of emotions."

Stanton Welch's energetic early work Blue is an ode to the beauty of classical dance and the body set to music by Antonio Vivaldi. Blue explores different emotions through the colors of chakras, the seven energy centers of the body. Barbara Zuck of The Columbus Dispatch describes Blue as demonstrating "Mr. Welch's strong grounding in classical ballet and his ability to find new things to say in this established vocabulary. Dancers flash across the stage in perfectly timed leaping or running entrances and exits. Many bravura solos give the work a virtuosic edge." (February 11, 2005)

Showcasing their classical technique, Houston Ballet II performs the extravagant third act of the love story Raymonda, choreographed by Marius Petipa and first performed at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1898. Set in the time of the Crusades, the ballet's heroine Raymonda has been saved by her fiancée Jean de Brienne, a Christian knight, from abduction by the Saracen knight Abderakhman. Act three depicts the marriage and celebration of noble Raymonda and de Brienne, and provides a feast of spectacular classical dance. Houston Ballet II Ballet Master Claudio Muñoz has staged Raymonda for the second company.

Den III, choreographed by Garrett Smith, is an exciting and edgy work for four dancers set to the music of the Flemish Renaissance composer Tielman Susato with eye-catching costumes by Travis Halsey. The company toured Den III with great acclaim to Budapest, Hungary in November 2008. Recipient of the New York Choreographic Institute award, Garrett Smith studied in and graduated from Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy, created several works while still a student in the Academy, performed with HBII, and is now a member of the professional company. Den III is Mr. Smith's third piece for Houston Ballet II.

Acclaimed choreographer Ma Cong created Calling specifically for Houston Ballet II in 2010. Calling is a modern piece for six dancers set to the music of Goran Bregovic, a Yugoslav musician of Serbian and Croatian decent whose music and life inspired the piece, combined with the music of Kroke, a Polish musical group. The passionate voice in the Mediterranean music lends itself to the playful and energetic movement which is filled with delicate partnering. Mr. Cong is a principal dancer and resident choreographer with Tulsa Ballet. He has created works for Tulsa Ballet, for Ballet Met in Ohio and Colorado's Ballet Nouveau.

About Houston Ballet II

Houston Ballet II is the second company of Houston Ballet, America's fourth largest ballet company. Featuring a stellar array of artists, Houston Ballet II performs a wide array of dance works, ranging from excerpts from the great classics such as The Sleeping Beauty to contemporary works by Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch.

The company tours both nationally and internationally. HBII dancers have competed in China (at the Beijing International Ballet Invitational in October 2008), and in Switzerland where three Houston Ballet II dancers placed as finalists at the 2010 Prix de Lausanne, with then Houston Ballet II dancer Emanuel Amuchastegui winning the entire competition. Most recently, HBII performed at the University of New Hampshire at Durham in October 2009, and on May 7, 2010 in Irvine, California as part of the program Protégés & Stars.

Under the direction of Stanton Welch and Shelly Power, associate director of the academy, Houston Ballet II dancers are led by the internationally acclaimed coaches and teachers Claudio Muñoz, ballet master for Houston Ballet II; Sabrina Lenzi, ballet mistress for Houston Ballet II and Houston Ballet's artistic staff including: Phillip Broomhead, Lynne Charles, Louise Lester, Steven Woodgate, Priscilla Nathan-Murphy and Cheryne Busch.