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FOR RELEASE IN FEBUARY 20, 2011
CONTACT: SHAUNA TYSOR
713 535 3226
KIM ESPINOSA
713 535 3224
pr@houstonballet.org
HOUSTON BALLET PRESENTS MARIE
Stanton Welch's Marie Offers a Probing Psychological Portrait
of Marie Antoinette
HOUSTON, TEXAS - From February 24 - March 6, 2011, Houston Ballet presents Stanton Welch's Marie, a three-act narrative ballet inspired by the life of the legendary French queen, Marie Antoinette. Marie was born an Austrian archduchess in 1755, married the future French King Louis XVI at the age of 15, and was executed by guillotine at the height of the French Revolution in 1793. Canadian designer Kandis Cook's scenery and costumes for the production create an eighteenth century essence, with an abstract and minimalist feel. Houston Ballet Music Director Ermanno Florio arranged the music of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich to create the dark and brooding score for the work. Houston Ballet will give six performances of Marie at Wortham Theater Center in downtown Houston. Tickets may be purchased by calling 713 227 2787 or by visiting www.houstonballet.org.
Writing in The New Orleans Time Picayune on March 28, 2009, critic Mark Lorando hailed Marie as "an astounding work of theater and dance," praising "the Texas troupe's brilliant, evening-length evocation of the life of French queen Marie Antoinette." He went on to observe, "As a choreographer, Welch seamlessly matched steps to music; as a director, he drew great acting from his dancers, skillfully integrating a centuries-old vocabulary of refined ballet gestures with contemporary mime to telegraph mood and meaning."
"A story ballet is like a fine wine: it gets better with age. It is exciting to return to Marie. The ballet will have a new sense of self, with each role maturing as dancers return to the roles I choreographed on them," comments Mr. Welch. "The more a story ballet is performed, the stronger it gets. The characters come full circle as the dancers understand the roles better."
Famously known as the eighteenth century French queen whose excesses have become legend, Marie Antoinette was blamed for instigating the French Revolution. Thomas Jefferson wrote in his autobiography on Marie Antoinette, "I have ever believed that had there been no queen there would have been no revolution."
"I was intrigued to learn that Marie Antoinette wasn't as superficial as she is often portrayed and found a true character arc in her transition from young princess to spoiled queen to mother to revolutionary victim," says Mr. Welch. "All the intense gossip and scrutiny of the queen's life mirrors our society: how we become fixated on some pretty girl and how through gossip and tabloids, we create a distorted image of someone."
As a 15 year old girl, Marie Antoinette was sent from Vienna to marry the future King Louis XVI. The youngest daughter of Austrian empress Maria Teresa and Francis I, she was sent on a journey by her mother from Vienna to Versailles with the expectation that she would further Austrian interests. Sacrificed to eighteenth century power politics, she arrived in France, a foreigner hardly prepared for the court at Versailles and far from interested in state affairs. Marie threw her energies into extravagant parties and patronizing the arts. The French accused her of political interference and wrote scandalous tracts against her, mocking her lack of sophistication. Longing for a family and the birth of an heir to secure the French-Austrian alliance, Marie's marriage remained unconsummated for seven years, and she had to endure more than eight years of public humiliation for her barren marriage before the delivery of her first of four children.
The revolutionaries who stormed the Bastille found the queen a ready target for all that was wrong with France. Torn from her 100 room palace when a mob of some 7,000 women marched on Versailles and thrust her into jail, she was plunged into despair, only to be transformed by her suffering. She defied her enemies at her trial with intelligence, arousing the admiration of even the most hostile revolutionaries. With new awareness and regal dignity, she mounted the steps of the scaffold to the guillotine, conscious of her failures, doomed by her own tragic flaws, a young woman trapped in a tumultuous moment of history.
Scenic and costume designer Kandis Cook began her research for Marie by visiting Versailles and studying portraits from the time period. "It was important to research eighteenth century Austria, eventually exploring the features of the Hofburg Imperial Palace where Marie and her family frequently lived, but one of many palaces in the city. Its Baroque weight contrasted that of the Rococo lavishness of Versailles, and very quickly clarified the difference in temperament between the two people. Marie was raised in a relaxed and loving family environment and found the court life of France strict in comparison," states Ms. Cook. She created 150 costumes for the ballet based on the style and designs from 1770-1795 Austria and France with powdered wigs and perukes, corsets, panniers, silks, lace, jewels, braided waistcoats and jackets, jabeuxs (the strict formal dress of the ancient regime of France), and the rags of the public.
Ms. Cook has designed narrative ballets for London's Royal Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, Royal Danish Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. She has created the costumes for six of Mr. Welch's works: The Four Seasons (2007) and Marie (2009) for Houston Ballet; Velocity (2003) for The Australian Ballet, Taiko (1999) for San Francisco Ballet, Powder (1998) for Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Fingerprints (2000) for Cincinnati Ballet. She has also designed scenery and costumes for prestigious theaters, including Royal Shakespeare Company, Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Royal Court, and Donmar Warehouse.
The score for Marie features Dmitri Shostakovich's solo piano and chamber music, and excerpts from such compositions as Symphony No. 10, Piano Concerto No. 2, Ballet Suite No. 2 and Jazz Suite No. 2. "We felt Shostakovich would be a wonderful composer for Marie. He was one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century for both the stage and concert hall," comments Mr. Florio. "Stanton made the selection of the music and explained the synopsis of the ballet. I felt the music he had chosen worked extremely well in telling the dramatic and tragic story he had in mind." Houston Ballet presented the world premiere of Marie on February 26, 2009 at Wortham Theater Center and toured the work to New Orleans March 28-29, 2009.
Houston Ballet's performances of Marie are made possible from the generous support of Chevron and The Wortham Foundation.
New Australian First Soloist Danielle Rowe Makes First Appearances
with Houston Ballet
Houston Ballet's new Australian first soloist Danielle Rowe will make her Houston debut in Marie. Critics have praised Ms. Rowe for her "seductive assurance," "transfixing vigor," and "powerful stage presence."
"I first met Danielle when she was a corps member in Australia. I picked her as one of the only non-principals to choreograph Velocity on. Since then I have worked with her steadily, including choreographing Carabosse on her in my Sleeping Beauty," comments Mr. Welch. "She is a very dynamic and diverse dancer who is a great story teller. She caught my eye right away and many of the world's best choreographers, like Christopher Wheeldon, gravitate toward her,."
Ms. Rowe was born in Shepparton, Australia in 1982 and trained at the Cheryl Bradley Dance Studios in South Australia for eleven years, then with Marie Walton-Mahon in Newcastle before moving to Melbourne to join The Australian Ballet School. She joined The Australian Ballet in 2001. In 2005 Ms. Rowe was promoted to soloist and awarded the Lissa Black Memorial Scholarship, which she used to travel to Europe. After many acclaimed lead performances she was promoted to senior artist in 2007 and principal artist in June 2008. Her repertoire highlights include Graeme Murphy's Nutcracker - The Story of Clara in 2009; Baroness von Rothbart in Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake in 2008; Stanton Welch's The Sleeping Beauty in 2005, 2006 and 2007; Peter Wright's The Nutcracker in 2007; as well as numerous other ballet classics.
Newly promoted soloist Katharine Precourt and demi soloist Lauren Ciobanu will also be featured in these performances of Marie. "Both Lauren and Katharine have proven to be important assets to the company and are deserving of this opportunity. Lauren joined our company with valuable prior experience as a principal dancer. 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," comments Mr. Welch. "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."
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 53 dancers with a budget of $18.4 million, a state-of-the-art performance space built especially for the company, Wortham Theater Center, and an endowment of just over $47 million (as of June 2010), making it the United States' fourth largest ballet company by number of dancers. 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. The company has also commissioned new one-act ballets from some of the world's most respected choreographers, including Julia Adam, Christopher Bruce, James Kudelka, Trey McIntyre, Paul Taylor, Glen Tetley, Natalie Weir and Lila York.
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." Dance Europe editor Emma Manning observed of the company in November 2004, "One of the first things that hits you about this company is the technical strengths not just of the principals, but throughout the ranks. Watching artistic director Stanton Welch take class on a Sunday morning before a matinee, one could not help but marvel at the multiple turns tossed off by the young women in the corps....The three new works shown in this program will be followed by no fewer than four more Houston premieres. Can any other major ballet company in the world match that?"
In a move designed to propel Houston Ballet to the next phase of its development, the company broke ground on July 15, 2009 on the Center for Dance, a new 115,000 square-foot facility located in downtown Houston. The building, budgeted at $53 million, is set for completion in the spring of 2011. The six-story building will boast nine dance studios, a dance laboratory for presentations as well as rehearsals, and artistic, administrative and support facilities for Houston Ballet and its Academy. The new facility will more than double the space that Houston Ballet has at its current home, and become the largest facility for dance in America.
Houston Ballet Academy has reached over 19,000 Houston area students (as of the 2009-2010 season) 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.
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