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FOR RELEASE DECEMBER 10, 2010
CONTACT: SHAUNA TYSOR
713 535 3226
KIM ESPINOSA
713 535 3224
pr@houstonballet.org                

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS ANNOUNCES
GRANT TO HOUSTON BALLET 

$50,000 grant will support the world premiere of a new work by Jorma Elo and the American premiere of Christopher Bruce's Grinning in Your Face in May 2011 

Houston, TX - Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, today announced that Houston Ballet has been approved for a grant of $50,000 to support the world premiere of a new work by celebrated Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo and the acquisition of a work new to the company's repertoire that will debut in the spring of 2010. Houston Ballet is one of 1,057 not-for-profit organizations recommended for a grant as part of the federal agency's first round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the Arts Endowment will distribute $26.68 million to support projects nationwide.

An independent agency of the federal government, the National Endowment for the Arts advances artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman said, "I continue to be impressed with the creative, innovative, and excellent projects brought forward by arts organizations across the country. Our grantees are not only furthering their art forms but also enhancing their neighborhoods by making them more vibrant, livable, and fun."

Director of Institutional Giving at Houston Ballet, Judy Waters remarks, "The National Endowment for the Arts has a long history of supporting innovative new works at Houston Ballet. Receiving a grant from the NEA is a huge vote of confidence. The NEA champions new works by living choreographers, and this support is critical in establishing a solid future for the art of ballet."

The National Endowment for the Arts grant will help fund Houston Ballet's spring repertory program, a powerhouse of twenty-first century ballet, including the world premiere of a commissioned work by celebrated Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo. He is one of Europe's most in-demand dance makers and has created pieces for Boston Ballet, American Ballet Theater, and New York City Ballet.

The spring repertory will also include the American premiere of Christopher Bruce's Grinning in your Face. Set to music of the same name by blues guitarist Martin Simpson, Grinning in your Face evokes a Midwestern American community in the 1940's, and features many hallmarks of Bruce's work: conflict, love, and rejection with a dose of folksy humor. 

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 hit 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, which will cost $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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The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government that has awarded more than $4 billion on projects of artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector.  To join the discussion on how art works, visit the National Endowment for the Arts at arts.gov.