Houston Ballet’s artistic achievements resonated in profound ways during the seven years leading up to Artistic Director Stanton Welch AM’s 20th Anniversary Season (2023 – 2024). The Company had barely recovered from the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey, which struck Houston in September 2017, when the COVID-19 pandemic derailed plans for much of 2020 and 2021. Through both of those difficult periods, the Company was without its performance home for long stretches of time. Welch, Executive Director Jim Nelson, and the board of the Houston Ballet Foundation ensured the Company’s success. Time and again they courageously steered the Company forward and, along with the artists and staff, deepened Houston Ballet’s role as a cornerstone of creative light for the community.
Throughout those years of seemingly existential hardships, Welch turned challenges into opportunities where he could. He continued to invest in the future of the Company and the art form by holding to his vision of a “choreographic Eden” in Houston. From 2016 through the 2023 - 2024 season, he commissioned 18 new works by a mix of renowned and emerging dancemakers. With commissions, Welch looks for choreographers who will bring something to the experience of dancers. “It might be working in a different way than me; perhaps an artist who works with improvisation or without music initially,” he says. “That adds to our melting pot of creation. The more flavors we get in there, the more spices on the rack, the better the meal will be for people in the future to create. That goes for audiences, too.”
Welch also brought an additional 17 works by contemporary masters into the repertory as Company premieres during this period. Among the “collection of stars” are signature works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Jirí Kylián, as well as two landmark full-length ballets, Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling and John Neumeier’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
As a prolific creator himself, Welch is a rarity among today’s artistic directors. Between 2016 and mid-2024 he created dazzling productions of The Nutcracker, Giselle and Sylvia (a co-production with The Australian Ballet) and 19 new one-act ballets in Houston, also adding four of his existing works to the repertoire. At the end of the 2023-24 season, Houston Ballet’s repertoire held 72 Welch ballets, including 9 full-length productions. More than three-quarters of them (46, including a few dances made for film) were created on the Company.
To allow Welch more time to research and develop new works and share Houston Ballet’s growing managerial demands, the Company ushered in a new era of cooperative leadership in 2023, when the beloved American prima ballerina and coach Julie Kent joined him as an artistic director.
Welch has included the Houston Ballet Academy among his priorities, extending performance opportunities to even the youngest students in new productions for the professional Company. More than 60 percent of Houston Ballet dancers are alumni of the Academy, which trains 700 students annually through year-round, summer intensive and adult-class programs. The organization’s robust education and community outreach programs also grew significantly, building strong bridges through a dozen signature efforts that reach more than 70,000 students in nearly 300 area schools annually. Outside of live performances and programs, Houston Ballet continued to build on its strong social media platforms, efforts that increased substantially during the pandemic. With nearly 11,000 subscribers and more than 6 million views on its YouTube channel, the Company truly has a global presence.
2016
New legacies were top of mind in 2016 as Welch unveiled new stagings of two essential classical ballets that have informed Company history.
His beautiful Giselle, the classical masterpiece that launched Houston Ballet as a professional Company in 1969, premiered in June, with impeccable designs by Roberta Guidi di Bagno (her third project with Welch following Romeo and Juliet and The Merry Widow).
November brought the world premiere of Welch’s lavish $5 million version of The Nutcracker, which replaced a beloved Ben Stevenson production that held the holiday stage for 29 years. Welch’s fantastical version features a cast of 223 characters within realistic sets and couture-worthy costumes by Tim Goodchild. More than 25 of the characters are portrayed by children aged 8 through 15. Given the long holiday run of more than 30 performances during normal years, 325 children rotate through the roles – a massive undertaking that begins with open auditions each August. During its debut season, Welch’s production of The Nutcracker broke all previous Company box office records.
Houston Ballet’s repertoire of one-act productions grew significantly during 2016 with the additions of Alexander Ekman’s Cacti, William Forsythe’s Artifact Suite, Jirí Kylián’s Wings of Wax, Wayne McGregor’s Dyad 1929, Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story Suite, and Welch’s Son of Chamber Symphony.
The Company raised its global profile in June with its debut tour to Melbourne, Australia, marking a triumphant homecoming for Welch. His Romeo and Juliet wowed audiences with 12 sold-out, critically acclaimed performances. In October, Houston Ballet traveled to Los Angeles, where it performed William Forsythe’s Artifact Suite during the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’s Celebrate Forsythe Festival, sharing a program with San Francisco Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet.
2017
2017 will always be remembered as the year Hurricane Harvey devastated much of Houston, including the Downtown Theater District. But the year began with brighter notes.
In between performances of Welch’s Cinderella and La Bayadere, Houston Ballet presented the American premiere of David Bintley’s The Tempest, a collaboration with Birmingham Royal Ballet. Featuring an atmospheric commissioned score by Sally Beamish and riveting designs by Rae Smith, the production delighted audiences with its stellar dancing, magical visuals and sound.
March brought the Houston Ballet premieres of Jirí Kylián’s Stepping Stones and Justin Peck’s Year of the Rabbit (his introduction to Houston); plus a revival of Hans van Manen’s Grosse Fuge.
In April, Houston Ballet returned to Germany, giving four performances in Ludwigshafen and Bonn of a program featuring Welch’s Tapestry, Velocity, and Maninyas.
Hurricane Harvey reached Houston on August 26, inundating the Wortham Theater Center with more than 12 feet of floodwater that destroyed the 150,000-square foot basement (along with props, wigs, costumes, musical instruments and other objects it held), also damaging part of the auditorium and contaminating the ventilation system. The adjacent Alley Theatre and the Downtown Theater District’s underground parking lots also were severely damaged; and floodwaters breached the first floor of the Houston Ballet Center for Dance, which closed several weeks for repairs. Across Houston, flooding deeply impacted the lives of the Company’s people, eight of whom lost everything they owned. The ferocity of the storm was matched by the resilience and resolve of the city’s people, including the staff, volunteers and artists of Houston Ballet and the philanthropic individuals, foundations and corporations who saw the Company through the aftermath.
Aware that Houstonians needed the beauty of dance more than ever, the Company quickly revised and rescheduled programming. Nelson found alternative performance spaces. Welch created innovative programs and adapted works to different stages. Houston Ballet’s production staff heroically packed and moved sets, props, and costumes for an unprecedented ‘Hometown Tour’ that unfolded at the Hobby Center and Jones Hall in the Theater District, the George R. Brown Convention Center, Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land, and the Moore’s School Opera House at the University of Houston. Against the odds, and despite losing 30% of its scheduled performances, the Company presented six 2017-18 subscription programs. The season opened less than a month after the storm struck with the Houston Ballet premiere and only North American Company production of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling, debuting with four performances at the Hobby Center. Additionally, the Company debuted Welch’s Powder in a mixed repertory program at that same venue. Despite not being designed for touring, Welch’s new production of The Nutcracker embarked on a holiday season tour to Smart Financial Center and the Hobby Center.
2018
The nomadic post-Harvey season continued through the spring of 2018. Houston Ballet surged creatively as the city slowly rebounded and the restoration of the Wortham Theater Center progressed.
Along with performing Ben Stevenson’s Don Quixote at the Hobby Center and Welch’s Swan Lake at Jones Hall, the Company presented two innovative programs of contemporary works on two different stages at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The first, Houston Grand Opera’s Resilience Theater, offered a trio of Company premieres: Tim Harbour’s Filigree and Shadow, Trey McIntyre’s In Dreams, and Welch’s Cathedrale Engloutie. The second, in the Center’s General Assmebly Hall, Welch and three of the Company’s dancers created cathartic works.
Welch’s What the H Stands For was a collaboration with Houston poets Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton and Outspoken Bean, while his elegant Class was choreographed to Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Goldberg Variations. Principal dancers Melody Mennite and Connor Walsh collaborated with first soloist Oliver Halkowich to create the emotive, high-energy premiere of What We Keep.
Signature tours also took the Company far beyond its hometown. Houston Ballet gave two performances of Swan Lake in Minneapolis in April. The Company traveled to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts in August for its first appearance there in 40 years. The Festival commissioned Welch’s Just, which premiered on a program of other works by Welch and Trey McIntyre. Swan Lake then flew to the Middle East for six performances in October, when Houston Ballet became the first American Company to perform in the spectacular Dubai Opera House.
Landmark collaborations defined the year as well. In March, Houston Ballet performed Arrivals and Departures: Cage, Cunningham and Johns to live music at the Menil Collection’s Dan Flavin Hall. Welch choreographed a new Theater Under the Stars staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s OKLAHOMA! that premiered in September, featuring Houston Ballet dancers. The longstanding annual performances at Miller Outdoor Theatre and The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in
The Woodlands also held particular significance that year.
Continuing to encourage developing dancemakers, Houston Ballet hosted its inaugural, all-female choreographic workshop and festival, elle émerge. The fall event at the Company’s Center for Dance drew participants from Dance Lab, Houston Ballet, Houston Ballet Academy, Cincinnati Ballet and Kansas City Ballet.
After a 16-month displacement, Houston Ballet celebrated its return to the restored Wortham in November for a full, 37-show run of The Nutcracker, which was enhanced with a few new costume and scenic additions. The Margaret Alkek Williams Jubilee of Dance also returned and included the premiere of Melody Mennite’s Oh there you are.
Enrollment in the Academy remained strong, with 793 students in the year-round program and 756 students from seven countries in the summer intensive program. The Education and Community Engagement programs kept an impressive pace, serving 61,354 students and adults in 245 schools, libraries and community centers.
In spite of artistic successes, unwavering support from patrons and volunteers, and the Company’s expert handling of insurance claims, the storm’s impacts left Houston Ballet with a $14 million budget shortfall. Nelson expected financial recovery to be a three-year process.
2019
With operations at the Wortham mostly back to normal (the underground parking garage was still undergoing repairs), Houston Ballet forged ahead with a year of noteworthy premieres in 2019. The Company framed its Golden Anniversary Season of 2019-20 as a celebration of creativity.
February brought the world premiere of a blockbuster addition to the Company’s classical repertory, Welch’s fiercely entertaining Sylvia. Co-produced with The Australian Ballet, Welch’s narrative is sprung from Léo Delibes’ ballet of 1876 yet unique for its emphasis on three strong female characters: the Huntress Sylvia, the goddess Artemis and the mortal Psyche. Jérôme Kaplan’s innovative set designs, animated by Wendall K. Harrington’s brilliant projections, alternate swiftly between Earth and the Underworld.
Continuing its deep dive into existing works by contemporary masters, Houston Ballet presented the Company premieres of Jiří Kylián’s Dream Time, Jerome Robbins’ The Cage, and Aszure Barton’s Come In that spring.
In the realm of new one act productions, Houston Ballet unveiled its first commissioned works by the Tony Award-winning Justin Peck and the renowned Chinese choreographer Disha Zhang. Peck’s Reflections, set to a score by his frequent collaborator Sufjan Stevens, debuted in March. Zhang’s haunting, earthy Elapse premiered in September on a program that included Following, Oliver Halkowich’s first solo commission for Houston Ballet. Welch, who persevered through deep personal loss following sudden death in April of his husband, Mark Scioneaux, ended the year with the world premiere of his one-act Tarantella in December.
Houston Ballet presented a full-evening program with Peck’s Reflections, Mark Morris’ The Letter V and Barton’s Come In at New York City Center in October.
Devotion to the Company remained high: More than 1,200 volunteers provided nearly 7,800 volunteer hours in service to Houston Ballet in 2018. Many helped to launch the inaugural Spring Nutcracker Market at NRG Center in 2019, the spring-themed version of the mega-successful winter holiday Nutcracker Market, Houston Ballet Foundation’s biggest annual fundraiser.
Dancers from every generation of Houston Ballet history gathered for the 50th anniversary Alumni Weekend that anchored the year’s Margaret Alkek Williams Jubilee of Dance. The Company’s three living artistic directors -- Welch, Ben Stevenson and James Clouser -- linked arms for the show’s curtain call, an unforgettable and poignant moment.
Houston Ballet Academy served nearly 1,000 students in 2019. Among the aspiring dancers who received the year’s $908,000 in scholarships were 69 students accepted through Chance to Dance, a signature program focused on encouraging talent from underserved communities. More than 74,000 individuals connected with Houston Ballet through the Company’s Education and Community Engagement programs.
2020
Houston Ballet had begun to recover its rhythm as 2020 began, until the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and altered the world in unimaginable ways.
The Company was halfway into its 50th Anniversary season when the city’s public venues shuttered to prevent the spread of the virus. The Ballet had just finished its run of Ben Stevenson’s The Sleeping Beauty. On March 12th, which was originally planned as the opening night for a triple bill featuring the world premiere of Trey McIntyre’s Pretty Things, everything changed. Those shows were canceled, followed by the cancellation of the next rep, and then the next, until eventually, the entire 2020-21 season had to be called off.
Concerned for the safety of its dancers, staff, students, and audiences – and guided expertly by Houston Methodist, its long-time health partner – the Company diligently complied with quarantine requirements, stay-at-home mandates, and other public health measures. Houston Ballet’s leadership shifted into crisis management mode, again. This time moving performances, Company classes and rehearsals, Academy training, and other operations to virtual platforms. As a silver lining, digital exposure introduced new audiences from around the globe to Houston Ballet.
By May, with most of America still in lockdown, the most tech-savvy dancers were filming good-humored Houston Ballet at Home videos for social media. With each episode, they shared how they were cooking meals, keeping themselves occupied, and staying in shape. Some offered free, at-home workouts for viewers. The dancers’ classes and rehearsals continued via Zoom.
The Company launched its first digital performance, the video Dancing With Myself, on July 10. Welch guided the collaborative effort, choreographed to Billy Idol’s popular song. David Rivera, the Company’s Associate Director of Audio/Visual Services, compiled the video from 1,400 individual clips submitted by dancers and staff who filmed themselves, wearing costumes of their own making. Dancing With Myself received tens of thousands of views across YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
Welch was determined to keep the dancers active and audiences engaged; and with each of its video projects, Houston Ballet’s digital production values improved. Welch opened with the world premiere of Restoration, choreographed to The Dead South song “Black Lung.” A five-person crew filmed the ballet, a love letter to Houston and the enduring power of dance, at 19 locations across the city. The piece’s 62 dancers, including members of the Company, HBII, and ballet masters, join forces on a football field for the rousing finale. While there would be no live Nutcracker in 2020, in November, the Company premiered the festive “Nutcracker Sweets,” a digital holiday spectacular with new works made for the screen and an abridged version of Welch’s big production from the archives.
The Company partnered with Lydia Hance’s Frame x Frame Dance Film Festival and the San Francisco Dance Film Festival to screen international dance films, classic movies with iconic Houston Ballet Drive-In. The Museum of Natural Science hosted 95 showings of “The Nutcracker: Larger than Life,” an edited version of Welch’s production, on its IMAX screen.
The Company also streamed archival films to give hometown audiences their first look of some of Welch’s recent commissions featuring the Company. A Night at Jacob’s Pillow streamed for ten days in October. The Chopin Project, the Company’s Paris collaboration with Lang Lang, streamed for three weeks in November-December.
The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement during the summer of 2020 prompted many organizations to reflect deeply upon the experiences of BIPOC individuals. Houston Ballet’s existing IDEA committee launched “Breaking Boundaries,” a four-part video series featuring conversations with current and former Black Houston Ballet dancers. The series culminated in February 2021 with a live Zoom event led by ABC 13 news anchor Melanie Lawson, with co-hosts Lauren Anderson and Harper Watters. More than 500 people tuned in.
Houston Ballet resumed limited in-studio classes and rehearsals in the fall of 2020 with guidance from Houston Methodist. The Academy also developed a phased plan for returning to in-studio training with limited class sizes, designated dance squares, and partitions for teachers and accompanists. Students also had the option of virtual training. Everyone in the building wore protective face masks, practiced social distancing, kept up with vaccinations, and underwent temperature checks and COVID-19 testing.
The Education and Community Engagement staff compiled virtual field trips that reached more than 180,000 students across 103 cities and 22 states; as well as other pre-recorded and live-streamed resources for teachers, schools, students, and families. These included virtual iterations of programs such as Adapted Dance, Dance for Parkinson’s, and Teacher Workshops. By the end of the 2020-21 season, the department had engaged with 470 partners (including schools, community centers, and hospitals), reaching a staggering 231,798 participants – nearly three times its previous annual number.
Houston Ballet’s hugely popular shopping fundraisers also pivoted to online experiences, running for weeks rather than days. More than 25,000 shoppers ‘attended’ the second Nutcracker Market SPRING on Facebook Marketplace – about 6,000 more than visited NRG in 2019 for the first spring market. The 2020 Fall Virtual Nutcracker Market ran for a month on a dedicated shopping platform. Showcasing nearly 150 merchants, the holiday event attracted more than 106,000 visitors and more than 1.3 million total views. The event netted nearly $440,000 for the Houston Ballet Foundation, its Academy, and scholarship programs – impressive for the times, though less than the $5.4 million raised by the live, in-person 2019 Nutcracker Market.
The Company weathered the pandemic’s first four months with funds from the 2019 Nutcracker Market and February’s 50th Anniversary Ballet Ball (nearly $1.8 million), plus immediate crisis support from foundations, corporations, individual patrons, and generous subscribers who donated tickets back to the Company. Patrons cleverly reimagined the Company’s largest annual fundraising dinners. The chef-focused Raising the Barre event was a curbside pick-up party in 2020, while the year’s Margaret Alkek Williams Jubilee of Dance combined a virtual performance with home-delivered dinner, wine and gifts.
In spite of those efforts, Houston Ballet’s financial losses mounted as the pandemic dragged on without ticket sales and live fundraisers. Facing a debt of $12 million, the most precarious financial footing of its history, the Company implemented cost-saving measures that included significant staff layoffs. With Houston Ballet’s status as a tier one arts institution potentially threatened, the development staff sought emergency grants, while the Board’s trustees and the Houston Ballet Guild organized Keep Our Company Dancing, a crisis relief fund that raised $5 million in a year, supported by 1,620 donors in 39 states and 6 countries.
2021
Houston Ballet continued producing works for film during the first half of the year – each one more complex than the last. That was not what Welch had foreseen for a Golden Anniversary season devoted to creativity, but hope was in the air, and plans for a return to live performances began in earnest.
March brought the world premiere of Welch’s epic, 11-song In Good Company, in collaboration with The Dead South, whose musicians appeared in the film. Welch reworked his popular dance Play as an outdoor video with the support of the music’s creator, Moby. Arts colleagues around the city also embraced Houston Ballet’s online efforts. Welch choreographed ADROIT: clever or skillful in using the hands or mind to music from Mozart’s iconic “A Little Night Music,” recorded by the Houston Ballet Orchestra. Dancers performed the piece amid priceless artworks at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, helping to showcase the Museum’s new Kinder Building.
COVID stayed center stage in Houston Ballet’s operations throughout the entirety of the 2020-21 season. Artists, staff and crew rehearsed each production fully masked, also submitting to the ongoing testing protocol that kept all performances on track—an achievement not shared by many of Houston Ballet’s peers. For that success, Houston Ballet looked gratefully toward its ongoing partnership with Houston Methodist. The Company has collaborated with Houston Methodist’s Orthopedics & Sports Medicine group since 2006, leading to groundbreaking improvements in dancer health, injury prevention and injury recovery. Expert trainers and physical therapists from Houston Methodist are on hand through every workday at the Center for Dance, as well as backstage during performances. That presence has helped to extend many a dancer’s career. The relationship expanded exponentially as Houston Methodist’s experts helped Houston Ballet navigate previously unheard-of health challenges. To maintain the safest possible environment for artists, staff, and Academy students, they established safety protocols that included the onsite scheduling of thousands of COVID-19 tests.
Virtual fundraising events continued into early 2021. More than 200 guests ‘attended’ February’s retro themed Houston Ballet Ball Home Edition and silent auction, raising over $730,000 for the Company’s recovery. They were treated to an exclusive sneak preview of “In Good Company” and innovative virtual performances as they enjoyed a three-course take-home dinner. Houston Ballet supporters were overjoyed to return to live festivities with the 2021 Spring Market at NRG Center in April. With enhanced healthy safety measures in place, more than 12,000 shoppers attended, contributing more than $537,000 to the Company’s coffers.
Houston Ballet returned to Miller Outdoor Theatre in May for two shows, its first live performances in more than a year. Along with selections from In Good Company, the program featured pas de deux, solos, and excerpts from audience favorites such as Madame Butterfly, Romeo and Juliet, and Don Quixote.
Jennifer Sommers, who led the community engagement programs to such impressive numbers during the shutdown period, was named Director of Houston Ballet Academy in September.
Houston Ballet opened its 2021-2022 season in September with a joyful return to the Wortham Theater Center of Dance, presenting five stunning performances of the Margaret Alkek Williams Jubilee of Dance. (The opening night dinner raised more than $230,000.) A slightly abbreviated run of The Nutcracker followed during the holidays, minus its young Academy dancers, who were not yet cleared to participate.
2022
Although the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic lingered, Houston Ballet kicked back into high gear to unveil five world premieres, including its first work by Arthur Pita. The Company also prepared for an important development in its leadership, announcing in the fall that the notable American ballerina Julie Kent would join Welch as co-artistic director in 2023.
The Company wasted no time recovering its classical footing with the second half of the 2021-22 season, performing George Balanchine’s iconic Jewels, Welch’s Sylvia, and August Bournonville’s stylized La Sylphide. (The latter replaced a planned presentation of Welch’s Madame Butterfly when that production was held up by the pandemic’s lingering global supply chain issues.) Trey McIntyre’s Pretty Things, a tour de force for the Company’s men, choreographed to songs by David Bowie, finally premiered more than two years after its first dress rehearsal. Also among spring’s highlights were the world premieres of Melody Mennite’s Floreciente, with a score of live and recorded selections by René Aubry, Ezio Bosso, and Max Richter; Welch’s Sparrow, set to songs by Simon & Garfunkel; and Connor Walsh’s A Joyous Trilogy (in flight), choreographed to original music composed by rising star Quinn Mason. Artists from the legendary New York company Dance Theatre of Harlem shared the stage with Houston Ballet dancers in Welch’s Orange for an exciting first-time partnership during June’s Originals mixed repertory program.
Committed to increasing ‘seats at the table,’ Houston Ballet formalized its Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) statement to create meaningful change and integrate IDEA values across aspects of the organization. The statement affirms that dance should be accessible to all, and that art transcends bias. “It is important to welcome and stand with those whose differences have long been excluded. We are proud of our legacy of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access, while acknowledging that our work in this pursuit is ongoing,” it reads. “Our goal is to ensure that our actions match our commitment - where students, artists, staff, trustees and volunteers of all backgrounds collaboratively learn, work, and serve. We pledge to continue to inspire our community to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion, with access to all as we strive to choreograph a better world.”
Houston Ballet celebrated a spectacular milestone and the transformational philanthropy of Trustee Margaret Alkek Williams in May, when it rechristened its home the Margaret Alkek Williams Center for Dance. Remarkably – with her stellar support and that of other trustees, the philanthropic community, and unprecedented federal government help – Houston Ballet ended its 2021-22 season in June with a balanced budget and no debt.
The good energy was palpable in September as the Company performed McIntyre’s full-length Peter Pan and presented a triple bill that offered another long-awaited premiere, the internationally acclaimed choreographer Arthur Pita’s first work for the Company. His Good Vibrations, a narrative ballet set to Beach Boys tunes, featured costumes by Marco Marco, lighting by Lisa J. Pinkham, and stunning projections by Joey Moro. Up-and-coming American choreographer Silas Farley also created his first work on the Company, Rococo Variations, Op. 33, which premiered during the year’s Margaret Alkek Williams Jubilee of Dance.
Houston Ballet embarked on its first-ever tour to Japan in October, giving four performances of Welch’s Swan Lake at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan theater. Years in the making, the trip was a triumphant homecoming for the Company’s Japanese-born dancers, including principal Yuriko Kajiya.
Houston Ballet Academy, also back on track after the pandemic, returned to the Cullen Theater stage for its first Spring Showcase in three years. Professional program students danced Welch’s challenging Brigade and Clear as well as the romantic reverie Les Sylphides (Chopiniana) and led the schoolwide Studies.
2023
With its momentum restored, the Company dove into beloved classical productions, energetic contemporary works, and a busy slate of world premieres by renowned choreographers as it began to celebrate Welch’s 20th anniversary and the arrival of Julie Kent. The pandemic, while not over, became manageable. While COVID-19 infections sometimes impacted casting, the shows went on.
Welch, an expert curator of programs that resonate with audiences and challenge dancers, balanced performances of Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with mixed repertories featuring the Company premiere of Balanchine’s funny, invigorating Stars and Stripes and three significant commissions. Two are one-act narrative ballets by women who were working with the Company for the first time. In very different ways, both utilize the full range of the dancers’ artistry, requiring nuanced acting and strong, fluid movement. The third was Cathy Marston’s dreamy Summer and Smoke puts a Tennessee Williams play beautifully into wordless motion. Co-produced with American Ballet Theatre, it’s set to a commissioned score by Michael Daugherty, with designs by Patrick Kinmonth and lighting by David Finn.
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s gripping Delmira, inspired by the tragic life of the Uruguayan modernist poet Delmira Agustini, unfolds to a tango-infused score by Juan Pablo Acosta. Mark Eric designed the costumes; Christopher Ash designed the sets and lighting.
Building on its relationship with Justin Peck, Houston Ballet also commissioned Under the Folding Sky. Peck’s second work for the Company is set to music by Philip Glass. Karl Jensen’s massive set riffs on James Turrell’s monumental art installation, Twilight Epiphany, paying homage to Houston’s resilience. It’s strikingly lit by Brandon Stirling Baker. Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung designed the costumes.
Welch began his 20th anniversary season in August with Kent by his side. They met in 2001, when she was his muse for Clear, commissioned by American Ballet Theatre. Kent and her husband, Victor Barbee, were co-directing The Washington Ballet when Welch invited them to move to Houston. Now she and Welch are forging a new model for artistic directorship with roles that are equal, overlapping, and informed by their unique personalities. Kent is especially in her element as a coach, with a priceless lineage absorbed directly from her work as a dancer with such 20th century legends as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova, Georgina Parkinson, and Frederic Franklin.
The new partnership allows Welch to devote more time to his first love, choreography. Considering the increasingly heavy load of administrative work and crises that also have occupied him, it’s astonishing that Welch created nearly four dozen new works on Houston Ballet during his first 20 years as artistic director. His 46th ballet, the elegant Vi et animo, choreographed to Tchaikovsky’s familiar Piano Concerto No. 1, with gorgeous tutus by Holly Hynes, premiered during December’s Jubilee. True to form, Welch also kept the Jubilee forward-looking by premiering a trio of impressive new commissions by some of the Company’s promising, next-generation talents. Each had eight dancers to work with. Corps de ballet member Jindallae Bernard challenged four couples with Parodie de l’histoire du ballet, set to lush music by Camille Saint-Saëns. Demi soloist Jack Wolff summoned a hurricane with Category Four, to music by Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet. Soloist Jacquelyn Long’s Illuminate captured the youthful Americana sensibility of a recent violin concerto by Oliver Davis.
Evolution was underway in the orchestra pit with Maestro Ermanno Florio stepping down as music director and principal conductor at the end of the 2023-24 season. Music director designate Simon Thew began stepping up to the podium more often, and the two often split duties during mixed repertory programs.
Houston Ballet’s legendary ballerina Lauren Anderson, now Associate Director of Education and Community Engagement, celebrated her 40th year with the Company. Honoring her pioneering career and her conviction that art education is a right, not a privilege, Houston Ballet established the Lauren Anderson Young Dancer Scholarship Fund in 2022, courtesy of Deborah and Ed Koehler. The success of the Chance to Dance program, which provides free ballet classes to first and second graders from economically disadvantaged communities, suggests the power of her presence: 51 Chance to Dance students were enrolled at Houston Ballet Academy in 2023, including several who have advanced to the upper levels.
Continuing to make IDEA initiatives a priority, Houston Ballet partnered with Wells Fargo to launch a Nutcracker Market pilot program for small, diverse businesses. Its first three vendors were Sinless Treats (artisan chocolates), Africa on My Back (Kente-print backpacks and accessories inspired by African culture and heritage), and Qué Bonito Mexican and Fashion (authentic handcrafted accessories and embroidered clothing).
© 2024, Molly Glentzer