Inside A Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance

Travesty Dance Group presents Green
Dancers: Kara Ary, Thomas Henderson, Catalina Molnari
photo by Bill Olive

For Houston dance lovers we know it's fall when A Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance (WTCD) shows up at Miller Outdoor Theatre. We grab our wine, blankets, and perhaps a few friends, to sit out under the stars to enjoy a tasting of Texas dance. With the exception of a no-show pesky hurricane named Rita, the Weekend is 13 years strong. “I started it because I wanted to give Houston choreographers and companies a chance to have their work seen by large audiences under the best possible conditions,” says Christina Giannelli, Executive Director of Dance Source Houston and the festival's founder. “At the time, access to professional venues was scarce.” Things have changed somewhat for Houston's dancers as more and more are renting the Hobby and the Cullen. Perhaps it was WTCD that gave them a taste for the big stage. Giannelli curated the first ten shows but eventually expanded into a committee which this year includes Giannelli, Joanna Friesen, and myself. The process involves a lot of dance watching and dance talking to arrive at the final program.

Friesen enjoys the freedom of curating. “Essentially, I enjoy curating the Miller performance because I am both lazy and nosy. After directing the dance program at the University of Houston for 21 years, it is terrific to be able to see and enjoy good dance in Houston,” says Friesen. “All I have to do is check out the current dance scene and then give my opinions about what appeals to me and what does not. You can't get a better gig than that."

We didn't always agree but we learned a lot about each other's preferences. The end result is that we spent hours watching Texas dance and were quite stunned by the sheer volume of activity. Once we picked the program there's more work to do in selecting the actual work and setting the program order. For myself, it's something I haven't done since I ran my own company back in the 80s. And frankly, it's fun and healthy to put the critic hat down once in a while. All of us are grateful to Louie Salatan, director of Barnevelder Movements Arts Complex and one of the founders of Big Range Dance Festival, which allowed us to preview much of the work on the bill.

The line-up this year is as diverse as the neighborhoods of Houston. Austin-based choreographer Leslie Dworkin, the lone out-of-towner on the bill, first came to our attention when she performed in The Big Range Dance Festival last June. Dworkin's fluidity rocked our socks in her touching duet, Sanctuary. “My piece deals with the psychic and actual space between the inherent aloneness of each person and the desire to connect to something or someone outside of yourself, whether it be to another human being, our history, a place, or allowing some space for the divine,” says Dworkin. “Rather than the bold, explosive movement that I’ve been playing with in recent work, Sanctuary finds a subtle power in delicacy, the delicacy of gesture, as in classical Indian dance, or a yogic mudra.”

Karen Stokes and Travesty Dance Group have participated in WTCD three times in the past nine years. This time around Stokes will be presenting an excerpt from Green which premiered at Barnevelder last February. “I've always loved the color green, which for me is charged with humor, energy, quirkyness, growth, and renewal,” says Stokes. “This is a piece about the essence of green, as I see it. On the other side of the coin, I'm also interested in suggesting Green as a statement of our efforts to help our green earth, the environment that we exist in.” For Stokes, it's also particularly meaningful to have Green presented in the great outdoors.

WTCD can also be a time to try out new work, which is exactly what Jane Wiener and Hope Stone Dance Company will be doing when they present Companion Planting from SEE Me, an evening-length work slated for next January at the Cullen. One way to find out if your work is going to look good on the big stage is to put it on the big stage. “It's wonderful throughout the creation of something new to have plateaus along the way to stop, take a breather and take a look around. This chance to do so with my new piece is a gift,” says Weiner. “The piece is based on vision, blindness, and the experience of being seen, I get the chance to step back and really see.”

Showcasing the next generation is also part of the event's mission. A few years back Giannelli realized that there was a wealth of dancing talent and choreography happening at the university level that never gets seen on the professional stage. For the past several years dancers and choreographers from local universities have been on the upswing. Corian Ellisor from the University of Houston ENSEMBLE will be dancing his short and witty piece, Say Cheese and the San Jacinto Community College Dance Collective will be dancing Michelle Manzanales' tender quartet, Repose.

WTCD is also a perfect spotlight for both established companies like Ad Deum Dance Company and up-and-comers like Revolve Dance Company. Artistic Director Randall Flynn premieres his new duet, Reconcile My Heart. Flynn speaks passionately about the significance of WTCD, “Contemporary or modern dance is an emotional and philosophical form of dance that unfolds itself to deeper dimensions beyond the technique and artistry,” says Flynn. “The contemporary dancer is a bard, they are out to communicate. This is the gift of WTCD to our city and to each artist involved.”

Revolve is three for three on the festival circuit having also been selected for the JCC's Dance Month and Big Range Dance Festival. “It's been a whirlwind year,” says Dawn Dippel, company co-director and dancer. “We have all been to several of these concerts and seen many great artists take the stage for this annual event. And now to be one of those performing artists is an important step towards the future of our company." Cain and Dippel's moving A Wider Lens will showcase the company's fine dancing and intricate choreography.

The evening will conclude with a bang, danced by the world renowned hip-hop crew Havikoro. After winning 3^rd place in the global contest “Battle of the Year” in 2005 Havikoro has traveled to 33 countries on a U.S. Embassy mission of peace and global cultural exchange. Mario Jaramillo, an original member of FLY Dance Company, will be dancing in Swing House along with other members of this world famous crew. Jaramillo, who is thrilled to see his crew alongside contemporary dance, describes the piece as “the fight between good and evil and balancing the two to keep sanity.”

For Giannelli the show is about creating the right mix that works on the Miller stage. “There is something extremely special about creating a performance for the Miller. It is like choosing a gift for someone, I want to share what I love and care about with that person, but I also want the gift to reflect them, I want to please them, to enhance them, to enlarge their experience and enjoyment. So how do we do that for a 4500 people?,” asks Giannelli. “We choose dances that individually touch the audience in some particular way and that together represent a broad range of styles and types of companies, reminding people that contemporary dance is not any one thing. And hopefully we are able to give Houstonians an opportunity to celebrate themselves and another aspect of the cultural richness of our city.”

Review: Houston Ballet's The Merry Widow

Barbara Bears & Simon Ball. Photo: Amitava Sarkar

The Houston Ballet waltzed (literally) into their 39th season with most bubbly of ballets, The Merry Widow. How better to celebrate the eve of 40 than with a whole lot of on stage drinking. Franz Lehár's charming 1905 operetta nicely transfers to ballet. The operetta made Lehár rich and famous, and it certainly boosted the career of British choreographer Ronald Hynd. He first set his Widow on the Australian Ballet back in 1975. If ballets could giggle this one would win the prize. It has gone on to be one of the most beloved romantic comedic ballets of all time, and currently graces the repertoire of American Ballet Theater, The National Ballet of Canada, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. And for good reason; it's a gem of a ballet. Hynd keeps the action flowing in a seamless storytelling technique that flows as easily as a fine, dry, French champagne. There's no tiresome variations to slow things down.

The story is perfectly preposterous. Pontevedro, a fictional Balkan country whose national color is hot pink, the national dance is the waltz (except on peasant dress-up days, then it's some kind of Slavic concoction), and the national drink is, without a doubt, champagne. Unfortunately, our tender little hamlet is out of cash. They place their future on keeping the fortunes of Hanna Glawari, the country's richest widow, inside their borders, and hastily scheme to find a suitor for her. Trouble ensues when the selected gentleman, Count Danilo, has a past with our well-monied widow, never mind a touch of drinking problem. There's some wonderful subplots going on as well, all too complicated to mention.

Barbara Bears made her entrance—decked in diamonds—on the grand stairway with all the panache of a Hollywood siren. Bears' regal elegance and convincing wit proved a perfect match for Hanna's mischievous escapades. Her maturity moved into full bloom in this role and showed off her remarkably dexterous acting skills. The way Bear's plays it, one gets the feeling that she is in control of this high spending country's future at all times. She carries off several dubious fashion choices with great panache, including a white feather boa that could very well have a pulse. Simon Ball danced the dreamy drunkard, Count Danilo, with suitable aplomb and strong comic flair. Ball is positively dashing as Danilo, even when he can barely stand up. You want to cheer for him, to get the girl, keep the money, and remember his AA meetings.

Melody Herrera is a charmer as Valencienne, the philandering Baron's wife. Connor Walsh's debonair Camille managed to woo Valencienne right out of the Baron's hands with little resistance. Herrera takes girlishness to a new high with her delicate portrayal of the loosely moraled wife. Herrera and Walsh's undeniable chemistry at the end of Act 2 makes for some of the most moving moments of the ballet. (Walsh was deservedly promoted to principal later that night.) The corps, strong with several new members, handles the invented Pontevedrain folk dances with considerable confidence and clean ensemble work. Imagine Arabic and Slavic dances with a touch of flamenco for good measure in a blender and you get an idea of Hynd's creativity. Of course, they are wearing blazing pink.

The ballet is a veritable feast for the eyes thanks to the stunning sets and costumes of Italian designer Roberta Guidi de Bagno. No amount of sparkle is spared, simply everything in view twinkles. Judging from the looks of their Paris embassy and the glittery gowns of the townspeople, it's no wonder Pondevedro went broke. Guidi de Bagna holds back nothing in her extravagant decors and captures a kind of film industry make believe glamor.

Lighting designer Randall G. Chiarelli baths the Parisian locales in a warm candlelight glow and added to the shimmer of an altogether enchanting evening. I predict that champagne sales and waltz lessons will be on the upswing for those in attendance. The morale of the story: keep your rich widows inside your country, everyone looks good in pink, and keep a good supply of the bubbly on hand should your finances go south. And when all is lost, there's nothing like a good can-can to soothe your troubles. Without a doubt Houston Ballet launches its season with wink and a smile in this rosy production.

Reprinted from Culturevulture

Five and Counting: A Conversation with Houston Ballet's Stanton Welch

Stanton Welch
Photo by Kara Duval

Houston Ballet artistic director Stanton Welch glides into his fifth year with considerable style, a season rich with three new works of his own and works by leading contemporary masters. It’s gone by fast. He stopped in to give us a glimpse of the year ahead, some insider info on his approach to storytelling, and the view from the helm at year five.

ArtsHouston: So how does year five feel? With 12 works—counting this season—for Houston Ballet, you are hardly the new guy in town, yet at 36 far from the old guy in town. Is there some level of comfort at five?

Welch: I can’t believe it’s been five years. It feels more like one really long year. As for letting my guard down, quite the opposite. For dancers and choreographers, as we move up the ranks, we are more conscious of the fact that we need to produce something better and different. They have seen your hits, and what if that was it? You want your next ballet to be even better.

AH: Is there one moment when you felt like you had truly arrived?

SW: I certainly don’t think that there was one single defining moment, but I have felt for a while that this is the right choice for me, and I have no desire to go somewhere else. It’s an interesting sensation. We are trained to strive and want more. When you feel like you have what you want, well, that’s a strange thing.

AH: Part of Houston’s identity is in its cultural resources, yet few seem to recognize the cultural heavyweight we are. Where do you stand on that front?

SW: I feel very much as an ambassador for Texas outside of Houston. You are right, there is a great deal of prejudice about the south and especially Texas and they are wrong. The only way to know that is when people come here. I have fought this battle and feel very strongly that this is a great art city. That’s why it’s crucial for us to tour.

AH: So, are you touring much this year?

SW: Yes, we have been invited back to Montreal. In addition, we will be going to Kansas City, Minneapolis, and will be performing at the Ballet Across America Festival at the Kennedy Center.

AH: It’s an aggressive season, lots of new work, Houston premieres, and a good dose of spectacular story ballets. Give us a glimpse of the chess game of putting together the season.

SW: I think of the ingredients as a big meal with several courses, and they all have to complement each other. I have a list of ballets I want the company to do, a list of choreographers, and ballets that I want to choreograph. Then there are the great works in the rep for us to return to; we also rotate the classic story ballets every four or five years. Those are the lists I draw from, and then there’s the budget!

AH: Each year the roster shuffles around a bit. Dancers come and go and that’s just part of life in a major dance company. Do you feel a different chemistry each year with the dancers?

SW: Everything is full of hope at the start of the year. The company always has a new feel when we begin the season. Ironically, so many of our greatest dancers are coming right out of the school, so by the time they get to the company we have already been working with them for a number of years. We also have about eight new corps members; we try to bring some people in from other companies because it creates a good stimulus. They get here and say, “You guys are really good; class is really great here.” Sometimes we can forget that. As for the new principals, we have several that are just at the start of their time, and that’s always exciting.

AH: Let’s talk about the work on your choreographic plate. Next up is The Four Seasons to Vivaldi’s deliciously famous music. I understand Tom Boyd has designed a set with a live oak tree. Can you talk about the challenge of mounting new story ballets?

SW: It’s a huge challenge. We are lucky in Houston that we have a lot of production time which lends itself to the kind the ground necessary to create that kind of work. Here I feel I have the right kind of support. All three of my new works are story ballets that require different kinds of acting. We are by far the strongest acting company in America. The Four Seasons follows four women through the life journey. It has a very period feeling, like watching a Merchant-Ivory film.

AH: How did you see The Merry Widow as the perfect season opener?

SW: It’s lovely to dance. I know it so well personally. I have danced several roles and have watched my parents and brother dance it as well. It’s one of the great romantic comic ballets and just sends you away with a smile.

AH: Speaking of smiling, is Cinderella going to be funny? I understand you have done some cinder-tweaking. How so?

SW: It’s a comedy. However, there is twist to it. There’s a strong leaning toward feminism. Cinderella is not a victim. She fights back and is her own person. When the ugly stepsisters pick on her, she beats them up. The ballet follows a path that is not what you expect but it ends up in the same place. In the end she chooses her own destiny.

AH: You return to Gershwin to lift us out of our winter blues. So Gershwin tells a story?

SW: Several, actually, all going on at once, kind of like a Robert Altman film.

AH: In June, the company premieres The Doll’s House based on István Márta’s Doll’s House Story for Percussion Ensemble. Should we be thinking a new take on Coppelia?

SW: No, not at all. The style is based in Japanese anime, so think teddy bears with axes. It’s a bit violent but with a tongue and cheek kind of wit. The story comes from the composer’s notes and it’s about a toy store where the dolls go to war. The piece addresses the futility of war. No one wins this war.

AH: Sounds timely. Do you see yourself the choreographer that will re-invent the story ballet?

SW: Oh no. I like to do them and I want to be successful, but am happy to be just one of the gang.

AH: The rep includes works by Kudela, Hans Van Manen, Balanchine, Bruce, Forysthe, Kylián - all but Balanchine are living giants of choreography. Of course it’s great to expose Houston audiences to the A-list choreographers but what about the next generation? Will the Cullen (where young choreographers got a chance to experiment) ever come back?

SW: I would love for the Cullen to be a regular part of what we do but there are restrictions, with touring and building a canon of master work. Hopefully by our dancers doing these works it will make them better choreographers.

AH: Houston has to share you with the rest of the world, I suppose it’s the neighborly thing to do. Where else are you setting new works?

SW: I will be doing works at San Francisco Ballet, in Hong Kong, and ABT is doing Clear again. I’ve cut back a lot. I didn’t want to travel so much anymore. I need to the time here to create.

AH: Any last thoughts on turning five in Houston? Did you make friends with the humidity, the mosquitoes, Tex-Mex food, insane drivers, and other things Houstonian?

SW: I love Houston. I love my house, and my neighborhood. We get to go home at lunch and visit our families and pets. It makes it such a fresh work environment.

AH: I imagine we will be having this conversation again in about five years.

SW: Yes. I imagine we will.

Houston Ballet presents The Merry Widow September 6, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16 and The Four Seasons September 20, 22, 23, 28, 29, and 30 at Wortham Center, Cullen Theater. Call 713-227-2787 or visit houstonballet.org.

Reprinted from Artshouston.