Houston Ballet To Tour To Ludwigshafen And Bonn Germany

Houston Ballet announces a tour to Ludwigshafen and Bonn, Germany. From April 3-13, 2017, Houston Ballet will perform three works by Artistic Director Stanton Welch AM: Maninyas (1996), Velocity (2003), and Tapestry (2012). Audiences will have the opportunity to see three works by Mr. Welch that have cemented him as one of the most innovative and in-demand choreographers in the world. The company will give two performances at Theater im Pfalzbau in Lugwigshafen, Germany on April 7-8 and two performances at Theater Bonn in Bonn, Germany on April 11-12. For more information visit: houstonballet.org/ontour.

This will be the company's second tour to Germany. In 2015, Houston Ballet was invited to perform at the Hamburg Ballet Days Festival. Hamburg's daily, Die Welt Kompakt, called Houston Ballet, "a phenomenal company and their performance a triumph." After the company's successful premiere, Houston Ballet is thrilled to return to Germany and continue building touring relationships. Houston Ballet's Executive Director Jim Nelson states, "Maintaining a strong international touring presence positions Houston Ballet and our Academy as a global company able to attract talent from around the world."

Maninyas, created in 1996 for San Francisco Ballet, was Mr. Welch's first commissioned work outside of Australia. The luminous, abstract ballet depicts five couples moving through shimmering silks, and showcases the exquisite duets and alluring choreography that Mr. Welch has become known for. "The piece is a process of unveiling," explains Welch. "It examines how, in relationships, you gradually un-layer yourself, and how scary, dark and open it is to reveal yourself to another, without protection." The dancers move through a powerful series of pas de deux and pas de trois to Australian composer Ross Edwards' Maninyas Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.

Velocity, created for The Australian Ballet, premiered in 2003 to great critical acclaim. Mr. Welch designed the piece for eight men and eight women to pay homage to classical ballet conventions in a contemporary manner. The women adorned in paper-thin white tutus perform a fast-paced dazzling array of footwork. The movement, brisk and vibrant, is set to the dynamic music by American composer Michael Torke with the architectural set and costume design by Kandis Cook. "I knew I wanted to do a ballet that was very linear, sharp, angled-something sleeker than what I had done before in the classical world," Welch says. "An exploration of lines and clarity drew me to Mondrian paintings. He worked with such basic colors and straight lines to create something so beautiful."

Mr. Welch created Tapestry, a spectacular showcase for Houston Ballet's dancers, in 2012. The music, Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5, served as his inspiration for the piece. The composition is one of Mozart's earlier efforts and is characterized by a joyous melody throughout. The intricate choreography not only compliments the music but is designed to highlight each dancer's strengths. Mr. Welch further capitalized on the music's complex blending, set against a stunning background of slender ropes. "A ballet company is like a tapestry, with different types of dancers, bodies and artists all woven together," comments Mr. Welch. "The depth and talent of our dancers is extraordinary, and I wanted to create a piece that would allow the dancers to display the great moments of beauty and nuance."

The company's tour to Ludwigshafen and Bonn, Germany is generously sponsored by United Airlines, Houston First Corporation, BASF, and the Fayez Sarofim and Company Tour Fund.

About Houston Ballet

Houston Ballet has evolved into a company of 59 dancers with a budget of $33.2 million (making it the United States' fifth largest ballet company by number of dancers), a state-of-the-art performance space built especially for the company, Wortham Theater Center, the largest professional dance facility in America, Houston Ballet's $46.6 million Center for Dance which opened in April 2011, and an endowment of just over $70 million (as of January 2017).

choreographer Stanton Welch has served as artistic director of Houston Ballet since 2003, raising the level of the company's classical technique and commissioning many new works from dance makers such as Christopher Bruce, Jorma Elo, James Kudelka, Trey McIntyre, Julia Adam, Natalie Weir, Nicolo Fonte, and Edwaard Liang. Executive Director James Nelson serves as the administrative leader of the company, a position he assumed in February 2012 after serving as the company's General Manager for over a decade.

Houston Ballet has toured extensively both nationally and internationally. Over the past fifteen years, the company has appeared in London at Sadler's Wells, at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia, in six cities in Spain, in Montréal and Ottawa, at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in New York at City Center and The Joyce Theater, at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, at The Arts Center Melbourne State Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, in Los Angeles at The Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 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.

Houston Ballet Orchestra was established in the late 1970s and currently consists of 61 professional musicians who play all ballet performances at Wortham Theater Center under music director Ermanno Florio.

Houston Ballet's Education and Outreach Program has reached approximately 54,000 Houston area students. Yearly, Houston Ballet's Academy trains over a thousand students and has had five academy students win awards at the prestigious international ballet competition the Prix de Lausanne, with one student winning the overall competition in 2010.

For more information on Houston Ballet visit houstonballet.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.