Houston Ballet to Host Free POLITICS AND POP MUSIC IN BALLET Talk Tomorrow

On Friday, September 6 from 6:00 - 7:00 pm, Houston Ballet will sponsor the first FREE Dance Talk of its 2013 -14 season: Politics and Pop Music in Ballet. The event will feature an open rehearsal of Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch's hip one-act work Play, followed by a discussion with Mr. Welch and a group of Houston Ballet dancers. The Dance Talk will be held at Houston Ballet Center for Dance, 601 Preston Street, Houston 77002.

Created in 2004, Mr. Welch's imaginative and youthful work Play is set to several selections from the Grammy-nominated 1999 album Play by DJ/techno artist Moby. The ballet's story is driven by the music: blues-inflected electronica, which provides the ideal musical backdrop for the ballet. "I always wanted to choreograph to Moby and techno music," said Mr. Welch. "Moby was a pioneer of that genre."

Play is city life made into ballet with classical technique. The dancers wear street clothes, but are on pointe. However, the pointe shoes look like sneakers. Mr. Welch's inspiration for this piece comes from the media-saturated, heavily politicized twenty-first century environment that urban dwellers experience. "The ballet is set on the street," explained Mr. Welch, "where walking becomes choreography." Everyday city life is dance: the dancers brush their teeth, rush to and from work, and play video games.

Originally created for BalletMet Columbus in 2004, Play had its New York premiere at The Joyce Theater that spring, where it was a great success. Anna Kisselgoff, chief dance critic of The New York Times, called Play "a quirky exploration of youthful alienation....This is Mr. Welch in a witty disco mode." (May 28, 2004) Barbara Zuck of The Columbus Dispatch said that it "was a hit...Welch's newest piece has the hustle and bustle of a New York street as well as a humorous eye...[Play] quickly caught the audience in its grasp." (May 27, 2004)

Houston Ballet will host its second Dance Talk of the 2013-14 season on Tuesday, September 24 from 6:00 - 7:00 pm at Houston Ballet Center for Dance, 601 Preston Street, Houston 77002. Artists and speakers participating in the Sept 24 Dance Talks will be announced at a later date.

Photo by: Drew Donovan