HOUSTON BALLET
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THE JOYCE THEATER FOUNDATION, INC.
PRESENTS
HOUSTON BALLET
DEBUT SEASON AT THE JOYCE
FEATURING
WORK BY CHRISTOPHER BRUCE, JIŘÍ KYLIÁN
AND
THE NEW YORK PREMIERE OF JORMA ELO’S ONE/end/ONE,
THE
FIRST NEW WORK COMMISSIONED BY THE JOYCE’S ANNUAL
RUDOLF NUREYEV PRIZE FOR NEW DANCE
OCTOBER 11 – 16
The Joyce Theater Foundation is
proud to present Houston Ballet,
performing for the first time on the Joyce’s intimate stage, from October 11 – 16, 2011. This debut season will feature works by Christopher Bruce and Jiří Kylián in addition to the
East Coast premiere of ONE/end/ONE by
Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo. Houston Ballet, one of the world’s
leading ballet companies, is the first recipient of The Joyce Theater
Foundation’s annual Rudolf Nureyev Prize for New Dance, a $25,000 commissioning
grant established for the purpose of supporting the creation of medium scale
works by large ballet companies, many of whom rarely perform in New York. Elo’s ONE/end/ONE was created through this commission. Tickets for this week-long engagement
are $10-$59 ($26 - $44 for Joyce Members) and are available through JoyceCharge
at www.Joyce.org or by calling 212-242-0800. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, in Chelsea.
Under the leadership of artistic
director Stanton Welch since 2003, internationally
acclaimed Houston Ballet takes the
Joyce stage with a powerhouse program of 21st century ballet that includes the
New York premiere of a new work by celebrated Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo entitiled ONE/end/ONE,
the first commissioned work supported in part by the Nureyev prize. Set to Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4
in D Major, the athletic and humorous, yet restrained choreography and title
reflect the music’s three sections – an allegro, an adagio and a
rondeau. Other works featured on
this eclectic program include the East coast premiere of Christopher Bruce’s Hush, a Commedia Dell Arte peek
inside the life of a traveling circus family, featuring a cast of six and set
to the eclectic music of Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma. Houston Ballet commissioned Hush in 2006, and the work has since entered the repertoire of London’s Rambert
Dance Company. And Falling
Angels, Jiří Kylián’s
work, part of the Black and White ballets created in 1989 with 8 female dancers dressed in black leotards. Influenced by minimalism and
surrealism, based on ceremonial ritual music from Ghana and set to the music of Steve Reich’s Drumming, this work
exhibits the dancers’ versatility and excellence in both percussive movements
and classical lines creating an exciting unpredictability.
Jorma Elo, who has created
pieces for American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, and New York City Ballet,
among others, is currently the resident choreographer at Boston Ballet. He trained at the Finnish National
Ballet School and The Kirov Ballet School. From 1978-1984, he danced with Finnish National Ballet, with
Cullberg Ballet from 1984-1990, and in 1990 he joined Netherlands Dance
Theatre. Mr. Elo worked with
renowned choreographers such as Hans van Manen, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Jiří
Kylián and William Forsythe. In
2005, he was awarded the choreographic prize at the Helsinki International
Ballet Competition.
Christopher Bruce was appointed Houston Ballet Associate Choreographer in 1989. Since then he has set ten works on the company. In April 1994, Mr. Bruce assumed the
artistic directorship of The Rambert Dance Company(he isn’t the artistic
director anymore), Britain’s most prestigious contemporary dance troupe. During his career, he has choreographed
for a wide range of productions including musicals, plays for the Royal
National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, operas, television, and
video. Although his productions have been mounted throughout the world, Mr.
Bruce has developed special relationships with a number of companies, including
Houston Ballet, Netherlands Dance Theater, Royal Danish Ballet, Cullberg
Ballet, English National Ballet and Gulbenkian Ballet.
Born in Prague, Jiří Kylián joined Germany’s
Stuttgart Ballet (Germany) under John Cranko in 1968. In 1973 he was invited by the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT)
in Den Haag / NL as a guest choreographer where he made a successful debut with Viewers — the first of more
than 60 choreographies he was to develop specifically for the NDT. Appointed NDT’s Artistic Director in
1975, Jiří Kylián achieved his
international breakthrough with Sinfonietta in 1978, set to music composed by his compatriot Leoš Janáček. In April 1995, Jiří Kylián
celebrated 20 years directing the NDT by mounting the large-scale dance
production Arcimboldo, which involved
all the dancers of NDT I, NDT II and NDT III. On that occasion, he received one
of the Netherlands' highest honors, becoming Officier in de Orde van Oranje Nassau. Jiří Kylián retired from the position of the Artistic
Director of Nederlands Dans Theater in August 1999. However, with respect to
the future development of the company, he maintains the essential roles as a
resident choreographer and as NDT’s Artistic Adviser.
Houston Ballet, making its Joyce Theater debut for a one-week engagement from October
11 – 16, will perform as follows: Tuesday – Wednesday at
7:30pm; Thursday – Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; Sunday at 2pm. Dance Chat, a free post-performance
talkback with members of Houston Ballet, will take place on Wednesday, October
12. This enlightening discussion
is open to all patrons attending that evening’s performance. Tickets range in price from $10-$59
($26 - $44 for Joyce Members) and are available through JoyceCharge at
www.Joyce.org or by calling 212-242-0800. Please note: Tickets prices are subject change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175
Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, in Chelsea.
# # #
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 52 dancers with an annual
budget of $19.2 million, a state-of-the-art performance space built especially
for the company, Wortham Theater Center, and an endowment of just over $57.6 million (as of May 2011), making it
the United States’ fourth largest ballet company by number of dancers. 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. Under the leadership
of artistic director Stanton Welch since 2003, 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. In April 2011, Houston
Ballet took a major leap forward when the company moved into its first
purpose-built home, the sleek new Center for Dance, a $46.6 million, 115,000
square-foot facility located in the Theater District in downtown Houston. The six-story building is the largest
facility for professional dance in America. It boasts nine dance studios, a dance lab for presentations
as well as rehearsals, and artistic, administrative and support facilities for
Houston Ballet and its Academy. 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 the leadership of music director Ermanno Florio. Houston Ballet Academy has reached over
22,000 Houston area students (as of the 2010-2011 season) and has had five
academy students win prizes at the prestigious international ballet competition
the Prix de Lausanne, with one student winning the overall competition in 2010.
About The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc.
The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc., a
non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its
audiences since 1982. The
founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater
in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce is named in
honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther’s clear, undaunted
vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible
to establish the theater. One of
the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an
intimate and elegant New York home for more than 300 domestic and international
companies. The Joyce has also
commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. In 1996, The Joyce created Joyce SoHo, a dance center
providing highly subsidized rehearsal and performance space to hundreds of
dance artists. New York City
public school students and teachers annually benefit from The Joyce’s Dance
Education Program, and adult audiences get closer to dance through
pre-engagement Dance Talks and post-performance “Dance Chat” discussions. The Joyce Theater now features an annual
season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in
excess of 135,000.
# # #
Leadership support for The Joyce
Theater’s 2011–2012 season has been received from the LuEsther T. Mertz
Charitable Trust.
Lead support for the presentation of
Houston Ballet provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation.
Lead support for accessible and
inclusive programming provided by MetLife Foundation.
Additional support for this engagement
was provided with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; the
New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong,
creative communities in New York State’s 62 counties; and the New York City
Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; and with
private funds from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund to encourage
the performances of out-of-town companies at The Joyce Theater.
Major support for The Joyce has been provided by Alphawood Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, First Republic Bank, The Hearst Foundations, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Open Society Foundations and the Fund for the City of New York, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation.