DANCE

Join the Jewish Community Center of Houston January 12- February 12, 2011 for Dance Month 2011 at the Kaplan Theatre as we continue to spotlight prominent choreographers, master teachers, companies, and dancers in Houston and around the world.

Celebrating 31 years of Presenting Dance. Endeavoring to promote an appreciation of all dance forms, the series presents master classes, workshops and concerts. Dance community outreach, audience expansion and professional artistic development are continuing goals of Dance Month at the Kaplan Theatre.Spend an Enchanting Evening with Houston Ballet II

The JCC presents An Evening with Houston Ballet II, as a part of Dance Month at the Kaplan Theatre 2011. The stunning local company performs a wide variety of dance works, ranging from excerpts from the great classics such as Raymonda to contemporary works by Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch in An Evening with Houston Ballet II.

The company’s first ever evening-length solo concert in Houston will take place Saturday, February 12, 2011 at 8:00 PM at the Jewish Community Center, 5601 S. Braeswood.

The Long and Winding Road, choreographed by Stanton Welch, is a work set to music by the Beatles and orchestrated by Peter Breiner in the style of Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian Bach. Included in the piece are nine songs, including favorites such as "And I Love Her" and "Goodnight." Shelly Power, associate director of Houston Ballet's Academy, describes The Long and Winding Road as "classical dance expressed in a contemporary way...Stanton has an amazing way of creating language through movement that speaks to the dynamics of emotions."

Stanton Welch's energetic early work Blue is an ode to the beauty of classical dance and the body set to music by Antonio Vivaldi. Blue explores different emotions through the colors of chakras, the seven energy centers of the body. Barbara Zuck of The Columbus Dispatch describes Blue as demonstrating "Mr. Welch's strong grounding in classical ballet and his ability to find new things to say in this established vocabulary. Dancers flash across the stage in perfectly timed leaping or running entrances and exits. Many bravura solos give the work a virtuosic edge."

Showcasing their classical technique, Houston Ballet II performs the extravagant third act of the love story Raymonda, choreographed by Marius Petipa and first performed at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1898. Set in the time of the Crusades, the ballet's heroine Raymonda has been saved by her fiancée Jean de Brienne, a Christian knight, from abduction by the Saracen knight Abderakhman. Act three depicts the marriage and celebration of noble Raymonda and de Brienne, and provides a feast of spectacular classical dance.

Houston Ballet II Ballet Master Claudio Muñoz has staged Raymonda for the second company.

Acclaimed choreographer Ma Cong created Calling specifically for Houston Ballet II in 2010. Calling is a modern piece for six dancers set to the music of Goran Bregovic, a Yugoslav musician of Serbian and Croatian decent whose music and life inspired the piece, combined with the music of Kroke, a Polish musical group. The passionate voice in the Mediterranean music lends itself to the playful and energetic movement which is filled with delicate partnering. Mr. Cong is a principal dancer and resident choreographer with Tulsa Ballet. He has created works for Tulsa Ballet, for Ballet Met in Ohio and Colorado's Ballet Nouveau.

Dancers from this stunning young company have recently taken numerous prizes at the prestigious Prix de Lausanne ballet competition. Don’t miss this local favorite Saturday, February 12, 2011 at 8:00 PM.

Tickets are $14 JCC member/ $18 public/ $10 senior adults and students.

For tickets to Dance Month events, call the box office at 713-551-7255 or visit www.jcchouston.org  and click on Arts and Culture, then scroll down to “Dance Month.”

Dance Month at the Kaplan Theatre is funded in part by Jewish Community Center Patrons of the Arts, a grant from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Endowment. JP Morgan Chase, and RBC Wealth Management. Continental Airlines is the official airline of the JCC. Marriott Houston Westchase is the official hotel of the JCC. This program was made possible, in part, by funding from the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston.

All photos by Amitava Sarkar.