DANCE

On Friday, December 2, 2011 at 7:30 p.m., Houston Ballet presents its Eighth Annual Jubilee of Dance, a special one-night only performance showcasing the talent and artistry of the company dancers in a program of high-energy excerpts from signature works and beloved classics.

This year’s Jubilee of Dance will honor Houston Ballet Managing Director Cecil C. Conner, Jr.’s 17 years of stellar administrative leadership. Mr. Conner, who will retire on February 15, 2012, helped to secure Houston Ballet’s position as one of America’s most fiscally stable dance companies while organizing many national and international tours, playing a crucial role in the planning and construction of Houston Ballet’s Center for Dance over the last five years, and the fundraising for the $46.6 million cost of the new facility.

Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch will premiere The Gentlemen, a new work in honor of Mr. Conner, highlighting the company’s male dancers performing to excerpts of Rossini’s comic opera La Scala di Seta. Mr. Welch has also commissioned soloist Melissa Hough to premiere her work C-Sharp Minor on the Brown Theater stage. Ms. Hough created C-Sharp Minor, a pas de deux for herself and demi soloist James Gotesky, set to Prelude in C Sharp Minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff, for the first ever choreographic workshop in the new Center for Dance’s Margaret Alkek Williams Dance Lab in June 2011. Ms. Hough collaborated with corps de ballet dancer Allison Miller on the costume designs, which will be built by Houston Ballet’s Costume Shop.

Houston Ballet’s principals will star in excerpts of signature works and beloved classics, providing an opportunity for each artist to shine onstage. The Jubilee of Dance will showcase excerpts from several ballets, including one of the most famous excerpts in all of classical ballet Le Corsaire (1856); Ben Stevenson’s Twilight; Stanton Welch’s A Time to Dance (1990), Bolero (2004), and Clear (2001) as well as works by Jorma Elo, Ronald Hynd and Sir Kenneth MacMillan.

“Each year the Jubilee features the entire company,” Mr. Welch remarks. “It’s like a wedding where everyone gets to walk down the aisle and say ‘here I am.’ It’s a way to celebrate all the dancers, staff, choreographers, orchestra and crew.”

Closing the evening will be a special encore performance of Mr. Welch’s Bolero, a full-company work set to Maurice Ravel’s beloved score originally created for Houston Ballet’s 35th anniversary celebration in 2004.

Read more about the evening's performances.

The Jubilee of Dance will be held at Wortham Theater Center in downtown Houston. Tickets may be purchased by calling 713 227 2787 or by visiting www.houstonballet.org. 

Pictured: The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Dancer: Emily Bowen. Photo by: Amitava Sarkar.