{"id":95,"date":"2011-06-24T21:47:43","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T21:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/texas\/?p=95"},"modified":"2011-06-24T22:12:27","modified_gmt":"2011-06-24T22:12:27","slug":"preliminary-data-first-experiments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/texas\/2011\/06\/preliminary-data-first-experiments\/","title":{"rendered":"Preliminary data, first experiments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now mostly settled in their stellar downtown Dance Center on Preston Street, on Sunday evening\u00a0artists of Houston Ballet gave a private showing of their Choreographic Workshop 2011 in the Margaret Alkek Williams Dance Lab.\u00a0This isn’t a laboratory per se<\/em>, but what looks more like a black-box\u00a0theater to the average eye. The “preliminary data” from these first experiments demonstrate that there are more than a few young\u00a0people in the company with true choreographic talent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Above: Principal Jun Shuang Huang and\u00a0 soloist Katharine Precourt with Houston Ballet II, inagural performance, Margaret Alkek Williams Dance Lab (grand opening for public on April 9, 2011). Photo: Jim Caldwell.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whenever I see a program like this (and over the years I’ve seen many of them), I’m encouraged when at least one of\u00a0the following situations unfolds: 1) a new choreographic voice asserts itself; 2) a well-established strategy is expressed with further sophistication and understanding, suggesting \u00a0insight into the past; 3) a dance is shocking and\/or cryptic and creates a “buzz” among viewers; 4) the work is skillfully comic; 5) young people “claim” ballet for themselves, reflecting the moods, predilections, and themes of their own generation. All of these happened on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

Artistic director Stanton Welch served as emcee,\u00a0leading the program as well\u00a0with a brief ballet of his own\u00a0titled Crazy<\/em>, set to Gnarles Barkley’s song of the same name. It featured three angry brides tossing bouquets, screaming, and offering brief solos during each of the verses. The long\u00a0gowns mostly obscured their movement. \u00a0“I wasn’t going to do anything for this program,” Welch explained, ” but I couldn’t resist. I guess right now I’m a little cynical about marriage,” he added, without explaining why that was so. The short\u00a0piece looked a bit old-fashioned next to the others,\u00a0recalling\u00a0MTV in the early days.<\/p>\n

After each of the 12 dances, Welch invited the choreographers on stage to say the name of their piece, identify the music, and then say what the dance\u00a0was “about.” I put that in quotations, because I find it somewhat odd. One can say the factors that\u00a0lead to the making of a dance, \u00a0something of the ideas that influenced it, perhaps, but rarely is a contemporary dance readily reducible to a one-sentence narrative, especially by the choreographer. It’s\u00a0the kind of\u00a0idea that prevails on So You Think You Can Dance<\/em>, but doesn’t have any place\u00a0in a serious setting like the Margaret Alkek Williams Dance Lab.\u00a0 Fortunately, at least four of the choreographers\u00a0named their works “untitled” as a way of usurping this way of thinking. \u00a0Nearly all failed to provide quick narratives, further proving the futility of\u00a0such a\u00a0question.<\/p>\n

This isn’t to suggest that we didn’t want to hear the choreographers speak. We did, and mostly they were well-spoken. “I like Jerome Robbins, I like that depressing thing going on,” said Oliver Halkowich quite simply of his In Search of Dr. Feelgood<\/em>, the most startlingly original work on the program. He had a top-notch cast, which didn’t hurt his\u00a0chances for\u00a0success\u00a0(namely, Melissa Hough, Katlyn Addison, James Gotesky, and the chameleon-like Rhodes Eliott), and mysterious\u00a0pseudo-Bluegrass\u00a0music by The Devil Makes Three.\u00a0\u00a0He’s made a dance that an intellectual or a novice, or for that matter anybody’s mother, could enjoy and\u00a0discuss after it’s over. I don’t remember the last time I saw a traveling mazurka step lead into shaking the badonkadonk, or if I ever saw that before. It\u00a0is the skill with which\u00a0these disparate elements were woven together, along with the dark beauty of it all, that lingers in my brain several days later. This was Halkowich’s very first choreography, which is amazing.<\/p>\n

The most promising work seemed the result of the most promising strategies. Melissa Hough apparently spent hours watching videos of herself and James Gotesky dancing\u00a0in her erotically-charged Untitled<\/em>, set to Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-Sharp minor, and <\/em>then she edited and shaped the material accordingly. I was worried about that musical choice, a kind of warhorse of the piano repertory and a common\u00a0selection of many young choreographers, until the\u00a0dance began. It was immediately clear that Hough\u00a0used the score for its almost vampire-like sensibility, and the results didn’t seem labored. It’s a rare thing to accomplish, namely, to show an audience that you love something and that you are also quite aware of its shortcomings, its exhaustion.<\/p>\n

Joseph Walsh also\u00a0satisfied the “what’s it about?” inquiry with admirable brevity. “It’s about how my own body moves in different spaces, such as a tiny square of carpet, a bathroom, or a large empty studio,” he replied. \u00a0He collaborated with laptop composer Benjamin Wesley for his intriguing, if fragmentary ablutionary<\/em>. This was an example of young people claiming ballet as their own medium. It looked entirely fresh, if not somewhat formless. If Walsh turns his attention to the development of this raw material, he will have a big hit on his hands.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the dance that showed the most extraordinary emotion was Kelly Myernick’s introspective Untitled<\/em>, set to\u00a0Ren\u00e9 Aubry’s La Grande Cascade<\/em>. The dance\u00a0is a striking collaboration between choreographer and performer. Myernick said that dancer Samantha Lynch\u00a0was just as responsible for the finished product. It has a neo-Fokine sensibility,\u00a0with lush, soft jumps marking\u00a0its ethereal conclusion.<\/p>\n

The additional works by Connor Walsh, Jim Nowakowski, Simon Ball,\u00a0Peter Franc, Ilya Kozadayev, Garrett Smith, and Melody Mennite\u00a0are evidence that\u00a0a strong choreographic sensibility is\u00a0rising quickly at Houston Ballet. This shouldn’t be a rare thing in America’s regional companies, but unfortunately it is.\u00a0I’ll be following this effort closely, because it is precious. If we support dance, we must support the making of dance.<\/p>\n

Here’s a glamorous shot of the new Dance Center at night. The connecting bridge leads to the Wortham Center, Houston Ballet’s primary performance venue. Be sure to check it out if you’re in town:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo: Zuzana Leckova\/Art Institute of Houston North<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now mostly settled in their stellar downtown Dance Center on Preston Street, on Sunday evening\u00a0artists of Houston Ballet gave a private showing of their Choreographic Workshop 2011 in the Margaret Alkek Williams Dance Lab.\u00a0This isn’t a laboratory per se, but what looks more like a black-box\u00a0theater to the average eye. 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