By Andrew Edmonson, guest writer

Houston Ballet was saddened to learn that longtime Houston Ballet trustee Preston J. Frazier passed away on Sunday, May 20, 2012 at the age of 86 of natural causes in his home.

For over four decades, Preston was a passionately committed volunteer and trustee of Houston Ballet.  In 1981, he created the concept for Houston Ballet Guild’s phenomenally successful fundraiser, the Nutcracker Market.   Over the last 30 years, the Market has grown to be Houston’s third largest fundraising event and has generated over $36 million for  Houston Ballet Foundation, its academy and scholarship programs for young dancers.

A native Houstonian who graduated from Lamar High School and Rice University with a degree in engineering, Preston went on to serve as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, and to found Cargo Houston, an import company that presaged Pier 1.  Preston was a passionate balletomane, with a deep love of dance in general and Houston Ballet’s dancers specifically.  For many years, he managed Houston Ballet’s boutique in Wortham Theater Center on a volunteer basis, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars for Houston Ballet.  When he wasn’t working in the boutique, he could be found watching Houston Ballet performances intently, appreciating every nuance and detail.

Without his constant support in many ways from the 1970s to the 2000s, Houston Ballet would not be the same company it is today.  Preston truly set the bar for how a passionately committed volunteer who loves an organization can help take it to new heights.

Preston was many things:  an entrepreneur, a world traveler, a jokester, and the consummate volunteer.  In all those roles, he made an indelible impression on the lives of those he touched, be they Houston Ballet dancers, staff or other volunteers.  We share some of our memories of Preston below.

Kate Craidy, Houston Ballet’s Director of Public Relations in the 1980s:

Preston was a ring leader, and a force of nature. In everything he did there was a sense of a circus where he gave everyone a part, and encouraged everyone with praise. The world was his playground, and he swept everyone up in it.

Once he took his god children to the circus. He arrived in the car that had been decorated in crepe paper and balloons, with a long sign along the side of the car saying, “The Mears are Going to the Zoo!”

He found humor where no one else found it. He loved other cultures and traveled worldwide to purchase unusual merchandise for his Galleria store, Cargo Houston, so he could introduce the things he gathered as a means to educate about different cultures. His travels took him to the far corners of the Far East to find unusual merchandise. Once the hotel desk clerk gave him a pistol to take with him to his room to shoot the rats!  He thought that was hilarious.

Preston had a sense of creativity about everything he did. He turned the Nutcracker Market from a few jars of jam into a $3 million operation.  It was Preston who was the guiding force, he was the one who got everyone involved.

The year after the market surpassed the $1 million mark, people from all over the U.S. and Canada traveled to Houston to meet with him to find out his secret.  The market has been copied often and benefitted the missions of so many nonprofit organizations. He was a natural marketing genius without intention, just Preston being creative and original. His tireless efforts and incredible enthusiasm made the market what it is today.

Preston did things one step at a time, and it always involved people, as he was constantly rewarding people who had contributed, always having fun along the way. He introduced people to each other, and people would shine because he had knack for seeing them at their best. He would envision something, get everyone involved, offer guidance, but always made people think they thought of it.

He never asked for accolades or credit. He was constantly giving credit to others. He was too busy thinking of the next thing.

Kate Kirkland, former Houston Ballet trustee and president of Houston Ballet Guild:

I was President of Houston Ballet Guild from January1981 until June 1982.  I will never forget the day Preston came to me with the idea for a Christmas market and a request for underwriting.  Already he was projecting $600,000 — but we only had $20,000 to lend.  His dreams came true and so much more.  Without Preston we would not have begun.

All of us will never forget his passion for ballet, his knowledge of Houston’s heritage, and his great gifts to the community as a worker, benefactor, mentor, and friend.  What a lovely man — one of my favorite Houston Ballet personalities.  I will truly miss him.

Ava Jean Mears, Houston Grand Opera Public Relations Director during the 1980s and a close personal friend of Preston Frazier since 1944:

One of his Preston’s first jobs was as an usher at the River Oaks Theater, and he always loved the theater from then on.  He worked his way up to assistant manager. He lived just a few blocks away and walked to work every day, and carried his money home in a paper sack.

I remember a 1960s themed party he organized in 1980.  Everyone dressed up in costume wearing bobby socks and loafers with poodle skirts. He dressed up as a DJ with a painted-on black toupee. It was so fabulous. People danced for hours and hours on the dance floor.

Patsy Chapman, Houston Ballet’s director of individual giving and events who manages the Nutcracker Market:

Preston taught me much of what I know today about retail sales, the wholesale markets and the Nutcracker Market and I will forever be grateful to him for passing along this mighty torch.  I have the fondest memories of this hard-working man, jokester and friend.

See(k) is particularly exciting since Mr. Fonte created the ballet specifically for Houston Ballet and enlisted in some outside help in doing so. The ballet is set to an original score that was commissioned from Anna Clyne. London-born Anna Clyne is a composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music, combining resonant soundscapes with propelling textures that weave, morph, and collide in dramatic explosions. Her work, described as “dazzlingly inventive” by Time Out New York, often includes collaborations with cutting edge choreographers, visual artists, film-makers, and musicians worldwide. She is currently the Chicago Symphony’s Mead Composer-in-Residence through the 2011-12 season.

Anna Clyne, photo by Rodd Rosenberg

In 2010 Mr. Fonte created Made Man for Royal Ballet of Flanders using the music of Anna Clyne, David Lang and Julia Wolfe. Following Made Man’s success, Mr. Fonte decided to contact Ms. Clyne about a possible meeting. In a coincidental twist, she was living in a Brooklyn neighborhood adjacent to Mr. Fonte’s. They met for coffee, and the rest, as they say, was history. Mr. Fonte mentioned he had a world premiere in the works with Houston Ballet and asked if she would be interested in writing a new score for it. Ms. Clyne readily agreed, making See(k) her first original score for ballet.

Niccolo Fonte; Photo by Mark Goleviowski

Mr. Fonte admits he was nervous at first about commissioning an original score for See(k). “I didn’t know what would happen if I didn’t like it and it turned out to be a disaster. But that wasn’t the case. Anna is fantastic and she created something really wonderful.” That’s not to say that the piece was perfect right off the bat. Ms. Clyne would send Mr. Fonte sections of music and adjustments would be made as needed. Some adjustments included removing instruments to make the beat the driving force or asking for more space in the music for the dancers to slow and pause.

Ms. Clyne did not work on the score from beginning to end, but would compose different sections at a time. The process for composing a score varies but according to Mr. Fonte, Ms. Clyne managed to put together the majority of the score in about three days in her studio in New York.

Right now the company is rehearsing to the recording Ms. Clyne created in the studio which is completely synthesized and while it gives a good approximation of what the music sounds like, it is not exact. Walking by rehearsal one day, a staff member stopped and stuck his head in. “What is that? Is that an organ? We don’t have one of those!”

He’s right, but an organ is not in the score. Audiences will get to hear a live, full orchestra performing the original score. Ms. Clyne is scheduled to arrive in Houston opening week to work with Houston Ballet Orchestra.

To see the world premiere of See(k) May 24- June 7, get tickets here!

May 2012  marks a very special moment in Houston Ballet’s history:  the 25^th anniversary of the opening of Wortham Theater Center.  Houston Ballet’s first season in Wortham Theater Center was a transformative epoque in the life of the company, and it catapulted both Houston Ballet and Houston Grand Opera to an international level.   Over the next seven months, we will be sharing memories of this singular time in the company’s history with occasional entries on our blog from artists who lived through this dizzying moment.

Wortham Theater Center

Tonight (Thursday, May 10, 2012) the Pink Ribbons Project brings together the city’s leading performing arts organizations to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the opening of Wortham Theater Center as part of Pink at the Brown, a one-night only performance benefitting breast cancer education, research and treatment.

Pink at the Brown is a fitting way to celebrate this milestone in the company’s history.  Twenty-five years ago, a glittering gala celebration unfolded on the stage of the Wortham to inaugurate the new facility.  It was hosted by comedian and operaphile Tony Randall and produced by George Stevens. Houston Ballet Principal Dancers Janie Parker and Li Cunxin danced artistic director Ben Stevenson’s Esmeralda pas de deux, the full ballet company danced the finale from Harald Lander’s Etudes.  Houston Grand Opera presented act two of La bohème.  The U. S. Army Herald Trumpets saluted with fanfares, and a parade of luminaries danced, sang, played, spoke or joked: comedian Art Buchwald, singers Hildegard Behrens and Diahann Carroll, dancers Gloria Rodolfo Dinzel and Tommy Tune, and violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg.

David Glockley and Ben Stevenson at construction site.
Photo by Phyllis Hand

The opening of Wortham Theater Center was a key moment in the civic and cultural life of Houston in the 1980s. Built at the height of the 1980s oil bust, the $66 million facility was constructed entirely with private money, on two blocks of land donated by the City of Houston, and was completed four months ahead of schedule and under budget.  The project was championed by Houston’s first female mayor, Kathryn J. Whitmire,  as a way to position Houston as a cosmopolitan, sophisticated city of the world.  Psychologically, the completion of Wortham Theater Center was a signal moment for a city that had been battered by an economic recession and job losses.

Wortham Theater Center under construction

Having its own theater also allowed Houston Ballet to expand its subscription season performances from one weekend to two weekends, giving the dancers more performance opportunities.  (Prior to 1987, the company had danced in Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, and was limited in the number of performances it could give because of the venue’s exceedingly busy schedule and competition for open dates.)    At the end of the first of Romeo and Juliet performances in September 1987, a Houston Chronicle headline enthused, “Houston Ballet finishes best week of its history.” (September 7, 1987)

The grand opera house stage of Wortham Theater Center also provided Houston Ballet with a new platform on which to stage lavish new full-length productions of both traditional works of the classical repertoire (Ben Stevenson’s The Sleeping Beauty [1990] and Coppélia [1992] and Stanton Welch’s Swan Lake [2006] and La Bayadére [2010]) and to commission a series of new, original full-length works (including Ben Stevenson’s Dracula [1997], The Snow Maiden [1998]; and Cleopatra [2000]; Trey McIntyre’s Peter Pan [2002]; and Stanton Welch’s Tales of Texas [2004] and Marie [2009]).  These pieces have gone on to be performed across the country and around the world.

Moving into Wortham Theater Center also allowed Houston Ballet to greatly expand the number of performances of The Nutcracker that it gave each season, rising from 11 in 1986 to 29 in 1987 to 35 in 2012. The unveiling of Houston Ballet’s magical new production of The Nutcracker in 1987 launched a Texas holiday tradition that continues today. The Nutcracker also plays a key role in Houston Ballet’s financial picture, generating over $3.7 million in revenues (around 19 % of the organization’s annual budget) in 2011.

Houston Ballet principal dancers Simon Ball and Amy Fote will perform the ravishing wedding night pas de deux from Stanton Welch’s Madame Butterfly. Premiered by The Australian Ballet in 1995, Madame Butterfly was Mr. Welch’s first full-length ballet.  The two-act work tells the story of the beautiful geisha Cio-Cio San who renounces her faith and her family to wed Lieutenant Pinkerton, the handsome American naval officer who is betrothed to another.

Dancers: Simon Ball and Barbara Bears; Photo: Jim Caldwell

This is a ticketed event for the covered seating area. Free tickets are available (4 per person over age 16 while they last) at the Miller Outdoor Theatre box office the day of the performance between the hours of 10:30am-1pm. If tickets remain at 1pm, the box office will re-open one hour before show time to distribute the remaining tickets. As always, open seating on the hill.

Photo by Zuzana Leckova, Art Institute of Houston

At Houston Ballet we are so proud of our beautiful new building. It’s  elegant, modern, striking and a pleasure to work in. So naturally we’re thrilled when others recognize what a gem it is!

Houston Ballet’s  Center for Dance was honored with a 2012 Landmark Award in the category of “Special Project” by the Houston Business Journal.  Kudos to the team at the architecture firm Gensler for their stellar work on this facility!

Dancer: Jacquelyn Long; Photo: Amitava Sarkar

Let’s start with the basics. How old are you and where are you from?

JL: I’m 18 and I’m from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

JW: I’m 17 and from Sydney, Australia.

How long have you been at Houston Ballet Academy?

JL: This is my second year as a HBII. I started coming to Houston Ballet Academy when I was 14 for the summer intensive program and kept coming back! I stayed when I turned 16. Before then I was a Ballet Virginia International which my mom owns.

JW: This is my first year. I was at Academy Ballet in Sydney.

Why is the Spring Showcase important?

JL: It gives the academy a chance to showcase our skills and show how we’ve improved. It’s  a chance to show the big changes in technique I’ve learned this year.

JW: It’s the end of the year and we can show what we’ve learned.

What is the most challenging piece you’re performing in the show?

JL: Hmm, I’d have to say Paquita because I’m part of the corps but if one person messes up it’s very noticeable so I have to be very clean. It’s a classical ballet with tutus that really show the leg so everything you do shows.

JW: The Sleeping Beauty pas de deux. I haven’t done a lot of pas before and it’s about elegance and it has lots of subtle weight changes and where to put the girl to make her look good. The teachers are helping me on it.

Have you done any of the pieces in the show before?

JL: I’ve done segments of A Dance in the Garden of Mirth and Paquita, but not the whole thing before.

JW: It’s all new to me.

What’s your favorite piece in the showcase?

JL: A Dance in the Garden of Mirth. I’m excited because you can get really into it. It’s very Renaissance and fun! The music is very powerful and it’s difficult. It will wake up the audience when they see it!

JW: A Dance in the Garden of Mirth. It’s very sophisticated, up-market and fun, but very hard physically. It makes me feel happy when I dance and I have a good time doing it with all the HBII dancers.

Liana Carpio Chunwai Chan in A Dance in the Garden of Mirth; photo: Amitava Sarkar

On the program is a new work, Impromptu, by Houston Ballet Soloist Ilya Kozadayev. What’s it like working with him?

JL: It’s neat and fun to work with a new person, although we know him through the company. He’s very into the music and wants us to be as well. It’s a contemporary dance and we’re in flat shoes and there’s lots of swaying to beautiful, calm music.

What do you do to prepare for the Spring Showcase?

JL: We start learning early. A Dance in the Garden of Mirth, we started learning before The Nutcracker started and then learned the whole thing in January. With tours and working in the company we piece the show together when we can. In the last months leading up we really go into high gear.

JW: I go to bed and think about it. I visualize it and so I feel like I’ve done it before and I feel secure. Of course there’s lots of rehearsals and work behind the scenes. But mostly mental preparedness.

Jacquelyn, you’re going to be performing on tour in Las Vegas the weekend before the Spring Showcase. How will you make sure you’re rested and prepared?

JL: It will be difficult. I’m in all four pieces so it’s going to be hard. However, the tour pieces I’ve done before and are in my body already, so I can stay on top of what I know. This is my last tour with HBII and I’m sentimental!

Are your families coming to see the show?

JL: Yes! My mom is excited.

JW: My family and my old ballet teacher are coming.

Do you have any advice for other student dancers that are preparing for their end of the year shows?

JL: Take a step back and don’t overwhelm yourself. Focus on your performance but let the love of dance shine through.

JW: Work hard in rehearsal and focus on perfection. At the same time, entertain the audience. Yes, it’s nerve wracking but in the end entertain the audience and have fun!

What do you do for fun when you’re not dancing? What are your hobbies?

JL: I’m a big napper. I nap whenever I can. I read and watch TV and try to relax with friends.

JW: Like Jacquelyn, I like sleeping. I don’t think about dance, I want to keep it far away from me when I’m not dancing.

Well, good luck on your upcoming performance and thank you for your time!

Dancers from Houston Ballet Academy; photo: Mary Stephens of Art Institute of Hosuton

If you would like to see Jacquelyn, Joel and the rest of Houston Ballet II perform in their annual Spring Showcase, April 20-21 tickets start at $25 and can be purchased here.

Academy Spring Showcase: April 20-21

See the rising stars of Houston Ballet’s professional training school as they showcase their talents.  The Spring Showcase is always a great look at future company members “before they were famous”.  The repertoire for this year’s showcase will include Stanton Welch’s A Dance in the Garden of Mirth, the classical ballet Paquita, and Houston Ballet Soloist Ilya Kozadayev’s Impromptu.

There will be two performances of the Academy Spring Showcase: Friday, April 20 at 7 PM and Saturday, April 31 at 1:30 PM.  Tickets start at $25 and may be purchased by calling 713.227.ARTS.

FREE Performances at Miller Outdoor Theatre: May 11-13 at 8 PM

Houston Ballet will give three free performances on May 11, 12, and 13 at 8 PM at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park.  The repertoire will include Giselle and a pas de deux from Stanton Welch’s Swan Lake and a pas de deux from Le Corsaire (“The Pirate”) 

Performances are free and open to the public, but tickets must be picked up from the Miller Theatre Box Office to sit in the covered reserved section of the theatre. To learn more call 281.373.3386. We hope to see you there!

Nozomi Iijima and Jim Nowakowski in Stanton Welch's Divergence. Photo: Amitava Sarkar

Rock, Roll & Tutus is Houston Ballet’s exciting contemporary program. Opening this Thursday, the show promises music from The Rolling Stones, fast-paced choreography and incredible costumes. In particular, the dramatic black tutus in Divergence and the new, kaleidoscopic costumes of Tapestry catch the viewer’s eye.

We went behind the scenes with Wardrobe Manager Laura Lynch to get a glimpse of how the new Tapestry costumes were created and a look at the famous Divergence tutus.

Artistic Director Stanton Welch collaborated with costume designer Holly Hynes on the new costumes for Tapestry. First, Holly provided a sketch of the costumes. Then, the Wardrobe team created a mock-up made of like fabrics to see how it moves.

Costume sketch of Tapestry and mockup photos

For Tapestry, the men’s costumes are very simple. Mesh pants with a belt are all that they will wear. Lynch commented that the belt was the hardest part to create since all of the decoration had to be stretch.

Closeup of belt detailing

Men's Tapestry costumes

The ladies will wear long, colorful skirts with flesh panels inserted to give a flash of leg and a bodice with painted stripes. Originally, the skirt was a solid color, but during the mockup the Wardrobe team substituted flesh panels and Stanton Welch liked it so much they changed the design. A matching headscarf completes the look.

Work-in-progress costume from Tapestry

The black tutus from Divergence are iconic, but what casual audience members may not know is that there can be as many as 16 costume changes for a dancer. The change may be as dramatic as the dancer switching from a tutu to pants to simply taking off their headpiece.

Those headpieces are made from shellac and a made to look like hair sculptures. The secret to gettingthem to stay on the dancer’s head? Not so secret, really. “We use lots of pinning,” Lynch confirms.

The tutus most closely resemble an Elizabethan collar. They are made from nylon plastic screening and are pleated by hand before being sewn. Nylon plastic screening is so tough that costume shop workers could only cut the material with a hot knife. They also faced multiple cuts from the rough edges of the material.  A silk edge was sewn onto every tutu to protect the skin from being torn. Another challenge they faced was that the material only came in white so the Wardrobe Department hired an auto paint shop to spray them black!

Silk edge of Divergence tutu

Traditional tutus can be carried in a soft, round fabric bag that dancers can easily carry. For Divergence, the tutus are too heavy and must be stored in a special box. The box and shelves are made of wood and are organized according to size. They can range from 12-14”. A dancer will be assigned a tutu based on her height so it doesn’t appear to overwhelm her.

Special Divergence tutu box

Audiences will be able to see all these dramatic costumes when Houston Ballet prepares to rock the stage March 8-18!

Houston Ballet’s production of Cinderella opened last night. From the audience’s perspective it looked effortless, seamless, and magical. That’s what it should look like if all goes well!

But what happens in the days leading up to opening night? How long does our production staff toil in the theater to make each performance look perfect?

Production manager Brian Walker created an amazing video of the load in for Cinderella. The time lapse shows a fascinating glimpse of the behind-the-scenes work our production staff does to get the show up and running.

Artists of Houston Ballet; Photo: Drew Donovan

Stanton Welch’s staging of Cinderella, which Houston Ballet will perform February 23 – March 4 at Wortham Theater Center, contains several unique elements.

Many productions of Cinderella around the world feature men performing as Cinderella’s step sisters for comic effect.  One distinctive feature of Welch’s staging of Cinderella, which he created for The Australian Ballet in 1997, is that the men dancing as the sisters wear pointe shoes, executing challenging classical ballet steps.  (In other productions of Cinderella such as Frederick Ashton’s and Ben Stevenson, the men appearing as the step sisters don women’s costumes, but aren’t required to dance difficult classical choreography.)

Dancer: Jim Nowakowski; Photo: Amitava Sarkar

Corps de ballet member Jim Nowakowski, who won first place in the Men’s Senior Division of the Youth American Grand Prix in 2007, shares his experience of the joys and challenges of learning the role of a Stepsister in Cinderella.

“Learning and performing role of the stepsister in Stanton Welch’s Cinderella has been such a fun and challenging experience that I don’t think I could ever forget doing.

“One of the most rewarding parts of the process is getting to say you have done a three act ballet in pointe shoes. Not many male ballet dancers can say that!

“The most challenging aspect of the whole process is tolerating the pain of the pointe work and getting through some tough choreography on pointe.

“The experience dancing en pointe is definitely bitter sweet. It’s such a great experience to have, one that most male ballet dancers will never experience. But, the pain of your toes and standing in the pointe shoe in itself for an extended amount of time can get painful. It gives you a whole new respect for the female dancers and what they have to deal with everyday.

“The men dancing the stepsisters in Cinderella started preparing in January. We have an hour and a half pointe class for us men about two times a week. Our class consists of basic pointe technique to help us understand the pointe work as well as practicing the choreography we have to perform. It is definitely a beginner pointe class.”

Oliver Halkowich, Phillip Broomhead, Steven Woodgate; Photo: Drew Donovan

Please click here to watch an interview with Jim Nowakowski.

Other male dancers learning the role of the stepsisters include soloists Oliver Halkowich, Ilya Kozadayev, and Joseph Walsh; demi soloist Peter Franc; and corps de ballet member Christopher Gray.

See them perform in Cinderella starting this Thursday, and running through Sunday, March 4 at Wortham Theater Center.