FOR RELEASE ON                                                               CONTACT: MELISSA CARROLL
May 22, 2007                                                                      CASSIE PATTERSON MCCLUNG
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James Kudelka Creates a World Premiere
Especially for Houston Ballet in May 2008

From May 22 – June 1, 2008, Houston Ballet presents Three Classics, Five Tangos, a program of premieres by three of the world’s most influential choreographers: James Kudelka, Hans van Manen, and Stanton Welch. A new work by the imaginative James Kudelka will be unveiled specifically for the company dancers. Also on the program are the Houston Premieres of Falling, Stanton Welch’s playful pure dance work set to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Salzburg Symphonies,” and Five Tangos by Holland’s best known dance maker Hans van Manen set to the music of the great Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla.

Mr. Kudelka’s world premiere for Houston Ballet will employ his distinctive choreographic style to create a new work specifically for company dancers. The piece will be set to Symphony No. 8 by Philip Glass and will feature costumes by the Canadian designer Denis Lavoie. 

“I love James Kudelka’s construction, his unique way of building a ballet. He has his own perspective and point of view,” commented Mr. Welch.

Hailed by The New York Times as “the most imaginative voice to come out of ballet in the last decade,” James Kudelka has created over 40 ballets for some of the world’s best companies, including San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Mr. Kudelka served as artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada from 1996-2005, and for the company created numerous pieces, including his own version of two classics: The Nutcracker (1995) and a controversial production of Swan Lake (1999). Houston Ballet currently has three works by Mr. Kudelka in its repertoire: There, below (1989), Musings (1991) and The Firebird (2000). Mr. Kudelka describes himself as “a conscientious observer” who creates dances that are meditations on the classic themes of love, sex, and death.

Stanton Welch’s Falling is a classical, playful piece for five couples set to Mozart’s “Salzburg Symphonies.”  The work was originally created for San Francisco Ballet in 2005, and it featured costumes by Holly Hynes, who created pastel-colored leotards with flowers embroidered on the front. In a review of Falling, Michael Wade Simpson of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “The whole work has a sense of fresh direction and musicality. . .  Falling is a delight in shades of pastel, with good ideas and excellent dancing delivered in a joyful, Mozartian spirit wrote.”

Paul Parish in a review of Falling for DanceView Times wrote, “I can’t resist its energy, playfulness, sweetness, and I am so grateful to see how classical it is and how inventive Welch is at finding the fun in doing things classically. He’s also made a ballet that’s great for the dancers, every one of whom looks smashing in it.”

Another Houston Ballet premiere on the program is Hans Van Manen’s Five Tangos, originally created for the Dutch National Ballet in 1977. Inspired by Astor Piazzolla’s Five Tangos for Bandeon, van Manen created this ensemble work for seven couples full of split-second shifts of direction with a full appreciation of the sardonic wit of the popular Argentine dance. An audience favorite at home and in stagings around the world, Five Tangos’s greatness and continued popularity comes from its unique mix of the power and sensuality of tango and the cool abstraction of classical ballet.

“Five Tangos is a very fun, very sexy work,” commented Mr. Welch.  “Five Tangos is abstract, but there are definite undercurrents of what the tango is about:  a dance of love and death.”   

Dutch choreographer and ballet director Hans van Manen was born in Amstelveen in 1932, and has emerged as one of Holland's leading dance makers.  He began to work with the Netherlands Dance Theater in 1960, first as a dancer, next as a choreographer, then as the artistic director (from 1961 to 1971).  For the following two years he worked as a freelance choreographer, then joined Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam in 1973.  Outside of the Netherlands, he has staged his ballets for many international companies, including American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Houston Ballet.  In September 1988 Mr. van Manen rejoined Netherlands Dance Theater as a resident choreographer.  In the course of his career, he has created more than 100 works, fifty-eight of which have been for Netherlands Dance Theater. Mr. van Manen has also been awarded numerous prizes.  In 1991 he received the Sonia Gaskell Prize for his entire body of work.  In 1992—his 35th year as a choreographer— he was knighted by the Queen of the Netherlands in the Order of Orange Nassau.  Houston Ballet currently has two works by Mr. van Manen in its repertoire:  Grosse Fuge (1971), which entered Houston Ballet's repertoire in September 2005; and Adagio Hammerklavier (1973), which entered Houston Ballet's repertoire in 1978.