Houston Ballet to Join Lineup for World Ballet Day, 10/1

Houston, Texas - Houston Ballet will participate in World Ballet Day, Thursday October 1, 2015. This incredible event brings live broadcasting from some of the world's leading ballet companies and audiences with a chance to catch behind the scenes looks at what goes on inside a ballet company. Houston Ballet will provide a 30 minute pre-recorded segment to be aired from 7:00 - 7:30 PM CST, October 1, 2015 for the event.

Viewers of World Ballet Day will get to observe the inner workings of a professional ballet company during its 23 hours of coverage, as the program circles the globe. Houston Ballet's segment will provide audiences with a look at company class, rehearsals, and performances. Rehearsals of Artistic Director Stanton Welch's Tapestry, Christopher Bruce's Ghost Dances and Garrett Smith's new work Reveal will be broadcast, as well as portions of Houston Ballet's performance of Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Manon featuring principal dancers Melody Mennite and Connor Walsh in the lead roles. Houston Ballet Academy and Houston Ballet II, Houston Ballet's second company, will also be featured with looks at their classes and their rehearsal of Mr. Welch's The Long and Winding Road.

To watch World Ballet Day LIVE or to find out more information about the event visit www.worldballetday.com.

Broadcast Schedule

All times are in Central Standard Time (CST).

September 30, 2015

The Australian Ballet 9:00 PM - 2:00 AM

October 1, 2015

Bolshoi Ballet 2:00 AM - 5:00 AM

The Royal Ballet 5:00 AM - 10:00 AM

The National Ballet of Canada 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

San Francisco Ballet 3:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Houston Ballet guest spot 7:00-7:30 PM

About Houston Ballet

On February 17, 1969 a troupe of 15 young dancers made its stage debut at Sam Houston State Teacher's College in Huntsville, Texas. Since that time, Houston Ballet has evolved into a company of 56 dancers with a budget of $28.5 million (making it the United States' fifth largest ballet company by number of dancers) and an endowment of just over $69 million (as of July 2015). A state-of-the-art performance space, Wortham Theater Center, was built especially for the company, and the largest professional dance facility in America, Houston Ballet's $46.6 million Center for Dance, opened in April 2011.

Australian choreographer Stanton Welch has served as artistic director of Houston Ballet since 2003, raising the level of the company's classical technique and commissioning many new works from dance makers such as Christopher Bruce, Jorma Elo, James Kudelka, Julia Adam, Natalie Weir and Nicolo Fonte. James Nelson serves as the administrative leader of the company, assuming the position of executive director of Houston Ballet in February 2012 after serving as the company's general manager for over a decade.

Houston Ballet has toured extensively both nationally and internationally. Since 2000, the company has appeared in London at Sadler's Wells, at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Ottawa, in six cities in Spain, in Montréal, at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in New York at City Center and The Joyce Theater, at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, in Hamburg, Germany, and in cities large and small across the United States. Houston Ballet has emerged as a leader in the expensive, labor-intensive task of nurturing the creation and development of new full-length narrative ballets.

Writing in Dancing Times on June 2012, dance critic Margaret Willis praised Houston Ballet and highlighted the fact that "During his own tenure, (Stanton) Welch has upped the standard and Houston Ballet now shows off a group of 55 dancers in splendid shape. With fast and tidy footwork, they are technically skillful and have strong, broad jumps and expansive, fluid movements. The dancers' musicality shines through their work, dancing as one with elegance and refinement -and they are a handsome bunch too! . . . if ballet were an Olympic sport, see Houston Ballet well on the way to achieving gold."

Houston Ballet Orchestra was established in the late 1970s and currently consists of 61 professional musicians who play all ballet performances at Wortham Theater Center under music director Ermanno Florio.

Houston Ballet's Education and Outreach Program has reached approximately 33,500 Houston area students (as of the 2013-2014 season). Houston Ballet's Academy has 950 students and has had four academy students win prizes at the prestigious international ballet competition the Prix de Lausanne, with one student winning the overall competition in 2010. For more information on Houston Ballet visit www.houstonballet.org.

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