Young dancers get a leg up in Houston Ballet II spring show
The dancers of Houston Ballet II, the Houston Ballet’s pre-professional training program, will show off their talent at their annual Spring Showcase today and tomorrow. Highlighted by Katlyn Addison’s dance in The Sleeping Beauty, the showcase features four ballets ranging from classical to contemporary.
The Sleeping Beauty, the famous ballet whose choreography and music were originally created by Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky, will make up the third act of the showcase. HBII Ballet Master Claudio Munoz re-choreographed two of the scenes in the ballet for Addison’s performance. Addison, an 18-year-old Canadian, said she enjoys the style of the ballet, as well as the classical tutu and tiara she wears while dancing.
“I love classical dance because I find it a challenge, and I love challenges,” she said.
The modern Long and Winding Road is set to the music of the Beatles. Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch choreographed the dance, and musician Peter Breiner orchestrated the music in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi. HBII member Erin Pritchard, an 18-year-old from Orlando said Long and Winding Road is one of her favorite numbers in the show. The dance is lengthy, Pritchard said, but it features pretty choreography.
Chairman Dances, also choreographed by Welch, is a contemporary dance about President Richard Nixon’s visit to China. The dancers will wear shirt-and-pants costumes inspired by Mao suits while en pointe.
Houston Ballet II members have been preparing for the Spring Showcase since August, Pritchard said. The students learned two dances at a time and then rehearsed the dances daily to internalize the choreography. Although the students are in dance class or rehearsals six days per week for nine hours each day, they still need to practice on their own to learn the choreography, Pritchard said.
As the pre-professional division of Houston Ballet, HBII members split their time between the Academy and the professional company, Pritchard said. Occasionally they perform with the company onstage, as Pritchard did in this winter’s Nutcracker performances. Performing with the professionals is a valuable experience, and just spending time in a professional atmosphere is important, Pritchard said. The company members are proof that pre-professional dancers can achieve their goals of becoming professional dancers.
The road to becoming a professional dancer is a lengthy one. Pritchard began dancing with the Orlando Ballet school when she was three years old and moved to Houston to join HBII last year. Addison had been dancing for 12 years before she came to Houston two years ago to join HBII. Both will join the Houston Ballet next year as apprentices. Although the training requires long hours and difficult physical workouts, the two still have a passion for ballet.
“[I like] the way it makes me feel,” Pritchard said. “It’s a way to express my emotions that I can’t put into words.”
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