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LIFE & ARTS

Aspiring dancers to perform at Moores

by SARAH TRESSLER
The Daily Cougar

If you haven't been able to make it to the Wortham to see any of this season's performances by the Houston Ballet (like Dracula, which was fabulous), you should be happy to know that the Houston Ballet is coming to you instead. 

The Long and Winding Road, set to music by the Beatles, and the Chairman Dances, from the John Adams opera Nixon in China, will be performed by pre-professional dancers from the Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy at 7:30 p.m. today in the Moores Opera House. A live orchestra will accompany the performance.

Both works are creations of Stanton Welch, the acclaimed Australian choreographer and the Houston Ballet's artistic director.

In addition to creating works for the Houston Ballet, Welch has contributed to the San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theater, the Australian Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet. Welch assumed the leadership of the Houston Ballet in 2003.

Tickets for the performance are only $10 for students and $15 for general admission. That's a big discount from the regular price of orchestra seats for a performance in the Wortham Performance Hall, usually from $40 to $100.

Dancers from the Houston Ballet II are pre-professional dancers. If they are ready, they will "graduate" in April, at which time they can audition for the Houston Ballet proper, which is the fifth-largest ballet company in the country. 

More than half of the professional company's dancers at the Houston Ballet were graduates from the Ben Stevenson Academy. Three hundred students, ranging in age from 3 to 60 years old, are enrolled in its classes. Established in 1955 as the Houston Ballet Academy, it was later renamed to reflect the impact Ben Stevenson, the Houston Ballet's artistic director for 27 years, had on the academy.

Ben Philossof, who worked in the Houston Ballet's administrative department for 11 years, said some dancers may be required to repeat classes before they are allowed to move on, but once they graduate from the academy, their prospects for earning a spot with a professional troupe are bright.

"This is the best academy all over the country," Philossof said. "From here, they are ready to go to Broadway." 

For tickets or information, call (713) 743-3313 or visit www.music.uh.edu/events/calendars.html.