Houston Ballet To Tour Dubai, United Arab Emirates With Swan Lake

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Jacalyn Lawton
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WHO: Houston Ballet

WHAT: Swan Lake on Tour

WHERE: Dubai Opera House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

WHEN: October 24-27, 2018

TICKETS: On Sale Now at DubaiOpera.com

MORE: Houston Ballet On Tour

PHOTOS: https://bit.ly/2sbmv9e

VIDEO: https://bit.ly/2s2yKWn

 

HOUSTON, TEXAS [October 1, 2018] — Houston Ballet takes its show on the road to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, making it the first American ballet company to ever perform in the Dubai Opera House. The Company will dance six performances of Artistic Director Stanton Welch AM’s Swan Lake during the October 24-27, 2018 tour.

Houston Ballet has toured extensively both nationally and internationally and looks forward to delighting patrons in Dubai. “Houston Ballet is thrilled to enchant audiences across the globe and continue building touring relationships,” Houston Ballet’s Executive Director Jim Nelson states, “and maintaining a strong international touring presence positions Houston Ballet and our Academy as a global company able to attract talent from around the world.”

Jasper Hope, Chief Executive at Dubai Opera, commented, “Swan Lake is a ballet masterpiece and one of the most popular works for audiences today. I am delighted to announce that Houston Ballet will be bringing their brilliant production of this eternal story to the Dubai Opera stage in October, accompanied of course by Tchaikovsky’s incredible score performed by a live orchestra, all-in-all a thrilling treat for ballet fans throughout the region.”

Swan Lake was created for the company by Welch in 2006, with music composed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) and featuring sumptuous scenery and costumes by Kristian Fredrikson. One of the most epic love stories of classical ballet, Swan Lake tells the story of Odette – a beautiful maiden transformed into a swan by an evil knight – and the Prince, who swears his eternal love for her. In his staging, Welch imbues the main characters with greater psychological complexity, and gives the work a twenty-first century pace. Welch, who collaborated with Mr. Fredrikson on Swan Lake, was inspired by John William Waterhouse’s painting, The Lady of Shalott (1888). “When I saw this painting I said, ‘this is our Odette.’ Here is a woman, a young heroine, lost in a forest by a lake, touched by tragedy,” Welch said.

Houston Ballet’s 2018/19 tour is generously sponsored by Houston First, United Airlines, Houston Methodist, and the Fayez Sarofim and Company Tour Fund. This production is generously underwritten by Houston Ballet Trustee Margaret Alkek Williams. Houston Ballet’s Global Exclusive Representative is IMG Artists, a global leader of performing arts, social media, and festival and events management. For more information, please visit imgartists.com.

ABOUT HOUSTON BALLET

Houston Ballet has evolved into a company of 60 dancers with a budget of $33 million, making it the country’s fifth largest ballet company. With a state-of-the-art performance space built especially for the company—also the largest professional dance facility in America—Houston Ballet’s $46.6 million Center for Dance opened in April 2011, with an endowment of just over $74.1 million (as of July 2017).

Australian choreographer Stanton Welch AM has served as Artistic Director of Houston Ballet since 2003, raising the level of the company’s classical technique and commissioning works from dance makers such as Christopher Bruce, Alexander Ekman, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Trey McIntyre, Julia Adam, Edwaard Liang, and George Balanchine. Executive Director James Nelson serves as the administrative leader of the company, a position he assumed in February 2012 after serving as the company’s General Manager for more than a decade.

Houston Ballet has toured extensively both nationally and internationally. Over the past fifteen years, the company has appeared in renowned theaters in London, Paris, Moscow, Spain, Montréal, Ottawa, Melbourne, New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and in cities large and small across the United States.

Houston Ballet’s Education and Community Engagement Program reaches more than 60,000 individuals in the Houston area annually. Houston Ballet Academy teaches more than one thousand students every year, and approximately 50 percent of the current company was trained by the Academy.

For more information on Houston Ballet, visit www.houstonballet.org.

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