Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas, the fourth largest city in the United States, has a reputation for being big and brash, and its citizens’ “larger than life” attitude has resulted in Houston being one of only five cities with resident companies in all four performing arts disciplines. They have the Alley Theatre, Houston Ballet, Houston Symphony and Houston Grand Opera. So it’s no wonder that when jazz came to town with its newfangled rounded shoulders, body isolations and inward knees, Houston adopted it and added its own big, brash flavor.
Along the way, there were some fine examples to emulate: Katherine Dunham, Jack Cole, Matt Mattox, Jerome Robbins, Luigi, Lou Conte, Gus Giordano and Bob Fosse. Fosse alone ruled Broadway with hit after hit: Chicago, Cabaret, The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. He brought jazz to a whole new audience, and Texans took notice.
Paul Beutel, managing director of Miller Outdoor Theatre, says, “Do Texans have a Fosse fetish? I don’t know. Maybe it just taps into the general energy in this part of the country. Maybe it taps into our Wild West background. Texas mentality doesn’t exactly align with Balanchine.”
But Texas mentality most assuredly aligns with a feisty little jazz dancer named Delia Stewart. Beutel says, “Delia Stewart is one of the most irrepressible spirits you’d ever want to meet. Delia Stewart blew into my office one day and said, ‘Hi. You don’t know me, but can I talk to you for a few minutes?’ She convinced me I needed to book her company at the Paramount in Austin. She promised to sell out the theatre and she did.”
Michelle Smith, executive director of Houston Metropolitan Dance Center, says Stewart started her career with Lou Conte and Gus Giordano and eventually, like Smith, moved south. “I am a ballerina -- born, bred, trained, the whole nine yards. I didn’t know jazz existed until I moved to Houston.”
Since then she has come to love the form. “Jazz is like taking raw energy and exploding it out in all the movements. There’s a freedom in jazz. To me, jazz is more natural on your body, which gives more interpretation. Jazz starts from your core and radiates out into your arms and your legs,” Smith says.
Teresa Chapman, assistant professor of dance at the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of Houston is another proponent of jazz dancing. “I come from a jazz and a modern background. It’s fun to see how those are fusing more and more these days. Mia Michaels is taking a lot of jazz aesthetics and putting them into modern.” Although a marriage of styles allows them both to grow stylistically, there’s a price. “I think what I love about this art form is that it’s so evanescent. You have to be present in each moment. That’s the beauty of it. That’s also the tragedy of it.” Allow it to change too much and it becomes something different; pin it down structurally and it eventually becomes stagnant.
Chapman says, “There have been people who’ve tried to codify it over the years.” Isolations, in particular, are a staple of jazz. “I think we stifle it if we don’t let it grow. Jazz dance has always been a reflection of society….”
The fluidity of the form – its ability to change with the times – allows it to address the present moment. “The audience should feel like they’ve experienced something. It’s not cerebral; it’s your heart. You should feel something,” Chapman continues.
Houston Metropolitan Dance Company Marlana Walsh, Lauren Garson, Lynzy Lab
Photo by D. Garson
With that directive, Houston’s teachers strive to teach up and coming dancers to feel something. They do that with good training at all levels. On the college level, Chapman says students “are welcome to come and watch a class.” The University of Houston’s dance majors focus on choreography and dance composition, and although any student can enroll in dance classes, dance majors are accepted only by audition. This year’s audition is October 25.
For the younger students who want to dance but whose parents also want them to have a traditional education, there’s the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA). HSPVA blends arts and academics. Three hours per day are spent in their art areas and the remainder in academics.
But maybe you’re just visiting and your students want to take some classes. Check out the Midtown Art Center’s Saturday dance classes for youth (ages 5-17). They offer ballet, tap, modern, jazz, hip-hop, master classes and praise dance. If you’re not familiar with praise dance, have a look online at a company called Ad Deum.
Perhaps, however, the goal is simply to take in all that Houston has to offer. If so, start with Beutel’s Miller Outdoor Theatre. First of all, it’s free and second, it offers superb entertainment for every age group and every ethnicity. In a city with more than 3.4 million citizens, 83 consulates and 90 languages, Houston is a culturally rich community that wants culturally rich entertainment. Miller Outdoor Theatre, located in the 7.5 acres of Hermann Park, caters to over 230,000 of those people each year.
Beutel says, “Recent immigrant populations are not necessarily that comfortable going downtown to what they perceive as a rich, Anglo-Saxon venue. But come to the park and you will see the most diverse audience that you’ll see…anywhere.” Throughout the season, they’ll see Broadway shows, Indian dance, the Houston Ballet, Dominick Walsh Dance Theatre, Dallas Black Dance Company, Infinity Irish Dance Company from Chicago and the Georgian State Dance Company from the former Soviet Republic.
In October alone, Miller will have “Dance of Asian America,” with guest artists from the Shanghai Dance Company (October 10 and 11) and U Theatre from Taiwan, combining dance, martial arts, music and percussion (October 16 and 17). On October 23 and 24, they welcome “African Footprints.”
Another venue, the Hobby Center, has both “Musiqua and Travesty Dance Group” and “Dance Infusion/Uptown Dance Company” in October. In November, Hobby brings “Brazilian Arts Foundation – Annual Capoeira Encounter.”
For musicals, the Masquerade Theatre will have Man of La Mancha (September 26 – October 5) and The Music Man (November 20-30).
Additionally, the Society for Performing Arts, a nonprofit organization that brings acclaimed talent to Houston each year, is hosting “Compania Flamenco José Porcel” on October 4. In November, Houston Ballet will present works from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal.
For more dance choices, go to www.houstondance.org for a complete listing of all upcoming events. Houston offers the best of both worlds: great entertainment for visitors and world-class studios and companies for professionals. As Smith says, “We’re always looking for the young and the new…and I think Houston is a good place to go for that.”
Sidebar:
“I think what I love about this art form is that it’s so evanescent. You have to be present in each moment. That’s the beauty of it. That’s also the tragedy of it.” Teresa Chapman