Houston Ballet II (with Students from Chautauqua School of Dance)
Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater
Chautauqua, NY
August 07, 2024

By Steve Sucato

New York State’s Chautauqua Institution has a long history of developing mutually advantageous working relationships with former Chautauqua School of Dance students and faculty members. From those returning to guest teach in the school or perform in alumni dance showcases, to having the professional company’s they now lead in residence at the Institution to perform. The most recent of those relationships has been with former School of Dance student and guest teacher Julie Kent. The former American Ballet Theatre star was artistic director of The Washington Ballet and brought that company to perform at Chautauqua the past several summers. Now co-artistic director of Houston Ballet, Kent is continuing annual summer performances at the Institution with both Houston Ballet’s main company and its second company, Houston Ballet II (HBII). 

For the second summer in a row, Houston Ballet II’s company of young dancers performed on the Amphitheater stage. This time, presenting a triple bill of ballets choreographed by Houston Ballet’s other co-director, Stanton Welch.

HBII’s dancers are high-caliber dance artists just beginning their professional careers but destined for greater things. This was evident from the get-go in Welch’s “Joplin,” a duet set to Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer.” It was performed by dancers Quinton Brooks and Lexi Utz, who was making her HBII debut.

Costumed in tuxedo-inspired garb with bow ties, the pair gleefully moved through Welch’s Broadway jazz-infused ballet choreography. Each dancer played to the audience and off one another. 

Apropos summer dance fair, “Joplin” favored stylized frivolity over serious technical dancing. Despite a few bobbles in the pair’s partnered lifts, Brooks and the bubbly Utz’s performances were playfully animated and delightful.

Next, early 1900s ragtime frivolity was exchanged for Medieval merriment in Welch’s “A Dance in the Garden of Mirth.” 

According to the program notes, the ballet was designed to capture the vibrancy and joy present in the music and gatherings associated with the 13th and 14th centuries. It was danced to music by early Renaissance music composer Guillaume Dufay and imbued with folk dance movement. A cast of four men and four women in period-looking costuming (the women in black beaded headdresses and semi-sheer embroidered skirts) engaged in celebratory dance choreography as if part of some other festive communal occasion. 

After a vibrant opening group dance, Yeva Hrytsak, a dancer from Ukraine, continued the ballet’s celebratory mood with what can be best described as a folk dance-like version of a sprightly fairy solo a la The Sleeping Beauty. It was followed by Brooks in a solo that conjured up the carefreeness of Huckleberry Finn meandering along a river with his fishing pole. 

Welch’s choreography continued to veer off in differing stylistic directions during the rest of the ballet. A gestural pas de trois section found dancers Macy Richter, Nathaniel Geis, and Edouard Wormser wiggling, spinning, skipping, and oddly patting at their ears. That gave way to a captivating balletic solo by dancer Olivia McBain and to the ballet’s finale, complete with bagpipe music and the feel of something out of Riverdance only with ballet movement.

While a hodge-podge of movement styles, “A Dance in the Garden of Mirth” proved well-crafted, wonderfully danced, and uniquely brilliant, earning it a standing ovation.

The program closed with Welch’s “In Good Company,” set to music by Canadian folk-bluegrass ensemble The Dead South. It was a large group work combining HBII’s dancers with 25 student dancers from the Chautauqua School of Dance. 

Deriving its title from the opening song of the ballet, “In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company, the vibe of the ballet, like Welch’s “A Dance in the Garden of Mirth,” was celebratory.

Fingers snapped, arms waved as the large cast gathered onstage in comradely as if at some country carnival to dance and watch each other dance. Quirky character dances and those showing off bravura skill came one after the other in a barrage of captivating choreography. The ensemble piece seamlessly integrated HBII’s dancers and those of the Chautauqua School of Dance into a satisfying program-ending spectacle. Of its many memorable moments, none wowed more than an athletic solo by Brett Rule and the performances of dancers Macy Richter, Ayumi Kobayashi and Garrett Yut.