Indigo and Giselle - Houston Ballet

[backstagemom]

DD and I went to see Indigo and Giselle at the Houston Ballet yesterday. Indigo is an original contemporary ballet choreographed by Stephen Welch (I think that's right). It was about 30 minutes long, no story line, but they didsome amazing and unique dancing. I don't know what to call some of the moves, but "bobblehead" comes to mind. The women did not wear tights. They had on tank type tops with underwear (some kind of dance undies I suppose) and a see through skirt. You could really see their leg muscles and stomachs. The women had some serious muscles and all of their ribs showed. They were obviously very strong and flexible. They did some interesting moves. This was our first contemporary ballet to watch. Afterwards, DD (who thought perhaps she would like contemporary ballet) said it was cool, but she likes story ballet best.

 

Giselle was a beautiful and interesting ballet. It was our first time to see it. I loved the dancing in the second act, but I agree with DD, the story seems to fall off and didn't make as much sense as other ballets we've seen. It was beautiful to watch though. We paid particular attention to the dancer's feet. The women stood and even walked forward in fifth position a lot. They did some interesting little moves too. We also noticed the sizes of the dancers (all of the girls). At one point they were in two lines. You could tell that they were lined up short to tall, but in one of the lines the shortest girl was a head shorter. The queen was a head taller than all of the girls. We thought that was interesting. The men who danced were okay, but they just didn't seem as powerful as the men that danced in Indigo, nor did they compare to the men who danced in Taming of the Shrew (HB this past summer). They lacked something, but I couldn't exactly say what. Overall, we enjoyed the ballet. DD wants to see Swan Lake, but it's not playing this year. I am hoping to get to go to Rock, Roll, and Tutus and Romeo and Juliet. We shall see.

 

In the program there are principles, soloists, demi soloists, and corps de ballet. We were curious as to what the demi soloists stood for. We think they were the ones who did some quick solos and partnering in the beginning. What does demi soloist generally mean?

[Victoria Leigh]

A demi soloist is kind of inbetween a corps member and a soloist. It's a step up, but not all the way. Still, a good thing.

[backstagemom]

It was obvious the female corps de ballet got a lot of stage / dance time. Not too bad if dance is what you want to do. The dancing in the second act was so pretty.