Melissa Hough has made shifting companies pay off.     Hough rehearses Swan Lake with Gakuro Matsui. Photo by Erik Berg, Courtesy Norwegian National Ballet.   A dancer’s career is a short one, and knowing how best to manage that time is critical. If you are not getting the roles you want, how long do […]

  Walsh improvising at home. Photo by Jaime Lagdameo, Courtesy Walsh.   Musical, charismatic, handsome—Joseph Walsh stood out at Houston Ballet even before he began dancing leads. Born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Walsh, 25, studied at Walnut Hill School for the Arts before moving to HB’s Ben Stevenson Academy. He joined the main company in 2007 […]

IN HIS FIRST GO at a romantic role, Houston Ballet’s Joseph Walsh dove deep into the delirium of love. He’d been cast opposite Sara Webb in Manon, and danced as though every muscle in his body was longing for her. Then, as soon as bows finished opening night, the first person he ran into in […]

Houston Ballet’s Melody Mennite finds the meaning in the movement.   Passionate and invested: Ian Casady and Mennite in Marie, a role that Stanton Welch made on her. Photo by Amitava Sarkar, Courtesy HB.     Houston Ballet principal Melody Mennite claims the stage in Garrett Smith’s new Return with such authority it’s hard to […]

Retirements Houston Ballet principal Mireille Hassenboehler took her final waltz across the Wortham stage on September 28. She was the last ballerina to be named a principal by former artistic director Ben Stevenson. “I’m the bridge ballerina,” quips Hassenboehler, who served as a dancer representative on the committee that hired Stanton Welch. “I was promoted […]