Houston Ballet apprentice, Madison Morris answers questions about what it’s like to perform in the corps during this busy holiday season. She reveals both the hard work and dedication required of apprentices and the corps and an insider’s view of the sometimes action-packed events going on behind the scenes at Nutcracker performances.
Interviews
ICON of Hope Project: Submit Your Drawing
A fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, The ICON of Hope Project is an initiative of ICON Dance Complex, a New Jersey dance studio owned and operated by siblings GEO and Beth Hubela, and their ICON of The Year, Katie Fasbach. Channel a dash of that Eddie Degas style, and do some good with this exciting, fun, nationwide drawing contest.
One With The Music: Accompanying Dancers Part Two
The studio I work at has three studios – one large and two small — as well as a small theatre space that seats about 100 people. The two smaller studios and the theatre space have an upright acoustic piano, and the larger studio has a baby grand piano. I actually prefer to play on the upright acoustic pianos as I find their tone more appealing – not to mention the fact that I can get more emotion out of these pianos!
One With The Music: Accompanying Dancers Part One
The very first ballet class I played for was a big surprise, because I had no idea what to expect or what would be expected of me by either the teacher or the dancers. I walked into the studio and the first person I saw was the teacher (who seemed to me to be very old), holding a lit cigarette in one hand and a cane in the other!
Melissa Hough On Competition, Rubies, and Being a “Newbie” at Houston Ballet
![[Photo] New Houston Ballet Soloist, Melissa Hough in rehearsal](https://www.danceadvantage.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/MelissaHough-133x200.jpg)
“When I became more serious about which direction I wanted to focus on, I auditioned for the year round program at Kirov Academy. I lived at the school for four years, while still taking my jazz, tap, lyrical classes and participating in competitions, and working on summer correspondence courses so I could graduate early. I also took some voice lessons, because for a long time I wanted to be on Broadway, but during my time at Kirov I decided I wanted to go for it- try to be a ballerina. My (Russian) teachers never thought I’d go very far in a ballet company. They felt I was more suited for contemporary, which at the time I was.”
Blog Spotlight: Start Your Morning With Dancing Branflakes
I started blogging as a way to keep in touch with my family. Then I realized my family never read my blog so I changed the format to blog about a dancer’s life. I figured it would be a way to share my love for dance and the dance world in general to a broader audience. It’s important for me to promote dance any way I can.
