Out in the Arts

by D. L. Groover

MY NIGHTS WITH A FRENCH WHORE

I met her on the way to Paris. She was to meet her brother, who was to take her to a convent. She was charming, pretty, and already had attracted the lustful attention of a dotty old man traveling with us. At the last stop before Paris, her brother pimped her to a rich society gentleman. But she fell in love-at first glance, no less-with a poor student who caught her eye in the town square. They ran off together, leaving the brother, the old man, and the rich roué to sort things out-badly, as I would later learn. She would become the rich man's mistress, betraying true love, and in the end would fall as far from grace as possible. For you see, her name was Manon, and I found myself literally on stage with her-at the Wortham in the recent Houston Ballet production of Sir Kenneth MacMillan's full-length classic tale.

I now have a conversation starter to add to my résumé, an extra $250 in my bank account (no one gets rich at the ballet), and enough Max Factor for a lifetime of Halloweens. I mastered eye shadow and spirit gum, though, and never tripped out of the coach while wearing an abnormally heavy wool cloak and unflattering wig circa 1720. Mercifully, being a "character super," I only had to act, not dance, or I never would have been hired in the first place. With my two costume changes, I had plenty of fabric to camouflage the body gravity that no self-respecting dancer ever allows, but fortunately no one in wardrobe had to put in overtime letting out seams or adding panels to the pantaloons.

Being in the production, I have no earthly idea how the shows actually went, since I observed the dancing from skewed angles behind light stanchions or while maneuvering over dancers sprawled in the wings or stagehands standing by for their next cue. Even in the studio, it's hard to tell quality when you're sitting on the floor upstage right, watching three separate casts of principals rehearse simultaneously, all reflected in multiple floor-length mirrors, and surrounded by dancers sewing their pointe shoes, reading magazines, or idling in the corner.

There's no question that ballet is a world unlike any other, but even the rap music the young Academy kids played in the dressing room couldn't overpower the Massenet piped in from the orchestra on the floor above. Sure, a few of the professionals are unrepentant divas, but all have a religious dedication to their craft and devote hours of hard physical labor to this rarefied, bizarre art form where movement is emotion and the body is the word. If you ever doubted that the human body is the most beautiful musical instrument of all, I urge you to watch the Houston Ballet in action.
Even this lowly super could tell that, and I never had to dance a step.

MORE ARTS PREVIEW

Space restrictions kept some of our favorites out of the season preview last month ("Rescued by the Arts," September). Add these to your datebook:

Gay Men's Chorus of Houston
713/680-9330
www.gmch.org
 
The sonorous masculine voices of our favorite singing group raise the roof and our pride for their "Songs of Life" season. Songs of Heavenly Joy is their bright-as-a-bubble-light holiday tribute (December 7, 10, 13, 14 at Bering Memorial United Methodist Church). Songs of the Classics melds choir masterworks with sprightly satire and the Texas premiere of Oliver Button Is a Star! (March 22 and 23, 2003, at Wortham Theater Center). Songs of Our Voices, the chorus' Pride celebration concert, will lift spirits to the rafters with the Abba-inspired ExtrABBAganza and Robert Seeley's Exile (June 7, 8, 10, 2003, at a venue to be announced.)
 
Houston Ballet
Wortham Center, 500 Texas
713/227-ARTS, 800/828-ARTS
www.houstonballet.org

Winter Repertory
February 27-March 9, 2003

Paul Taylor created his WWII-inspired Company B with Houston Ballet in 1991, and ever since it has been a signature piece for both choreographer and company. The work has his patented humor, sadness, and irony as the songs of the Andrews Sisters are dissected and glossed with rueful antiwar sensibility. The Four Temperaments is one of Paul Hindemith's greatest musical compositions as well as one of George Balanchine's greatest neo-classical ballets. Its dance movement is refined, elegant, and powerful beyond words. If you're not moved by the arcing lifts of the finale, you are dead.

Houston Grand Opera
Wortham Center, 500 Texas
713/228-OPERA, 800/62-OPERA
www.houstongrandopera.org

The Little Prince
May 31-June 22, 2003

HGO's world premiere is from Academy Award-winning composer Rachel Portman (Emma). Saint-Exupery's fairy tale about the little guy from asteroid B612 and his journeys to Earth is probably more beloved by adults than children, as it is filled with misty poetic ruminations on the wonders of life. HGO's newest work has to be better than that poor excuse for a movie musical cobbled together by Stanley Donen and Lerner and Loewe.

Infernal Bridegroom Productions
The Axiom, 2524 McKinney
713/522-8443
www.infernalbridegroom.com

Meat/BAR
May 8, 2003

IBP's artistic director, Jason Nodler, dark and intense, author of intriguing hits like In the Under Thunderloo and King Ubu Is King, has fashioned a new work about squandered potential, dreams deferred, and the numbing allure of sex, alcohol, and love. We let him describe it: "One out of one people is f--ked up about sex, and one out of one people is lying about it. And what, after all, is the deal with bars?"

The Menil Collection
1515 Sul Ross
713/525-9400
www.menil.org

Donald Judd: The Early Years
January 31-April 27, 2003

Minimalist with a vengeance, artist Judd secluded himself in the wilds of Marfa, Texas, and built his own gallery and foundation, the Chinati. Judd's monk-like furniture, all hard angles, is supremely uncomfortable, but his shimmering aluminum boxes, polished to blinding gloss, take the flat, burned-up landscape of west Texas desert into their own reflection and are actually quite serene in a hot/cold modern way. Hey, this is art, not IKEA.
Unhinged Productions

Atomic Café, 1320 Nance
713/524-8707, 713/547-0440

Blithe Spirit
March 2-June 8, 2003

OK, who could be more gay than Noel Coward? And what could be gayer than this wispy séance comedy of WASPy manners from 1941? How about a GLBT rewrite? The ghost the befuddled spiritualist summons forth for Charles is not his ex-"wife."