• Home
  • popular
  • EVENTS
  • submit-new-event
  • CHARITY GUIDE
  • Children
  • Education
  • Health
  • Veterans
  • Social Services
  • Arts + Culture
  • Animals
  • LGBTQ
  • New Charity
  • TRENDING NEWS
  • News
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Home + Design
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Innovation
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • subscribe
  • about
  • series
  • Embracing Your Inner Cowboy
  • Green Living
  • Summer Fun
  • Real Estate Confidential
  • RX In the City
  • State of the Arts
  • Fall For Fashion
  • Cai's Odyssey
  • Comforts of Home
  • Good Eats
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2010
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2
  • Good Eats 2
  • HMNS Pirates
  • The Future of Houston
  • We Heart Hou 2
  • Music Inspires
  • True Grit
  • Hoops City
  • Green Living 2011
  • Cruizin for a Cure
  • Summer Fun 2011
  • Just Beat It
  • Real Estate 2011
  • Shelby on the Seine
  • Rx in the City 2011
  • Entrepreneur Video Series
  • Going Wild Zoo
  • State of the Arts 2011
  • Fall for Fashion 2011
  • Elaine Turner 2011
  • Comforts of Home 2011
  • King Tut
  • Chevy Girls
  • Good Eats 2011
  • Ready to Jingle
  • Houston at 175
  • The Love Month
  • Clifford on The Catwalk Htx
  • Let's Go Rodeo 2012
  • King's Harbor
  • FotoFest 2012
  • City Centre
  • Hidden Houston
  • Green Living 2012
  • Summer Fun 2012
  • Bookmark
  • 1987: The year that changed Houston
  • Best of Everything 2012
  • Real Estate 2012
  • Rx in the City 2012
  • Lost Pines Road Trip Houston
  • London Dreams
  • State of the Arts 2012
  • HTX Fall For Fashion 2012
  • HTX Good Eats 2012
  • HTX Contemporary Arts 2012
  • HCC 2012
  • Dine to Donate
  • Tasting Room
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • Charming Charlie
  • Asia Society
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2012
  • HTX Mistletoe on the go
  • HTX Sun and Ski
  • HTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • HTX New Beginnings
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013
  • Zadok Sparkle into Spring
  • HTX Let's Go Rodeo 2013
  • HCC Passion for Fashion
  • BCAF 2013
  • HTX Best of 2013
  • HTX City Centre 2013
  • HTX Real Estate 2013
  • HTX France 2013
  • Driving in Style
  • HTX Island Time
  • HTX Super Season 2013
  • HTX Music Scene 2013
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013 2
  • HTX Baker Institute
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • Mothers Day Gift Guide 2021 Houston
  • Staying Ahead of the Game
  • Wrangler Houston
  • First-time Homebuyers Guide Houston 2021
  • Visit Frisco Houston
  • promoted
  • eventdetail
  • Greystar Novel River Oaks
  • Thirdhome Go Houston
  • Dogfish Head Houston
  • LovBe Houston
  • Claire St Amant podcast Houston
  • The Listing Firm Houston
  • South Padre Houston
  • NextGen Real Estate Houston
  • Pioneer Houston
  • Collaborative for Children
  • Decorum
  • Bold Rock Cider
  • Nasher Houston
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2021
  • CityNorth
  • Urban Office
  • Villa Cotton
  • Luck Springs Houston
  • EightyTwo
  • Rectanglo.com
  • Silver Eagle Karbach
  • Mirador Group
  • Nirmanz
  • Bandera Houston
  • Milan Laser
  • Lafayette Travel
  • Highland Park Village Houston
  • Proximo Spirits
  • Douglas Elliman Harris Benson
  • Original ChopShop
  • Bordeaux Houston
  • Strike Marketing
  • Rice Village Gift Guide 2021
  • Downtown District
  • Broadstone Memorial Park
  • Gift Guide
  • Music Lane
  • Blue Circle Foods
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2022
  • True Rest
  • Lone Star Sports
  • Silver Eagle Hard Soda
  • Modelo recipes
  • Modelo Fighting Spirit
  • Athletic Brewing
  • Rodeo Houston
  • Silver Eagle Bud Light Next
  • Waco CVB
  • EnerGenie
  • HLSR Wine Committee
  • All Hands
  • El Paso
  • Avenida Houston
  • Visit Lubbock Houston
  • JW Marriott San Antonio
  • Silver Eagle Tupps
  • Space Center Houston
  • Central Market Houston
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Travel Texas Houston
  • Alliantgroup
  • Golf Live
  • DC Partners
  • Under the Influencer
  • Blossom Hotel
  • San Marcos Houston
  • Photo Essay: Holiday Gift Guide 2009
  • We Heart Hou
  • Walker House
  • HTX Good Eats 2013
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2013
  • HTX Culture Motive
  • HTX Auto Awards
  • HTX Ski Magic
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2014
  • HTX Texas Traveler
  • HTX Cifford on the Catwalk 2014
  • HTX United Way 2014
  • HTX Up to Speed
  • HTX Rodeo 2014
  • HTX City Centre 2014
  • HTX Dos Equis
  • HTX Tastemakers 2014
  • HTX Reliant
  • HTX Houston Symphony
  • HTX Trailblazers
  • HTX_RealEstateConfidential_2014
  • HTX_IW_Marks_FashionSeries
  • HTX_Green_Street
  • Dating 101
  • HTX_Clifford_on_the_Catwalk_2014
  • FIVE CultureMap 5th Birthday Bash
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2014 TEST
  • HTX Texans
  • Bergner and Johnson
  • HTX Good Eats 2014
  • United Way 2014-15_Single Promoted Articles
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Houston
  • Where to Eat Houston
  • Copious Row Single Promoted Articles
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2014
  • htx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Zadok Swiss Watches
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2015
  • HTX Charity Challenge 2015
  • United Way Helpline Promoted Article
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Fusion Academy Promoted Article
  • Clifford on the Catwalk Fall 2015
  • United Way Book Power Promoted Article
  • Jameson HTX
  • Primavera 2015
  • Promenade Place
  • Hotel Galvez
  • Tremont House
  • HTX Tastemakers 2015
  • HTX Digital Graffiti/Alys Beach
  • MD Anderson Breast Cancer Promoted Article
  • HTX RealEstateConfidential 2015
  • HTX Vargos on the Lake
  • Omni Hotel HTX
  • Undies for Everyone
  • Reliant Bright Ideas Houston
  • 2015 Houston Stylemaker
  • HTX Renewable You
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • HTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Kyrie Massage
  • Red Bull Flying Bach
  • Hotze Health and Wellness
  • ReadFest 2015
  • Alzheimer's Promoted Article
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Professional Skin Treatments by NuMe Express

    Difficult Choices

    Houston Ballet presents two extraordinarily different works choreographed by Stanton Welch

    Joseph Campana
    Sep 24, 2016 | 1:00 pm

    “Two things I could do,” Cio-Cio-san sings in “Madame Butterfly” when she imagines being abandoned by her American lover Pinkerton. It’s an impossible choice: return to being a geisha or take her own life.

    Houston Ballet presented its audience with its own difficult choice between two works by Stanton Welch ill at ease with one another on the same stage. The oddly angular “Son of Chamber Symphony,” set to John Adams’ stirring score of the same name precedes an elaborately overstuffed “Madame Butterfly,” set to John Lachbery’s very fine arrangement of Giacomo Puccini’s beloved opera.

    I’ve often felt the Houston Ballet falls into a programming rut. Nearly always we see either a story ballet or a mixed program with exactly three pieces of modern choreography. Certainly this program offers some relief in that respect, and one fascinating aspect of the evening is that if you didn’t know, you might not guess these works were by the same choreographer.

    But the discord between “Son of Chamber Symphony” and “Madame Butterfly” provided little pleasant variation but instead an overly long evening in which the stirring surprises of the former were lost in the welter of costume drama.

    “Son of Chamber Symphony” seems an ambitious musical choice for Welch and the company, a choice rewarded as the lively, jagged score offers up all the splendors of John Adams’ characteristically layered, organized discord and keeps everyone on their toes.

    The curtain opens on a stark, architectural scene. White rectangles hang in the back as four men create a square around a central ballerina slowly turning. It’s an evocative image in a ballet that creates many compelling tableaux.

    Each movement features a central couple. Charles-Louis Yoshiyama helps Karina Gonzalez harness her boundless energy. Christopher Coomer and Yuriko Kajiya manage for a time a tortured elegance although at one moment it seemed she nearly tumbled out of his reach.

    It’s a virtue of “Son of Chamber Symphony” that it does not lavish all of its attention on these central figures. As one of the four men framing the opening movement, Derek Dunn was as sharp and articulate as he was in the company’s knock-out performance of William Forsythe’s “Artifact Suite” in the season-opening program.

    Similarly, I couldn’t take my eyes off the elongated grace of Alyssa Springer, who was as compelling in “Son of Chamber Symphony” as she was in the previous program in Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations.”

    A special bonus built into “Son of Chamber Symphony” is the third movement’s nod to Adams’ landmark “Nixon in China,” which the Houston Grand Opera originally commissioned and which will return in a brand new thirtieth anniversary production this spring.

    Mesmerizing angularity characterized Welch’s 2012 “Son of Chamber Symphony.” I wasn’t always quite sure what motivated the movement but I was intrigued and not at all inclined to look away. The 1995 “Madame Butterfly,” on the other hand, felt cluttered, claustrophobic, stuffy, and a little exhausting to sit through. What difference nearly two decades makes.

    Large scenes like the wedding felt far too crowded to allow the audience appreciate what was happening. It’s easy to get carried away when costuming a “Madame Butterfly,” and this production was no exception. Opening and closing tableaux feature a ballerina cloaked in elaborate robes stretching across the stage, which set a certain tone for the production. At times, Cio-Cio-san seems so elaborately clothed she can scarcely move. Some of the movement—the sumo-like men at the wedding—verged into kitsch with a little too much stomping and slapping.

    It’s a little like an overstuffed sofa you’ve sat in a few too many times to still find comfortable.

    But this “Madame Butterfly” really sings when Welch clears away the crowds and allows Cio-Cio-san and Pinkerton two moving pas-de-deux that show us exactly why the resplendent Sara Webb and Ian Casady have long been mainstays of the company.

    The first pairing comes near the end of the first half of the ballet. Cio-Cio-san has been cursed and cast out by her family, but she commits herself to a world devoted to Pinkerton, building an altar to him with an American flag, a cross, and a sword. Suddenly, the hill-side home is theirs alone. As Cio-Cio-san changes, Pinkerton feels out his new situation in lithe and limber movements almost reminiscent of Jerome Robbins’ “Fancy Free.” When Cio-Cio-san emerges, the chemistry is undeniable. She leaps and he catches her, swinging her around and down to the floor.

    Casady and Webb are certainly the stars, but they have more than ample support. Charles-Louis Yoshiyama plays with aplomb the often-goofy and well-choreographed the marriage broker, Goro. And he manages, also, Goro’s transformation from harmless to harrowing when Cio-Cio-san refuses to abandon her dreams of Pinkerton for the ancient Prince Yamadori. Jessica Collado is utterly convincing and compassionate as the faithful Suzuki, who watches her mistress’s tragic decline after bearing Pinkerton’s child in his absence. He returns three years later only to take their son back to America to be raised by his wife Kate after which Cio-Cio-san takes her life.

    Two things this program does? Look forward and look back. Looking forward seems a far better choice.

    Charles-Louis Yoshiyama and Karina Gonzalez in Son of Chamber Symphony.

    Houston Ballet, Son of Chamber Symphony, 9/16 Karina Gonzalez and Charles-Louis Yoshiyama
      
    Photo by Amitava Sarkar
    Charles-Louis Yoshiyama and Karina Gonzalez in Son of Chamber Symphony.
    dance
    news/arts

    Hodge Podge

    Houston artist bids farewell, for now, with career-spanning new exhibit

    Craig D. Lindsey
    Jun 18, 2025 | 10:29 am
    Robert Leroy Hodge Sanman Studios
    Courtesy of Robert Leroy Hodge/SANMAN Studios
    The exhibit shows a range of the artist's works.

    Artist Robert Leroy Hodge is saying goodbye to Houston – well, not exactly.

    The Houston-born multidisciplinary artist recently debuted his latest exhibit, Diamonds That Fall from the Treetop, at SANMAN Studios. Known more for his eye-catching, pop-art collages (in 2023, he collaborated with Austin artist Tim Kerr for the No Kings But Us exhibit at Blaffer Art Museum), this mini-retrospective will feature selected works from his two-decade career – including the early stuff.

    “A lot of kids think I only make collages,” Hodge tells CultureMap. “And, also, I'm not making collages anymore like that. So, it's like the end of an era. I show where I started with these portraits and real paintings and drawings and how I kind of got into collage. It's a wide range of things I do, not just collage.”

    Diamonds will also be his last exhibit in Houston, but he’s not moving away. Hodge will cut down on doing local exhibits and focus more on getting his art and his name out there in other parts of the world. He’s out to prove that serious art can come out of this place.

    “When I interact with politicians and people in higher positions, they treat local artists like they're secondary, they're not good enough,” he says. “[They say] ‘They're in Houston because they can't be in New York and LA,’ and that's not the case. I could be anywhere, and I chose Houston.”

    But Hodge wants to be known as an artist from Houston, instead of just in Houston. “There’s nothing wrong with being a local artist in your city, but that’s not what I want,” he says. “I live here, but for me to get to the next space I wanna get to, I need to be showing more in New York, LA, out the country. And it's nothing personal – when you do a lot of stuff here, you just can't keep doing the same thing. You start to feel stagnant.”

    As much as he loves both the city and its art scene, Hodge knows that the visual arts isn’t a high priority around here. “We are an oil-and-gas city,” he says. “And because that's the main way money is being made, arts and culture is not primary. And, then, the new mayor is not really into art. So, it's like it all depends on who loves art and who's in office.”

    Within city limits, Hodge says he will be more of a curator and mentor, helping young artists and working with galleries and studios on creating showcases for those artists and others. He also wants to continue collaborating with fellow art enthusiasts of color, like the folks at SANMAN.

    “I wanted to do it with SANMAN because it's owned by two young Black men,” he says. “They got a staff of Black creatives, and I wanted to really show cohesiveness between Black men.”

    But Hodge isn’t completely hanging up the idea of doing another big solo show in his hometown. “This is the last one for a while,” he says, “unless the Menil calls or something crazy happens.”

    -----

    Diamonds That Fall will be on display through Saturday, July 26.

    Robert Leroy Hodge Sanman Studios
      

    Courtesy of Robert Leroy Hodge/SANMAN Studios

    The exhibit shows a range of the artist's works.

    artistsgalleriesvisual-artinterview
    news/arts
    Loading...