it's on pointe

Houston Ballet leaps into new season with world premiere and fan favorites

A Houston premiere and a world premiere highlight the Houston Ballet's 2024-2025 season, the company has revealed. Those two offerings are among the six ballets included in the season, which continues to showcase a company at the top of its artistic game.

The season opens with John Neumeier’s The Little Mermaid, making its Houston premiere. With music by Lera Auerbach, it tells the familiar story of a mermaid who makes a deal with a sea witch in exchange for the chance to find true love. The show will run September 6-15.

The season continues September 19-29 with Velocity, a mixed repertory program that includes Come In with choreography by Aszure Barton and music by Vladimir Martynov; a world premiere program choreographed by Silas Farley and a commissioned score by Kyle Werner; and the titular Velocity choreographed by Stanton Welch, AM with music by Michael Torke.

Beloved holiday classic The Nutcracker returns to the Wortham Theater Center stage as a season add-on, running November 29-December 29, and features Welch's choreography set against Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's iconic score.

The Ballet launches the new year with In the Night, another mixed rep that runs February 27-March 9, 2025. The program includes Jerome Robbins' In the Night set to a score by Frédéric Chopin; Welch's Maninyas with music by Ross Edwards; and Celts, choreographed by Lila York and featuring music by The Chieftains, Mason Daring, William J. Ruyle, Bill Whelan, and Celtic Thunder.

Another classic, The Sleeping Beauty, takes the stage March 13-23, featuring choreography by Ben Stevenson O.B.E., and Tchaikovsky's recognizable score.

The world premiere of Raymonda comes to life May 29 to June 8, with choreography by Welch, music by Alexander Glazunov, and costumes and set design by Roberta Guidi di Bagno. This marks Welch's eighth full-length ballet created for Houston Ballet’s repertory.

The season closes June 12-22 with Sparrow, which features Theme and Variations with choreography by George Balanchine and music by Tchaikovsky; Four Last Songs with choreography by Stevenson O.B.E. and music by Richard Strauss; and Sparrow choreographed by Welch and music by Simon & Garfunkel.

“The incredible range of ballets offers growth for our dancers as well as audiences,” artistic director Julie Kent said in a statement. “From curtain up to curtain down, this season explores the depth and breadth of this art form, and I’m so excited to be involved in presenting works we’ve never seen before and the kind of classics that are a wonderful way to introduce new audiences to ballet.”

Two additional season add-ons bring Houston Ballet traditions back to the stage with the Margaret Alkek Williams Jubilee of Dance, December 6, and the Academy Spring Showcase, April 25 - 26, 2025.

Season tickets for the six-ballet series start at $171. For more details, see houstonballet.org.

$Artists of Houston Ballet in Stanton Welch\u2019s Velocity$

Photo by Amitava Sarkar (2010). Courtesy of Houston Ballet

Artists of Houston Ballet in Stanton Welch’s Velocity

dance houston ballet performing-arts world premiere

Revving up

Beloved Houston Art Car Museum will live on in new permanent home

Courtesy Art Car Museum

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Six months ago, Houston's Art Car Museum rolled out the news that it would shutter at the end of April. But now, plans are revving up to not only keep it open, but give it a brand new home - one where its delightful quirkiness will find a kindred spirit in strangeness.

A $1.25 million gift from the Harithas Family through the South Texas Charitable Foundation will give the recently closed museum a new home on the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art’s soon-to-be-redeveloped campus, located at the intersection of two of Houston’s most culturally significant neighborhoods, the Third Ward and the East End. The gift will ensure a permanent space celebrating art cars.

Visitors can expect rotating exhibitions of mobile masterpieces designed by local, national, and international artists, as well as the personal art car collection of Ann Harithas, who founded the Art Car Museum in 1998 with her husband, Jim. Ann passed away in 2021. Jim followed in 2023 and the beloved museum was left to their heirs, son Thomas Pascal “Will” Robinson and daughters Madeline Merrill, Molly Kemp, and Stephanie Loeffler.

Purple Reign art car Purple Reign cruising through downtown Houston for the Art Car Parade. Courtesy Art Car Museum

Ann and Jim' Harithas' low-slung metal building on Heights Boulevard was nicknamed the "Garage Mahal," and gave visitors an up-close look at several art cars. Ann particularly enjoyed how art cars opened creative thinking to the masses and changed the way people thought about everyday objects.

The mobile masterpieces weren't the only things on display at the museum, however. Across its 26 years, the museum showcased artists of all mediums who were often refused representation from other arts institutions, from art cars to paintings, photography, and film, including Harithas’ own collage work.

The family says the Orange Show is a perfect place to carry on the art car legacy.

“The Orange Show was built on a foundation of supporting artists from all walks of life, and encouraging anyone to explore their personal creativity,” said Robinson, who sits on the Orange Show Center's board. “We couldn’t be happier to entrust the Orange Show with our mother’s legacy and continue allowing Houston and the world.”

Orange Show headquarters expansion The Orange Show will be the new home of the Art Car Museum. Rendering courtesy of Rogers Partners

No opening date has been set, but it's likely to be years in the future. Back in 2021, the Orange Show announced a major expansion project, which included expanded exhibit space adjacent to the Orange Show Monument.

The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art has produced the annual Art Car Parade for decades, but otherwise was not a part of the museum showcasing them. This gift now ensures the two creative forces are together.

art car museum art cars harithas family orange show center south texas charitable foundation museums

it's on pointe

Houston Ballet leaps into new season with world premiere and fan favorites

Revving up

Beloved Houston Art Car Museum will live on in new permanent home

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