When former Principal dancer Amy Fote was approached by Houston Ballet’s Artistic Director Stanton Welch to get out on stage again and dance the part of the Widow in “Winter” she says she had to think about it for a while.
“I knew how much it takes to do what we do on stage and you want to do it well,” says the woman who retired in 2012, coming out of that to dance The Merry Widow in 2013.
“I knew I’d have to get into class,” she says of the offer to return to The Four Seasons. “And we are perfectionists as artists. For me that was step one, making sure I’d find the time and discipline to get in as well as still being a ballet master because that is a full on job in and of itself., ” she says. “Then it was putting point shoes on. So I did one step at a time. I had very few shoes left from when I danced. I wore special orders. They had my name on the bottom. And everything was just as I needed for my feet at that time. I think they’ve expanded,” she says, laughing.
In the mixed rep program Four Seasons featuring a world premiere, Stanton Welch’s The Four Seasons offers something special: the return of Houston Ballet ballet master Fote. The last time Fote was in The Four Seasons, she was “Summer.” As Summer she represented a young woman and as Winter she’ll portray the wisdom earned through her years. All of which is set to Vivaldi’s score.
Other pieces in the program include George Balanchine’s Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux as well as Disha Zhang’s experience of aging in Elapse set to Zeng Xiaogang’s composition. The final part of the program is The Lightning Round, a world premiere by Dwight Rhoden.
Fote’s involvement in The Four Seasons this time around actually started with a photo shoot, she says. “You need to depict four different women. You need somebody who looks a little more mature because the part in Winter is actually a widow. And she’s someone who’s experienced life and she’s been with her partner this whole time and she’s gone through raising kids and she’s in a different stage. I think it was to have the diversity. It started out like that.”
As for the actual dancing, she says she struggled with committing to it. In 2016, her father went into the hospital for weeks when Fote was told his white blood cell count wasn’t good. Instead of leaving immediately to see him, she taught the next morning and on her way to the airport she was told he’d died. Years later that was part of her decision to go on stage in 2024 in the Widow role. “I just kind of thought with this subject matter, I always put ballet first with some things. It just seemed with the subject of Winter, it was sort of a therapy. Dance it out.”
“It’s been wonderful stepping in the studio with the dancers,” says Fote. “They’ve been so supportive. As a ballet master. we are the ones that are saying ‘Oh, your need to turn this out. Maybe you could think on this for your imagination. Your arm if it moves like this would enhance your step more. Now they are watching us. It feels very vulnerable. At the same time, Stanton first and foremost says this is not a ballet about dancing. It’s about acting. It’s telling a story, telling one woman’s story through the four different artists who dance each of the seasons.
“I feels like a whirlwind. Some things feel familiar but my feet, they need as quick of a twitch and they need very fast footwork for Winter and I keep trying to push myself every day.” It’s been kind of a blessing to try this on again after a little more than 10 years away,”
Her partner in this is fellow ballet master Ian Casaday with whom she danced Summer in 2007.
As ballet master, she says she loves to work with the dancers and help them make choices that read well to the audience. Some dancers have more of a natural talent for the acting part on stage, she says. “At times it’s being comfortable on stage with being still. I think sometime with some of our more mature artists, you can see the acting, it’s almost as if words are visibly seen, their movement is so clear.”
Fote expresses surprise that the ballet hasn’t been done in so many years. Set in the early 1900s it starts with first love and heartbreak in the Spring, moves to an affair in Summer, then in Fall the couple has grown children and as empty nesters they look at each other feeling they’ve grown fall apart. That is capped by a beautiful pas de deux in which the wife recommits to the marriage and finally in winter when she is left alone after the death of her husband.
“It’s really quite a special story with iconic, lovely music,” Fote says. “You kind of feel yourself leaning in and experiencing each of these things with the woman. that is dancing.”
Performances are scheduled for June 6-16 at 7:30 p.m. June 6, 8, 14 and 15 and 2 p.m. on June 9 and 16 at Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information, call 713-227-2787 or visit houstonballet.org.
$25-$215.
Margaret Downing
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