Hold the floor
Memories of Jones Hall’s tough stage come with Ballet’s ‘Swan Lake’
Family legend has it that I was the first person to dance on the stage at Jones Hall.
This was in 1966, shortly before the theater opened. Only my parents and three bored younger siblings had to endure the performance.
We were there because Daddy worked as an accountant for the Jones Hall contractor, Brown & Root. Perhaps he had work to catch up on the day he loaded us all into his pink Rambler station wagon and took us downtown to the construction site, where his office was in a trailer.
We were regulars at Miller Outdoor Theatre, especially for the symphony’s concerts — music was Daddy’s passion. To have even a minor hand in the creation of a glittering performingarts temple like Jones Hall must have been one of the proudest achievements of his life.
Except for the sensation of standing below a galaxy of blinding lights, looking out into the sea of red seats, I don’t remember much about that afternoon so long ago. Nor do I recall what kind of shoes I wore, or if the floor felt hard or soft. I wouldn’t have known the difference.
But I’ve been thinking about that floor a lot recently, knowing that Houston Ballet will perform Stanton Welch’s “Swan Lake” at Jones Hall eight times in the coming weeks. In some ways, it’s a homecoming, although none of the current dancers have spent much time on the stage.
Architectural historian Stephen Fox has called the exterior of Caudill Rowlett Scott’s modern-meets-classical architecture for Jones Hall a bland, provincial reflection of New York’s Lincoln Center. But Fox has lauded the technical innovation of the intricate ceiling, designed so it can be reconfigured for different types of performances within the teak-lined, 3,000-seat auditorium.
The stage floor was designed primarily for the symphony, of pine that was at some point replaced by maple, to approve the acoustics. But Houston Ballet also performed at Jones Hall during the 20 years before the Wortham Theater Center opened in 1987, tailored to their needs.
Dancers of that era still have nightmares about Jones Hall’s hard, solid floor. A layer of Marley — a thin, vinyl cushion widely used as a surface for dance — was of little use.
Former principal Suzanne Longley, a star from 1976 to 1985, is convinced that working on the Jones Hall floor shortened her career. She also recalls a concrete apron around the wood.
“After every performance, we were just wrecked,” she said. “The knees, ankles, hips, back, everything aching.” Performing ballets such as “Études,” “The Sleeping Beauty” and “Giselle” night after night — anything that required a lot of jumps — was torture.
High-wattage personality Lauren Anderson, known for her flashy, bravura style, emerged slightly later. She performed with the company 25 years but had to deal with the Jones Hall stage only during the first five. “It inspired me to learn how to bang the ‘noise’ out of my pointed shoes before I wore them,” she said. “I don’t think my career would have been as long if we had stayed there.”
The company’s men were not immune to the pain. Former company member Michael Job once had to leave the stage, midperformance, with a 2½-inch splinter between his toes. That required a mad dash to an emergency room for a repair, he said. “There was no understudy. I made it back with 20 minutes till curtain. Great memory … (not).”
The Wortham’s stages were built with sprung floors, which are elevated from the foundation by slats that provide air pockets, reducing the impact on the body after jumps. “On concrete or wood, your body gives instead,” Longley said.
This is why, very soon after Houston Ballet realized it would have to spend the entire 2017-18 season “on tour” in its hometown because of the Wortham’s severe hurricane damage, Lynn Wyatt bought the company a portable sprung floor, to the tune of about $100,000.
That traveling floor has been a kind of magic carpet for the unmoored company; and it will be under its members’ feet again at Jones Hall.
The company’s sprung floor is made up of 4- by 8-foot, modular panels that can be configured for any space — and large enough to fill two stages at the same time, so even the basement rehearsal room at Jones can be outfitted properly now.
Current principal Chun Wai Chan can’t imagine performing without that essential equipment. “The theaters keep changing, but we’re very familiar with the floor,” he said. He hasn’t noticed that it’s much different from the stage of the Wortham.
“For sure, we miss the Wortham a lot,” he said. “We’re not touring just for fun. But every time we’re in a different theater, we feel the energy from within Houston Ballet is so strong. It’s very emotional. The show will go on. We stay together and push through.”
Anywhere the company arrives, the first thing dancers do is step onto the stage surface to test it, Chan said.
Their sprung floor is covered with Marley, but the Marley can be sticky or slippery, depending on the humidity and temperature. If it’s too slippery, they know they’ll need less force to turn. If it’s too sticky, they’ll prepare to use more force with their head and arms.
Chan has danced on the Jones Hall stage once before. During his time with Houston Ballet 2, the junior company, eight or 10 years ago, he performed there in a pas de trois from “The Sleeping Beauty.” Though he doesn’t remember the floor being particularly hard, he was a little bothered that it didn’t feel flat.
The elegant Chanis cast as Prince Siegfried three evenings (Saturday and June 28 and 30
“Every time I dance it, it’s different,” he said.
I’ll be watching him Saturday, and thinking about the couple that sat in the front row on the glittering night Jones Hall opened. Just below stage left, my parents were captured in news photographs of the crowd — Daddy in his coat and tie, Mama in her black pillbox hat. I do remember that night: I was at home, dancing in front of the TV, in bare feet, on a braided rug.