02.11
Please welcome Houston Ballet Soloist Nicholas Leschke who will perform with Ballet West in the role of Pinkerton, partnering Ballet West Principal Artist Romi Beppu beginning this Friday night. Make sure you get your tickets ASAP – Madame Butterfly is selling fast!
Born and raised in Newton, Wisconsin, Nicholas Leschke began his dance training in the nearby city of Manitowoc with Jean Wolfmeyer. After four years of training at the Virginia School of the Arts, Mr. Leschke performed with Ballet Austin for one year. In July 1996, Mr. Leschke joined Houston Ballet as an apprentice and quickly moved through the ranks to become a soloist in 2000. Mr. Leschke’s repertoire includes a variety of roles. In classical ballets, he has been featured in Manon, Madame Butterfly, Peter Pan, Dracula, Don Quixote, Giselle, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Cleopatra, Les Patineurs, The Snow Maiden, The Firebird, and The Nutcracker. His contemporary repertoire includes The Four Temperaments, Serenade, Etudes, Four Last Songs, Gloria, Sinfonietta, Without Words, Ghost Dances, Sergeant Early’s Dream, Second Before the Ground, Touched, Bound, Indigo, Bruiser, Company B, In the Beginning, Steppenwolf, In a Whisper, and Flames of Eros.
Also, here are two photos from tonight’s stage rehearsal.
Peggy Dolkas and Romi Beppu
Romi Beppu and Hayden
-Mark
I wondered where my comment disappeared to. I had been guessing that Chris Rudd is in injured. Hence the stepping in of Nicholas Leschke and the absence of Chris in the cast list. I sorry for him if that’s the case. I hope he will be injury free by the time of Ballet Russes in late March/early April. I really want to see him in Prodigal Son.
On another note, I just received my season ticket renewal packet. I would love to see Ballet West do more “Joffrey” (that’s how I think of them anyway) ballets: Rodeo, Billy the Kid, Cake Walk, and a few others along those lines. I would think that SLC audiences would like the Copeland/(sorry my mind has blanked on the choreographer, a woman in the 1950′s) ballets.
Thanks for all the blogging you do Mark. I, for one, love to know what is happening in the rehearsal studio. It’s how I manage to live vicariously of the world that I gave up on when I was 20/21.