Classically Modern

At Classically Modern, you’ll see boys dancing with boys, girls dancing with girls and each dancing with the other. The Houston Ballet’s four-piece program starts with Hans van Manen’s Solo. The seven--minute ballet, set to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite for Violin in D Minor, is danced by not one, but three men in a leap-and-bound-to-the-finish pace. After the men have had their fun, it will be time for the women. An all-female cast will premiere Stanton Welch’s Mediæval Bæbes to the world. The ballet is backed by the tunes of the all-gal a cappella group of the same name, who inspired Welch with their lyrical references to the cycles of nature, love and life. Third onstage will be Jerome Robbins’s Afternoon of a Faun, a duet set in a dance studio where two students — a male and a female — are too engrossed by their own reflections in a mirror to notice each other. The night ends with all the ladies and gents of the company onstage for George Balanchine’s ballet Symphony in C, set to George Bizet’s classic of the same title. See what these boys and girls are made of at 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. Classically Moderncontinues at 7:30 p.m. September 26 and 27, and 2 p.m. September 27 and 28. Wortham Theater, 501 Texas. For information, call 713-227-2787 or visit. www.houstonballet.org. $17 to $150.
Fri., Sept. 26, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., Sept. 27, 2 & 7:30 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 28, 2 p.m.; Fri., Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 4, 2 & 7:30 p.m., 2008