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Dominic Walsh
[Artistic Director]
Artists are vessels collecting and disseminating information and communication through
whatever medium one comprehends, in this case, the language of dance. My vision is to access
a traditional career of classical, neoclassical and contemporary styles while exploring the
natural vertical, horizontal and spiraling energies of the human body. My dancers are
encouraged to explore their technical, creative, and artistic gifts therefore contributing
as creators themselves.
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Using this philosophy with personal, social, and spiritual points of view is what makes "Dance Theater" interesting, inspiring, and thought-provoking.
-- Dominic Walsh
Dominic Walsh was born in Elgin, Illinois in 1971 and started his training at any early age with Lisa Boehm, Warren Conover, and Larry Long in Chicago. He joined Houston Ballet in 1989 and immediately began dancing principal roles. In 1993, he was promoted to soloist and became a principal dancer in 1996. Walsh has danced throughout Asia, Europe, and North America receiving praise from international critics including Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times who called him "impressively virtuosic" and the New York Post's Clive Barnes who described him as "excellent and exuberant." Walsh has danced all the major classics including Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, Romeo & Juliet, and Manon with international stars such as Nina Ananiashvili and Alessandra Ferri.
Walsh is consistently in demand for his versatility in classical and contemporary roles. He danced Houston Ballet’s entire contemporary repertoire, and Ben Stevenson created numerous roles for him including Marc Antony in Cleopatra. Walsh was the inspiration for the lead roles in Natalie Weir's Steppenwolf and In a Whisper. His repertoire includes leading roles in works by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Jiri Kylian, William Forsythe, Ronald Hynde, Glen Tetley, Nacho Duato, James Kudelka, Stanton Welch, and numerous works by Christopher Bruce, notably the Poet in Cruel Garden.
In 1998, Walsh created Flames of Eros when Ben Stevenson invited him to choreograph on Houston Ballet. This work won the prestigious Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography. He created three more works for Houston Ballet and Houston Ballet Academy and continues to set and create works for other companies around the world including Ballet Florida, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo, New National Theatre, Tokyo, and Sarasota Ballet of Florida.
In May 2002, Walsh launched his contemporary ballet company, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater. After the company’s debut in February 2003, Dance Magazine declared, "At last Houston has a contemporary dance company on par with its symphony, opera and ballet companies." In June 2004, after 17 years with Houston Ballet, Walsh left to pursue Dominic Walsh Dance Theater full-time. In May 2006, Walsh created Romeo & Juliet, his first full-length, multi-sensory production. At the conclusion of the world premiere performance, the house instantly rose to their feet with thunderous applause and again, Walsh’s work received praise from Dance Magazine. In March 2007, Walsh premiered a new full-length Orfeo ed Euridice for New National Theatre, Tokyo to rave reviews. After the premiere, critic Ryoko Sasaki wrote: "It is a sophisticated excellent work with meditation and emotion moderately blended with each other."
And critic Akiko Tachiki said: "The choreography in which techniques of classic ballet and contemporary dance fuse was full of deformations and twists, and sparkled with unique originality."
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