Nine members of the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater left Houston on Sunday, after Hurricane Ike came ashore early Saturday morning, knocking out power to their studios and trees onto their houses. Stan Rogers, ballet director at Friends University, invited the company to evacuate to Wichita before the storm hit, but Dominic Walsh said the company would "be fine." After waking up Saturday to find a tree on his fence and finding the downtown studio without power or water, Walsh changed his mind. "By Saturday night, I called and asked if the offer was still good," Walsh said.

The dancers are scheduled to open the season in October with the world premiere of the ballet "Titus Andronicus," and Walsh said they couldn't lose the two to four weeks expected for the Houston area to regain electricity. "It kind of looked like a war zone, and I didn't think we'd get much work done," he said.

It was "a little tricky" leaving town with road closures, Walsh said, and he was thankful the vehicles had enough gas to get to Dallas, the first place with gas that didn't have lines with dozens of cars. The dancers are living in three houses in Rogers' neighborhood and practicing at the university until power returns to Houston, Walsh said. Walsh met Rogers as a guest artist in Friends University's annual production of "The Nutcracker."

 

Walsh was a principal dancer and choreographer for the Houston Ballet before launching his contemporary ballet company in 2002 that has won critical acclaim nationally and internationally. "It was really a generous offering, and we're, of course, very grateful," Walsh said.

Dominic Walsh Dance Theater is a member of Uniquely Houston which performs at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, www.thehobbycenter.org.

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