Salve for the Soul

Whether Rosalía really stood on pointe for four minutes while singing “Reliquia,” on “Saturday Night Live” recently, or it was some sort of television trickery, the sight of her steadfastness on toe came to mind when watching the brilliant dancers of Houston Ballet make their debut at Segerstrom Center for the Arts on opening night of their five-performance run of the West Coast premiere of “Sons de L’âme (Sounds of the Soul).”

Performance

Houston Ballet: “Sons de L’âme (Sounds of the Soul)” by Stanton Welch

Place

Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Costa Mesa, California, October 15, 2026

Words

Victoria Looseleaf

Karina Gonzalez and Ian Casady in Stanton Welch’s “Sons de L'âme.” Photograph by Sébastien Mathé, courtesy of Houston Ballet

Choreographed by artistic director Stanton Welch in 2013 (Julie Kent has been co-artistic director since 2023), and set to a dozen pieces of Frédéric Chopin—an array of ballads, nocturnes and hummable waltzes—the work was accompanied by the gorgeous playing of pianist George Li, and had the feel of an intimate journey of a ballet dancer—times 20.

Originally premiered in Paris at the historic Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 2013, the piece then featured superstar pianist Lang Lang, who was about to release an album of Chopin, and who approached Welch with the idea for this original project. Its aim was to demonstrate the relationship between dancers and the musician.

Indeed, that intention was nobly realized. With no set and Holly Hyne’s simple rehearsal attire—the women in nude-colored bandeaux and tight pants; the bare-chested men also sporting tight pants—the piece began with the entre cast onstage, a kind of balletic lifeform that moved as one. With Li, who has been praised for his “depth of expression” by the Washington Post, performing “Ballade No. 1” in G minor, the dancers then ceded the stage to Angelo Greco, who provided soloistic oomph with articulated feet, quarter turns and an elegant line.

Furthering the notion of romantic ballet, “Sons” was a showcase for spellbinding solos, complex duets and intriguing ensembles, with Danbi Kim and Aaron Robison bringing Chopin’s Etude in C-sharp Minor to terpsichorean life: her sky-high extensions and his cavalier-like refinement made their obvious joy in physicalizing the music contagious. So, too, were soloist Sayako Toku and Eric Best giving every step emotional meaning in “Ballade No. 2,” their fervor, coupled with fine technique, making the pair a sight to behold.

Jessica Collado and Ian Casady in Stanton Welch’s “Sons de L'âme.” Photograph by Sébastien Mathé, courtesy of Houston Ballet

Similarly, Jessica Collado, Augustin Lehner and Saul Newport in “Ballade No. 4,” impressed with their attention to detail, further abetted by the return of the other performers.

Lisa Pinkham’s lighting design provided the requisite amount of drama, as well as spotlighted sections. This was especially evident in the Fifth Movement with the recognizable “Grande Valse Brillante.” With its catchy, metrically incise theme, this was a kind of dance-off between Masanori Takiguchi and Simone Acri, each man executing helium-propelled leaps and quicksilver turns with assured ease.

After this show of bravado, Welch changed the pace, as Harper Watters and Collado delivered a mini-course in dreaminess with the composer’s “Nocturne in F major,” where echoed gestures and smooth-as-butter lifts, including the duo resembling a Titanic-type ship’s prow, not only embodying the music, but also giving seduction a new name.

This was “sounds of the soul” IRL, albeit a highly scripted/cum/choreographed life. After intermission, Greco again showed his mettle in “Waltz No. 19, his demeanor the definition of charisma, while his ability to seemingly slice the air with superhuman simplicity was gobsmacking. “Andante Spianato,” which roughly translates to “smooth,” saw Toku execute a series of rapid bourrées, and as partnered by the extraordinary Connor Walsh, the couple was a showstopping lesson in perfection, their lyrical grace also noteworthy.

Houston Ballet in Stanton Welch’s “Sons de L'âme.” Photograph by Sébastien Mathé, courtesy of Houston Ballet

Always on view, the indisputable and loving connection between dancers and pianist, with Li’s intuitive playing of “Etude in E Major—the familiar “Tristesse”—featuring first soloists Mónica Gómez and Julian Amir Lacey radiating lyrical beauty. Their acrobatic prowess, including spiral-like lifts and an elevated plank position was breathtaking, with the fusion of performers and music somehow making Segerstrom Hall, which seats nearly 3,000, feel like an intimate venue.

From the glorious legato of “Tristesse,” a quintet of dancers—Karina González, Toku, Aoi Fujiwara, Newport and Lehner—brought a refined energy to the contrapuntally rich “Nocturne in E-flat Major,” and was a perfect prelude to the firebird quality of “Grande Polonaise Brillante in E-flat Major.”

Here were Kim, Tyler Donatelli and González in a rhythmically expressive, technically demanding trio, with the corps also doing justice to the music, once again demonstrating their balletic precision, as well as an apparent ease.

Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. Post. No. 16 (composed in 1830, the piece was published posthumously in 1875), set a melancholic mood, but also one of inspiration, which was made more so by the dancing of González and Watters. Theirs was a solid partnership, with the final lift one for the ages, her arm extending skyward, before the other dancers returned to the stage.

The last tableau saw the cast turn towards Li, heads reverentially bowed, bookending what the dancers had done at the work’s beginning, coming full circle, as it were. Balanchine once said, “See the music, hear the dance,” and so it was with “Sons de L’âme,” where the concept was magnified. This was a rare—and much needed—night in the theater.

Victoria Looseleaf

Victoria Looseleaf is an award-winning, Los Angeles-based international arts journalist who covers music and dance festivals around the world. Among the many publications she has contributed to are the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Dance Magazine and KCET’s Artbound. In addition, she taught dance history at USC and Santa Monica College. Looseleaf’s novella-in-verse, Isn't It Rich? is available from Amazon, and and her latest book, Russ & Iggy’s Art Alphabet with illustrations by JT Steiny, was recently published by Red Sky Presents. Looseleaf can be reached through X, Facebook, Instagram and Linked In, as well as at her online arts magazine ArtNowLA.

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