parties

Super Heroes!

The Ballet Ball is always the ultimate dance party — and this year’s “Heroes, Gods and Stars” bash was no exception. Richard Flowers of The Events Company transformed a tented space outside of the Houston Ballet Center for Dance into a custom ballroom filled with gold and gilded details, a nod to the company’s production of Sylvia, a show rooted in Greek mythology. A silent auction touted items like a trip to Aspen and gems from Tenenbaum Jewelers, contributing to the evening’s overall till of $1.6 million — and making this year’s ball the most successful ever. The crowd of 500-plus enjoyed a dinner of sea bass with pesto (made with olives from the Greek island of Thassos!) and orzo risotto with lobster, then joined The Big Beyond on the dance floor.

Wilson Parish
Hayden Stark, Jessie Gill and Bridget Kuhns


Parties
art

New Artist-Run Gallery Rises and Hits the Ground Running with Diverse Group Show

Sarah Sudhoff (photo by Katy Anderson)

SINCE THE 1970s, Houston’s cultural scene has only grown richer and more diverse thanks to the DIY spirit of its visual artists. As an alternative to the city’s major museums (which are awesome) and commercial galleries (again, awesome), they show their work and the work of their peers in ad-hoc, cooperative, artist-run spaces — spaces that range from the traditional white cube interiors, to private bungalows, to repurposed shipping containers.

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Art + Entertainment

Houston’s Grammy-Nominated Music Org Gets ‘Bach’ to Basics with Concert and Book Release

Matthew Dirst (photo by Jacob Power)

FOR FANS OF early music — an often scholarly lot who aren’t afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves — bad-boy Baroque-era painter Caravaggio certainly nailed something in his dramatic 1595 painting, “The Musicians.” (Simon Schama talks about this in his TV series The Power of Art.) One look at his masterpiece, and you feel as if you’ve stumbled upon and surprised a roomful of dewy-eyed musicians, their youthful faces swollen with melancholy, with the lutist looking like he’s about ready to burst into tears before he’s even tuned his instrument. So no, you certainly don’t need a Ph.D. to enjoy and be moved by the music of Handel, G.P. Telemann, or J.S. Bach, but a little bit of scholarship never hurt anyone. Knowing the history of this music may even deepen your appreciation of it.

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