Artistic Staff Profiles
Stanton Welch AM The Harris Masterson II Artistic Director
an invitation to become The Australian Ballet’s assistant conductor, a position he held until mid 2022. He has also worked as a guest conductor for English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Houston Ballet. Mr. Thew was The Australian Ballet’s Conducting Fellow in 2011 and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship. The Churchill Fellowship enabled him to undertake further professional development opportunities with ballet companies, opera houses and orchestras in London, Birmingham, Vienna, Berlin, and New York across 2012. In 2007, Mr. Thew was awarded the Dame Joan Sutherland/Richard Bonynge Travel Scholarship, which enabled further study in Europe, culminating in his position as musical intern at the Bayreuth Festival in 2008. Mr. Thew was an assistant conductor with Opera Australia from 2007-2010. In 2010, he held the Hephzibah Tintner Fellowship, which gave him performance and mentoring opportunities with The Australian Ballet, Opera Australia, and the Sydney Symphony. Mr. Thew undertook studies in Sydney, Vienna, Berlin, and Barcelona with mentors including Sebastian Weigle, Nicolette Fraillon AM, Harry Spence Lyth, Richard Bonynge AC CBE, and John Hopkins AM OBE. Mr. Thew also has an active concert and recording conducting career and is committed to the education of young conductors and instrumentalists. Mr. Thew joins Houston Ballet as Associate Conductor in August 2022 for the 2022-23 season.
Mort, Forgotten Land, and Svadebka ; Jerome Robbins’ The Concert; George Balanchine’s Western Symphony, Serenade , and Theme and Variations ; Ben Stevenson’s Coppélia ; Stanton Welch’s Maninyas, Divergence, Indigo, Play, Velocity, Madame Butterfly, and Falling. In addition, Mr. Coomer has performed featured roles in many works, including: George Balanchine’s Jewels; Stanton Welch’s Tu Tu, Red Earth, Marie, Cinderella, and La Bayadére . Rothbart in Stanton Welch’s Swan Lake; Edwaard Liang’s Murmuration , Gurn in August Bournonville’s La Sylphide ; Sharpless in Stanton Welch’s Madame Butterfly. The role of Tybalt in Stanton Welch’s Romeo and Juliet was choreographed on Mr. Coomer.
In July 2003, Australian Stanton Welch AM assumed leadership of Houston Ballet, America’s fifth-largest classical ballet company. Since he took the helm of the Company, Mr. Welch
has revitalized Houston Ballet, bringing in new dancers, commissioning new works, and attracting a top-flight artistic staff. Mr. Welch has created works for such prestigious international companies as Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Australian Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and the Royal Danish Ballet. Mr. Welch was born in Melbourne to Marilyn Jones OBE and Garth Welch AM, two of Australia’s most gifted dancers of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1989, he was engaged as a dancer with The Australian Ballet, where he rose to the rank of leading soloist, performing various principal roles. He has also worked with internationally acclaimed choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, Nacho Duato, and Maurice Bejart. In 1995, Mr. Welch was named resident choreographer of The Australian Ballet. For his contributions to the world of dance, he was awarded the Order of Australia (AM) in June 2015. For Houston Ballet, he has choreographed more than 20 works, including a full-length narrative ballet Marie (2009), inspired by the life of the legendary Marie Antoinette, and spectacular stagings of Swan Lake (2006), La Bayadère (2010), Romeo and Juliet (2015), Giselle (2016), The Nutcracker (2016), and Sylvia (2019).
Amy Fote Ballet Master
Amy Fote began dancing at the age of four in her hometown of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, under the direction of Jean Wolfmeyer. She continued her studies on scholarship at the National Academy of Arts, Interlochen Arts
Academy, and at the Harid Conservatory, where she graduated with honors. Ms. Fote then accepted a position with the Milwaukee Ballet and rose through the ranks to become a principal dancer. During her 14 years with the company, she regularly performed at the Chautauqua Institution in New York and was subsequently invited to dance the title role in Stanton Welch’s Madame Butterfly with the Royal New Zealand Ballet. In 2005, she joined Houston Ballet, where she danced for eight seasons. In 2003, she was featured in a PBS documentary entitled Dancing Anna Karenina , focusing on her portrayal of one of the great heroines of Russian literature. She was also featured on PBS, performing Alonzo King’s Map , in a moving 9/11 performance. Following retirement, Ms. Fote accepted the position of Ballet Master with Ballet San Antonio. Upon returning to Houston, she began teaching for Houston Ballet II and Houston Ballet before joining the artistic staff in 2018.
Ian Casady Ballet Master
Ian Casady was born in Fairfax, California, and received his dance training there from David Roxander, Jody White, and Georgia Ortega. In 1998, Mr. Casady studied at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy
Ermanno Florio Music Director and Principal Conductor
Ermanno Florio has impressed both audiences and critics in the major centers of Europe, North America, and Asia. The extremely versatile Mr. Florio has well distinguished himself
before joining the Company as a member of the Corps de Ballet. He was promoted to Soloist in 2002, to First Soloist in 2006, and to Principal in 2007. Over the course of his career, Mr. Casady has danced a wide range of roles in works by some of the most celebrated choreographers, both past and present. Mr. Casady has been fortunate enough to have danced on some of the most historic and famous stages around the world including Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center in New York, the Bolshoi in Moscow, the Champs Elysee in Paris, the Sydney Opera House, Sadler’s Wells in London, and theaters in Hong Kong, Spain, Germany, and Canada. Mr. Casady was a finalist at the 2002 International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. Upon his retirement after a 22-year professional career onstage, he joined the artistic staff of Houston Ballet as ballet master in 2020.
in genres of symphonic, operatic, and balletic repertoire. Mr. Florio maintains an active conducting schedule that has included extensive engagements with the world’s major ballet companies. In 1985, Mr. Florio was appointed Principal Conductor and Music Administrator of The National Ballet of Canada by Erik Bruhn and since 1992 has held the position of Music Director of Houston Ballet. From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Florio held the position of Music Director of American Ballet Theatre. In March 2004, Mr. Florio was appointed Music Director of Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam and currently continues his relationship with the company as Principal Guest Conductor. Mr. Florio’s extensive discography includes DVD releases of critically acclaimed performances of The Sleeping Beauty, La Sylphide, Onegin, Cinderella, The Merry Widow, Alice, The Nutcracker, La Ronde , and Le Corsaire with ABT, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Classical Program in the Performing Arts. Mr. Florio’s DVD recording of Don Quichotte with L’Orchestre de L’Opera National de Paris also won the Cannes Classical Music Award for Best DVD in the category of Concert and Ballet Recordings. Mr. Florio’s music arrangements include scores for Patrice Bart’s Tchaikovsky , Das Flammende Hertz , and Gustaf III; Stanton Welch’s Marie and La Bayadère; and Asami Maki’s La Dame aux Camelias .
Steven Woodgate Ballet Master Australian Steven Woodgate
graduated from The Australian Ballet School in 1985. He performed with The Australian Ballet, progressing through the ranks to senior artist in 1996. In 2000, he was awarded The
Churchill Fellowship, which enabled him to observe many ballet masters from around the world and study their various teaching methods. Mr. Woodgate joined the artistic staff of Houston Ballet in January 2004. Mr. Woodgate has taught both student and professional classes around the world. Mr. Woodgate reproduced Stanton Welch’s Madame Butterfly for the Singapore Dance Theater, The Royal New Zealand Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet West Utah, and The Australian Ballet. In 2009, Mr. Woodgate staged Clear for Angel Corella’s company in Spain and in 2011 re-staged Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow for Texas Ballet Theatre, Tulsa Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Teatro Colon Argentina and Houston Ballet. Woodgate also represented Australia in the Moscow Ballet Competition in 1989. Woodgate danced principal roles in Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardee , Van Praggh’s Coppélia , Bejart’s Le Concours and Gaite Parisienne , works by Tudor and Balanchine, Welch, and many other choreographers.
Christopher Coomer Ballet Master Christopher Coomer was born in Birkenhead, England, and received his training at Wallasey School of Ballet and Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy. He joined Houston Ballet in 2004 as an apprentice and in 2005
became a member of the Corps de Ballet. Mr. Coomer was promoted to Soloist in 2007 following his performance in Stanton Welch’s Clear . He became First Soloist in 2018. He joins the Houston Ballet artistic staff as ballet master as of January 2023, after retiring from an 18-year professional career onstage. Mr. Coomer’s classical and contemporary repertoire includes: Giselle, Onegin, The Nutcracker, Merry Widow; Christopher Bruce’s Rooster, Hush, Sergeant Early’s Dream, and Swan Song ; Mark Morris’s Sandpaper and Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes; Jiří Kylián’s Petite
Simon Thew Associate Conductor
Australian Conductor Simon Thew was a regular guest conductor with The Australian Ballet between 2013 and 2016, conducting performances in most of the company’s seasons during that time. In 2017 he accepted
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