Touched

REVIEWS

DANCE MAGAZINE

“McIntyre may be only twenty-four, but his choreographic skills are as great as those of many choreographers twice his age. A Kansas native, he studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts for two years before coming to the Houston Ballet Academy in 1987. Stevenson saw his early dances and encouraged him to proceed. McIntyre’s first work, Skeleton Clock, premiered in 1990. Pacific Northwest Ballet now has it in its repertoire. His second, Curupira, is in Houston’s. Anyone who thought Houstonians probably wouldn’t approve of innovation should have heard the applause for the spring program, especially for McIntyre’s Touched, done to Dave Brubeck’s music. In it the dancers slowly entered a darkened stage holding candles, as if in a religious procession. They looked like fireflies caught in one huge jar. Over a period of about twenty minutes they created a series of patterns that were a counterpoint to the jaunty jazz score–some funny, some sweet, all beautiful. The audience’s pleasure was palpable. As they were leaving the theater an older couple said, “I just wonder how he created it–in the studio? In the dark?” They had come only to see Company B but now planned to return to see other McIntyre works.”