For Love of Dance: The Early Years of the UTEP Ballet

Description of the Book:

It happens all over the world. The lights dim, the conductor raises his baton, the curtain rises, and soon, through the magic of theater, the audience is transported to another place and time. Every human sense is awakened to the magnificence of the sets and costumes, the spellbinding notes of the music, and the ethereal movements of dance. This experience is for everyone, not just for the artists who create it. And so it is with the story that is told in this book.

Many books have been written about the history of dance. Nonetheless, readers will appreciate the broad historical significance of this book, despite its focus on a local ballet company. It will be surprising to discover how one ballet company that flourished in the often forgotten, westernmost tip of Texas could be so intertwined with major world events and with the advancement of the art of ballet across the world.

The story begins in Nazi Germany, where a young girl spent her formative years training and performing with the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. Her love of her art and the excitement of her life on stage are set against the horrors of war. Compelling.

When this German artist, Ingeborg Heuser, came to the U.S. as a ＂war bride＂ and later settled in El Paso, Texas, she was well prepared to fulfill her destiny as a highly acclaimed director, choreographer, and instructor of ballet. The first decade of her ballet company is chronicled in a straightforward, informal style, and readers will see many photos of the major characters and hear their own voices in the anecdotes and commentary they provided. Personal.

For half a century, this ballet company thrilled audiences with ballet and opera productions that rivaled those of larger cities. Renowned guest artists from world-famous companies (The Ballets Russes, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, to name a few) not only performed with the local company but were also instrumental in its formation and later success. Extraordinary.

An illustrated epilogue takes the reader to 2006, when the final production of the Nutcracker Ballet was presented at El Paso’s historic Plaza Theater. Seven appendices detail over 100 company premières, 40 years of Nutcracker performances, years of opera productions, and other topics of interest. If you are a dancer, it’s possible you may know someone in the book. Former members of Heuser’s company are spread far and wide throughout the world. If you are not a dancer, it’s very likely that you will be entertained, educated, and perhaps inspired! [Softback, 200 pages (8.5 x 11), 250] images]

_____________________ A native of El Paso, Texas, Cristina Casas Palmer grew up in a large family in a home that was always filled with music. Born disciplined, she became a serious student of ballet at the age of five. Several recitals later, her parents enrolled her in a new studio run by a German ballet instructor who, in a few short years, had gained notoriety for her strict standards and lavish productions. That instructor, Ingeborg Heuser, had taken El Paso by storm, and even her young students were exposed to the time-honored traditions of ballet training that she had been accustomed to in Berlin-classes with live accompaniment, productions with full orchestra, original sets and costumes, famous guest dancers and choreographers, etc. From that point on, Cristina became part of a larger family, and her second home resounded with the music of the world’s most revered composers. She performed as a member of Heuser’s ballet company in the early to mid-1970s-a time which, for her, was the ＂golden age＂ of ballet in El Paso (although other generations of local dancers may beg to differ: -). While she went on to pursue a career, first as a teacher, then as a psychologist, Dr. Palmer continued to indulge her passion for ballet wherever her academic studies and professional positions took her. It was not until she returned home as an older adult and reestablished her relationship with Heuser that she realized the immense significance of what El Paso had experienced for half a century. By the time she retired from her 32-year-long career in 2006, that realization had become an inspired pursuit to tell the extraordinary story of ballet in El Paso. Hence, the book For Love of Dance-The Early Years of the UTEP Ballet. ____________________