{"id":424019,"date":"2025-12-04T11:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T11:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/424019\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T11:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T11:53:13","slug":"the-houston-ballets-eric-best-rises-to-the-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/424019\/","title":{"rendered":"The Houston Ballet’s Eric Best Rises to the Top"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Houston Ballet first soloist Eric Best in Stanton Welch\u2019s Vi et Animo.<\/p>\n

When Eric Best joined the Houston Ballet in 2022, he made a point of setting a goal for himself. \u201cI said I would like to be a soloist in five or 10 years\u2019 time, if that might be possible.\u201d It was a reasonable dream for a 20-year-old, although many professional dancers never make it out of a company\u2019s corps de ballet.<\/p>\n

Best ended up on a different trajectory. Near the end of the 2022\u20133 season he was promoted to soloist, skipping the position of demi-soloist. Then, at the end of the following season, he was promoted to first soloist. \u201cI had a pinch-me moment when the news was announced to the entire company,\u201d he says, \u201cbut mostly all I could think about was that I had to make sure I lived up to the trust they had placed in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was a young boy growing up in Indianapolis, Best was obsessed with performing. At age three he waited outside his older brother\u2019s dance classes until the instructor asked him if he wanted to join in. He went on to take musical theater and acting classes as well, but by 13, he says, \u201cI knew ballet was what I wanted to do with my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his quick rise, Best has thrived as first soloist, dancing in every production the company has staged since he was promoted. In 2024 he received a Princess Grace Award, an annual prize that celebrates emerging talents in theater, dance, and film. \u201cI\u2019ve had so many opportunities and wonderful teachers who have helped me along the way,\u201d he says. Best spent part of 2025 working on a film project he hopes will come out soon. In the meantime, when we spoke he was preparing for the dance world equivalent of the Super Bowl. \u201cWe\u2019re about to start The Nutcracker, and even after all these years, I love it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story appears in the December 2025\/January 2026 issue of<\/strong> Town & Country. <\/strong>SUBSCRIBE NOW<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Play\"Ballet\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Norman Vanamee is the articles director of Town & Country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Above: Houston Ballet first soloist Eric Best in Stanton Welch\u2019s Vi et Animo. When Eric Best joined the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":424020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[2392,197738,1201,4345,2875,197737,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-424019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-content-type-feature","9":"tag-contentid-2eb90649-98bc-463c-8d2f-97126029100c","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-locale-us","13":"tag-shorttitle-eric-best-takes-flight-at-the-houston-ballet","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}