Margaret Alkek Williams makes a $10M donation to Houston Ballet, the largest gift in its history

The daughter of an oilman, Margaret Alkek Williams’ love for the performing arts began early, with piano lessons at age 4 and her first theatrical role, as Snow White, at age 5. She sang in the chorus for several Houston Grand Opera productions, and like many young women, she donned pink slippers to practice her pliés at the ballet barre. Ballet, Williams says, is the most beautiful art form. On Monday, Houston Ballet announced Williams’ $10 million gift to the professional dance company’s endowment fund. The Center for Dance building will be renamed in her honor. “It’s our largest gift from an individual — the largest we’ve ever received,” chief development officer Angela Lane said. “A gift of $10 million is substantial. It increases the value of our endowment, maintains our building and helps fulfill our mission to inspire a lifelong love of dance.”

Williams, 87, previously had made sizable contributions to Houston Ballet. During the company’s $50 million Dance with Us! campaign in 2008, her $5 million lead gift helped establish the Center for Dance. Today, the building houses administrative offices and rehearsal studios and is the primary home of Houston Ballet Academy. Executive director Jim Nelson announced Williams’ latest gift to the Houston Ballet board on Monday evening in the Margaret Alkek Williams Dance Lab, a black box theater that hosts special events and public rehearsals; the building it’s housed in will now be known as the Margaret Alkek Williams Center for Dance. At 115,000-square-feet, the six-story structure designed by architecture firm Gensler is the largest dance facility of its kind in the U.S. “Not only is it the largest in North America, it’s also the finest,” Lane said. “The facilities are second to none. Mrs. Williams’ astounding generosity enables Houston Ballet to flourish for generations to come and ensure students will be able to pursue dance education.”