In 1950, Houlton returned to Minnesota to live in
Minneapolis, where she was centered for the rest of her life. She married a classmate from Carleton College, the
physician William (Henry) Houlton (1923–2010) on July 28, 1950. She raised four children with her husband: Andrew, Joel, Laif, and Lise, who succeeded her mother as artistic director of the Minnesota Dance Theatre after her death in 1995. Houlton's rise to prominence in dance circles began in the 1960s. In 1961, she began teaching dance at the
University of Minnesota and in 1962 founded the Contemporary Dance Playhouse, which was renamed the Minnesota Dance Theatre in 1969. In 1964, her troupe performed its first
Nutcracker Fantasy, Houlton's adaptation of
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's
ballet The Nutcracker. The continuing performances of this dance work remain the longest-running annual fine arts event in the state of Minnesota. She produced many important dance works until her death, in all over 90 of them. Among the best-known are
Earthsong and Tactus (1969),
Wingborne (1971),
The Killing of Suzie Creamcheese (1971),
Dream Trilogy (1972),
Song of the Earth (1977),
Horseplay (1977),
Carmina Burana (1978),
The Haunted Landscape (1985), and
The Rite of Spring (1985). She worked with the composer
Carl Orff on her danced realization of his cantata
Carmina Burana and also collaborated with
Yanni,
George Crumb, and
Philip Glass for various dance works. The period 1980-1985 was distinguished by a number of collaborations with noted video and film artists, for example the documentary
Loyce with
Peter Markle and
Swan Lake Minnesota with Kenneth Robins, Scott Killian, and Kim Sherman. She also appeared onstage at the legendary 1983
First Avenue concert at which
Prince recorded the definitive version of his composition
"Purple Rain." In 1986, the board of Minnesota Dance Theater fired Loyce Houlton, sighting budgetary problems due to her overspending. Their plan was a merger with Pacific Northwest Ballet, with hopes for more financial stability. Ted Kivitt was hired to direct the new company, and Victoria Pulkkinen and Francia Russel were brought in to teach the Pacific Northwest Ballet syllabus to the instructors of Minnesota Dance Theater. The merger was a short lived enterprise, however, and Minnesota Dance Theater suspended operations by 1988. Houlton was still living in Minneapolis, though less active in the dance scene. But by 1989, she had established A Dancer's Place out of the ashes of Minnesota Dance Theater, and was organizing classes at the Hennipin Center For The Arts. She presented a holiday show during Christmas 1989, with excerpts from her Nutcracker Fantasy, Les Patineurs, and other works at the Horst Institute in Minneapolis. Early the next year in 1990, she mounted works on Ballet Michigan in Flint, including her Right Of Spring and Knoxville, Summer Of 1915. By 1991, she had reincorporated Minnesota Dance Theater, and resumed working until her death. Her daughter Lise assumed the directorship after her mother's death, and Lise's daughters, Kaitlyn and Raina have been dancers with the company. Houlton died of a
stroke in a hospital in
Saint Paul, Minnesota, on March 14, 1995. ==Influence and legacy==