2024 - 2025 Season Program Book by The Sarasota Ballet

2024 - 2025 SEASON

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2024 – 2025 SEASON PROGRAM ONE

RELATIVE WORKS

October 25 – 27, 2024 | FSU Center NAPOLI ACT III

Choreography by Johan Kobborg

AMOROSA

Choreography by Ricardo Graziano

A TIME OF BEAUTY (WORLD PREMIERE)

Choreography by Jessica Lang

PROGRAM TWO

GISELLE

November 22 - 23, 2024 | Sarasota Opera House Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra GISELLE

Production by Sir Peter Wright Original Choreography by Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli

PROGRAM THREE

FANCIFUL JOURNEY

December 20 - 21, 2024 | Sarasota Opera House Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra LES PATINEURS

Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton

RUBIES

Choreography by George Balanchine

THE SPIDER’S FEAST (WORLD PREMIERE)

Choreography by Sir David Bintley

The Sarasota Ballet PROGRAM FOUR

QUINTESSENTIAL

January 31 - February 3, 2025 | FSU Center ROCOCO VARIATIONS

Choreography by Renato Paroni

BRANDENBURGS

Choreography by Paul Taylor

WORLD PREMIERE

Choreography by Gemma Bond

PROGRAM FIVE

MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP

February 28 - March 3, 2025 | FSU Center PRESENTED BY THE SARASOTA BALLET

PROGRAM SIX

ROMEO AND JULIET

March 28 - 29, 2025 | Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

ROMEO AND JULIET (COMPANY PREMIERE) Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton Production Courtesy of Peter Schaufuss

PROGRAM SEVEN

MOVEMENTS OF GENIUS

April 25 - 26, 2025 | Sarasota Opera House Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra SERENADE

Choreography by George Balanchine

IN THE NIGHT

Choreography by Jerome Robbins

A WEDDING BOUQUET

Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton

TABLE OF

CONTENTS

LETTERS FROM LEADERSHIP AND COMPANY OVERVIEW Leadership Letters The Sarasota Ballet’s Repertoire Board of Trustees Advisory Council History of The Sarasota Ballet The Facts The Sarasota Ballet Gala London Tour

9 - 13 14 - 17 18 - 19 20 22 - 23 24 26 - 27 28 - 31

SEASON PROGRAM NOTES Program One - RELATIVE WORKS Program Two - GISELLE Program Three - FANCIFUL JOURNEY Program Four - QUINTESSENTIAL Program Five - MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP Program Six - ROMEO AND JULIET Program Seven - MOVEMENTS of GENIUS Romeo and Juliet Article Choreographers, Choreographic Foundations, and Trusts

33 - 39 41 - 45 47 - 53 55 - 61 62 - 63 65 - 69 71 - 77 78 - 82 83

BIOGRAPHIES, DANCERS, STAFF, AND PATRONS Leadership Biographies Artistic Staff Principals Soloists Coryphée Corps de Ballet Apprentices Company Staff Education and Community Engagement Staff Patron Listings In Memoriam

85 - 91 92 - 93 94 - 98 100 - 102 104 - 105 106 - 108 109 110 - 111 112 - 113 116 - 140 145

EDUCATION, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, AND THE FRIENDS

Studio Company The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory The Sarasota Ballet School Summer Intensive Adult Program Community Engagement Ways to Support Friends of The Sarasota Ballet Doctors Circle Advertisers Index

148 150 - 151 152 - 155 156 - 157 158 162 - 169 172 - 179 180 - 183 188 190

The performance continues at selva SELVA PROUDLY SUPPORTS THE SARASOTA BALLET.

DIRECTOR

Iain Webb

On behalf of all of us at The Sarasota Ballet, welcome to the 2024-2025 Season. As I sit down to

write this message and reflect on my 18th year as Director, I’m filled with pride and excitement for what lies ahead. We’ve just returned from an incredible first international tour at the Royal Opera House in London, at the invitation of The Royal Ballet’s Director Kevin O’Hare, where our dancers shone while performing works by Sir Frederick Ashton for the five-year Ashton Worldwide Festival. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you just how proud I was of our incredible dancers during this tour. Both Margaret and I could not have asked for anything more. This milestone in my 46-year career is truly a highlight, and it was only made possible by the unwavering support of Executive Director Joseph Volpe, Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri, and our dedicated board and donors. Your continued support and commitment allow us to fulfill our vision and to reach for the stars. I hope you are as proud as I am of your Sarasota Ballet. One of the things I enjoy most about my job is creating diverse and dynamic programs that showcase the unique talents of our dancers while also introducing audiences to an eclectic mix of dance styles. As the Company’s reputation keeps growing by including classic ballets by the great choreographers George Balanchine, Sir Frederick Ashton, and Jerome Robbins, our focus is not only on just preserving and respecting the history of this fantastic art form, but also on creating unique works for the future. During this Season, you will get to experience three world premieres by The Sarasota Ballet’s Virginia B. Toulmin & Muriel O’Neil Artist in Residence, Jessica Lang, Sir David Bintley, and Gemma Bond. Each choreographer brings a unique style that will captivate our audiences. With four different programs accompanied by live music this Season, it is set to be yet another unforgettable journey through the world of dance. Additionally, we’re excited to perform Paul Taylor’s Brandenburgs, marking us as the only company outside of Paul Taylor’s own to present this piece. I look forward to sharing these performances with all of you this Season and, on behalf of Joseph Volpe, Margaret Barbieri, and everyone at The Sarasota Ballet, I extend our heartfelt gratitude for your continued love and trust that you invest in this wonderful Company.

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Joseph Volpe

As we kick off a new Season at The Sarasota Ballet, I am grateful that we are again able to bring the very

best caliber of ballet and one of the world’s most excitingly rich repertoires to our Sarasota audiences. We are able to do so because of the creative leadership of our Directors, Iain Webb and Margaret Barbieri. Their passion for and dedication to the art of ballet is beyond measure. They graciously share their firsthand knowledge and their artistic vision with our entire community to inspire the love of dance in others and safeguard ballet’s rich legacy. We are also blessed to have the most talented dancers, a highly dedicated staff, an incredibly supportive Board of Trustees, and our unwaveringly loyal fans, who traveled en masse across the pond to support us so wholeheartedly for our recent London tour. Following that success, we are looking at some new and return tour possibilities in the future, so stay tuned as we continue to update you all on those plans as they develop. But might I just say that there are some exciting things in the works. As a firm proponent of Florida’s Cultural Coast as a true tourist destination for arts lovers of all types, The Sarasota Ballet continues our pursuit of excellence and world-class artistry, both onstage and in this very special community. This Season’s range of repertoire clearly demonstrates everything we do here at The Sarasota Ballet day in and day out to provide audiences, students, and members of our community access to this extraordinary art form. With two fantastic new hires this past year, including Michelle Butler, our Senior Director of Philanthropy, and Charmaine Hunter, our new Community Engagement Director, we are in an even greater position to impact all areas of the community, from bringing in new sponsors and cultivating our existing donor relationships to expanding our local outreach and access to the arts for underserved populations. I am particularly excited to see how our flagship engagement platform Dance – The Next Generation has grown in the last year with six graduates in 2024, who began the program in the third grade and stayed enrolled through their senior year of high school. What an achievement for these young students. In the education arena, The Sarasota Ballet School’s beloved production of The Nutcracker returns as a holiday tradition in both Sarasota and Venice this December to delight and engage audiences of all ages. As a whole, our education offerings continue to enrich the lives of students from ages three to adult with something for every skill level, from beginners to pre-professional dancers looking for the right path to nurture their dance careers. Our education initiatives help to ensure the future of ballet and foster a sense of the rich history and the passing on of its traditions. As always, I thank you for your continued support and patronage. I look forward to seeing you throughout The Sarasota Ballet’s 2024 - 2025 Season both onstage and in the community.

F U N C T IO NA L

A R T W O R K

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ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Margaret Barbieri The 2024 – 2025 Season is sure to delight our Sarasota audiences with something for everyone to enjoy. There will be heartache and drama in two full-length romantic story ballets, edge of your seat excitement with world premieres from two of today’s most sought after Choreographers, and even comedy and whimsy in the world premiere of Sir David Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast. As always, I am continually inspired by our talented dancers, and I look forward to seeing their artistry and dedication come to life on the stage.

”

” BOARD CHAIR

Sandra DeFeo Aglow from the Company’s triumphant London Tour, my fellow Trustees and I look forward to this year’s exciting season with its vibrant array of classic and contemporary ballets, live music, world premieres, and guest artists. The Nutcracker is back with more performances by The Sarasota Ballet School for the holidays. Dance — The Next Generation, our tuition free dance and enrichment program, expands to serve more children. And more is yet to come. We are so grateful for your continuing support. You make the more possible!

”

FOUNDER & CHAIR EMERITA

Jean Weidner Goldstein When I founded The Sarasota Ballet, I could only have dreamed of what it has become today. I am profoundly grateful for Iain, Joe, and Margaret’s exceptional leadership and vision that have landed us a welldeserved place on the world’s stage. One cannot find a more passionate and spectacular Director than Iain Webb. His love of ballet is apparent in everything he sets out to achieve, and his meticulous care for the preservation of ballet history shines through in the attention to detail shown in every performance.

” 13

”

The Sarasota Ballet’s

Repertoire

2007 - 2024

SIR FREDERICK ASHTON Apparitions, Birthday Offering, La Chatte métamorphosée en femme, Dante Sonata, The Dream, Enigma Variations, Explosionspolka, Façade, La Fille mal gardée, Illuminations, Jazz Calendar, Marguerite and Armand, Meditation from Thaïs, Monotones I, Monotones II, Les Patineurs, Les Rendezvous, Rhapsody, Romeo and Juliet, Scènes de ballet, Sinfonietta, The Sleeping Beauty (Awakening Pas de Deux and Vision Solo), Symphonic Variations, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, The Two Pigeons, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci, Voices of Spring Pas de Deux, The Walk to the Paradise Garden, A Wedding Bouquet GEORGE BALANCHINE Allegro Brillante, Apollo, Bugaku, Diamonds, Divertimento No. 15, Donizetti Variations, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Jewels, Prodigal Son, Rubies, Serenade, Stars and Stripes, Tarantella, Theme and Variations, Valse-Fantaisie, Western Symphony, Who Cares? RICKI BERTONI Hip 2 Be Square, Ragtop SIR DAVID BINTLEY A Comedy of Errors, Four Scottish Dances, The Spider’s Feast, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café GEORGE BIRKADZE Farandole GEMMA BOND Excursions, Last Solo, Panoramic Score, 2025 World Premiere SIR MATTHEW BOURNE Boutique, The Infernal Galop

AUGUST BOURNONVILLE Flower Festival in Genzano Pas de Deux, From Siberia to Moscow (The Jockey Dance), The Kermesse in Bruges (Act I Pas de Deux), William Tell Pas de Deux ARCADIAN BROAD Frequency Hurtz, Passing By CHRISTOPHER BRUCE Sergeant Early’s Dream JAMES BUCKLEY Anne Frank ASIA BUI Song on the Beach JAMIE CARTER À Deux Mains, Addio ad un Sogno, Concordium, Five Duets (Between Longing and Yearning), Holiday Overture, The Tarot JOHN CRANKO Pineapple Poll PETER DARRELL Othello AGNES DE MILLE Rodeo DAME NINETTE DE VALOIS Checkmate, The Rake’s Progress ROBERT DE WARREN The Nutcracker [production]

MARCELO GOMES Dear Life... MARTHA GRAHAM Appalachian Spring RICARDO GRAZIANO Amorosa, Before Night Falls, En Las Calles de Murcia, In a State of Weightlessness, The Jolly Overture, The Pilgrimage, Pomp and Circumstance, Shostakovich Suite, Somewhere Pas de Deux, Sonata in Four Movements, Sonatina, Symphony of Sorrows, Valsinhas, Schubert Variations ALEX HARRISON The Blue Hour MATTHEW HART Cry Baby Kreisler, John Ringling’s Circus Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky’s Ballet Fantasy KATE HONEA Baroque and Blues, Gitana Galop, Headlines, Percolator RICHARD HOUSE Living Ghosts, Lost in a Dream JOHAN KOBBORG La Sylphide [production after Bournonville], Napoli Act III [production after Bournonville], Salute

MEG EGINGTON Cézanne’s Doubt

JESSICA LANG Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring, A Time of Beauty

FLEMMING FLINDT The Lesson

JOE LAYTON The Grand Tour

MICHEL FOKINE Les Sylphides, Petrushka

LOGAN LEARNED Nebulous, Scene de Ballet

PAVEL FOMIN Hommage à Chopin

Johan Kobborg’s La Sylphide

Sir Frederick Ashton’s The Dream

Sir David Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors

George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes

Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes

Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides

EDWAARD LIANG The Art of War SIR KENNETH MACMILLAN Concerto, Danses Concertantes, Elite Syncopations, Las Hermanas, The Four Seasons (Summer Pas de Deux) OCTAVIO MARTIN On The Outside, Orpheus and Eurydice MARK MORRIS The Letter V VASLAV NIJINSKY L’Après-midi d’un faune - The Afternoon of a Faun

PETER SCHAUFUSS La Sylphide (Pas de Deux) [production] PAUL TAYLOR Airs, Brandenburgs, Company B TWYLA THARP In The Upper Room, Nine Sinatra Songs DAVID TLAIYE Xibalba WILL TUCKETT Changing Light, Lux Aeterna, The Secret Garden, Spielende Kinder

ROBERT NORTH Troy Game

ANTONY TUDOR Continuo, Gala Performance, The Leaves are Fading, Lilac Garden

RUDOLF NUREYEV Raymonda Act III

VASILY VAINONEN Flames of Paris (Pas de Deux)

RENATO PARONI Rococo Variations

HANS VAN MANEN Grosse Fuge

ANNA PAVLOVA The Dragonfly Solo

MACYN VOGT Exurgency

EMELIA PERKINS Washington Square

DOMINIC WALSH Bello, Camille Claudel La Valse (Pas de Deux), Clair de Lune, Dying Swan, I Napoletani, Time Out of Line, The Trilogy: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang for Webb

MARIUS PETIPA La Bayadere (Bronze Idol, Act II - Pas de Trois, Pas de Deux), Le Corsaire (Pas de Trois), Diana and Actaeon (Pas de Deux), Don Quixote (Pas de Deux), Harlequinade (Solo), Paquita, The Sleeping Beauty (Act III - Pas de Deux, Blue Bird Pas de Deux), Swan Lake (Act II - Pas de Deux, Act III - Black Swan Pas de Deux) YURI POSSOKHOV Firebird ANDRÉ PROKOVSKY Anna Karenina, Vespri JEROME ROBBINS The Concert, Fancy Free, In the Night GALINA SAMSOVA Paquita [production]

CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON The American, There Where She Loved SIR PETER WRIGHT Giselle [production], The Mirror Walkers, The Sleeping Beauty (Pas de Quatre), Summertide KELLY YANKLE Ne Me Quitte Pas ROSTISLAV ZAHKAROV Gopak

The Sarasota Ballet’s

Repertoire 2007 - 2024

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Sandra DeFeo Board Chair

Peter B. Miller

Pat Kenny

Board Vice Chair

Jean Weidner Goldstein Founder and Chair Emerita

David Welle

Treasurer

Sydney Goldstein Chair Emerita

Secretary

Mark Famiglio

Honorary Trustee

Dr. Bart Price

Honorary Trustee

2024 - 2025 SEASON

Ginger Cannon Bailey

William E. Chapman II

Bill Farber

Patricia A. Golemme

Robin Grossman

Julie A. Harris

JoAnn Heffernan Heisen

Frank Martucci

Linda Mitchell

Rosemary Oberndorf

Mercedita OConnor

Audrey Robbins

Jan Sirota

Hillary Steele

Maureen Steiner

Charles Wilson

ADVISORY COUNCIL

Jan Farber Vice Chair

Maryann Armour

Laura A. Feder

Frances D. Fergusson

Marnie Grossman

Dr. Amy L. Harding

Charles Huisking

Robin Klein-Strauss

Peter E. Kretzmer

Karen Lichtig

Tina Lieberman

Richard March

Joan Mathews

Donna Maytham

Gini Peltz

Kimberley Anne Pelyk

Marilynn Petrillo

Richard Segall

Lois Stulberg

Marcia Jean Taub

Clara Reynardus de Villanueva

PROUD TO BE A PARTNER In recognizing programs that enrich lives through the arts.

Each one of us has the potential to impact a person, a cause, a community. For 45 years, the Community Foundation of Sarasota County has been key to unlocking possibilities for all who call our area home. You can be the one to make a difference.

cfsarasota.org

HISTORY OF THE SARASOTA BALLET MISSION

We enrich lives, captivate emotions, and strengthen the community through the art of dance.

VISION

To infuse our community with the highest quality and diversity of dance in America.

1987 The Sarasota Ballet was founded in 1987 by Jean Weidner Goldstein as a presenting organization with the goal of becoming a full resident ballet company. This dream was fully realized in 1990 with the appointment of the Company’s first Director, Montreal-based Choreographer Eddy Toussaint, and the launch of the Company’s first true Season. Under Toussaint, The Sarasota Ballet repertoire would feature mostly his own choreographic work over the next few Seasons. In 1994, following a year under the leadership of Jean Weidner Goldstein as Interim Director, Robert de Warren, former Director of Ballet at Teatro alla Scala Milan and Northern Ballet, took on the mantle of Artistic Director. During his thirteen years with the Company, de Warren likewise focused on bringing his own choreographic creations to the stage.

2007 In January 2007, The Sarasota Ballet announced the appointment of Iain Webb, who would take the helm as Director. Webb’s first Season would revolutionize The Sarasota Ballet and set the Company on a path to both national and international recognition. Heavily inspired by his career with The Royal Ballet and combined with his close personal relationships with some of the biggest names in the dance world, Webb brought extraordinary ballets to the Sarasota stage by some of the great choreographers of the 20th century. In 2012, having staged numerous ballets for The Sarasota Ballet, former Principal of the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet Margaret Barbieri would join the Company full-time as Assistant Director. Two years later, Webb and Barbieri would launch 2014’s critically acclaimed Ashton Festival, where dance luminaries flocked to Sarasota over four days to see the Company perform fourteen ballets and divertissements by Sir Frederick Ashton. During this time, the Company received invitations to perform at some of the most prestigious dance venues in the United States including the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., New York City Center, and the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts.

2016 The next evolution of The Sarasota Ballet began in 2016 with the renowned Joseph Volpe, former General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, taking on the role of Executive Director. Focusing on economic and administrative foundations of the Company, he restructured and grew the administrative staff, strengthened its financial basis, and expanded the Board of Trustees, bringing The Sarasota Ballet to new heights. Together with Webb and Barbieri, the three would expand The Sarasota Ballet’s profile and continued national touring to The Joyce Theater in New York City and the National Choreographic Festival in Salt Lake City. Additionally, The Sarasota Ballet would perform noteworthy works during this time, further expanding the Company’s significant repertoire, including Sir Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, George Balanchine’s Jewels, and Sir David Bintley’s ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café. The Company would also embark on two major Ashton revivals, Apparitions and Varii Capricci. Through significant work and investment, both ballets returned to the stage for the first time in decades. With the onset of the global pandemic in 2020, The Sarasota Ballet ventured into the realm of digital streaming, producing seven specially performed and distributed programs to thousands of audience members in 30 countries on virtually every continent.

PRESENT Under the leadership of Director Iain Webb, Executive Director Joseph Volpe, and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri, The Sarasota Ballet is considered one of America’s leading ballet companies. To date, Webb and Barbieri have introduced 186 ballets and divertissements, including 59 world premieres and 15 American Company premieres. This new repertoire has included works by some of the most extraordinary emerging and established choreographers in the dance world, and the Company has been integral in bringing rarely seen ballets to today’s audiences. This new chapter of The Sarasota Ballet has seen a greater commitment to commissioning new works by choreographers of today, including world premieres by Jessica Lang, Gemma Bond, and Sir David Bintley. For the Company’s first Season back in the theater after the 2020 – 2021 Digital Season, The Sarasota Ballet commissioned A Comedy of Errors, a new fulllength story ballet by Bintley. Complete with a commissioned score by Mathew Hindson and designs by Dick Bird, the ballet marked the single largest endeavor by the Company. For the 2023 – 2024 Season, The Sarasota Ballet announced that renowned choreographer Jessica Lang would join for a three-year project as the Virginia B. Toulmin & Muriel O’Neil Artist in Residence. Together, Iain Webb, Joseph Volpe, and Margaret Barbieri continue to grow The Sarasota Ballet in its achievement, acclaim, and reputation. The Company’s repertoire, athleticism, and artistry continue to garner national and international acclaim, leading to their first international tour in June of 2024 to perform in the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House in London to launch the five-year Ashton Worldwide Festival.

THE FACTS COMPANY

20,000+

Audience Members Annually

National Tours and International Tours

150+

National and International Reviews

Dancers

186

Ballets and Divertissements under Webb since 2007

American Company and Premieres

Different Choreographers

World Premieres

DANCE EDUCATION

175

160

Studio Company Members

School Students

The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory Students

Summer Intensive Students

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

2,500

150

100

2,000

Community Members Served

Community Partners

Dance - The Next Generation Students

Students Attended School Programs

“We can’t change the world, but we can change little pieces of it and hope for a ripple effect.” - Margie Barancik

Sunday, February 16, 2025 at All-Inclusive New Location, The Ora 26

Honoring ...

Patricia Golemme and Timothy Fullum

For more information, visit SarasotaBallet.org or contact Sara Kious at skious@sarasotaballet.org or call 941.225.6503 GALA SPONSORS

ASHTON CELEBRATED

JUNE 7 - 22, 2024 Royal Opera House, London UK

THE SARASOTA BALLET TRIUMPHS IN LONDON

•

The Sarasota Ballet has grown over the past decade into one of America’s leading ballet companies, garnering acclaim for its extensive repertoire of Sir Frederick Ashton’s works.

•

At the invitation of The Royal Ballet Director Kevin O’Hare, The Sarasota Ballet Director Iain Webb and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri, both former Royal Ballet dancers, brought to the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House a selection of Ashton works shown over two programs.

•

Part of the kick off five-year Ashton Worldwide Festival, these performances paid tribute to Ashton’s remarkable choreographic range and celebrated his legacy as Founder Choreographer of The Royal Ballet and a pioneer of 20th-century ballet.

•

This first international tour for The Sarasota Ballet has been very well received with rave reviews from fans and critics alike in the UK and beyond.

•

The London tour marks a historic moment in the legacy and growth of The Sarasota Ballet.

SO MANY OF OUR LOYAL FANS TRAVELED WITH US ON TOUR

This was a once in a lifetime experience for The Sarasota Ballet and for those patrons lucky enough to have been in attendance. The entire week was well organized, and we could not have had a better time. It was absolutely exhilarating!

- FRANK AND KATHERINE MARTUCCI

- JULIE HARRIS

I couldn’t have been more proud of the performances given by the Company on the stages of the Royal Opera House. We are so lucky to have this little gem of a Company here in Sarasota with such fantastic leadership. I was thrilled to be there.

I was so proud to be a part of Iain and Margaret’s legacy as we met their former colleagues. Iain and Margaret returned to London with our top notch Sarasota Ballet. Amazing!! Our trip to White Lodge where we met young dancers and teachers who were Iain’s former colleagues was inspiring. - AUDREY ROBBINS

So many people have asked me if this is a dream come true, and it’s funny because I don’t even think it’s a dream coming true because I never thought I could dream that far. That wasn’t even an option to dream about because of the way we see The Royal Ballet and these dancers. So for me, of course, the highlight has been performing on the Main Stage.

-RICARDO GRAZIANO

PRINCIPAL DANCER, THE SARASOTA BALLET

I can’t fully express how meaningful this was to be able to give our wonderful dancers the opportunity to perform in the Royal Opera House. Not only was our Company able to perform on such a prestigious stage, but to be instrumental in returning these works to their spiritual home, after so many years, was surreal and so incredibly special for Iain and I, the dancers, and for the audience.

- MARGARET BARBIERI 30

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

THE REVIEWS ARE IN . . . AND THE CRITICS RAVED

have a small ballet company in Florida " We to thank for bringing back to Britain a selection of Frederick Ashton ballets unseen here in decades. The Sarasota Ballet, which under the direction of Iain Webb has acquired the world’s largest Ashton repertoire, was chosen to open Ashton Worldwide . . .

THE TIMES

Lovers of Frederick Ashton, therefore, owe The Sarasota Ballet and its director Iain Webb, a former dancer with Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, a great debt for its loving preservation of his work.

THE GUARDIAN

TO READ MORE REVIEWS FROM THE LONDON TOUR IN JUNE OF 2024, PLEASE VISIT SARASOTABALLET.ORG/LONDONTOUR.

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PROGRAM ONE | OCTOBER 25 – 27, 2024 FSU Center for the Performing Arts Johan Kobborg’s Napoli Act III Ricardo Graziano’s Amorosa Jessica Lang’s A Time of Beauty

(World Premiere)

PROGRAM SPONSOR

PROGRAM ONE | RELATIVE WORKS | OCTOBER 25 - 27, 2024 | FSU CENTER

NAPOLI ACT III Production by Johan Kobborg Choreography after August Bournonville Music By Edvard Helsted & Holger Simon Paulli Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Napoli is in every sense a joyous ballet. The definitive

expression of Bournonville’s style, and the Royal Danish Ballet’s “calling card” it triumphantly sealed the choreographer’s return to Copenhagen from an inspiring visit to Naples, following his 1841 disgrace, after a public quarrel with the Danish King at the Royal Theatre. A contemporary described its 1842 premiere: “unstoppable clapping and cheers…gaiety throughout the whole theatre, which could awaken the dead.” In its original three acts, Napoli told a familiar tale of thwarted lovers, a match-making mother, unwelcome suitors, supposed loss (in this case by drowning at sea), an exotic transformation scene (the Act II Blue Grotto), and a jubilant reunion in its celebratory Act III. So, it represented a deliberate departure from the mainstream European Romantic ballet tradition of doom-laden tragedy and moonlit fantasy, in favor of common-sense faith in a perfectible human world of order and harmony. Bournonville explained in his memoirs how his ballet, drafted in a stagecoach traveling from Paris to Dunkirk, had drawn inspiration from his Neapolitan experiences. “From my window, I observed in an hour, more tableaux than I could use in ten ballets.” He had been underwhelmed by Giselle in Paris, and while offering an audience-pleasing, romantic, and ethereal fantasy for his Act II Grotto scene, he intentionally proposed a contrasting Neapolitan fishing community exuberance, with folk dances like the tarantella, for an Act III that passed in 1842 for earthy realism. Johan Kobborg’s staging bears the legitimate imprimatur of an international star, steeped in the Bournonville style, from his early training and years as a principal with the Royal Danish Ballet. What the modern audience gets, in the sunny ebullience of Napoli Act III, is an unbroken Danish tradition from 1842, exuberantly Italian in flavor, with Bournonville’s own, and many subsequent, alterations so that a living tradition constantly reinterprets a great heritage masterwork.

Johan Kobborg Choreographer

Renowned for his career as both a dancer and choreographer, Johan Kobborg was born June 5, 1972 in Denmark. Kobborg started his ballet training at sixteen with the Royal Danish Ballet School, joining the company just a year later. He was promoted to Principal in 1994, and would go on to dance major roles in the works of Bournonville, Ashton, Balanchine, and more, as well as create roles including the leads in Peter Schaufuss’ Hamlet and Flemming Flindt’s Legs on Fire. In 1999, Kobborg joined The Royal Ballet as Principal Dancer, where he would perform leading roles in the company’s vast repertoire. During this time, he made guest appearances with major dance companies including American Ballet Theatre, The Mariinsky Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, and La Scala Ballet. Kobborg’s partnership began with Ballerina Alina Cojocaru. After dancing together in a 2001 performance of Romeo and Juliet, the two would go on to receive enormous international acclaim in their subsequent partnership onstage. After several years dancing together, they confirmed a romantic relationship, leading to an engagement in 2011, and two children since. During his tenure with The Royal Ballet, Kobborg began his choreographic journey, utilizing his intimate familiarity with Bournonville’s style to create a production of La Sylphide for The Royal Ballet in 2005. His adaptation received glowing praise and multiple awards, and has since been staged around the world. After his departure from The Royal Ballet in the 2013 Season, he assumed the role of Artistic Director of the Romanian National Ballet in Bucharest for several years. In recent years, Kobborg served as lead choreographer for Ralph Fiennes 2018 Nureyev film The White Crow, and Kobborg continues to choreograph and stage works for ballet companies around the globe.

First Performed by The Royal Ballet 2007 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet 2011

2024 - 2025 SEASON August Bournonville Choreographer

August Bournonville was born in Copenhagen August 21, 1805 into a ballet family. His dancer/ choreographer father Antoine had trained under the great French ballet master Noverre, and his aunt Julie danced in the Royal Swedish Ballet. Alone among his five siblings, August trained for the stage, which he graced from the early age of eight, first at the Royal Danish Ballet, then briefly on scholarship in Paris, coming under the influence of the great Auguste Vestris. After his ballet scholarship in Paris ended, he returned to an atrophied Royal Danish Ballet. Disappointed he soon returned to the Paris Opera Ballet, where he danced from 1820 to 1828. Returning to Copenhagen in 1830, Bournonville applied his Paris experience, hard work, and talent to regenerate the Royal Danish Ballet. He created over fifty ballets (many of them since lost), establishing a unique Danish style characterized by exuberance, lightness, energy, their varied international settings, and a freedom from the prevailing Romantic Ballet style of moonlit, ethereal tragedy - which glorified the ballerinas and sidelined the male dancer. In a famous 1841 incident, Bournonville fell from favor after confronting King Christian IX in the royal theater box over ballet politics, and found it prudent to travel abroad, for research and inspiration, before a triumphant 1842 return to Denmark. His dancing career flourished for many years, and he continued creating ballets and teaching until nearly the end of his life, which came after a sudden illness on November 30, 1879. Among his best-known ballets are La Sylphide (1836), Napoli (1842), Le Conservatoire (1849), The Kermesse in Bruges (1851), and A Folk Tale (1854). Bournonville’s work was not widely known outside Denmark until the 1950s, when the Royal Danish Ballet introduced his ballets and style with triumphant success internationally. It is now appreciated as a crucial part of the ballet heritage.

Edvard Helsted

Composer

A Danish composer and concertmaster, Edvard Helsted was born December 8, 1816 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Helsted trained as a violinist and found employment with the Royal Danish Orchestra from 1838 to 1869, initially as an orchestra member and from 1863 as a concertmaster and rehearsal conductor. As a teacher, he instructed piano at the Royal Danish Academy of Music from 1869 to 1890. He was knighted into the Order of the Dannebrog in 1866, and appointed professor in 1890. As a composer, Helsted composed or cocomposed the music for many of August Bournonville’s ballets: Imagination Island (1838), Toreador (1840); Napoli (1842), Kirsten Piil (1845), Old Memories (1848), Psyche (1850), and The Flower Festival in Genzano (1858). He also contributed music to various plays – for example, Hans Christian Andersen’s The Bird in the Pear Tree (1842). Helsted died March 1, 1900 in Fredensborg, Denmark; he is buried at Asminderød Cemetery.

Holger Simon Paulli

Composer

Born February 22, 1810 in Copenhagen, Denmark, Holger Simon Paulli studied under composer and violinist Claus Schall as well as classical composer Frederik Thorkildsen Wexschall. After an apprenticeship with the Royal Danish Orchestra, he became the company’s ballet répétiteurs in 1842; later, he would take the position of concertmaster in 1849, and from 1863 to 1883, he took on the role of opera conductor. He also conducted the orchestra of the Cecilia Association – popularizing much of the work of Richard Wagner in Denmark – and was chairman of the Chamber Music Association from 1868 until 1891, the year of his death. As a composer, Paulli contributed to several of August Bournonville’s works including: Napoli (1842); Le Conservatoire (1849); The Kermesse in Bruges (1951); and Wedding Movements in Hardanger (1853).

PROGRAM ONE | RELATIVE WORKS | OCTOBER 25 - 27, 2024 | FSU CENTER

AMOROSA Choreography by Ricardo Graziano Music by Antonio Vivaldi Costume Design by Jerry Wolf and Ricardo Graziano Original Lighting Design by Aaron Muhl

Striking images of passion and tenderness abound in

Graziano’s Amorosa which was initially created for The Sarasota Ballet’s 2018 - 2019 Season. The Portuguese word ‘amorosa’ means ‘loving’, or ‘with a tender touch’, helping us understand the mood that underpins this work: an exploration of the act of devotion to another person, rather than an explicit study of the condition of love. Amorosa began life as the sketches for a different ballet altogether, this original conception using Vivaldi’s choral music. When the chance came to produce a longer work, Graziano looked to other selections of Vivaldi’s cello concertos to complement the light and shade he looks for in movement. This new music choice took the choreographer on a different journey. The contrapuntal nature of baroque music, where two melodies take equal importance at the same moment, is ideal for a work where partners willingly reach out to one another, reveling in the intimacy of shared contact. Rejecting narrative, Graziano allowed the music to direct design: the silhouette of baroque fashion inspired Jerry Wolf’s costumes and the clever contraction of the Portuguese words for ‘love’ and ‘rose’ that ‘amorosa’ illustrates, defined the sensual color palette of red and black. Group dances spill into duets; a lively finale yields to an extended pas de deux of weighty adoration. Graziano’s signature partner work is a feature of Amorosa so that dramatic counterpoints exist between partners: men balance women precariously, and couples use the force from an off-balance maneuver to swing in to the next moment with abandon. Amorosa takes flight from the musical contrasts in the assembled score allowing sensuality and vigor to infuse this piece. This is the second revival of Amorosa after its creation. The principal pas de deux has been performed in California, Mexico, and Japan.

Ricardo Graziano Choreographer

Ricardo Graziano started dancing when he was eight years old in his hometown of Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil. At the age of 16, he won a scholarship to study at the Academie des Tanzes in Mannheim, Germany, and in 2005 joined Tulsa Ballet. In 2010, Graziano joined The Sarasota Ballet as a Soloist and in the following year was promoted to Principal. At the start of the 2011 - 2012 Season, Graziano was given the opportunity by Director Iain Webb to choreograph his first ballet, Shostakovich Suite, which The Sarasota Ballet premiered in October 2011. Following this ballet, Graziano choreographed four new ballets before being appointed The Sarasota Ballet’s Resident Choreographer by Webb in 2014 after a performance of Graziano’s Symphony of Sorrows. During his 10 years as Resident Choreographer, he choreographed an additional seven one-act ballets, including In a State of Weightlessness, which premiered August 12, 2015, as a part of The Sarasota Ballet’s first weeklong residency at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. His other choreographic works for The Sarasota Ballet include: Pomp and Circumstance in March 2013 Gala; Valsinhas in May 2013; Before Night Falls in February 2014; En las Calles de Murcia in March 2015; Sonata in Four Movements in August 2016; The Jolly Overture and Somewhere in April 2018 Gala; Amorosa in January 2019; Sonatina in October 2021; The Pilgrimage in October 2022; and Schubert Variations in January 2024. In 2023, Graziano choreographed his first work outside of The Sarasota Ballet. Fledglings’ Playground was created for the Connexus Dance Collective in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In the Spring of 2024, he was invited to create his first ballet for Richmond Ballet, Virginia.

Commissioned by The Sarasota Ballet First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet January 25, 2019

2024 - 2025 SEASON Antonio Vivaldi Composer

A major composer of the Baroque era and a virtuoso violinist, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678 in Venice, learning violin performance from his father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, and touring from a young age. Vivaldi would find employment with the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage and music school in Venice, where he would serve as maestro di violino (master of violin) and soon be regarded as a notable technical violinist as well as composer. His early compositional successes, primarily including collections of sonatas for violins and basso continuo, would contribute to his eventual promotion to maestro de’ concerti (music director) in 1716. The following year, he was offered employment by Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, governor of Mantua in northwest Italy, producing several operas and writing his famous Four Seasons series of four violin concertos over the course of the following few years. At the height of his popularity, Vivaldi was frequently commissioned by European royalty and nobility; in 1725, he created the cantata Gloria e Imeneo in celebration of the marriage of Louis XV. Several years later, he would meet Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, to whom Vivaldi’s Opus 9, La Cetra, was dedicated, and this chance meeting would lead to a knighthood and invitation to Vienna. He traveled to Vienna and Prague with his father in 1730 to present his wildly popular opera Farnace and would collaborate with Italian authors Pietro Metastasio and Carlo Goldoni on later operas. The death of Charles VI in 1740, however, would lead to a loss in steady income and eventual poverty for Vivaldi. He died on July 28, 1741 of “internal infection” and while much of his work has since been lost, recent rediscovery efforts have led to renewed popularity.

Jerry Wolf

Costume Designer Native to Portland, Oregon, Jerry Wolf earned his B.A. in Theater Arts at Redlands, California, and his MFA at University of Texas in Houston. Fresh out of college, he launched a career in Broadway Touring as Wardrobe Supervisor for 25 years. Thirteen tours included Evita, Cats, Les Misérables, and Phantom of the Opera. Wolf returned to Texas in 2003 and began a seven-season run with Houston Ballet as the First Assistant to the Wardrobe Head. He then moved in 2011 to Tulsa Ballet for five seasons as Director of Wardrobe and, while visiting in Sarasota, was eventually asked to become Head of Wardrobe for The Sarasota Ballet, where he is now in his seventh season.

Aaron Muhl

Lighting Designer Aaron Muhl is from Sarasota, FL and has over 20 years of experience in the performing arts. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatrical Design and Technology from the University of Central Florida. He is currently the production manager for Charlotte Ballet. Muhl was The Sarasota Ballet’s resident lighting designer and supervisor from 2007 to 2022. During his tenure there, he designed and/or recreated over 100 one-act and full-length ballets. Notable lighting designs include Will Tuckett’s Changing Light and Lux Aeterna, Jessica Lang’s Shades of Spring, and Sir Peter Wright’s Summertide.

PROGRAM ONE | RELATIVE WORKS | OCTOBER 25 - 27, 2024 | FSU CENTER

A TIME OF BEAUTY WORLD PREMIERE

Choreography by Jessica Lang Music by George Frederick Handel Costume Design by Jillian Lewis Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

For Jessica Lang’s second world premiere for The Sarasota

Ballet, the choreographer asked how she could cultivate the artists of the Company by creating a piece that fit the established tone Lang has set as Artist in Residence. Handel’s oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno provides the fitting next step. Composed in 1707, the composer revisited this concept three times over his career, an idea that excited Lang as she crafted her own response to Handel’s philosophical discussion of the inevitable passing of time and the inexorability of decline. Four characters represented through a succession of recitatives and arias depict how Beauty is encouraged by Pleasure, only for Disillusion and Time to impart their understanding that temporal pleasures are fleeting. With her typical sensitivity of artistic gesture, Lang’s choreographic voice is shaped by the shared experiences she has with her dancers in response to Handel’s music. Assembling a collection of songs that the choreographer resonated with, Lang asks the dancers to make their bodies sing, drawing on the breath and phrasing of the singers of Handel’s composition. Not simply a retelling of Handel’s oratorio, Lang was inspired scenically by a 2019 piece of public art exhibited in London by creative architecture studio KHBT with artist Ottmar Hörl. Entitled Lunch Break, small guardian angels swung outside that masterpiece of baroque architecture, St Paul’s Cathedral, beautifully chiming with the concluding song of this ballet. Lang continues her collaboration with costume designer Jillian Lewis for this world premiere. The seventh section of this work includes the words: “Leave the thorn, Pluck the rose”, something Handel reused for his 1711 opera Rinaldo. Lang was enchanted by this reworking of material, personal quotations being something all artists do as their canon expands. Fitting for a piece that meditates on the passage of time and how, as the days pass, our understanding deepens and different perfumes are released.

Jessica Lang Choreographer

Jessica Lang is an American director and choreographer. She is The Virginia B. Toulmin & Muriel O’Neil Artist in Residence for The Sarasota Ballet and Resident Choreographer at Pacific Northwest Ballet. Since 1999, Lang has created more than 100 original works on companies worldwide including American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Alvin Ailey, American Dance Theater, the National Ballet of Japan, The Joffrey Ballet, and her eponymous company Jessica Lang Dance. Lang has worked extensively for American Ballet Theatre. Her creations on the main company include Her Notes, Garden Blue, and ZigZag with the legendary Tony Bennett. Lang has created seven ballets on ABT Studio Company, was part of the founding faculty of the JKO School, and served as a mentor and panelist for the company’s Incubator program. For opera, in 2013 Lang directed and choreographed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at Glimmerglass Opera Festival, in 2016 she choreographed San Francisco Opera’s production of Aida, and in 2024 Lang choreographed Salome for Des Moines Metro Opera and co-choreographed Francesca Zambello’s new production of Turandot for Washington National Opera. Lang, a graduate of The Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, is a former member of Twyla Tharp’s company, THARP!. She is the recipient of a 2018 Martha Hill Mid-Career Award, 2017 Arison Award, and 2014 Bessie Award. She has been a fellow of NY City Center and NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, and named 2019 Caroline Hearst Choreographer-in-Residence at Princeton University.

Commissioned by The Sarasota Ballet First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet October 25, 2024

2024 - 2025 SEASON George Frederick Handel Composer

Born in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg, in 1685 (an exact contemporary of J S Bach and Scarlatti), George Frederick Handel was one of eight children born to a court barbersurgeon. After the Duke of Saxony urged Handel’s father to arrange for musical studies Handel rapidly developed skills in composition, and on harpsichord, organ, violin, and oboe. After some years as a professional organist in Halle, Handel moved to Berlin and in 1703 to Hamburg, where his first operas were staged. After a period in Florence, where he wrote his first Italian operas, as well as oratorios and sacred music, in 1710 Handel became Kappelmeister to the Elector of Hanover (the future George I of Great Britain) and settled in London in 1712, where he would enjoy the patronage of both Queen Anne and her husband George I. During his lifetime Handel compositions included 42 operas, 24 oratorios, 18 concerti grossi, 12 organ concertos, and more than 120 cantatas, trios, and duets. An astute businessman and a popular social figure, Handel never married and kept his personal life private. He died a wealthy man in 1759 and was buried with state honours in London’s Westminster Abbey.

Jillian Lewis

Costume Designer Jillian Lewis is a high-end fashion and costume designer based in New York City. Born and raised in New York, Jillian graduated from Parsons School of Design. She has been working in the fashion industry for almost two decades, most notably as Design Director at Ralph Lauren and Senior Design Contributor at Anthropologie. Jillian was cast on the 4th season of Bravo’s reality show series, Project Runway. Her collection made it to the final three and walked the runway in Bryant Park. She now owns and operates Jillian Lewis Inc. creating fashion collections and high-end uniforms, as well as costumes for the ballet world. She has costumed ballets for American Ballet Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet, The Guggenheim Museum, and The Baryshnikov Arts Center, as well as Holland America Line.

Ethan Vail

Lighting Designer Ethan Vail is originally from Indiana and has been the lighting designer for various art forms. His passion for lighting dance truly began in college at Purdue University, and since then, he has lit numerous ballets ranging from full length works like Johan Kobborg’s La Sylphide to one-act ballets including masterpieces by Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, and Sir Kenneth MacMillan. He has also created original designs for choreographers Gemma Bond and Ricardo Graziano. Vail’s work has also been seen in various theatres around the country including Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, Urbanite Theatre, and Asolo Repertory Theatre. Highlights of his career thus far include winning the 2013 U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology’s Young Designers, Managers & Technicians Award; and lighting The Sarasota Ballet’s 2024 performances at The Royal Opera House in London.

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GISELLE Sir Peter Wright’s

PROGRAM TWO | NOVEMBER 22 - 23, 2024 Sarasota Opera House Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

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PROGRAM TWO | GISELLE | NOVEMBER 22 - 23, 2024 | SARASOTA OPERA HOUSE

GISELLE Production by Sir Peter Wright Original Choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot Music by Adolphe Adam Staged by Margaret Barbieri Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

The crowning achievement of the Romantic ballet era

and an enduringly central part of the ballet repertoire, Giselle perfectly exemplifies how ballet is a living tradition—taught, preserved, adapted, and handed down from generation to generation. Sir Peter Wright’s internationally-acclaimed staging, regarded by many as perhaps the definitive and most authentic production available, premiered in Stuttgart in 1965 and had its London premiere at Covent Garden in 1968, by the Royal Ballet Touring Company. Giselle, originally performed with great success at the Paris Opera in 1841 as a vehicle for the star Carlotta Grisi, was choreographed by Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli and went on to triumph in London, St. Petersburg, and Vienna (1842), Berlin and Milan (1843), and Boston (1846), but passed out of the Paris Opera repertoire in 1868. In 1884 Marius Petipa, who essentially took the French repertoire to Russia with him, restaged Giselle at the Imperial Maryinsky Theatre, making his own changes, additions, and omissions, as he did again in 1899 and finally in 1903 for Anna Pavlova. Petipa’s version was notated and forms the basis for subsequent revivals, although most Western productions are based on Diaghilev’s 1910 staging for their second Paris season.

Count Albrecht of Silesia, in disguise as the peasant Loys, romances a young and sensitive village girl, Giselle, who falls completely in love with him and rejects her jealous admirer Hilarion, a village hunter, despite his suspicions about her new beau and her mother Berthe’s concern that the girl is over-exerting her delicately-balanced emotions. Their alarm is justified with the arrival of an aristocratic hunting party including Bathilde, the Count’s beautiful and gracious fiancée, whose kindness to Giselle is brutally followed by Hilarion’s revelation of Loys as the Count. The despairing, overwrought girl sees his sword on the ground and in her madness, she stabs herself and dies. Act Two takes place near Giselle’s forest grave, haunted by the Wilis and their Queen, Myrtha, the ghosts of jilted brides who revenge themselves by dancing to death any man they meet. Both her suitors visit Giselle’s grave and Hilarion falls victim to the Wilis. But when Albrecht is about to suffer the same fate, the spirit of Giselle intervenes and saves him from Myrtha’s merciless revenge, and the ballet ends with Giselle’s spirit finding peace by rejecting the Wilis and forgiving Albrecht.

First Performed by The Paris Opera Ballet June 28, 1841 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet November 27, 2009

2024 - 2025 SEASON Sir Peter Wright Choreographer

Sir Peter Wright made his debut as a professional dancer with the Ballets Jooss during World War II, and in the 1950s worked with several dance companies, including the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, for which he created his first ballet, A Blue Rose. In 1959, he was appointed Ballet Master to the Sadler’s Wells Opera and a teacher at The Royal Ballet School. In 1961, he went to Stuttgart as a teacher and Ballet Master to the company being formed by John Cranko. There he choreographed several ballets, including The Mirror Walkers, Namouna, Designs for Dancers, and Quintet, and mounted his first production of Giselle, which he subsequently produced for The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and many other international companies. His interpretations of the classics The Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker are likewise regularly performed throughout the world. In 1969, he returned to The Royal Ballet as Associate to the Directors and soon after became Associate Director. In 1977, he was appointed Director of Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, and in 1990, relocated the Company to Birmingham where it was renamed Birmingham Royal Ballet. His honors and achievements include a CBE in1985, an Honorary Doctorate of Music from London University in 1990, and he was presented with the Elizabeth II Coronation Award from the Royal Academy of Dance. In 1991, he was made a Fellow of the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music, and in the same year won the 1991 Digital Premier Award. He was awarded a knighthood in the 1993 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, in 1994 an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Birmingham, and the Critics’ Circle Award 1995 for Distinguished Services to the Arts. On his retirement in 1995, he was made Director Laureate of Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Adolphe Adam

Composer

The French composer and music critic Adolphe Adam was born in Paris in 1803. The son of a composer and music professor at the Paris Conservatoire, he studied organ, although his father discouraged his musical career. In his twenties, Adam wrote songs and played in vaudeville theatre orchestras, as well as composing prolifically for various Paris theatres, and traveled as far as Russia. He supplemented this by playing the organ and arranging for piano the operas of other composers. Of his more than eighty works for the theatre, including fourteen ballets, Adam is best remembered for his ballet Giselle (1841), the opera Le Postillon de Lonjumeau, (1836) and the beloved Christmas carol O Holy Night, which is said to have been the first music ever broadcast on the radio. At the height of his career, Adam fell out with the Director of the Opéra-Comique and opened the Opéra-National (Paris’ fourth opera house) in 1847, appealing to a wide popular audience. After investing all his own money and borrowing heavily to launch the venture, he was ruined when his new theatre had to close during the violent 1848 Revolution. While continuing to compose to pay off his debts, Adam was also obliged to take up music journalism and teach at his alma mater, the Paris Conservatoire, a workload that contributed to his premature death in Paris in 1856 at 52 years old.

PROGRAM TWO | GISELLE | NOVEMBER 22 - 23, 2024 | SARASOTA OPERA HOUSE

The History of Sir Peter Wright’s Production of Giselle

Sir Peter Wright’s production of Giselle premiered in the summer of 1965 at the Stuttgart Ballet. The performances caused a sensation, and its success brought his production into the repertoires of many of the great ballet companies throughout the world, forever linking Wright with one of the most beloved romantic full-length classics.

However, it almost never came to pass. Having just created a new production of Swan Lake for Stuttgart Ballet, Director John Cranko felt that the company’s next full-length ballet should be Giselle, especially because their previous production had been rather a disaster. Cranko approached Wright, then ballet master, to mount the ballet. While honored to have been trusted with this project, Wright initially protested as he’d never performed the ballet, let alone enjoyed watching it! Eventually, he agreed to Cranko’s request, and given carte blanche, Wright left for London for six weeks of research. Working with the esteemed Ballet Historian Ivor Guest, as well as Cyril Beaumont’s book, The Ballet Called Giselle, Wright’s passion for the romantic classic grew the closer he got to the original choreography and story behind the ballet.

With this revelation, Wright found his connection and inspiration, leading him to bring further characterizations with the other principal characters throughout the ballet. Albrecht transformed from a ‘sloppy’ Prince to a young virile man looking to experience life before being forced to marry the spoiled Countess Bathilde, but who nevertheless genuinely falls in love with Giselle. Hilarion became a tragic hero, in love with a woman whose heart belongs to another, his grief and love leading him to Giselle’s grave and his untimely death. Soon after Wright’s success at Stuttgart Ballet, his production of Giselle moved to The Royal Ballet, where at a 1968 matinee performance, a young corps de ballet dancer by the name of Margaret Barbieri performed her first Principal Role on the Covent Garden stage as Giselle. This performance would begin a long relationship between Sir Peter Wright and Barbieri, and as his production of Giselle toured around the world, so too would Barbieri. The combination of Wright’s choreography and Barbieri’s artistry would bring critical acclaim to them both and to this production of Giselle.

His breakthrough came with the revelation of Giselle’s original death. In the productions that Wright had seen around the world, Giselle had died of a broken heart at the end of Act I. This never sat well with Wright; he thought it was overly dramatic. It also made her burial in the woods even more senseless. This, though, was not the original story! In an account of the first performance of Giselle at the Paris Opera Ballet, she had gone mad, taken Albrecht’s sword, and plunged it into her heart. Here now was not only a death that made sense, but one that would prevent her burial in hallowed grounds in a Church cemetery, forcing her mother to bury Giselle in the woods and exposing her spirit to the malevolent Wilis.

Margaret Barbieri in Giselle

Program 1 | Progression in Rep | 2024 October 20 - 22,SEASON 2023 | FSU Center - 2025

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PROGRAM THREE | DECEMBER 20 – 21, 2024 Sarasota Opera House Sir Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs George Balanchine’s Rubies Sir David Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast (World Premiere)

Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

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PROGRAM THREE | FANCIFUL JOURNEY | DECEMBER 20 - 21, 2024 | SARASOTA OPERA HOUSE

LES PATINEURS Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton Music by Giacomo Meyerbeer Music Arrangement by Constant Lambert Design by William Chappell Staged by Margaret Barbieri & Iain Webb Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

It was Constant Lambert, the troubled but inspirational

Musical Director of the Vic-Wells Ballet and lover of the young Margot Fonteyn, who suggested that the ballet music from two of the French composer Meyerbeer’s operas, L’Étoile du Nord and the 1849 La Prophète, might furnish the ideal score for a skating ballet in development in 1937. These operas had famously featured a corps de ballet on roller skates, well over a century before Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express! Ninette de Valois, the young company’s founding director, found herself unable to make headway with the Meyerbeer project, and handed it over to her rising young choreographer, Frederick Ashton, who reciprocated by delivering to her The Rake’s Progress which was proving equally challenging for him. This proved a happy exchange, resulting in a significant landmark work for each dance-maker. Ashton knew precisely nothing of skating and had never visited an ice-rink in his life, but the delightful ice-skating divertissement he concocted premiered at Sadler’s Wells to great public acclaim, spectacularly demonstrating just how far the nascent British ballet had come in six short years from its inception by de Valois. The ballet’s premiere benefited from an illustrious cast, with Margot Fonteyn (Ashton’s muse in the late 1930’s) and Robert Helpmann as the pas de deux couple and Harold Turner as the Blue Skater (a role not unrelated, perhaps, to the Blue Bird of the classical The Sleeping Beauty). It was in this popular success that the dancer Michael Somes first made his mark, attracting notice with his spectacularly impressive elevation, as the leading dancer and Ashton inspiration he was to become.

Sir Frederick Ashton Choreographer

Born in Ecuador in 1904, Ashton’s passion for Ballet was ignited after seeing the renowned Ballerina Anna Pavlova perform in 1917. Arriving in London, he studied with Léonide Massine and later with Dame Marie Rambert (who encouraged his first ventures in choreography) as well as dancing briefly in Ida Rubinstein’s company. In 1935, he accepted Dame Ninette de Valois’ invitation to join her Vic-Wells Ballet (the precursor to The Royal Ballet) as Dancer and Choreographer. His career would also embrace revues, musicals, opera, film, and international commissions. During the Second World War, he served in the RAF before creating Symphonic Variations for the Sadler’s Wells Ballet’s 1946 season in its new home at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, affirming a new spirit of classicism and modernity in English postwar ballet. Throughout his choreographic career, Ashton’s ballets were often inspired or created around the talents of individual dancers – in particular Dame Margot Fonteyn whom many consider his greatest muse next to Pavlova. Appointed Associate Director of The Royal Ballet in 1952, Ashton succeeded Dame Ninette de Valois as Director from 1963 to 1970, and under his direction the company rose to new heights, while his choreographic career continued to earn critical acclaim. Continuing to choreograph and re-stage his works after his retirement, in 1988 Sir Frederick Ashton passed away in his sleep at his home in Suffolk. His ballets, which remain in the international repertoire undiminished, show a remarkable versatility, and a lyrical and highly sensitive musicality. If any single artist can be said to have formulated a native English classical ballet style and developed it over a lifetime, it is Sir Frederick Ashton.

First Performed by Sadler’s Wells Ballet March 16, 1937 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet December 19, 2008

2024 - 2025 SEASON Giacomo Meyerbeer Composer

Meyerbeer was German-Jewish, born Jacob Liebmann Beer (1791) near Berlin. Both his parents came from wealthy backgrounds and two of his brothers became wellknown astronomers and poets. Like Mozart, his precocious talent led to an early musical debut, performing at the age of nine, he studied with the Abbé Vogler, who also taught Carl Maria von Weber. Moving from virtuosic performance to composition and for family reasons taking the name Meyerbeer, he went to Italy, where he came under Rossini’s influence and renamed himself Giacomo. Of his 17 operas (1812-1865), the best-known are probably Les Huguenots and L’Africaine, while his first major success Il Crociatto in Egitto was the last opera to feature a castrato. Meyerbeer’s first big hit, Robert le Diable is often (and inaccurately) considered the first “grand opera,” but his melodramatic, historical plots, sumptuous scores, huge casts, and staging demands ensured the success of his operas, until the sustained personal attacks of Wagner (whose 1842 opera Rienzi was maliciously dubbed “Meyerbeer’s greatest work”!), growing anti-Semitism in Germany, and changes in taste elsewhere, reduced his popularity. Only recently have his operas been restaged, with varying success.

William Chappell

Designer

A gifted and versatile artist who succeeded as both dancer and theatre designer, William (“Billy”) Chappell was born September 27, 1908 in Wolverhampton. He studied painting at Chelsea Art School, but it was through his friendship with Sir Frederick Ashton that he committed himself to dance. He studied with Marie Rambert before dancing with Ida Rubinstein’s company, Ballet Rambert, and then finally with the Vic-Wells Ballet. During this time he also created designs for many ballets including Ashton’s Capriol Suite, Les Rendezvous, and Les Patineurs; Tudor’s Lysistrata; de Valois’ Cephalus and Procris, La Bar aux Folies-Bergère and The Wise and Foolish Virgins; for Vic-Wells Giselle and Coppélia; and Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo The Nutcracker. World War II interrupted his career with army service, but he returned to ballet design in 1946 when the Sadler’s Wells Ballet moved to Covent Garden. He extended his career to embrace writing and directing in West End theatre. Chappell continued to work prolifically throughout his life before his death in Rye on January 1, 1994.

Constant Lambert

Music Arranger

Composer, conductor, and writer, Constant Lambert had exactly the right qualifications when he joined with Dame Ninette de Valois and Sir Frederick Ashton to build what became The Royal Ballet. Born in London in 1905, the son of a leading Australian painter, George Lambert, he was only 21 and still a student at the Royal Academy of Music when Diaghilev accepted his score for Romeo and Juliet in 1926. A year later the success of The Rio Grande (with text by Sacheverell Sitwell and choreographed by Ashton in 1932) made him a leading composer of his generation.

PROGRAM THREE | FANCIFUL JOURNEY | DECEMBER 20 - 21, 2024 | SARASOTA OPERA HOUSE

RUBIES Choreography by George Balanchine Music Igor Stravinsky Staged By Sandra Jennings Costume Design Karinska Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

With a cast of eight female and four male dancers, led

by three principals (originally Patricia McBride, Patricia Neary, and Edward Villella), Rubies is the central, and shortest, ballet in the Jewels triptych, and a remarkable example of Balanchine’s style at its most sharp-edged and rhythmically complex. Balanchine’s artistic affinity with his fellow Russian émigré Igor Stravinsky is legendary. The Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, in effect Stravinsky’s second piano concerto, was composed in Nice in 1929 as a virtuoso vehicle by which he hoped to earn urgently needed funds to support his family in exile after the Russian Revolution. The Capriccio was both influenced by jazz and intended as an homage to the 19th century composer Carl Maria von Weber, hailed by Stravinsky as “a prince of music.” The three movements are played attacca (without a break), with an andante rapsodico (danced in Rubies as a long pas de deux) sandwiched between a dazzling presto and a closing allegro capriccioso. The score was first used as a ballet by Léonide Massine in 1947 at La Scala, Milan. Balanchine’s ballet to it is the section of Jewels most frequently excerpted by companies. Attacca, in the broadest of its meanings, is certainly a key word for it, since the ballet, enhanced by Karinska’s ruby-colored costumes, is characterized by a sharp attack, unexpected shifts of weight, pinpoint precision, and a sassy jazziness; it also abounds with passing references to flirtations, athletic events, and Broadway musical-comedy routines.

George Balanchine Choreographer

Probably the most important and influential ballet figure in America, he was born Georgi Balanchivadze in St. Petersburg in 1904. More than four decades after his death in 1983, we can appreciate more fully the monumental impact of his 60 year spanning career, carrying the grand Russian classical style triumphantly into the modernist era, establishing one of the world’s leading companies—New York City Ballet—and giving America its own classical ballet tradition. Graduating from the Petrograd Imperial School of Ballet in 1921 at age 17, Balanchine joined the Imperial Russian Ballet (Mariinsky Ballet), where his first choreographies shocked the traditionally-minded establishment. In 1924, he auditioned for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and within a year of joining, was appointed Chief Choreographer, creating 10 ballets for the company, notably Apollo (1928) and Prodigal Son (1929). After Diaghilev’s death in 1929 and the fragmentation of the Ballets Russes, Balanchine would soon meet Lincoln Kirstein. Persuaded to come to America by Kirstein, the two would found the American School of Ballet in New York (1934), out of which emerged The American Ballet (1935), Ballet Society (1946), and eventually New York City Ballet (1948). During the 1930s and 1940s, Balanchine also choreographed extensively for Broadway and the movies. Balanchine’s ballets are notable in that his musical training enabled him to work closely with the music of many of the greatest composers of the 20th century—as well as reinterpreting the music of the iconic composers of the past. Today Balanchine now stands as a ballet colossus between America and Europe, his rich repertoire of ballet constantly performed and appreciated around the world.

First Performed by New York City Ballet April 13, 1967 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet February 3, 1995

2024 - 2025 SEASON Igor Stravinsky Composer

One of the most influential 20th century composers, Stravinsky was born June 17, 1882 and brought up in the Russian capital St Petersburg. He studied piano, music theory, and composition from an early age, but was sent to study law at St Petersburg University in 1901, however after his father’s death in 1906 he left to study music privately with Rimsky-Korsakov. Stravinsky shot to international fame with his brilliant score for Fokine’s The Firebird (1910), followed by further commissions for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes: Petrushka (1911), The Rite of Spring (1913), and Le Rossignol (1914). After World War One and the Russian Revolution prevented their return to Russia, Stravinsky and his family settled in France and became citizens in 1934. In 1939, Stravinsky emigrated to the United States, remarrying after the passing of his wife and settling in West Hollywood before becoming a US citizen in 1945. After his 1951 opera The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky became influenced by the twelve-tone serial experiments initiated by Schoenberg. Stravinsky’s fruitful collaboration with Balanchine produced such major ballets as Agon (1957). In 1969 he moved to New York, where he died of heart failure, aged 88, on April 6, 1971, and is buried, near Diaghilev, in Venice’s San Michele cemetery.

Karinska

Costume Designer Originally named Varvara Jmoudsky, Karinska was born in 1886 in Kharkov, Ukraine. Karinska remained in Russia after the Revolution, remarrying and managing a fashion house and embroidery school, but when these were nationalized, she moved to Brussels and then Paris. She began making costumes for cinema and ballet, notably the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and Les Ballets 1933 and marked the start of her long collaboration with Balanchine. Her career continued to flourish in London, where she moved in 1936, before settling in New York in 1939. Karinska was a top costume-maker and designer, winning an Oscar for Joan of Arc (1948), a nomination for Hans Christian Andersen (1952), and the first Capezio Dance Award for Costume. In 1964, she accepted a permanent appointment making costumes for Balanchine’s New York City Ballet, from which she retired in 1977, dying at the age of 97 in 1993.

PROGRAM THREE | FANCIFUL JOURNEY | DECEMBER 20 - 21, 2024 | SARASOTA OPERA HOUSE

THE SPIDER’S FEAST WORLD PREMIERE

Choreography by Sir David Bintley Music Albert Roussel Staged By Denis Bonner & Sir David Bintley Design by Dick Bird Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

The world premiere of Sir David Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast

has been a long time coming. The precursor, created in 1997 was Bintley’s The Spider’s Banquet and was originally choreographed for The Royal Ballet School as part of the celebrations for its Golden Jubilee, with Founder Dame Ninette de Valois herself, in her hundredth year at the time, in attendance. While audiences and critics alike relished the disarmingly joyous and inventive ballet, Bintley felt that there was more that could be done with the ballet. Talking back in 2019, Bintley said “I have long wanted to re-choreograph this testing student piece for a professional company. Only performed a handful of times by The Royal Ballet School, I believe the ballet has a movement potential hitherto undiscovered and a level of subtle comedic characterization which is very difficult to achieve by students. I am therefore delighted that I am being given this opportunity by The Sarasota Ballet to realize my ambition in this revised choreography with new designs by Dick Bird.” Initially programmed to close The Sarasota Ballet’s 2019 – 2020 Season, the premiere was canceled due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic. Four years later, after much anticipation, the ballet will finally see its world premiere in December 2024 at the Sarasota Opera House.

Sir David Bintley Choreographer

Sir David Bintley has become one of the most important figures in British ballet today. First as a musical and entertaining character dancer with what was then the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet; next, for 24 years as artistic director of the company it became, Birmingham Royal Ballet; and now, choreographing diversely themed ballets for companies all around the globe. Throughout this time, Bintley has become one of the most distinguished neoclassical choreographers of the modern age. Born in 1957, Bintley trained at The Royal Ballet Upper School before joining SWRB in 1976. Two years later his Director Sir Peter Wright gave Bintley his first commission with the company and by 1983, he had became SWRB’s resident choreographer – a position he also held 1986 to 1993 at The Royal Ballet in Covent Garden. Bintley’s works are as plentiful as they are varied, including Allegri diversi (1987), ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café (1988), Hobson’s Choice (1989), Tombeaux (1993), Edward II (1995), Carmina Burana (1995), Far from the Madding Crowd (1996), The Seasons (2001), Beauty and the Beast (2003), Cyrano (2007), Sylvia (2009), and Cinderella (2010). After 24 years, Bintley retired as Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet in July 2019 and was subsequently awarded a Knighthood for his services to dance. Now focused on purely creative pursuits, Bintley continues to sculpt the ballet landscape with his unique vision, serving as a true successor to the distinguished lineage of British classical ballet.

Commissioned by The Sarasota Ballet First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet December 20, 2024

2024 - 2025 SEASON Albert Roussel Composer

Dick Bird

Designer

Born in 1869 in northeastern France, Albert Roussel was raised by his grandfather and then by an aunt after the early deaths of his parents. Although showing signs of musical prowess, he first chose a career at sea, before being drawn back to music at twenty-five. Studying at the Schola Cantorum in Paris under Vincent d’Indy, he soon began teaching counterpoint, where his pupils included Eric Satie, Edgard Varèse, and Georges Auric.

Dick Bird’s designs for ballet include: Summertide and A Comedy of Errors for The Sarasota Ballet; Aladdin for Birmingham Royal Ballet; The Firebird for the National Ballet of Japan; Dragon Quest, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake for Star Dancers, Tokyo; La Bayadère for K-Ballet, Tokyo; and The Canterville Ghost for English National Ballet.

While the first of his four symphonies shows d’Indy’s influence, works like Evocations (1911), based on his travels in South Asia, and the ballet The Spider’s Banquet (1912) increasingly reflect Impressionism. Despite ill health, in World War I he enlisted. Following the war he was increasingly drawn to neo-classicism, with increased rhythmic vitality and elements of polytonality.

Bird has designed extensively for opera and has worked with many of the great opera companies including Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Danish Opera, Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, and L’Opéra Comique. Designs for theatre include Comédie Francaise; The National Theatre, London; the Royal Court Theatre; the Young Vic Theatre; and The Globe Theatre.

Ethan Vail

Lighting Designer Ethan Vail is originally from Indiana and has been the lighting designer for various art forms. His passion for lighting dance truly began in his college, Purdue University, and since then he has lit numerous ballets ranging from full length works like Johan Kobborg’s La Sylphide to oneact ballets including masterpieces by Ashton, George Balanchine, and Sir Kenneth MacMillan. He has also created original designs for choreographers Gemma Bond and Ricardo Graziano. Vail’s work has also been seen in various theatres around the country including Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, Urbanite Theatre, and Asolo Repertory Theatre. Highlights of his career thus far include winning the 2013 U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology’s Young Designers, Managers & Technicians Award; and lighting The Sarasota Ballet’s 2024 performances at The Royal Opera House in London.

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PROGRAM FOUR | JANUARY 31 - FEBRUARY 3, 2025 FSU Center for the Performing Arts Renato Paroni’s Rococo Variations Paul Taylor’s Brandenburgs Gemma Bond’s World Premiere Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

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PROGRAM FOUR | QUINTESSENTIAL | JANUARY 31 - FEBRUARY 3, 2025 | FSU CENTER

ROCOCO VARIATIONS Choreography by Renato Paroni Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Staged by Margaret Barbieri Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Paying homage to ballet’s beginnings in the eighteenth century, Renato Paroni’s Rococo Variations is a feast of classical dancing. The first iteration of the ballet was originally made for Images of Dance’s 2006 Tour - the company formed each year by the graduate classical ballet class of London Studio Center. When Paroni brought the piece to The Sarasota Ballet in 2008, Rococo Variations was reworked into the ballet you see today.

Paroni’s ideas for this piece grew out of his admiration for the works of choreographer George Balanchine, and the close relationship Rococo Variations shares with Balanchine’s iconic Theme and Variations is significant. Far from being a copy of Balanchine’s aesthetic, Rococo Variations looks back to the baroque era and ballet’s codification as its driving force. Tutus of soft blue and gold recall the lavish interiors of baroque theaters and Paroni’s adoption of a walking theme throughout the ballet speaks to the nature of Baroque court dances, which were essentially highly ornamented versions of walking. The simple transfer of weight from one leg to another is the keystone of ballet, and here Paroni allows his dancers the chance to explore its endless possibilities. Tchaikovsky’s music, itself a display of the Russian composer’s idealized vision of baroque themes and celebrating the composer’s reverence for Mozart’s music, has a poise and order which is an ideal vehicle for an exhibition of classicism. Paroni takes direct instruction from the structure of the music, allowing each member of the cast their moment, only to return to the harmony of the group as a whole. Rococo Variations pivots on ideas of balance, proportion, and good line, concepts elemental to classical ballet as a genre. Just as rococo style was the last flourish of the baroque era, Paroni uses his own ideas to ornament the classical style his dancers buoyantly exhibit.

Renato Paroni Choreographer

Born in Brazil, Renato Paroni received his classical training at the Centre de Danse International Cannes, under the directorship of famed ballerina Rosella Hightower. Paroni danced throughout Europe at companies including Teatro di Torino, Ballet du Nord, Teatro alla Scala Milan, and the Carla Fracci Ballet, dancing notable roles in the classical canon including Hilarion and the Peasant pas de deux in Giselle, Bluebird and Florestan in The Sleeping Beauty, and roles in Swan Lake and Raymonda. He also danced various works by George Balanchine and works by various European contemporary choreographers. As an internationally renowned teacher, coach, and rehearsal director, Paroni has worked with companies including Ballet im Revier (Germany), Norwegian National Ballet, Nye Carte Blanche (Norway), Rambert, Royal Swedish Ballet, and Scottish Ballet. His guest teaching engagements include Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet am Rhein (Dusseldorf ), Ballet del Sodre (Uruguay), Company Wayne McGregor, Northern Ballet, Richard Alston Dance Company, The Royal Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet, and Ballet Zürich. Paroni has staged Tamara Rojo’s Raymonda for Finnish National Ballet. As a choreographer, Paroni has made works for Ballet im Revier, English National Ballet School, and The Sarasota Ballet. Paroni is currently répétiteur at English National Ballet.

Commissioned by The Sarasota Ballet First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet October 24, 2008

2024 - 2025 SEASON Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Composer

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Vyatka, Russia. Although he displayed an early passion for music, it wasn’t until age 21 that Tchaikovsky decided to take music lessons at the Russian Musical Society. A few months later, he enrolled at the newly founded St. Petersburg Conservatory, becoming one of the school’s first composition students. By 1863, he had risen to became professor of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory. Tchaikovsky’s work was first publicly performed in 1865, with Johann Strauss the Younger conducting Tchaikovsky’s Characteristic Dance. In 1868, Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony was well-received when it was publicly performed in Moscow. The following year, his first opera, The Voyevoda, made its way to the stage—with little fanfare. After scrapping The Voyevoda, Tchaikovsky repurposed some of its material to compose his next opera, Oprichnik, which achieved some acclaim and his Second Symphony also earned praise. However true acclaim for Tchaikovsky finally arrived in 1875 with his compositions Symphony No. 3 in D Major. At the end of that year the composer embarked on a tour of Europe and in 1876, he completed the ballet Swan Lake as well as the fantasy Francesca da Rimini. Tchaikovsky resigned from the Moscow Conservatory in 1878 to focus his efforts entirely on composing, spending the remainder of his life composing more prolifically than ever. His collective body of work constitutes 169 pieces, including symphonies, operas, ballets, concertos, cantatas, and songs. Among his most famed late works are the ballets The Sleeping Beauty (1890) and The Nutcracker (1892).

PROGRAM FOUR | QUINTESSENTIAL | JANUARY 31 - FEBRUARY 3, 2025 | FSU CENTER

BRANDENBURGS Choreography by Paul Taylor Music by Johann Sebastian Bach Costume Design by Santo Loquasto Original Lighting Design by Jennifer Tipton Staged by Michael Trusnovec

During his lifetime, Paul Taylor choreographed dances to

Beethoven string quartets, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, the songs of the Andrews Sisters, music boxes, and time signals from the telephone operator. One lasting strand, however, has been baroque music and especially the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. From Junction in 1961, set to movements from Bach’s suites for solo cello, to the stunning Promethean Fire of 2002, to rich orchestral transcriptions of a Bach prelude, a choral prelude, and the monumental Toccata and Fugue in D minor, each of these works has revealed a different aspect of both Bach and of Taylor. Thus Esplanade in 1975, using movements from several violin concertos, astonished audiences by using only pedestrian movement, but raised to its highest power and culminating in slips and slides that leave both dancers and audiences breathless. Then in 1988 came Brandenburgs, a pure dance piece that, as its name suggests, uses movements from the beloved Brandenburg Concertos: two movements from No. 6 and all of No. 3. Balancing a solo quartet of a man and three women with a corps of five men, and drawing on a gracious movement vocabulary, Brandenburgs has reminded many viewers of George Balanchine’s Apollo while still developing a character all its own. Many of Taylor’s works offer a dark, even despairing view of life and present-day culture. But as the British critic Mary Clarke wrote soon after its premiere, “Beauty is the only word for Brandenburgs” as it “celebrates the good things in life. Such a radiant seamless flow of invention that the choreography seems an entirely natural way of moving to this music.”

Paul Taylor

Choreographer Paul Taylor helped shape and define America’s homegrown art of modern dance from the earliest days of his career as a dancer and choreographer in 1954 until his death in 2018. As artistic director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, he created 147 dances, many of which rank among the greatest dances ever made. Born on July 29, 1930, Paul Taylor grew up in and around Washington, DC. He attended Syracuse University on a swimming scholarship in the late 1940s until he discovered dance through books at the University library, and then transferred to The Juilliard School. In 1954, he began his company while still dancing for other great artists. He joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1955 for the first of seven seasons as soloist while continuing to choreograph on his own troupe. In 1959, he was a guest artist with New York City Ballet, where Balanchine created the Episodes solo for him. Mr. Taylor received nearly every important honor given to artists in the United States. In 1992, he was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and received an Emmy Award for Speaking in Tongues, produced by WNET/New York the previous year. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 1993. He was the recipient of three Guggenheim Fellowships and eight honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees. Awards for lifetime achievement include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship – often called the “genius award.” Mr. Taylor was awarded France’s highest honor, the Légion d’Honneur, in 2000 for exceptional contributions to French culture. Mr. Taylor died in Manhattan on August 29, 2018, leaving an extraordinary legacy of creativity and vision not only to American modern dance but to the performing arts the world over.

First Performed by The Paul Taylor Dance Company April 5, 1988 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet January 31, 2020

2024 - 2025 SEASON Johann Sebastian Bach Composer

Johann Sebastian Bach was the greatest of a remarkable family of musicians who flourished in Germany between about 1600 and 1800. Born in 1685 in the Thuringian town of Eisenach and orphaned early, he was trained by an older brother and at eighteen took his first job as a church organist. In 1708, he became a court musician in Weimar, moving a decade later to the court at Cöthen and then in 1723 to Leipzig as cantor and music director of the St. Thomas Church. There he founded the Collegium Musicum for concerts and was eventually appointed court composer at Dresden while teaching, composing, and playing at St. Thomas. Soon after his death in 1750, nearly blind, three of his sons had also become important composers. Many of his compositions, including the cantatas, passions, harpsichord suites, and choral preludes for organ developed established forms, while others were innovative, including the suites for solo violin and cello, the Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues and the Goldberg Variations for harpsichord, and Art of Fugue. Others, like the Brandenburg Concertos, show his transformation of standard practices. Famed for his playing and improvising in his lifetime, Bach later served as a model for composers from Mozart and Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, and Mendelssohn down to today, when choreographers like Balanchine and Taylor turn to his works for inspiration and many jazz virtuosos warm up daily with his preludes and fugues.

PROGRAM FOUR | QUINTESSENTIAL | JANUARY 31 - FEBRUARY 3, 2025 | FSU CENTER

GEMMA BOND WORLD PREMIERE

Choreography by Gemma Bond Music by Sergei Rachmaninov Costume Design by Lauren Starobin Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Meditating on inspiration, memory, and remembrances

of people, places, and philosophies that sculpt how we move through life, Gemma Bond’s world premiere had its genesis in two other iterations, both using selections of Rachmaninov’s piano preludes. 72 Hours for The Royal Ballet used three preludes, followed by an expanded piece using six pieces entitled Prelude for the 2021 Kaatsbaan Summer Festival as the world emerged from the stasis of the pandemic. In collaboration with designer Lauren Starobin, Bond’s world premiere presents another space where personal mythology allows us to muse on where inspiration comes from, and how beauty hits the core of our being. Using her inherent understanding of the poetry at the heart of ballet, Bond explores the transcendent nature of beauty in its philosophical sense; how it gives vibrant meaning and the taste of something not of this world. Something we all experience and cherish, its evanescence belies articulation. In thoughtful tone, Bond quietly references connections in her life: the moments that seem disparate, only to reveal themselves as part of an interwoven tapestry as we reflect on where we are. Though there is no narrative, a private choreographic exchange hidden deep in the ballet’s interior exists. The nine muses of classical mythology visited artists and allowed them to channel spiritual power to produce earthly wonders. Never created as a complete set as other composers endeavored to produce, Rachmaninov’s Preludes exhibit his compositional skill and expressiveness without disclosing narrative. The collection, covering all 24 of the major and minor keys in western music, shimmer in their inky depths and give us breath to wonder. They provide Bond with a soaring canvas to ask, “where does it all come from?”

Gemma Bond Choreographer

Gemma Bond got her first taste of choreography at 13 when she competed in The Royal Ballet School’s Sir Kenneth MacMillan Choreographic Competition. From 2010 to the present, she has created works for American Ballet Theater and Studio Company, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, The Washington Ballet, New York Theater Ballet, Intermezzo Ballet Company, the Hartt School, Ballet Sun Valley, Kaatsbaan Summer Festival, and City Center’s Fall for Dance. Her choreography has been performed at the prestigious Erik Bruhn Competition, The Royal Opera House, The Joyce, Jacob’s Pillow, New York City Center, and the Metropolitan Opera House. In 2014, she was awarded the fellowship grant from the New York Choreographic Institute (an affiliate of New York City Ballet), and she has also received grants from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Ms. Bond is a 2017 - 2018 New York City Center Choreography Fellow, the recipient of a 2017 Princess Grace Award, 2018 winner of the Clive Barnes Foundation Award for her choreography, and a 2020 Bessie for outstanding breakout choreographer.

Commissioned by The Sarasota Ballet First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet January 31, 2025

2024 - 2025 SEASON Sergei Rachmaninov Composer

Rachmaninov was born in 1873 in Novgorod, the fourth of six children of wealthy parents with military and musical backgrounds, he studied piano and composition at the St. Petersburg and Moscow Conservatoires. Initial success with his opera Aleko was followed by writer’s block after the 1897 failure of his First Symphony, and he turned to conducting until 1901 when his Second Piano Concerto’s success restored his confidence and also brought him conducting engagements at the Bolshoi Theatre, Dresden, and the United States. In 1902, Rachmaninov married his cousin Natalia Satina and they had two daughters. His career as composer and conductor prospered until unhappy with the way things were going, Rachmaninov left Russia with his family in late 1917, touring as a concert pianist and guest conductor before settling in New York. His successful touring career hampered his composing: between 1918 and 1943 Rachmaninov composed only six new works, including the Fourth Piano Concerto, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the Third Symphony, and Symphonic Dances. As he later admitted, by leaving Russia “I left behind my desire to compose: losing my country, I lost myself also.” Deteriorating health caused a move to California, where he and his wife became naturalized American citizens one month before the composer’s death in March 1943.

PROGRAM FIVE | FEBRUARY 28 - MARCH 3, 2025 FSU Center for the Performing Arts

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Mark Morris’s Pacific | Photo by Christopher Duggan

2024 - 2025 SEASON

Formed in 1980, Mark Morris’s internationally-renowned

Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) has received “highest praise for their technical aplomb, their musicality, and their sheer human authenticity” (Bloomberg News). Live music and community engagement are vital components of the Dance Group. It has toured with its own musicians, the MMDG Music Ensemble, since 1996, and regularly collaborates with orchestras and opera companies around the world. In 2015, Morris’ signature work L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato premiered on PBS’ Great Performances. The Mark Morris Dance Center was opened in 2001 to provide a home for the Dance Group, subsidized rental space for local artists, programs for local children and seniors, and dance classes for students of all ages and abilities. We’re thrilled to present a program that showcases the extraordinary breadth of Mark Morris Dance Group’s repertoire, from Pacific - originally a ballet commissioned by San Francisco Ballet - to the timeless Rock of Ages, the humorous Going Away Party, and the enthralling Castor and Pollux.

[Mark Morris] has been recognized since the 1980s as one of the very few great choreographers of our day.

Mark Morris

CHOREOGRAPHER Mark Morris has been praised as “the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical” (The New York Times). In addition to creating over 150 works for the Mark Morris Dance Group, he conducts orchestras, directs opera, and choreographs for ballet companies worldwide. Morris’s work is acclaimed for its ingenuity, musicality, wit, and humanity. Named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation in 1991, he has received eleven honorary doctorates to date, and a multitude of awards, including the Samuel H. Scripps/ American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, the Benjamin Franklin Laureate Prize for Creativity, the Cal Performances Award of Distinction in the Performing Arts, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Gift of Music Award, and the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award. In 2015, Morris was inducted into the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York. Morris’s memoir, Out Loud, co-written with Wesley Stace, was published by Penguin Press in hardcover in 2019 and paperback in 2021.

- THE NEW YORK TIMES

Mark Morris’s Castor and Pollux | Photo by Danica Paulos

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Frank Atura Photography

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Part of Ashton Worldwide Festival 2024 - 2028

PROGRAM SIX | MARCH 28 - 29, 2025 Van Wezel Performing Arts Center

Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

PROGRAM SPONSOR

PROGRAM SIX | ROMEO AND JULIET | MARCH 28 - 29, 2025 | VAN WEZEL

ROMEO AND JULIET Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton Production Courtesy of Peter Schaufuss Music by Sergei Prokofiev Design by Peter Rice Staged by Lyn Vella-Gatt Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

For one of the most popular ballets in the world,

Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet got off to a complicated start. Commissioned by Leningrad’s Kirov Ballet and then by Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, the score was composed surprisingly quickly in the summer of 1935 as the composer was completing his plans to return to the Soviet Union. But problems of various kinds intervened and it wasn’t until January 1940, after some contentious revisions, that the Kirov finally staged the ballet, choreographed by Leonid Lavrovsky with Galina Ulanova as Juliet and Konstantin Sergeyev as Romeo. It proved a triumph and was soon moved to the Bolshoi. (A shorter version, using only the two suites Prokofiev arranged in 1936 -1937, had earlier been staged in Brno, Czechoslovak, by Vania Psota in 1938.)

Additional stagings soon proliferated, including those by Serge Lifar (1955), John Cranko (1958), Kenneth MacMillan (1965), and John Neumeier (1971). However, after 1966 Ashton’s version dropped from the Danish repertory and was considered lost. Then in 1985 the Danish dancer Peter Schaufuss, the son of Ashton’s first Juliet and Mercutio and the new director of London Festival Ballet (now the English National Ballet), drew on members of the original cast to return the ballet to the stage, aided by Ashton himself, who took the opportunity to choreograph and insert a new pas de trois for Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio, as well as clean up several sections and rechoreograph others. It is this version that we can see again at long last.

Other versions gradually followed, by Dimitri Parlic in Belgrade (1948) and Margarita Froman in Zagreb (1949), while the 1954 film with Ulanova and Yuri Zhdanov did much to spread its fame abroad. The first production outside the Soviet orbit came in May 1955 by Sir Frederick Ashton for the Royal Danish Ballet, which emphasized the score’s lyrical qualities and focused on the lovers in three extended pas de deux while also showing the power and threat of the warring families. After four performances that August in Edinburgh, the ballet proved a great success on the company’s 1956 American tour, where only the suites had been heard, a success repeated on their 1960 and 1965 tours.

First Performed by the Royal Danish Ballet May 19, 1955 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet March 28, 2025

2024 - 2025 SEASON Sir Frederick Ashton Choreographer

Sir Frederick Ashton was born in Ecuador in 1904 and was determined to become a dancer after seeing Anna Pavlova dance in 1917 in Lima, Peru. Arriving in London, he studied with Léonide Massine and later with Dame Marie Rambert (who encouraged his first ventures in choreography) as well as dancing briefly in Ida Rubinstein’s company (1928-1929).

During the next two decades, Ashton’s ballets, often created around the talents of particular dancers, included: Scènes de ballet, Cinderella (1948), in which Ashton and Robert Helpmann famously played the Ugly Sisters, Daphnis and Chloe (1951), Romeo and Juliet (1955), and Ondine (1958). He created La Fille mal gardée (1960) for Nadia Nerina and David Blair, The Two Pigeons (1961) for Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable, Marguerite and Armand (1963) for Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev and The Dream (1964) for Dame Antoinette Sibley and Sir Anthony Dowell.

A Tragedy of Fashion (in which he danced alongside Marie Rambert) was followed by further choreographies (Capriol Suite, Façade) until in 1935, when he accepted Dame Ninette de Valois’ invitation to join her Vic-Wells Ballet as Dancer and Choreographer, his principal loyalty remaining with what would become the Sadler’s Wells and ultimately The Royal Ballet. Besides his pre-war ballets at Sadler’s Wells (which demonstrated an increasing authority, with larger resources), Ashton choreographed for revues and musicals. His career would also embrace opera, film, and international commissions, creating ballets in New York, Monte Carlo, Paris, Copenhagen, and Milan. During the Second World War, he served in the RAF (1941-1945) before creating Symphonic Variations for the Sadler’s Wells Ballet’s 1946 season in its new home at Covent Garden, affirming a new spirit of classicism and modernity in English postwar ballet.

Appointed Associate Director of The Royal Ballet in 1952, Ashton succeeded Dame Ninette de Valois as Director from 1963 to 1970. Under his direction the company rose to new heights, while his choreographic career continued with Monotones II (1965), Jazz Calendar, Enigma Variations (1968), A Month in the Country (1976), and the popular film success The Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971) in which he performed the role of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. He was knighted in 1962. Named Founder Choreographer of The Royal Ballet, Sir Frederick Ashton died in 1988. His ballets, which remain in the international repertoire undiminished, show a remarkable versatility, a lyrical and highly sensitive musicality. He had an equal facility for recreating historical ballets and creating new works. If any single artist can be said to have formulated a native English classical ballet style and developed it over a lifetime, it is Sir Frederick Ashton.

PROGRAM SIX | ROMEO AND JULIET | MARCH 28 - 29, 2025 | VAN WEZEL

Peter Schaufuss Production Owner

Peter Schaufuss was almost literally born into the theatre, the son of Frank Schaufuss and Mona Vangsaae, leading dancers with the Royal Danish Ballet. As a child, he joined his parents on stage in children’s roles including the Page Peter in Ashton’s Romeo and Juliet. After his official debut with the company in Don Quixote pas de deux at the age of eighteen, he embarked on an international career as a principal star dancer with the world’s leading companies including London Festival Ballet/English National Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera, Mariinsky Ballet, and the Royal Danish Ballet. During that time, he danced all the major roles at the world’s most prestigious ballet stages and had choreographers such as George Balanchine, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Roland Petit, and Sir Frederick Ashton creating on him. Peter has been Director of London Festival/English National Ballet (where he founded the English National Ballet School), Berlin Ballet Deutsche Oper, and The Royal Danish Ballet. In 1997, he successfully started his own company, Peter Schaufuss Ballet & School, in Denmark, choreographing 22 full-length Ballets/Dancicals and touring extensively. Peter has produced, directed, and choreographed over a hundred productions worldwide, winning many awards including the Evening Standard and Olivier Award in London, the Berlin and Edinburgh Festival Critics Award. His four-part BBC program “DANCER” seen worldwide was nominated for the an Emmy Award in the United States. In 1988, Peter was Knighted in his native Denmark and also later received The Order de La Couronne in Belgian for his services to the arts. This year he has transferred his Peter Schaufuss Ballet to Edinburgh, where he owns two theatres, changing the Company name to Edinburgh Festival Ballet & School. His son Luke and daughter Tara continue the proud family tradition as dancers with The Sarasota Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet.

Sergei Prokofiev

Composer

Sergei Prokofiev entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory at 13. After his 1909 graduation, he traveled to several countries in Europe where he met and impressed Diaghilev as well as Stravinsky, before returning to Russia before the outbreak of World War I. After the Revolution, he left for the USA and Western Europe, where he wrote the ballets Chout (1920), Le Pas d’Acier (1927), and Prodigal Son (1929) for the Ballets Russes, and the second, third, and fourth symphonies. In 1936, Prokofiev returned to the Soviet Union, where his work was initially approved by the Stalinist regime. His work included film scores with Eisenstein (Alexander Nevsky, which he reworked as an oratorio, and Ivan the Terrible), the ballets Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella, four operas, including War and Peace, symphonies, concertos, and orchestral works. After 1948, when his music and that of Shostakovich were denounced as “marked with Formalist perversions,” Prokofiev continued composing, despite ill health and severe financial straits, until his death in 1953, ironically on the same day as Stalin.

Peter Rice

Designer

The prolific and respected British stage designer Peter Rice was born in 1928 in Simla, the high-altitude summer refuge of British Raj India. He studied stage design at the Royal College of Art in London, and his first stage designs in 1951 led to a long and successful career designing sets and costumes for opera, ballet, and theater worldwide. A series of acclaimed 1950s designs for London’s Old Vic Theatre Company was followed by major theater work including many West End productions, work with Greenwich Theatre Company, Royal Exchange Manchester, Chichester Festival Theatre, and many leading ballet and opera companies (Royal Opera, Sadler’s Wells and New Sadler’s Wells Opera, Scottish Opera, Handel Opera, etc.). Rice passed away in January 2016 at the age of 87.

WHERE CULTURE AND COMMUNITY CONVERGE

on the Bay.

At the forefront of nuclear engineering in the early 1950s, Richard March carved out a distinguished career in the Nuclear Navy. Alongside him was his late wife, Helen, whose passion for ballet connected them to the spirit of Sarasota’s cultural scene. After retiring, Richard became deeply involved with The Sarasota Ballet, where he served as a Board member and President of the Friends of The Sarasota Ballet.

When they chose Plymouth Harbor as their retirement destination, it was more than just a home—it was a continuation of their active, culturally-rich lifestyle. “Plymouth Harbor isn’t your typical retirement community,” Richard reflects. At Plymouth Harbor, Richard’s contributions are many, particularly through Ballet on the Bay, an event he helped establish that brings The Sarasota Ballet to perform at Plymouth Harbor with Sarasota Bay as the backdrop. Endearingly known as “Mr. Ballet,” Richard’s passion for the arts and community engagement continues to thrive in his new home on Sarasota Bay.

CALL US AT 941.231.6250 for the rest of the story and to learn more about Plymouth Harbor.

LIFE IS SIMPLY BETTER

on the bay. 700 John Ringling Blvd. Sarasota, Florida 34236 941.231.6250 | PlymouthHarbor.org A Not-For-Profit Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) / OIR #88039

PROGRAM SEVEN | APRIL 25 - 26, 2025 Sarasota Opera House George Balanchine’s Serenade Jerome Robbins’s In the Night Sir Frederick Ashton’s A Wedding Bouquet Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

PROGRAM SPONSOR

PROGRAM SEVEN | MOVEMENTS OF GENIUS | APRIL 25 - 26, 2025 | SARASOTA OPERA HOUSE

SERENADE Choreography by George Balanchine Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Costume Designer Karinska Staged by Sandra Jennings Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Serenade, now one of the world’s most beloved ballets,

was the first work George Balanchine choreographed after arriving in the United States in 1934. Using the first three movements of Tchaikovsky’s gracious Serenade for Strings, it was made on a group of young professional and advanced student dancers. After several out-of-town tryout performances, on March 1, 1935, it opened the first program of The American Ballet, the forerunner of the New York City Ballet. Over the years Balanchine continued to make changes in it, most notably in 1941 adding Tchaikovsky’s Danse Russe, the work’s original conclusion, as the third of the ballet’s four movements, the form in which it has since been danced around the world. Serenade is not a completely “abstract” ballet, for there are suggestions of love returned and love lost, but the emphasis remains on the movement itself rather than any narrative. That movement is often surprisingly simple, as Balanchine first worked out much of it on students at the newly-founded School of American Ballet. When seventeen women turned up for one class, an awkward number for a choreographer, he arranged the unusual spacing that opens the ballet, still a breathtaking moment. When only six turned up, or someone was late or fell, he wove these into the ballet. The later movements developed in similar fashion, building to the surprising finale. As the great modern dancer Martha Graham noted, “It is simplicity itself – but the simplicity of a great artist.” After opening the first performances of The American Ballet, in 1948 Serenade also began the New York City Ballet’s inaugural program and is considered the company’s signature ballet. The score itself has remained one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular, but it has its own surprises. The solemn opening, for example, is derived from a Russian folksong that in its original form provides the main theme for the joyous Danse Russe. And while Tchaikovsky was writing the Serenade in the summer of 1881, he was also writing a work that is its polar opposite, the 1812 Overture.

George Balanchine Choreographer

First Performed by American Ballet (now New York City Ballet) March 1, 1935 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet April 13, 2012

2024 - 2025 SEASON Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Composer

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Vyatka, Russia. Although he displayed an early passion for music, it wasn’t until age 21 that Tchaikovsky decided to take music lessons at the Russian Musical Society. A few months later, he enrolled at the newly founded St. Petersburg Conservatory, becoming one of the school’s first composition students. By 1863 he had risen to became professor of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory. Tchaikovsky’s work was first publicly performed in 1865, with Johann Strauss the Younger conducting Tchaikovsky’s Characteristic Dance. In 1868, Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony was well-received when it was publicly performed in Moscow. The following year, his first opera, The Voyevoda, made its way to the stage—with little fanfare. After scrapping The Voyevoda, Tchaikovsky repurposed some of its material to compose his next opera, Oprichnik, which achieved some acclaim and his Second Symphony also earned praise. However true acclaim for Tchaikovsky finally arrived in 1875 with his compositions Symphony No. 3 in D Major. At the end of that year the composer embarked on a tour of Europe and in 1876, he completed the ballet Swan Lake as well as the fantasy Francesca da Rimini. Tchaikovsky resigned from the Moscow Conservatory in 1878 to focus his efforts entirely on composing, spending the remainder of his life composing more prolifically than ever. His collective body of work constitutes 169 pieces, including symphonies, operas, ballets, concertos, cantatas, and songs. Among his most famed late works are the ballets The Sleeping Beauty (1890) and The Nutcracker (1892).

Karinska

Costume Designer Originally named Varvara Jmoudsky, Karinska was born in 1886 in Kharkov, Ukraine. Karinska remained in Russia after the Revolution, remarrying and managing a fashion house and embroidery school, but when these were nationalized, she moved to Brussels and then Paris. She began making costumes for cinema and ballet, notably the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and Les Ballets 1933 and marked the start of her long collaboration with Balanchine. Her career continued to flourish in London, where she moved in 1936, before settling in New York in 1939. Karinska was a top costume-maker and designer, winning an Oscar for Joan of Arc (1948), a nomination for Hans Christian Andersen (1952) and the first Capezio Dance Award for Costume. In 1964 she accepted a permanent appointment making costumes for Balanchine’s New York City Ballet, from which she retired in 1977, dying at the age of 97 in 1993.

PROGRAM SEVEN | MOVEMENTS OF GENIUS | APRIL 25 - 26, 2025 | SARASOTA OPERA HOUSE

IN THE NIGHT Choreography by Jerome Robbins Music by Frédéric Chopin Costume Design By Sir Anthony Dowell Staged by Philip Neal Original Lighting Design by Jennifer Tipton

A starry evening in a park or a terrace off a ballroom. A piano plays a Chopin nocturne as a couple enters, dances, and slowly leaves. Another couple enters and dances to another nocturne, then a third couple to a third nocturne. Finally, the three couples stroll in, exchange brief greetings and leave. This is all that happens in Jerome Robbins’ In the Night, but just as each nocturne presents a small world in itself, so the dances of the three couples encompass a surprising range of relationships.

In this way while little occurs, much is suggested in this third of Robbins’ five ballets to the music of Chopin. Choreographed in 1970 for New York City Ballet, it followed by a year his groundbreaking Dances at a Gathering, a ballet that marked Robbins’ definitive return to NYCB after years spent working in musical theatre and with his own company. In the Night reflects a more sophisticated milieu, both more formal and more personal, but what Robbins, who was famously reticent about explaining his ballets, said about Dances at a Gathering, that “it’s about relationships,” is equally true of In the Night. How different from his first ballet to Chopin, the sly and often broad comedy of The Concert, while his last two, each a pas de deux, retain the formality of In the Night without its deeper implications. In the Night is also notable in using only nocturnes, a form that Chopin borrowed from the composer John Field and reworked in particularly personal ways, slowly developing an intimate atmosphere, often with an element of surprise before a return to the mood of the beginning. As Chopin’s 21 nocturnes, many of them technically demanding, extended both the expressive powers of the genre and of the piano, so did Robbins with dance in this emotionally suggestive ballet supported only by the piano.

Jerome Robbins Choreographer

Jerome Robbins (1918-1998) was first known for his skillful use of contemporary American themes in ballets, and in Broadway and Hollywood musicals. He won acclaim for highly innovative ballets structured within the traditional framework of classical dance movements. He studied a wide array of dance traditions and in 1940 he joined Ballet Theatre (now American Ballet Theatre). In 1944, Robbins choreographed his first spectacularly successful ballet, Fancy Free, and later that year, in collaboration with the lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, expanded Fancy Free into a successful Broadway musical, On the Town. For the next phase of his career, Robbins divided his time between musicals and ballet. In 1948, Robbins joined the newly founded New York City Ballet (NYCB) as both dancer and choreographer, and the following year he became its associate artistic director under George Balanchine. Robbins created many important ballets for NYCB, some of the earliest being The Cage (1951), Afternoon of a Faun (1953), and The Concert (1956). Outside of Ballet, Robbins would choreograph West Side Story in 1957, and directed and choreographed the musicals Gypsy in 1959 and Fiddler on the Roof in 1964. Returning to West Side Story, Robbins would co-direct the 1961 film with Robert Wise, which won 10 Oscars including Best Picture. In 1969, he returned to NYCB as a Resident Choreographer and a ballet master until 1983, when he and Peter Martins became ballet masters in chief of the company shortly before Balanchine’s death. Robbins resigned as Co-Director of NYCB in 1990, though he continued to choreograph for the company. His last work, Brandenburg, premiered there in 1997, a year before his death on July 29, 1998.

First Performed by New York City Ballet January 29, 1970 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet December 16, 2022

2024 - 2025 SEASON Frédéric Chopin Composer

Born on March 1, 1810, in Zelazowa Wola, Poland, Frédéric Chopin grew up in a middle-class family. His father’s employment as a tutor for aristocratic families in Warsaw exposed young Chopin to cultured Warsaw society, while his mother introduced him to music at an early age. By age six, young Chopin was playing the piano and composing tunes. Recognizing his talent, his family arranged for lessons, and soon pupil surpassed teacher in both technique and imagination. He published his first composition at age seven and began performing one year later. By 1818, Chopin was performing in elegant salons and writing his own compositions, including the Polonaise in G Minor. In 1826, his parents enrolled him in the Warsaw Conservatory of Music, where he studied for three years under the Polish composer Josef Elsner. In 1829, he went to Vienna, where audiences were enthralled with his highly technical yet poetically expressive performances. After a successful concert in Warsaw in 1830, he was on a tour of Western Europe when the Russians invaded Poland, and he was never to return to his homeland. In 1831, he settled in Paris, where he quickly established relationships with other young composers, among them Franz Liszt, Vincenzo Bellini, and Felix Mendelssohn. At the same time he was writing works that expanded the possibilities of the piano in his Nocturnes, Etudes, Scherzos, Ballades, and Preludes, while remembering his beloved Poland in the remarkable Mazurkas and Polonaises. He died of tuberculosis on October 17, 1849 in Paris.

Sir Anthony Dowell

Costume Designer

Born in London, Sir Anthony Dowell attended The Royal Ballet School from the age of ten and in 1961 joined The Royal Ballet. Dowell’s poised, elegant style was first revealed in 1964 when he and Antoinette Sibley created the roles of Titania and Oberon in Frederick Ashton’s The Dream. They went on to be paired by Ashton in several short works, including the Meditation from Thaïs, and Dowell took part in the creation of many of Ashton’s ballets, including Monotones and the late masterworks Enigma Variations (1968), and A Month in the Country (1976). Throughout his career, Dowell appeared in several ballets by Jerome Robbins – Afternoon of a Faun, Dances at a Gathering, Other Dances, and In the Night. Robbins asked Dowell to redesign the last of these when it entered The Royal Ballet repertory in 1973. Dowell also designed the costumes for Thaïs and The Royal Ballet’s staging of George Balanchine’s Symphony in C. In 1986, Dowell became the The Royal Ballet’s fifth Director. Dowell was made a CBE in 1973 and was awarded a knighthood in 1995. Since stepping down as Director in 2001, he has staged several productions, including The Dream for The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and The Sarasota Ballet.

PROGRAM SEVEN | MOVEMENTS OF GENIUS | APRIL 25 - 26, 2025 | SARASOTA OPERA HOUSE

A WEDDING BOUQUET Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton Music by Lord Berners Design by Lord Berners Libretto by Gertrude Stein Staged by Grant Coyle Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Sir Frederick Ashton, who had collaborated with Gertrude

Stein on the 1934 opera Four Saints in Three Acts, said it was Lord Berners’ idea to create a ballet from Stein’s play They Must Be Wedded. To Their Wife. “He thought it all out. Constant Lambert and I only came in later.” Lambert, Sadler’s Wells Ballet’s musical director and Margot Fonteyn’s lover, persuaded his friend, the eccentric dilettante Lord Berners, to return to composing, having produced very little music since his 1930 score for Balanchine’s ballet Luna Park. In fact, the ballet uses only the opening scene and central idea of Stein’s play—a bridegroom’s embarrassment at the number of wedding guests who are his former lovers— and Berners rearranged Stein’s words freely, introducing a chorus to offer an inconsequentially witty commentary on the action, and the character of Julia’s dog Pépé, who was Stein’s Mexican terrier. In 1941, when a chorus was unavailable, it was replaced by a narrator, as has been the custom ever since. The curtain rises on a farmhouse garden in provincial France, circa 1900, where Webster the maid (originally danced by Ninette de Valois) is supervising preparations before the wedding guests arrive, including poor, dotty Julia, driven out of her wits after being “ruined” by the Bridegroom. A sly parody of Giselle, the role was created by Margot Fonteyn. Two of the guests have an awkward encounter, when Violet’s advances are repulsed by Ernest. The Bride and Groom appear: she ditzy and vapid, he shifty and ill at ease. A wedding photograph is taken. Julia throws herself at the Groom, who waltzes with the Bride and then tangos with his former mistresses. Josephine, devoted to Julia, gets drunk and is asked to leave. In short, everyone makes an exhibition of themselves, until the guests and happy couple depart, leaving the miserable Julia alone, to be comforted by her dog Pépé. Through amusing characters and awkward situations, A Wedding Bouquet presents its cynically detached view of a wedding with Ashton’s characteristic charm, humor, and light but sure touch.

Sir Frederick Ashton Choreographer

First Performed by Sadler’s Wells Ballet April 27, 1937 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet April 29, 2016

2024 - 2025 SEASON Lord Berners

Composer and Designer Gerald Tyrwhitt or Lord Berners as he was usually referred to, was the 14th Baron Berners. Immortalized as Lord Merlin in Nancy Mitford’s novels and appropriately dubbed “The Last Eccentric” by his biographer Mark Amory, Lord Berners was a cultured, multi-talented British aristocrat, novelist, painter, aesthete, and composer. He attended Eton College, studied in Paris, Dresden, and Weimar, and served as an attaché at the British Embassy in Constantinople and then Rome, before inheriting his title and estate in 1919, by which time he had met Diaghilev’s circle and started composing, encouraged by Stravinsky. Three of Berners’ compositions have retained significance, all of them ballet commissioned: The Triumph of Neptune (1926) for Diaghilev, Luna Park (1930) for Balanchine, and A Wedding Bouquet (1937). Among many eccentricities, Berners dyed his pigeons and built a 100-foot folly tower at Faringdon, his beautiful Cotswold home. His Rolls Royce was equipped with a clavichord and cocktail cabinet. In 1950, Berners died, bequeathing Faringdon to his lifetime companion Robert Heber-Percy.

Gertrude Stein Librettist

A leading light of the Modernism that shaped the 20th Century, Gertrude Stein was born in 1874 in Pennsylvania, the youngest of five in a Jewish family. She grew up in Oakland and then Baltimore, and studied psychology at Radcliffe College, Harvard, before enrolling at Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore. Neglecting her studies in favor of music, Stein moved to Paris, setting up home in 1903 with her brother Leo where they collected paintings by Cézanne, Gauguin, Renoir, Picasso, and Matisse. In 1914, Leo left, and Stein shared the rest of her life with Alice B. Toklas, their Paris home becoming a focus for the “Lost Generation” of 1920’s expatriate writers like Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Thornton Wilder, and Ezra Pound. Stein’s distinctive literary style, inspired by Cézanne’s early experiments in deconstruction, achieved international fame with the 1933 publication of her best-selling The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Narrowly surviving World War II in France, she died in Neuilly in 1946.

ROMEO AND JULIET ARTICLE BY ALASTAIR MACAULAY

Few passages in classical music are better known than the

number in Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet at the Capulet ball, the one often called the Dance of the Knights. Brass instruments, playing low in their registers with massive power, announce a slow, gargantuan ground bass alternating between two heavy, steady chords – oom, pah, oom, pah. Next, over that foundation, the strings sweep up and down in a thrilling, pulsating melody in iambic rhythm. Prokofiev meant this to be a dance of proud patriarchy and male domination. If there are any shrews among the Capulet women, this dance shows that the men mean to tame them. It’s a sensational piece of music – but how do you choreograph such a hit? Most productions show the Capulet men striding heavily forward on the brass beat: left, right, left, right on the oom, pah, oom, pah. Later, their womenfolk join them, like falcons answering their falconers’ call. In the old Leonid Lavrovsky production, first staged by the Bolshoi Ballet in 1946, Lord Capulet and other men each carried a large cushion, which they placed upon the floor: Lady Capulet and other ladies advanced to kneel in marital fealty. (This is why it’s also been called “the pillow dance”.)

The British choreographer Frederick Ashton, however, remains unique in turning this musical number into a dance that uses serious ballet steps. And his Romeo is alone in responding to those fast-moving strings here as well as the slow, processional brass. How does he bring this off? When that Capulet music starts, Paris (the Capulet suitor for Juliet’s hand) strides forward, alone, to that brass bass - but then, as the strings course up and down, he jumps repeatedly on the spot, in one of the most famous steps in ballet’s vocabulary (one that the Royal Danish men executed with particular clarity): entrechat-quatre. His feet keep criss-crossing in the air, like the blades of swords in duels. As the phrase ends, this Capulet noble rounds the sequence off with two massive, defiant upward arm gestures: to execute them, he twists his whole torso with intensely aristocratic glamour, so that, even while facing front, he presents us with the back of, first, one shoulder and then the other. All powerfully on the beat, of course. Then, as the music repeats, all the Capulet men stride forward and deliver a choral version of Paris’s solo. We are the Capulets: who would dare to cross us? Quite splendidly, they proclaim who and what they are: a scintillating image of ballet masculinity, gleaming in the air like armor.

The ballerina Margot Fonteyn, looking back on decades of working with Ashton, observed that Ashton really listened to all of the music where most other choreographers merely heard one layer. (She never danced his Romeo, alas.) This Capulet dance, so much dancier and more original with Ashton than in any other staging of the familiar music, is a perfect example. Prokofiev didn’t really plan his Romeo as a classical ballet. Large parts of it are the best film music ever written, fabulously colorful; but they lack the light rhythms that characterize the ballets of Delibes, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky and that help match ballet’s footwork. Ashton, a dance classicist through and through, went against Prokofiev’s grain by finding hidden dance elements in it. Or rather he went deep inside the grain, producing a ballet that makes us hear the music better. Ashton (1904 - 1988) was at the top of his form when he made this Romeo in 1955. He had begun to choreograph in 1926; the word “genius” began to be applied to him during the 1930s; by the end of the 1940s, his ballets were making powerful impacts across the Western world. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he and his contemporary George Balanchine (1904 - 1983), based in London and New York respectively, were recognized as the two dominant choreographers of Western ballet; they brought ballet classicism to peak after peak in ways that have never been surpassed by their successors, and in masterpieces that continue to enrich international ballet repertory. Although Ashton’s home company was The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden (known as the Sadler’s Wells Ballet until 1956), the 1950s were a decade in which he also worked internationally. He created new ballets for companies from New York to Milan, using music by a range of twentieth-century composers Britten, Prokofiev, Ravel. At home in London, he commissioned scores from composers from Hans Werner Henze (the threeact Ondine, 1958) to the nineteenth-century masters Delibes, Glazounov, Tchaikovsky. He made this Romeo for an older Royal Ballet, the marvelous Danish company in Copenhagen, with its inspiring array of enduring Romantic ballets made in the mid-nineteenth century by August Bournonville (1805 - 1879). The “Royal Danes,” as they are still known in English, were a company of marvelous dance-actors with exceptional prowess in the brisk, buoyant aspects of ballet technique. In his Romeo, Ashton drew particular inspiration from Bournonville’s rich, tight-packed dance phrases, and from the company’s wealth of male virtuoso technicians. In most ballet Romeos, Paris does little but look handsome and demonstrate chivalrous devotion while partnering Juliet and wooing her. In Copenhagen, however, Ashton was able to turn Paris and several other male characters into characters whose challenging steps are part of their striking individuality. Prokofiev (1891 - 1953) had begun the Romeo score twenty years earlier, in 1935; he then revised it until it achieved success in 1940 with its first full-length stage production, choreographed by Leonid Lavrovsky for the Kirov Ballet of Leningrad (known today by their original names: the Mariinsky Ballet of St Petersburg). In 1946, Lavrovsky adjusted his version for the flagship company of Stalin’s Russia, Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, with whom it became a modern legend. In the postwar era, the Lavrovsky Romeo became the most glorious example of “dramballet,” the Soviet

Russian genre of narrative ballet. Vividly invoking the Italian Renaissance in its décor and costumes, and fueled by dance acting of potent Stanislavskian realism, this production fulfilled the Stalinist ideal: its Russian music and Russian choreography persuasively conveyed subject-matter that inspired and moved its audiences. When it first appeared in the West, it was hailed as a thrilling example of total dance theatre. It didn’t, however, have much dance: the New York dance critic Edwin Denby likened it to “an opera sung with total laryngitis”. For Ashton, by contrast, dance - serious, sustained dancing - had to be at a ballet’s core. He had already successfully choreographed Prokofiev’s later three-act ballet Cinderella in 1948; no other Cinderella has endured with such success. Now he became the first Western choreographer to stage this Romeo score. People in the West had heard plenty about the Lavrovsky Romeo, but it had not yet been performed on any Western stage; and so Ashton felt free to impose his own vision upon the music. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a play about poetry and wit. It begins with the Capulet servants brandishing their wordplay; from there, the levels of educated badinage keep climbing. And Shakespeare makes Romeo and Juliet his play’s most brilliantly poetic characters. Although they are attracted by each other’s looks, they immediately express this attraction by means of their virtuoso instinct for metaphor, rhetoric, scansion, and rhyme. With their first verbal exchanges, they make one sonnet; then at once they begin another. Choreographers, since they work with steps and movement, cannot give us the dance equivalent of these Elizabethan words; but Ashton’s steps at once capture the courteous interplay between these young people. His Juliet and Romeo from the first show the same delight in refined utterance: amid the ball, they’re kindred spirits. Their poetry, nonetheless, does not preclude or screen their sexual passion. Ashton made his characters express their feeling throughout their bodies: Juliet begins the balcony scene by writhing from the center of her back. She may be an aristocrat, but she’s an animal too: she’s both Renaissance scholar and headstrong rebel. This Romeo shows the many ways in which Ashton was a master of all ballet’s resources. Two of these are gesture and tableau. In Act Three, when Juliet finally consents to marry Paris, she allows her father to join her hand to Paris’: it’s the conventional gesture for betrothal. Prokofiev has arranged a slow buildup of quiet chords there, expressing the gradual accumulation of Capulet pressure on Juliet; with each chord, Ashton makes the tableau more massively impressive as Lord and Lady Capulet and the Nurse take their places around the joining of the hands, as in a family photo. Then, however, Prokofiev adds a louder chord to show Juliet’s anguish - which Ashton captures by having Juliet, unseen by her parents, fling her left arm and head back in silent misery. Then Prokofiev resolves the situation with one last quiet chord. There’s only one person who sees Juliet’s pain: her Nurse. Ashton, matching that subdued chord, has the Nurse take that left hand of Juliet’s and press her cheek to it, in gentle consolation. By such strokes does Ashton knit music and character tightly together.

Ballet has a long tradition of separating formal dance (steps) and mime gesture (silent acting). Ashton, the greatest master of ballet mime in the twentieth century, knew perfectly how to do so: his two-act ballet La Fille mal gardée beautifully alternates between the two genres of movement. Yet his Romeo shows how he could also make connect dance steps and acting gestures. In an earlier Act Three scene, Juliet is still refusing to accept Paris as her husband, despite her father’s command. Prokofiev fills this scene with musical motifs. We hear again the heavy brass for Lord Capulet and Paris, while Juliet is accompanied by the quick music we heard for her Act One entry: her quickness now has a new touch of temper. Most choreographers make this a scene of silent acting, flatfooted, with Lord Capulet thundering one way and Juliet defying him another; but Ashton, responding to the speed in Juliet’s music, makes her rush across the room in a series of furious piqué turns: “piqué” means stepping directly onto point, and Ashton times this formal ballet step so that her toe arrives with the music’s downbeat, driving insistently with the force of a hammer. In another return of this music, she even stamps her foot – but Ashton turns even this into a ballet step, relevé retiré passé, in which she keeps rising onto point and returning to flat foot. Usually, relevé retiré is a step that emphasizes upwardness, lightness; yet Ashton here inverts its dynamics. The emphasis is on her two feet coming down to the floor together, fast and emphatically: one of them plunges from knee-level percussively. Her heels meet the beat as they meet the floor, again and again. Although it’s an academic ballet step, it’s also a teenage girl using her feet to exclaim “No! No! No!”

There used to be a theatre saying that you could only know how to act Juliet when you were at least twice Juliet’s age. In 1955, Ashton cast the older Mona Vangsaae (1920 - 1983) as Juliet, her husband Frank Schaufuss (1921 - 1997) as Mercutio, and the young Henning Kronstam (1934 - 1995, at the start of a long and prestigious career), as Romeo. Thirty years later, when Ashton revived the production for London Festival Ballet in 1985, Romeo was Peter Schaufuss, son of the Schaufuss-Vangsaae marriage, born in 1949 and now London Festival Ballet’s artistic director. (As a boy in Copenhagen, he had danced the Nurse’s pageboy.) By contrast, Juliet was Katherine Healy, twenty years younger than her Romeo; Ashton, who referred to her as “the American whizzkid,” relished her acute musicality and the fleet way she rushed headlong into the movement. And Ashton in 1985 made changes, adding new material or revising scenes. Like everyone else who saw the Bolshoi’s Romeo (which he only did a year after making his own version in Copenhagen), he had been amazed by its Juliet, the great ballerina Galina Ulanova. She was in her forties when she danced Juliet in London, but she became a fourteen-year-old with astonishing naturalness. And her most celebrated feat was the naturalness with which she could making the acts of walking and running full of expression. In particular, her runs along the front of the stage to and from Friar Laurence’s cell in Act Three - the first in anguish, the second in inspiration became part of her legend. Almost thirty years later, Ashton recaptured that quality as if he had been saving it in a bottle. Katherine Healy in other respects was nothing like Ulanova; but her runs to and from Laurence’s cell, so different from each other but both so impetuous, brought the house down because Ashton, in his early eighties, had helped her discover the Ulanova secret. This ability to conjure the essence of a bygone dancer or a historical character was one aspect of Ashton’s genius. His 1968 ballet Enigma Variations was about the composer Elgar and his circle in 1898. When Elgar’s daughter, now ninety, saw it, she told Ashton “I don’t know how you’ve done it. They were all absolutely like that.” This Romeo shows many other aspects of genius: the way it penetrates the layers of Prokofiev’s music, the originality with which it connects classical steps with character and emotion, the poetry of its dances. The ballet world abounds in diverse versions of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, some of them impressive and handsome. But no other ballet Romeo repays repeated viewings as well as Ashton’s; no other ballet Romeo has so many layers.

CHOREOGRAPHERS AND CHOREOGRAPHIC FOUNDATIONS AND TRUSTS The Frederick Ashton Foundation exists to enrich the legacy of Sir Frederick Ashton (1904-1988) and his ballets. The Ashton ballets performed this season are some of over one hundred ballets created by Sir Frederick Ashton TM. The Frederick Ashton Foundation, a registered charity working independently of, but in close association with, The Royal ballet, exists to enrich the legacy of Frederick Ashton TM and his Ballets. For further information, please go to www.frederickashton.org.uk. Sir Frederick Ashton’s Romeo and Juliet is performed by kind permission of Peter Schaufuss and the Sir Frederick Ashton Rights Holders Trust. The performances of Rubies and Serenade Balanchine® Ballets, are presented by arrangement with The George Balanchine Trust and have been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style® and Balanchine Technique® service standard established and provided by the Trust. In the Night is performed by kind permission of The Robbins Rights Trust. Paul Taylor’s Brandenburgs is performed with kind permission of the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation, Inc. The Sarasota Ballet offers special thanks to choreographers Sir David Bintley, Gemma Bond, Ricardo Graziano, Johan Kobborg, Jessica Lang, Renato Paroni, and Sir Peter Wright.

DIRECTOR

Iain Webb Born in Yorkshire, England, Iain Webb trained for two years with The Rambert School of Ballet and a year at The Royal Ballet School, before joining The Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet. His principal repertoire included Ashton’s The Dream (Oberon), La Fille mal gardée (Colas and Alain), The Two Pigeons (Young Man); Bintley’s The Snow Queen (Kay); Fokine’s Petrushka (Petrushka), Les Sylphides (Poet); Balanchine’s Prodigal Son (The Son); Cranko’s Card Game, Lady and the Fool; Nureyev’s Raymonda; Massine’s La Boutique Fantasque; van Manen’s Five Tangos; and Wright’s productions of Coppélia (Franz), The Sleeping Beauty (Blue Bird), and Swan Lake (Prince and Benno). In 1989, Webb transferred to The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, to perform character roles that included Ashton’s Cinderella (The Small Sister, Dancing Master, and Napoleon), The Dream (Bottom), Tales of Beatrix Potter (Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Pigling Bland); Baryshnikov’s production of Don Quixote (Sancho Panza); and MacMillan’s Different Drummer (The Doctor), and Manon (The Client). During this time he was a board member of Sir Matthew Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures. After retiring as a dancer, he was invited by Sir Matthew Bourne to be Rehearsal Director for The West End, L.A, and Broadway seasons of Swan Lake and Cinderella. In 1999, Webb joined Tetsuya Kumakawa’s K-Ballet Company in Japan as Ballet Master and later Assistant Director. Webb also worked with many stars including Adam Cooper, Johan Kobborg with whom he co-produced Out of Denmark, and Roland Petit for whom he staged Carmen Pas de Deux for Alessandra Ferri and Julio Bocca for American Ballet Theatre’s 65th Anniversary Gala. Throughout Webb’s career, he has produced and directed many international performances, presenting dancers from The Royal Danish Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Stuttgart Ballet, to name a few. He has been a guest teacher for White Oak Dance Project, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Rambert Dance Company. In 2013, he became an Ashton Associate for the Sir Frederick Ashton Foundation.

In July 2007, Webb took over the directorship of The Sarasota Ballet. Under his leadership the Company will have performed 186 ballets and divertissements by the end of the 2024 - 2025 Season, including 59 world premieres and 15 American Company premieres. In 2011, Webb secured The Sarasota Ballet’s first national tour, performing George Balanchine’s Diamonds in collaboration with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. This would be swiftly followed by invitations to perform at festivals and theaters including The Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America III, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater, and Ballet West’s inaugural National Choreographic Festival. In 2014, Webb and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri organized The Sir Frederick Ashton Festival, commemorating the 25th anniversary of Ashton’s passing. The Festival garnered national and international acclaim for its dedication in preserving and presenting the choreographic legacy of Sir Frederick Ashton. In 2024 Webb was presented with the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement at the National Dance Awards in London by the Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle. This recognition coincided with The Sarasota Ballet’s first international tour to the prestigious Royal Opera House in London, England. Together with The Royal Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet opened the 5-year festival, Ashton Worldwide, receiving critical acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Joseph Volpe

Joseph Volpe, retired General Manager of The Metropolitan Opera and theater and management consultant, was appointed Executive Director of The Sarasota Ballet in February 2016. Volpe first joined the Board of The Sarasota Ballet in 2014 after a long history in the world of the performing arts. He spent 42 years working at The Metropolitan Opera, rising from apprentice carpenter to General Manager from 1990 to 2006. In that role, Volpe expanded the length of The Met repertory season as well as the number of new productions, including four world premieres, 22 Met premieres, four commissions, and expanded international touring activities. His term was characterized by sound fiscal management, fresh customer service initiatives, and no contract disputes for over three decades of his leadership in contract negotiations. He conceived and developed “Met Titles,” an innovative titling system providing multilingual translations of the operas on the backs of each seat, visible only to the individual audience member who wished to utilize them, and initiated the development of Tessitura, a management software program for targeted marketing and fundraising appeals, which is now licensed to more than 400 companies worldwide. In 1998, Volpe instituted an education outreach project for young children in cooperation with the City of New York Department of Education, emphasizing direct experience with music and opera for students. He also established a partnership with the University of Connecticut that provides students from music and drama departments with behind-the-scenes access to the creative and technical processes that bring the opera to life on The Met stage. Volpe retired from The Met in July of 2006, leaving the company with a strong administration, an endowment fund that had increased from $100 million to $345 million, and exceptional artistic plans for the future. Since then, Volpe has consulted with Theatre Projects Consultants, where he provided comprehensive advice from project conception and design to daily operations and fiscal management.

As Executive Director of The Sarasota Ballet, Volpe has overseen a period of significant and sustained growth and financial stability. He has focused on expanding and strengthening the administrative structure, increasing not only staff, but also refining and augmenting administrative infrastructures. Through his support of the visions of Director Iain Webb and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri, The Sarasota Ballet has expanded its national touring, and has undertaken some of its largest and most significant projects, including The Sarasota Ballet School’s expansion into the Patricia A. Golemme Studios and commissioning hugely successful world premieres. Under his leadership, The Sarasota Ballet weathered the unpredictable and volatile COVID-19 pandemic. Through his investment and guidance, The Sarasota Ballet managed to return to a full season of in-person performances, which was followed by a highly successful tour to The Joyce Theater, New York, in August of 2022. The Sarasota Ballet’s international reputation has reached new heights, bolstered by the financial acumen of Executive Director Joseph Volpe. His strategic planning and leadership played a key role in making the ballet’s triumphant Ashton Celebrated tour in London a reality. This landmark tour at the prestigious Royal Opera House has further elevated the company’s profile on the world stage, showcasing its dedication to artistic excellence and expanding its influence beyond American borders.

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ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Margaret Barbieri Born in South Africa of Italian parents, Margaret Barbieri moved to England to study at The Royal Ballet School. In 1965, she joined The Royal Ballet Touring Company (now Birmingham Royal Ballet), and became a Principal Dancer in 1970. During a highly successful 25-year dancing career, she danced most of the leading roles in the classical repertoire (including The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Coppélia, Romeo and Juliet, La Fille mal gardée, Taming of the Shrew, The Two Pigeons, and The Dream). However it was her major impact in the title role of Giselle at the age of 21 that first established her special reputation as a Romantic Ballerina. In 1973, she was invited to dance Giselle at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and received high praise from the press and audiences alike, a triumph which she repeated in 1974 when she returned to her native South Africa to dance the role in Durban. She replaced an indisposed Natalia Makarova at short notice in the same role for Norwegian National Ballet and made many guest appearances with companies internationally in Giselle, Swan Lake, Coppélia, and Cinderella. In addition to guesting, Barbieri also performed worldwide with The Royal Ballet. Barbieri worked closely with most of the great masters of the 20th Century, including Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Dame Ninette de Valois, John Cranko, Antony Tudor, Rudolf Nureyev, and Hans van Manen. Roles were created on her by Ashton, Sir Peter Wright, Tudor, Sir David Bintley, Michael Corder, Ronald Hynd, and Joe Layton. Many of her best-known roles were televised, including Swanhilda (Coppélia), Black Queen (Checkmate), The Mother (Bintley’s Metamorphosis), Young Girl (Le Spectre de la Rose), and van Manen’s Grosse Fuge. With David Ashmole, she was featured in BBC TV’s Ballet Masterclass series, given by Dame Alicia Markova, who later coached her in Fokine’s The Dying Swan and Pavlova’s The Dragonfly. Barbieri retired from The Royal Ballet in 1990 to become Director of the new Classical Graduate Programme at London Studio Centre and Artistic Director of the annual touring company, Images of Dance. During her tenure, she was instrumental in devising the Classical Ballet Course for the BA Honours degree. Here she gave Christopher Wheeldon his first professional commission and Sir Matthew Bourne his first classical ballet commission. She also found time to teach at Birmingham Royal Ballet Company, English National Ballet School, and The Royal Ballet School. Additionally she served on The Royal Ballet’s Board of Governors from 1994 2000 and participated as an External Assessor for the Arts Council of England from 1995 - 2001.

Her staging credits include Swan Lake Act II, Le Jardin Animé from Le Corsaire, and Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadère for Images of Dance; Nureyev’s production of Raymonda Act III for K-Ballet in Japan; Ashton’s Façade for Scottish Ballet, K-Ballet, and Oregon Ballet Theatre; and The Two Pigeons for K-Ballet and State Ballet Theatre of Georgia. During the last 11 years at The Sarasota Ballet she has staged Wright’s production of Giselle, Mirror Walkers, Summertide; Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Façade, La Fille mal gardée, Jazz Calendar, Les Patineurs, Les Rendezvous, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, The Two Pigeons, Valses nobles et sentimentales, The Walk to the Paradise Garden; Bintley’s Four Scottish Dances; Bourne’s Boutique; Cranko’s Pineapple Poll; Darrell’s Othello; de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress, Checkmate; Fokine’s Les Sylphides and Petrushka; Layton’s The Grand Tour; Nureyev’s Raymonda Act III; Samsova’s production of Paquita; Wheeldon’s The American, There Where She Loved. Barbieri has been invited to judge at numerous ballet competitions across the globe, including Brazil, Japan, South Africa, the United States, and Europe. In April 2010, she was awarded Distinction by the University of the Arts, London, for her Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning. In 2013, she was invited to speak at the Ashton Symposium in London and became an Ashton Associate for the Sir Frederick Ashton Foundation. Having previously staged several works for The Sarasota Ballet, Barbieri was appointed Assistant Director in August 2012. During her time with the Company, in addition to staging ballets, Barbieri has focused on the coaching and nurturing of dancers, passing on her unparalleled experience and artistry to former, current, and future members of the Company. Her expertise as a stager proved especially valuable during the 2020 – 2021 Digital Season, as she oversaw revised production techniques necessary to stage ballet for a digital medium. Through her keen eye, remarkable dedication, and work ethic, her impact on the Company is evident from the moment the curtain rises.

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COMPANY SENIOR LEADERSHIP SENIOR DIRECTOR OF PHILANTHROPY

Michelle Butler

Michelle Butler, a native Floridian, moved to Sarasota in 1998. Joining The Sarasota Ballet in 2024 as part of the Senior Leadership Team, Butler oversees all philanthropic activities that support the three pillars of the organization and works closely with the Company’s Directors and Board of Trustees. Prior to joining the Company, she was the Director of Development for Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation, Chief Development Officer for The Southwest Florida YMCA, and Regional Director for Make-A-Wish Foundation, Inc. Additionally, Butler has had an extensive career in Business Development and Human Resources. She served as Vice President of HR for a national company with fourteen branch offices and was the Business Development Manager for Mercedes Benz. Butler received her Bachelor of Business Administration from Stetson University, and she is a graduate of the Inaugural Leadership Venice class.

GENERAL MANAGER

Jason W. Ettore Born in London, England, Jason Ettore joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2012 initially as a Marketing and Development Intern. Over the next several years, he worked his way throughout the organization, in particular the Marketing Department, and at the start of the 2018 - 2019 Season was promoted to Marketing Director. During this time, Ettore oversaw consistent box office growth and spearheaded the development and strengthening of the Company’s international brand. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Ettore stewarded the Company’s Digital Season, producing digital performances that reached thousands of audience members across 30 countries. Under the guidance of Executive Director Joseph Volpe, Ettore took on a new role in 2022 as General Manager, where in addition to learning directly from Volpe, he has managed projects including The Sarasota Ballet’s critically acclaimed tour to London’s Royal Opera House.

FINANCE DIRECTOR

Amy Miller

Amy Miller was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. She first came to Sarasota as a Company Dancer for The Sarasota Ballet in 2007, as part of the first group of dancers hired by Iain Webb. Over the next 12 years, she worked her way up in the Company, moving from Coryphée in 2009, to Soloist in 2010, and finally to Junior Principal in 2015. In addition, Miller worked part time in various departments of the Ballet’s administration starting in 2009, providing her with a base knowledge of the Company’s administrative workings. She first joined the finance team part time in the summer of 2016. Upon her retirement from performing, she joined the Ballet administration full time as Finance/Office Manager in January 2020, under the leadership of Joseph Volpe. Miller graduated from Butler University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, cum laude and with high departmental honors.

ARTISTIC STAFF

Victoria Hulland

Artistic Assistant to the Directors Originally from Upstate New York, Hulland studied ballet at Ellison Professional Training Program in New York City and then later at Boston Ballet School. She then went on to start her professional career with The Sarasota Ballet in 2007 under Director Iain Webb. In 2009, Hulland was promoted to the rank of Principal dancer and enjoyed a fifteen year career dancing numerous lead roles in works by Ashton, Balanchine, and MacMillan, to name a few. Throughout her time with The Sarasota Ballet, Hulland had the privilege of being coached by world renowned figures in the ballet world including Margaret Barbieri, Sir Peter Wright, Sir Anthony Dowell, and Johan Kobborg. In 2023, Hulland joined The Sarasota Ballet artistic staff as Assistant to the Artistic Directors and works closely alongside Margaret Barbieri and Iain Webb with rehearsing the company repertoire.

Jessica Lang

Virginia B. Toulmin & Muriel O’Neil Artist in Residence Jessica Lang joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2023 as The Virgina B. Toulmin & Muriel O’Neil Artist in Residence. Lang is also Resident Choreographer at Pacific Northwest Ballet. Lang, a graduate of The Juilliard School, is an American director and choreographer with a prolific career spanning over two decades. Lang is also a former member of Twyla Tharp’s company, THARP!, and she has created over 100 original works on renowned companies worldwide including American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and her eponymous company Jessica Lang Dance. She is the recipient of a 2018 Martha Hill Mid- Career Award, 2017 Arison Award, and 2014 Bessie Award. She has been a fellow of NY City Center and NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts.

Octavio Martin

Ballet Master

A native of Havana, Cuba, Martin received his training at the Cuban National Ballet School, joining the National Ballet of Cuba in 1994, and in 2001 was promoted to Primer Bailarin. In 2004, Martin was awarded the Alejo Carpentier medal, one of the highest honors an artist can receive in Cuba. For two years, he was a Principal Guest Artist with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet of Canada, and in 2006 he joined The Sarasota Ballet, rising to Principal Dancer in 2008, where he danced leading roles in ballets by Ashton, Balanchine, de Valois, and Wheeldon. As Ballet Master with the Company, Martin works closely with Director Iain Webb and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri in working and rehearsing with the Company, and in addition teaches at The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory.

Roman Rykine

Ballet Master

Rykine is a graduate of the Rudolph Nureyev State Ballet Academy in his hometown of Ufa, Russia. He was a Principal Dancer with the Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, English National Ballet, and the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre. Rykine danced most of the major classical roles including La Fille mal gardée, Sleeping Beauty, La Sylphide, Raymonda - Act III, La Bayadere - Act III, Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote and Les Sylphides. His repertoire also included many contemporary and neoclassical roles. Rykine has won numerous awards throughout his impressive career and holds the honorary title of “Artist of Merit of the Republic” from the Government of Ufa, Russia. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States, and was a guest artist with various ballet companies. Rykine has been fortunate to learn from teachers, choreographers, and coaches, such as Yuri Gregorvich, Natalia Makarova, Nacho Duato, Yuri Possokhov, Christopher Wheeldon, Peter Martins, Helgi Tómasson, and others.

2024 - 2025 SEASON

PRINCIPAL DANCERS

THE SARASOTA BALLET PRINCIPAL DANCERS JESSICA ASSEF Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2023 as a Principal Previous Company: Atlanta Ballet

Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Façade, Illuminations Pas de Cinq, Valses nobles et sentimentales; Balanchine’s Emeralds, Who Cares?, Theme and Variations; Graziano’s In A State of Weightlessness, Sonatina; MacMillan’s Las Hermanas; Wheeldon’s The American Lead and Featured Roles in previous companies include: Amarante’s Love Fear Loss, The Premiere; Balanchine’s Serenade, Who Cares?; Baryshnikov’s Don Quixote; Caniparoli’s A Cinderella Story; Gaine’s Sum Stravinsky; Kobborg’s La Sylphide; Masero’s Schubertiada; McFall’s Nutcracker; Petipa’s Giselle, Paquita, Swan Lake; Pink’s Dracula; Possokhov’s Don Quixote, Firebird, The Nutcracker; Rhoden’s Sunrise Divine; Robbins’ Fancy Free; Scarlett’s Vespertine; Schreier’s First Impulse, Pleiades Dances; Stevenson’s Three Preludes; Tharp’s Sinatra Suite; Tomasson’s 7 for Eight, Morris’s Sandpaper Ballet; Welch’s TuTu; Yanowsky’s AON

MARIJANA DOMINIS Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2019 Promoted to Soloist in 2021 and Principal in 2022

Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, Façade, Jazz Calendar, Les Patineurs, Sinfonietta, The Sleeping Beauty Vision Solo, Valses nobles et sentimentales; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Donizetti Variations, The Four Temperaments, Serenade, Theme and Variations, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors; Bond’s Excursions; Broad’s Frequency Hurtz; Graziano’s En Las Calles de Murcia, In A State of Weightlessness, The Pilgrimage, Shostakovich Suite, Sonatina; Hart’s John Ringling’s Circus Nutcracker; House’s Living Ghosts; Kobborg’s La Sylphide; Lang’s Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring; MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations, Las Hermanas; Taylor’s Brandenburgs, Company B; Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs; Walsh’s I Napoletani; Wheeldon’s The American; Wright’s Giselle, Summertide; Robbins’ In The Night

MACARENA GIMENEZ Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2022 as a Principal Previous Company: Ballet Estable del Teatro Colón

Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Façade, Les Patineurs, Rhapsody, The Walk to the Paradise Garden, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Western Symphony; Bond’s Excursions; Broad’s Frequency Hurtz; Graziano’s The Pilgrimage; Kobborg’s La Sylphide; Petipa’s Swan Lake Act III Black Swan Pas de Deux; Robbins’ Fancy Free, In The Night; Wheeldon’s The American Lead and Featured Roles in previous companies include: Ashton’s Sylvia; Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante; Bigonzetti’s Sinfonía Entrelazada; Holmes’ Le Corsaire; Hynd’s The Merry Widow; Lacotte’s La Sylphide; MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet; Makarova’s La Bayadère; Mollajoli’s Giselle; Nureyev’s Nutcracker; Petipa’s Swan Lake; Stevenson’s Cinderella; Vasiliev’s Don Quixote.

2024 - 2025 SEASON COMPANY MEMBERS RICARDO GRAZIANO Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2010 Promoted to Principal in 2011

Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, Enigma Variations, La Fille mal gardée, Illuminations, Jazz Calendar, Marguerite and Armand, Monotones II, Symphonic Variations, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci, The Walk to the Paradise Garden; Balanchine’s Diamonds, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Prodigal Son, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café; Darrell’s Othello; de Mille’s Rodeo; de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress; Fokine’s Les Sylphides; Graham’s Appalachian Spring; Lang’s Shades of Spring; MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes, Elite Syncopations, Las Hermanas; Nijinsky’s L’Après-midi d’un Faune; Nureyev’s Raymonda Act III; Robbins’ The Concert, Fancy Free, In The Night; Tharp’s In the Upper Room, Nine Sinatra Songs; Taylor’s Airs, Brandenburgs; Tuckett’s Changing Light, Lux Aeterna; Tudor’s Lilac Garden; Wheeldon’s The American, There Where She Loved; Wright’s Giselle, Summertide

JENNIFER HACKBARTH Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2023 as a Principal Previous Company: Dresden Semperoper Ballet, New York City Ballet

Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Dante Sonata, The Dream Pas de Deux, Sinfonietta, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci, The Walk to the Paradise Garden; Balanchine’s Emeralds, Theme and Variations, Who Cares?; Bond’s Panoramic Score; Graziano’s In A State of Weightlessness, Schubert Variations, Sonatina; Kobborg’s Salute; Lang’s Lyric Pieces; Liang’s The Art of War; MacMillian’s Las Hermanas; Wheeldon’s The American Lead and Featured Roles in previous companies include: Watkin’s Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere; Forsythe’s Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, The Second Detail, Impressing the Czar; Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, The Nutcracker; Dawson’s Romeo and Juliet, Giselle; Berisov’s La Esmeralda; Peck’s Heatscape

MAXIMILIANO IGLESIAS Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2022 as a Principal Previous Company: Ballet Estable del Teatro Colón

Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Les Patineurs, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Theme and Variations, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bond’s Excursions, Panoramic Score; Graziano’s In A State of Weightlessness, The Pilgrimage, Sonatina; Lang’s Lyric Pieces; Liang’s The Art of War; Kobborg’s Salute, La Sylphide; MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes, Las Hermanas; Petipa’s Swan Lake Act III Black Swan Pas de Deux; Robbins’ In The Night, Fancy Free; Taylor’s Company B; Tharp’s In the Upper Room; Wheeldon’s The American Lead and Featured Roles in previous companies include: Ashton’s Sylvia; Holmes’ Le Corsaire; Hynd’s The Merry Widow; Makarova’s La Bayadère; MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet; Nureyev’s Nutcracker; Petipa’s Swan Lake; Stevenson’s Cinderella; Vasiliev’s Don Quixote.

THE SARASOTA BALLET PRINCIPAL DANCERS RICARDO RHODES Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2007 Promoted to Soloist in 2010 and Principal in 2012

Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s The Dream, La Fille mal gardée, Jazz Calendar, Méditation from Thaïs, Monotones II, Les Rendezvous, Rhapsody, Scènes de ballet, Sinfonietta, Symphonic Variations, The Two Pigeons, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci; Balanchine’s Apollo, Bugaku, Diamonds, Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Rubies, Serenade, Stars and Stripes, Theme and Variations, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café; Bruce’s Sergeant Early’s Dream; Darrell’s Othello; de Valois’ Checkmate; Fokine’s Les Sylphides; Kobborg’s La Sylphide, Salute; Lang’s Shades of Spring; Liang’s The Art of War; Nijinsky’s L’Après-midi d’un Faune; North’s Troy Game; Nureyev’s Raymonda Act III; Robbins’ The Concert, Fancy Free, In the Night; Taylor’s Brandenburgs; Tharp’s In The Upper Room, Nine Sinatra Songs; Tuckett’s Changing Light; Wheeldon’s The American, There Where She Loved; Wright’s Giselle, Summertide

LUKE SCHAUFUSS Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2019 Previous Companies: Royal Danish Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, & Scottish Ballet

Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Dante Sonata, Façade, Les Rendezvous; Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Western Symphony; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors; Bond’s Excursions; Broad’s Frequency Hurtz; Graziano’s En las Calles de Murcia, In a State of Weightlessness, The Pilgrimage, Shostakovich Suite, Sonatina; Hart’s John Ringling’s Circus Nutcracker; House’s Living Ghosts; Kobborg’s La Sylphide; MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations; Morris’s The Letter V; Robbins’ Fancy Free; Schaufuss’ La Sylphide pas de deux; Walsh’s I Napoletani; Wright’s Giselle, Mirror Walkers, Summertide

RICKI BERTONI

CHARACTER PRINCIPAL Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2010 Promoted to Character Principal in 2014

Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Dante Sonata, Façade, Les Rendezvous; Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Western Symphony; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors; Bond’s Excursions; Broad’s Frequency Hurtz; Graziano’s En las Calles de Murcia, In a State of Weightlessness, The Pilgrimage, Schubert Variations, Shostakovich Suite, Sonatina; Hart’s John Ringling’s Circus Nutcracker; House’s Living Ghosts; Kobborg’s Salute, La Sylphide; MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations; Morris’s The Letter V; Robbins’ Fancy Free; Schaufuss’ La Sylphide pas de deux; Walsh’s I Napoletani; Wright’s Giselle, Mirror Walkers, Summertide

PRINCIPAL DANCERS

THE SARASOTA BALLET FIRST SOLOISTS SIERRA ABELARDO

FIRST SOLOIST

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2022 Promoted to Coryphée in 2023, and Soloist and First Soloist in 2024

Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, Façade, Les Patineurs, Sinfonietta, Valses nobles et sentimentales; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Theme and Variations, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bond’s Excursions; Graziano’s In A State of Weightlessness, Schubert Variations, Sonatina; Kobborg’s La Sylphide, Salute; Lang’s Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring; Liang’s The Art of War; MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes, Las Hermanas; Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty Act III Blue Bird Pas de Deux; Taylor’s Company B; Tharp’s In The Upper Room; Wheeldon’s The American

DANIEL PRATT

FIRST SOLOIST

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2012

Promoted to Coryphée in 2019, Soloist in 2022, and First Soloist 2023 Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, Enigma Variations, Façade, Jazz Calendar, Monotones II, Sinfonietta, Valses nobles et sentimentales, A Wedding Bouquet; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Serenade, Western Symphony; Bond’s Excursions, Panoramic Score; Broad’s Frequency Hurtz; Darrell’s Othello; de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress; Graham’s Appalachian Spring; Graziano’s Amorosa, En Las Calles de Murcia; Kobborg’s La Sylphide, Salute; Lang’s Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring; Liang’s The Art of War; MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes; Morris’s The Letter V; Taylor’s Company B; Tharp’s In The Upper Room, Nine Sinatra Songs; Tudor’s The Leaves are Fading; Tuckett’s Lux Aeterna, The Secret Garden; Wheeldon’s The American; Wright’s Summertide

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THE SARASOTA BALLET SOLOISTS EVAN GORBELL Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2021 Promoted to Coryphée and Soloist in 2023

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, Façade, Les Patineurs, Sinfonietta, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Theme and Variations, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors; Bond’s Panoramic Score; Broad’s Frequency Hurtz; de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress; Graziano’s Schubert Variations, Sonatina; House’s Living Ghosts; Lang’s Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring; Liang’s The Art of War; MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes; Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty Act III Pas de Quatre; Taylor’s Company B; Tharp’s In The Upper Room; Wheeldon’s The American; Wright’s Giselle, Summertide

YUKI NONAKA Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2019 Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company (18-19) Promoted to Soloist in 2022

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Dante Sonata, Façade, Les Patineurs, Rhapsody, Les Rendezvous, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci; Balanchine’s Emeralds, Theme and Variations, Tarantella, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors; Bond’s Panoramic Score; de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress; Graziano’s Schubert Variations, Shostakovich Suite, Sonatina; Kobborg’s Salute; Lang’s Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring; Liang’s The Art of War; MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations; Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty Act III Blue Bird Pas de Deux; Robbins’ Fancy Free; Taylor’s Brandenburgs, Company B; Tharp’s In The Upper Room; Wheeldon’s The American; Wright’s Giselle, Summertide

LAUREN OSTRANDER Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2018

Promoted to Coryphée in 2020 and Soloist in 2022 Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, Façade, Les Patineurs; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Serenade, Theme and Variations, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors; de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress; Graham’s Appalachian Spring; Graziano’s Amorosa, En Las Calles de Murcia, In A State of Weightlessness, The Pilgrimage, Schubert Variations, Shostakovich Suite; Kobborg’s La Sylphide; Lang’s Shades of Spring; Liang’s The Art of War; MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations; Robbins’ Fancy Free; Taylor’s Company B; Tharp’s In The Upper Room, Nine Sinatra Songs; Wheeldon’s The American; Wright’s Giselle

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THE SARASOTA BALLET SOLOISTS IVAN SPITALE Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2018

Promoted to Coryphée in 2020 and Soloist in 2022 Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Apparitions, Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, Enigma Variations, Façade, Rhapsody, Sinfonietta; Bourne’s The Infernal Galop; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors; Balanchine’s Diamonds, Emeralds, Theme and Variations, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Valois’ The Rake’s Progress; Graham’s Appalachian Spring; Graziano’s Amorosa, En Las Calles de Murcia, In a State of Weightlessness, Schubert Variations; Lang’s Lyric Pieces; Liang’s The Art of War; Kobborg’s La Sylphide; Taylor’s Brandenburgs, Company B; Tharp’s In The Upper Room, Nine Sinatra Songs; Walsh’s I Napoletani, Clair de Lune; Wheeldon’s The American; Wright’s Giselle, Summertide

TREVOR STALCUP Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2024

Previous Company: Orlando Ballet Lead and Featured Roles in previous companies include: Balanchine’s Serenade; Burns’ Cinderella; Caniparoli’s Lambarena; Lang’s Lyric Pieces; Lopez Ochoa’s A Streetcar Named Desire; Morris’ The Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge, The Nutcracker; Pimble’s The Jungle Book; Pink’s Dracula; Stowell’s The Sleeping Beauty; Taylor’s Company B

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SOLOISTS

THE SARASOTA BALLET CORYPHÉE

KENNEDY FALYN CASSADA

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WILLA FRANTZ

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2020 Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company (19-20) Promoted to Coryphée 2024

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2022 Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company (21-22) Promoted to Coryphée 2023

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Dante Sonata, Façade, La Chatte Metamorphosee en Femme, Les Patineurs, Sinfoniette, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci; Balanchine’s Emeralds, Theme and Variations, Who Cares?; Graziano’s Schubert Variations, Sonatina; Lang’s Lyric Pieces; Liang’s The Art of War; MacMillan’s Las Hermanas; Taylor’s Company B; Tharp’s In The Upper Room; Wheeldon’s The American; Wright’s Giselle

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Dante Sonata, Façade, Les Patineurs; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, Serenade, Theme and Variations, The Four Temperaments, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors; Bond’s Excursions; Graziano’s In A State of Weightlessness, Schubert Variations; House’s Living Ghosts; Kobborg’s La Sylphide, Salute; MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes, Elite Syncopations; Taylor’s Company B; Wright’s Giselle

SAMUEL GEST

MISCHA GOODMAN

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2021 Promoted to Coryphée in 2023

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2024 Previous Company: English National Ballet

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Sinfonietta, Valse nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci; de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress; House’s Living Ghosts; Kobborg’s La Sylphide; Lang’s Shades of Spring; MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes; Morris’ The Letter V; Wright’s Summertide

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Façade, Valses nobles et sentimentales Featured Roles in previous companies include: Deane’s Swan Lake; Eagling’s Nutcracker; Makarova’s La Bayadère; Petitpa’s Swan Lake; Rojo’s Raymonda; Wheeldon’s Cinderella

DOMINIQUE JENKINS

EMELIA PERKINS

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2019 Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company (18-19) Promoted to Coryphée in 2022

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Façade, Les Patineurs, Tweedledum and Tweedledee; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Western Symphony; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors; Kobborg’s La Sylphide, Salute; Lang’s Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring; MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations; Morris’s The Letter V; Robbins’ Fancy Free; Taylor’s Company B; Tharp’s In The Upper Room; Wright’s Giselle, Summertide

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Façade, La Chatte Metamorphosee en Femme, Les Patineurs; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Who Cares?; Bond’s Panoramic Score; Graham’s Appalachian Spring; Graziano’s The Pilgrimage; Kobborg’s La Sylphide, Salute; Lang’s Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring; MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes; Morris’s The Letter V; Taylor’s Brandenburgs; Tharp’s In The Upper Room, Nine Sinatra Songs; Walsh’s I Napoletani

PAIGE YOUNG Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2018 Promoted to Coryphée in 2023

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Façade, Les Patineurs, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Rhapsody, Varii Capricci; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, Serenade, The Four Temperaments; Bond’s Panoramic Score, Excursions; de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress; Graham’s Appalachian Spring; Graziano’s Amorosa, Schubert Variations, Sonatina; Kobborg’s Salute; MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes; Morris’s The Letter V; Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs

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THE SARASOTA BALLET CORPS DE BALLET

DANIEL AYALA

COOPER BLANKENBURG

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2024 Previous Company: Ballet Palm Beach

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2023 Trained at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Graduate Program

MIHAI COSTACHE Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2019 Trained at ABT Studio Company, Balletschule Theatre Basel (Switzerland)

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OLIVIA DUGAN Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2023 Trained at San Francisco Ballet School, The Washington School of Ballet

ISRAEL ELLIS

JOSHUA FICKLING

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2022

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2023

Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company (21-22) and The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory

Trained at Royal Ballet School, Moorland international Ballet Academy

JONAH GLICKMAN

MARK HARE

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2024

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2023

Trained at English National Ballet School

ANDREA MARCELLETTI

JORDAN MICALLEF

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2019

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2023

Trained at English National Ballet School

ALESSANDRA NOVA

BEL PICKERING

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2022

Trained at Pacific Northwest Ballet

Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company (21-22) and The Royal Ballet School

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THE SARASOTA BALLET CORPS DE BALLET

GABRIELLA SCHULTZE

SAMANTHA STILLWELL

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2022

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2023 Trained at Washington School of Ballet

Previous Company: Ballet West II

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JULIANO WEBER

BROOKE WILSON

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2019 Previous Company: Intuição Companhia de Ballet

Joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2024 Previous Company: Boston Ballet

THE SARASOTA BALLET APPRENTICES

ANNA VICTORIA CAMACHO Trained at English National Ballet School

SAVANNAH CAMPBELL

Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company (21-23)

and The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory

ELLA LAU

Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company (22-24) and The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory

SIMON PLANTE

Trained at Ballet West Academy

NINA REIS

Trained at Dutch National Ballet Academy and Koltun Ballet Boston

EMMANUELLE WATKINS

Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company (21-23)

FELIPE ZAPIOLA

Trained at Miami City Ballet School US

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COMPANY STAFF DEVELOPMENT

MAYA COLLINS

Senior Development Officer

SARA KIOUS

Special Event Coordinator

DORICHA SALES

Development Officer

AMY WENSLEY

Senior Development Associate

KATIE ZAK

Development Associate

KATHERINE KNOWLES

Grants Manager

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

LESLIE VAN BRINK

JUDI KING

Company Manager

HR & Finance Administrator

WILL INGRAMM

BARBARA EPPERSON

LUBA KHASIK

Finance Assistant

JOHN JOHNSON

IT Consultant

Tessitura Database Administrator Executive Assistant

2024 - 2025 Season Program Book Photo Credits Frank Atura - Performance and Ballet Production Photography Mikenna Bowers - Gala Production and Studio Rehearsal Photography Foteini Christofilopoulou - London Performance Photography Matthew Holler - Season Announcement Photography and Company Headshots

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MARKETING

JEANNE LEO

Marketing Director

KELSEY SIMPSON

Marketing & Design Specialist

HEYCKAL TAVERAS

Graphic Designer

MIKENNA BOWERS

Marketing Coordinator

CHRISTIAN CUDNIK

Digital Media Producer

BOX OFFICE

ROD KELLY

Box Office & House Manager

BRYAN LEWIS

Box Office Associate

PRODUCTION

ETHAN VAIL

Production Manager & Resident Lighting Designer

DIANA CHILDS

Stage Manager

JERRY WOLF

Head of Wardrobe

DOUG NICHOLSON

Production Consultant

BRIENNE COOPER

Wardrobe Assistant

ZARA BAROYAN

Class Pianist

GLEN EDWARDS

Facilities Coordinator

CARL HAAN

Class Pianist

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EDUCATION DIRECTOR

Christopher Hird Christopher Hird studied at The Royal Ballet School and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Roehampton University and a Diploma from Canada’s National Ballet School’s Teacher Training Program. After performing with a company headlined by the internationally acclaimed Ballerina Sylvie Guillem, Hird rejoined The Royal Ballet School as Assistant to the Development Manager. He was the Artistic Manager and Head of Adult Programming of Boston Ballet School for 13 years and has guest taught for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Cecchetti Council of America, and Harvard University. He has served on the international jury of the Youth America Grand Prix, ADCIBC, and the Japan Grand Prix. The Sarasota Ballet appointed Christopher Hird as Education Director in July 2016. During his tenure, Hird has developed the quality and reputation of the Education and Community Engagement Programs.

ASSISTANT EDUCATION DIRECTOR

Dierdre Miles Burger

Dierdre Miles Burger trained at Boston Ballet School before joining Boston Ballet in 1974. She performed countless principal roles in the classical and contemporary ballet repertory. Following retirement, Miles Burger joined Boston Ballet’s Artistic Staff and in September 2002 she was appointed Principal of Boston Ballet School. In July 2010, she was named Director of Orlando Ballet School. During her eightyear leadership Orlando Ballet School grew and developed, most notably the Orlando Ballet School Academy, which develops young dancers for professional careers. Miles Burger is a member of the American Ballet Theatre® National Training Curriculum’s prestigious Board of Examiners. She has served on the international jury of many ballet competitions including Youth America Grand Prix and ADCIBC. In June 2019, Miles Burger was appointed Assistant Education Director with The Sarasota Ballet.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT DIRECTOR

Charmaine Hunter

Charmaine Hunter trained at the Hartford Ballet School before joining the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH). Hunter danced with DTH for 27 years, in roles including The Firebird (John Taras), Medea (Michael Smuin), Fall River Legend (Agnes De Mille), and many works by George Balanchine. Hunter helped launch DTH’s Dancing Through Barriers outreach program in Johannesburg, South Africa. Hunter served as Principal Teacher at the Jones-Haywood School of Dance, the country’s first ballet school founded by two African American women, Doris Jones and Claire Haywood. Hunter has also worked as Director for Disney’s The Lion King in Toronto and Casting Director for Cirque du Soleil. Most recently, Hunter was the Director of Community Enrichment at Orlando Ballet, increasing access to dance for over 24,000 children. In May 2024, Hunter was appointed The Sarasota Ballet’s Community Engagement Director. 112

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STAFF ADMINISTRATION

HANNAH LANESE

Community Engagement Administrator

SABRINA ORTIZ

Program Facilitator, Dance-The Next Generation

BRADLEY SHOEMAKER-WEBSTER

KELLY SULLIVAN

School Administrator

Education Administrative Manager

FULL-TIME FACULTY

ASHLEY BASZTO

ALBERTO BLANCO

RISA KAPLOWITZ

ADDUL MANZANO

PART-TIME FACULTY Annali Rose Clevenger

Linn McDonald

Flor Urbina

Kaylin Dalton

Sara Rachon

Amy Wensley

Baylie Dockins

Drew Travis Robinson

Sea Lee

Nicole Robinson

PRINCIPAL OF THE SARASOTA BALLET SCHOOL

Jennifer Welch Cudnik

Originally from St. Louis, Jennifer Welch Cudnik trained on full scholarship at the School of American Ballet. Welch Cudnik danced professionally with Pennsylvania Ballet and Saint Louis Ballet for a decade, performing many soloist and principal roles including Swan Lake, Giselle, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, Serenade, Allegro Brillante, Who Cares?, and Divertimento No. 15. A dance educator for twenty-five years, Welch Cudnik was most recently on faculty at Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis and has taught in universities, charter, and public schools and directed and co-founded the nonprofit, Ballet Initiative. She is certified with the American Ballet Theatre® National Training Curriculum through Level 5 and holds an MFA in Dance from Hollins University. In June 2023, Welch Cudnik was appointed Principal of The Sarasota Ballet School. 113

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FPO

SEASON SUPPORTERS On the following pages we would like to recognize and extend great appreciation to our loyal donors for supporting us each season. The Sarasota Ballet’s performance, education, and community programs are made possible each year through the generosity of foundations, corporations, and individuals. Gifts at any level bring world-class performances and accessible arts education to our community.

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LUMINARY CIRCLE

$100,000+

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Our Special Angel Program 1

Sandra and Neil DeFeo Program 2

Sydney Goldstein Program 7

Jean Weidner Goldstein

Patricia Golemme and Timothy Fullum Program 4

In Loving Memory of Ernie Kretzmer and Alisa Kretzmer The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory

In Loving Memory of Alfred Goldstein

Program 3

Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

LUMINARY CIRCLE

$100,000+

Bill and Linda Mitchell Program 6

Paul and Sharon Steinwachs Live Music

PHILLIP & JANICE LEVIN FOUNDATION William A. Farber, Trustee

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BENEFACTOR CIRCLE

$75,000 - $99,999

Mark Famiglio Mark Morris Dance Group

Pat and Ann Kenny Brandenburgs

Jan and Bill Farber Rococo Variations

Eleanor Schmidt

In Loving Memory of Bert Schweigaard-Olsen

Rubies

In Loving Memory of Bob and Jeanne Zabelle Bob and Jeanne Zabelle Endowment Fund for The Sarasota Ballet at Gulf Coast Community Foundation

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Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

GUARDIAN CIRCLE

$50,000 - $74,999

Karol Foss

The Spider’s Feast

Julie A. Harris

Brandenburgs

Romeo and Juliet

Sherry and Mike Guthrie Gemma Bond’s World Premiere

Harry Leopold and Audrey Robbins

Frank and Katherine Martucci Mark Morris Dance Group

Robin and Roy Grossman

In the Night

ALFRED & ANN

GOLDSTEIN FOUNDATION Jean Allenby Goldstein Touring Fund

Mercedita OConnor

A Time of Beauty

Betty Shapiro In Loving Memory of Bud Shapiro

Les Patineurs

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GUARDIAN CIRCLE

$50,000 - $74,999

VIRGINIA B. TOULMIN FOUNDATION

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THE MURIEL O’NEIL FUND FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

At the Community Foundation of Sarasota County

Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

CONNOISSEUR CIRCLE

$25,000 - $49,999

Shari and Steve Ashman

Bob and Ginger Bailey

Bonnie and William Chapman

Napoli Act III

A Time of Beauty

Wendy and Jim Cox Gemma Bond’s World Premiere

Linda A. Fiorelli

Alison Gardner and Jan Sirota

Giselle

Dr. Amy L. Harding

JoAnn Heffernan Heisen

Joe and Mary Kay Henson

Rococo Variations

Giselle

Rubies

The Spider’s Feast

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CONNOISSEUR CIRCLE

$25,000 - $49,999

Robin Klein-Strauss and Michael Strauss Mark Morris Dance Company

Richard March

Richard and Cornelia Matson

Claudia McCorkle and BEAU

Serenade

Giselle

Peter B. Miller and Dr. Martha Harrison

Charmian and Earl Noel

Rosemary and Lou Oberndorf

Stu and Gini Peltz

Romeo and Juliet

Giselle

Charlie Huisking,

Huisking Fund of the Community Foundation

Gemma Bond’s World Premiere

Romeo and Juliet

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In Loving Memory of Helen March

Romeo and Juliet

A Time of Beauty

Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

CONNOISSEUR CIRCLE

$25,000 - $49,999

Toby and Noel Siegel

Kimberley A. Pelyk

Dr. Bart Price

Rubies

Napoli Act III

Rubies

Hillary Steele

Maureen and Tom Steiner

Dr. David A. Sugar

Romeo and Juliet

Les Patineurs

Susan and James Travers

David Welle and Rosemary Reinhardt

Susan and Charles Wilson

Giselle

A Time of Beauty

Brandenburgs

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CONNOISSEUR CIRCLE

$25,000 - $49,999

CORNELIA T. BAILEY FOUNDATION

126

RICK MATHER DAVID SCRASE FOUNDATION

Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

AFICIONADO CIRCLE

$15,000 - $24,999

James and Maryann Armour Family Foundation In the Night

Darlene J. and Richard P. Carroll Amorosa

Lawrence and Joan Castellani Mark Morris Dance Group

Robert Crandall and Barbara Bankoff Serenade

Kay Delaney and Murray Bring Mark Morris Dance Group

Brendan and Nicola Doyle Rococo Variations

Bruce Ensinger and Clark Denham Amorosa

Laura Feder Amorosa

Dedrea A. Greer A Time of Beauty

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AFICIONADO CIRCLE

$15,000 - $24,999

Barbara Jacob A Time of Beauty

Tina and Rick Lieberman Serenade

Barbara Fischer Long and James Long Rubies

Joan Mathews Les Patineurs

Dorothy O’Brien and Richard Antoine Rubies

Marilyn and Steve Rothschild Amorosa

Judy Rudges

Ellen and Richard Sandor Serenade

Micki Sellman

In Loving Memory of Stan Katz

Giselle

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In Loving Memory of Jerry Sellman

Amorosa

Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

AFICIONADO CIRCLE

$15,000 - $24,999

Greg and Belle Stikeleather Gemma Bond’s World Premiere

Lois Stulberg Live Music

Sallie Carter Tyler Romeo and Juliet

WILLIAM G. AND MARIE SELBY FOUNDATION, INC.

Jared Winters A Wedding Bouquet

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PATRONS CIRCLE

$10,000 - $14,999

130

George Allison and Alan Watkins Romeo and Juliet

Robert and Sara Arthur

Isabel Anchin Becker A Wedding Bouquet

Diane and Robert Bennett Romeo and Juliet

Jenne K. Britell, PhD Mark Morris Dance Group

Warren and Marie Colbert Giselle

Fred and Lynda Doery The Spider’s Feast

Frances D. Fergusson and John Bradbury Romeo and Juliet

Martine Flamen and Philippe Borreman

Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

PATRONS CIRCLE

$10,000 - $14,999

Larry and Jennifer Goichman The Nutcracker

Pam and Duncan Goldie-Morrison Mark Morris Dance Group

Ineza Hart Gemma Bond’s World Premiere

Elaine Keating

Peter and Melody Kretzmer Romeo and Juliet

Barbara and Michael Landy Gemma Bond’s World Premiere

Carla and Michael Miller Rubies

Marilynn Petrillo

In Loving Memory of Dr. Sidney Katz

Napoli Act III

Donna Maytham

In Loving Memory of Walter Maytham

In the Night

In Loving Memory of Marsha Johnson

Serenade

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PATRONS CIRCLE

$10,000 - $14,999

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Rose Marie Proietti Giselle

Gail and Skip Sack Napoli Act III

Rich and Clare Segall A Wedding Bouquet

Arthur Siciliano and B. Aline Blanchard Les Patineurs

Nancy and Richard Sneed In the Night

Libby and Jon Soderberg Rococo Variations

Hélène and Phil Tucker Amorosa

Jean Volpe The Spiders Feast

Thomas and Gwendolyn Watson Giselle

Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

PATRONS CIRCLE

$10,000 - $14,999

BANK OF AMERICA CLIENT FOUNDATION

CORDELIA LEE BEATTIE FOUNDATION

ROBERTA LEVENTHAL SUDAKOFF FOUNDATION

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DEVOTEE CIRCLE

$5,000 - $9,999

134

Peggy and Ken Abt

Kay Aidlin

Carol Arscott

Margaret Barbieri

Maria Beck

David Beliles

Katherine Benoit and John Brooks

Paul Cantor

Lois and Jim Champy

Margie and Kelvin Cooper

Robin and Chase Curtis

Syble DiGirolamo

Rosalyn and Joel Ehrenpreis

Ping Faulhaber

Laurie Fitch

William C. and Joyce K. Fletcher

In Loving Memory of Stephen Aidlin

In Loving Memory of Ruth, and for our dancer, Kate

Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

DEVOTEE CIRCLE

$5,000 - $9,999

Herman and Sharon Frankel

Ellen Goldman

Alastair Hunter-Henderson and Noralyn Marshall

Ann Jackson

Richard S. Johnson

Merrill Kaegi

Paul and Sarah Karon

Ted and Amy Langan

Patricia and Todd Mahony

Stephania and James McClennen

Robert and Sharon McMilan

Mary Ann and John Meyer

Carolyn Michel and Howard Millman

Elizabeth Moore

Howard and Barbara Noble, Jr.

Amy Schachter

In Loving Memory of Oscar Schachter

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DEVOTEE CIRCLE

$5,000 - $9,999

Gabriel and Valerie Schmergel

Gordon Stanley

Malcolm Stevenson

Ed Town and Steve Rubin

William and Karen Watt

Christopher and Nanci Weaver

Susan and Lewis Winarsky

Richard Wires

Fremajane Wolfson

Sheila and Merrill Wynne - APRIO, LLP

Sora Yelin

In Loving Memory of Blair Wolfson

In Loving Memory of Cary F. Yelin

CHARLES HENRY LEACH II FUND At Duquesne University

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Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

DEVOTEE CIRCLE

$5,000 - $9,999

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GOLDEN CIRCLE

$2,500 - $4,999 Alexandra Armstrong

In Loving Memory of Jerry McCoy

Margaret and Isaac Barpal Deborah and Walton Beacham Jerry and Helga Bilik Philippe Borremans and Martine Flamen Donna and Jon Boscia Paul Francis and Lolli Zarlin Kevin Fulcher and Kim Deme-Fulcher Patsy and Ed Garno Greg Goebel Gerald and Deborah Hamburg Family Foundation Moira Hintsa Randi and Donald Kreiss Joan Lovell Gerda Maceikonis Carolou and Lou Marquet Bonnie McIntyre In Loving Memory of Bill Noonan

Margaret Melun and Lt. Col. Ky L. Thompson Michael and Katie Moulton Jim and Deanne Naples Keith F. Nelson and Judith K. Marquis Anne Snape Parsons Lisa and Larry Press Pamela Revels Sam Samelson and Marion Levine Nancy Smith Dawn Spencer Dr. John and Rita Steele Adrienne and Gian Luigi Vittadini Florence Wildner

GILBERT WATERS CHARITABLE FUND II

Rugs As Art ...And More!

WOMEN’S OUTREACH MINISTRY

CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER

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Gifts are current as of September 30, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

SILVER CIRCLE

$1,000 - $2,499

Peggy C. Allen and Steve Dixon Caroline Amory and Marjorie Floyd Allison Anderson Darla and Donald Anthony Dr. and Mrs. Gus W. Bell Barbara Blackburn Barbara Blumfield Glen and Linda Bodzy Ina and Carl Born James W. Brooks Travis and Kathy Brown Duncan and Susan Brown Donna Brownlee William Buckingham Diana Cable David M. Citron and Stephanie J. Citron Alan Cohen In Loving Memory of Natalie Cohen

Jonathan Strickland Coleman and Rick Kerby Katie Couchot Dr. and Mrs. Robert E. Crootof Murray V. Duffin John and Patricia Dupps Jonathan Elsner Barbara and Bill Epperson David Epstein and Tamara Jacobs Ronald and Sharon Erickson Annie Esformes Donald Fosselman Michael and Jean Freed Suzan Friedman Martha and Thomas Galek Tom and Linda Garden Alfred Cope Garrett Robert and Deborah Gasko Adela and Anthony Glover Roz Goldberg Charles and Bonnie Granatir Marnie and Stephen Grossman Helen and John Habbert Andrew and Felicia Hall Ed and Judy Hoerr D’Anne Hurd and George Forsythe Tamara Jacobs and David Epstein Mark and Darlene Jarrell Allen Jennings and Judith Liersch Alison S. Jones

FAY A. SCHWEIM MEMORIAL CHILDREN’S DANCE FUND

Anne E. Jones Joseph and Teresa Kadow Ronald and Rita Karns Richard Kemmler Terri and Michael Klauber Krugler Family Charitable Fund Dorothy Lawrence Dr. Bart and Joan Levenson Melvy Erman Lewis John Lindsey Susan and Arthur Luger Meg Maguire Joyce B. Mailhouse Guy and Maria Mandler Lynn M. McBrier Catherine and C. David Moll Michael and Michelle Morris Tania and Alexei Moskalenko Eric and Mafalda Neikrug Sue and Doug Neumann George G. Nimick, Sr Joanne Olian Thomas and Christine Perkins Roxanne Permesly Paige Petersen and Curtis Jordan Julie Planck

GULF COAST ITALIAN CULTURE SOCIETY

GOLDMAN, BABBONI, FERNANDEZ & WALSH

James and Jan Pullen Rendano Charitable Fund Susan L. Robinson Hilory and Douglas Seaton Nancy Shapiro Susie Sharpe Abby Sherry

In Loving Memory of Murray Sherry

Barbara B. and Jeffrey C. Shivers Jim Soley Noreene Storrie Hadassah Strobel In Loving Memory of Martin Strobel

Lance Stubbs Paul Sykes Jacqueline and John Thompson Carol Hefren Tillotson James Triant Anna Maria Troiano Wendy and Chad Weiss Earl Wright and Mary Hale Geri and Ron Yonover

Coastal Partners UBS Financial Services Inc. Private Wealth Management

Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

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ENTHUSIASTS CIRCLE

$500 - $999

Mira Akins Begay Atkinson Sumner and Irene Bagby Joan W. Bauerlein Marc Behrendt

In Loving Memory of Everett Behrendt

Brenda and Alphonso Belsito Dr. and Mrs. S.D. Braun Cynthia Edstrom Byce Peter and Judy Carlin Lynn Chancer Naomi and Saul Cohen Dr. Stanley Cohen Patricia Corson and Martin Goldstein Barbara Dingman Cherie and Jeff Finn Ann Friedman Melissa Furman Martha and Thomas Galek John and Geraldine Gibbs Ellen Goldman Bonnie and David Goldmann Marjorie and Bruce Goldstein Beverly A. Harms Lisa Hartmann Elizabeth Hazeltine

Tobi Schneider Ronnie and Steven Schnoll Lenore Shapiro and Glen Behrendt In Loving Memory of Everett Behrendt

Jane Sheridan Alan Spoon Joan Tatum Renee and Tom West James Willse Terry Wohl Stanley Zielinski

In Loving Memory of Gladys A. Hazeltine

Bob Hemingway James W. and Mary R. Heslin Dr. Terry Hynes Marvin Kadesh and Marie Monsky Deborah Kalb Susie Klingeman Robert Kloss Sara LeFloch Allen Lichter In Loving Memory of Evie Lichter

Terrance Lindemann John and Sandy Long Flora Major Lisa R. Markham Barbara and Stephen Mason Nancy Milbauer

In Loving Memory of Alan Milbauer

Sandra Miranda Suzan Nahas Susan Newsome

In Loving Memory of Jon Newsome

Sharon Oberlander Lynne Pettigrew and Jay Plager Megan Powers Barbara and Peter Rittner Karen Roosen Lawrence V. Sage

140

Gifts are current as of October 3, 2024. Gifts and pledges (of $500 or more) received after this date will be recognized in the Performance Programs.

Standing O

Offering our applause for another spectacular season of the internationally renowned Sarasota Ballet.

Observer Media Group is a proud sponsor of the Sarasota Ballet.

MEDIA SPONSORS Our sincere appreciation to our Media Partners for supporting the mission of The Sarasota Ballet and ensuring our community is enriched and engaged to the beauty of dance.

SEASON SPONSOR

PROGRAM SPONSOR PROGRAM ONE

PROGRAM FOUR

PROGRAM TWO

PROGRAM FIVE

PROGRAM THREE

PROGRAM SIX

THE NUTCRACKER SPONSOR The Nutcracker: Sarasota

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The Nutcracker: Venice

PROGRAM SEVEN

IN MEMORIAM The following members of our Sarasota Ballet Community have passed away in the last year. We celebrate their lives and honor them for their generosity and patronage.

ERNEST KRETZMER

JEAN WEILLER

MARY JO RESTON

BUD SHAPIRO

PHIL LOMBARDO

GLORIA MOSS

KATHLEEN FISHER

JUDITH ECONOMOS

PATRICIA BELOTE

EUGENE HALPERN

DALE RIETH

The In Memoriam page above is presented to the best of our knowledge. We truly apologize if we have not recognized members of our Ballet community that have recently passed away. Please contact the Development Department so that we may update our records.

Photo Collage Place Holder (2 Images - 1 school, 1 MBC)

EDUCATION

Thank You

The Sarasota Ballet is passionate about offering high-quality education programs for all ages. We provide an inclusive and nurturing environment with certified faculty who are experts in teaching and developing students at all levels. The Sarasota Ballet’s Education Department encompasses The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company, The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory, The Sarasota Ballet School, and our Summer Programs.

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THE SARASOTA BALLET STUDIO COMPANY

2024 – 2025 STUDIO COMPANY Alima Bordley Cassidy Cail Haley Dale Noa Dean Stephanie Drenckhahn

Benjamin Dunlap Camille Gentes Benjamin Hannum Isabella Nova Riley Putnal

Trevin Ralphs Cameron Smith Ella Tuite Aaron Williamson

As part of the Education Department, The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company provides an opportunity for young dancers to prepare for a professional career. We provides a comprehensive training curriculum for dancers to refine their artistic and technical skills alongside gaining valuable performance experience. Studio Company members have the chance to rotate into main Company class and understudy main Company roles. They also take leading roles in The Sarasota Ballet School’s production of The Nutcracker and the annual Images of Dance performance. Studio Company members are graduates of The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory’s Trainee Program and other schools around the USA. Performing in the local community is an important part of the Studio Company’s remit. Each year, they perform in an annual collaboration with Key Chorale, at Marie Selby Gardens, and at retirement communities such as Plymouth Harbor and Sarasota Bay Club. Former Studio Company members are now dancing with The Sarasota Ballet, Ballet Austin, Colorado Ballet, Croatian National Ballet, Nevada Ballet Theatre, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Richmond Ballet, and The Washington Ballet among others. FRONT ROW: Noa Dean, Camille Gentes, Cameron Smith; MIDDLE ROW: Alima Bordley, Stephanie Drenckhahn, Isabella Nova, Haley Dale, Riley Putnal; BACK ROW: Trevin Ralphs, Benjamin Hannum, Ella Tuite, Cassidy Cail, Benjamin Dunlap, Aaron Williamson

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CELEBRATE THE ARTS LIVE LOCAL. LOVE LOCAL Celebrating stories of our hometown in print, digital and video.

Visit our videos @srqmag onYouTube!

GIVING COAST | CAT DEPOT BEST OF SRQ LOCAL A DAY AT CAT DEPOT

“MAKING THE CUT”

PAPER COLLAGES WITH PHILOMENA MARANO, AS SEEN IN SRQ MAGAZINE

EXPLORE LOCAL EXPERIENCES

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EXPLORING SARASOTA BALLET’S COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS

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THE MARGARET BARBIERI CONSERVATORY

EDUCATION

Named after Assistant Director of The Sarasota Ballet, Margaret Barbieri, the Conservatory offers a pre-professional training experience for talented young dancers. Led by Education Director Christopher Hird and Assistant Education Director Dierdre Miles Burger, the exceptional instructional staff is committed to providing the highest quality dance education in an inclusive and nurturing environment.

YOUTH AMERICA GRAND PRIX | EXCHANGE PROGRAM

The curriculum includes classical technique, pointe, contemporary, repertoire, virtuosity, plus Pilates and Progressing Ballet Technique. Students in the Conservatory are also an integral part of The Sarasota Ballet School’s production of The Nutcracker.

GRADUATES

TRAINEE PROGRAM

”

Select students are chosen to be part of our renowned Trainee Program. The program is designed to prepare students for The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company, other second companies around the USA, or dance programs at major universities. Trainees have extensive performing opportunities including the end of year Images of Dance as well as bringing dance to the local community.

We are proud to be a Youth America Grand Prix partner school, and each year, we prepare students for YAGP, as well as find future students from the competition to join the Conservatory. The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory also offers an exchange program with Canada’s National Ballet School.

Graduates of the Conservatory are now dancing in The Sarasota Ballet, Ballet Austin, Indianapolis Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet II, and Nevada Ballet II among many other national and international companies.

I am thoroughly impressed with the communication, training, and care from The Sarasota Ballet. We feel confident our dancer is safe and thriving in a positive environment.

- CHRISTIAN WILLIAM

Parent of Conservatory Student

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THE SARASOTA BALLET SCHOOL

EDUCATION

The Sarasota Ballet School offers high-quality ballet education for ages 3 and above. We believe that ballet training should not only be fun and creative but should also develop students’ confidence and celebrate their individualities. We offer an inclusive and nurturing environment with a family feel and wonderful community of parents. The School is sub-divided into Primary Levels (ages 3 – 7) and Levels 1 – 4 (ages 8 and up). Not only do students receive the best technical training through American Ballet Theatre’s® National Training Curriculum, but they are also guided by our caring teachers who develop the students’ love for dance.

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE® NATIONAL TRAINING CURRICULUM We now teach the internationally recognized American Ballet Theatre® National Training Curriculum. American Ballet Theatre was designated America’s National Ballet Company by an Act of Congress in 2006. The Sarasota Ballet School ballet faculty are officially certified to teach this wonderful curriculum.

PRIMARY LEVELS Young children discover the joy of dance in this fun and engaging program. Classes are led by qualified and nurturing educators experienced in child development. Students are introduced to music and movement through creative storytelling and expression, developing coordination, focus, and teamwork.

LEVELS 1 - 4 Advancing from our Primary Levels, Levels 1 and up offer a structured class that improves and develops coordination, balance, musicality, discipline, and life skills. Students in these levels also begin jazz, contemporary, Progressing Ballet Technique, and pointe work as well as having the opportunity to become a member of the School’s Performance Ensemble.

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THE SARASOTA BALLET SCHOOL

EXPERIENCE THE SARASOTA BALLET DIFFERENCE •

Our faculty are all former professional dancers, who are highly educated, nurturing, and experienced.

•

All ballet faculty are certified to teach the American Ballet Theatre® National Training Curriculum.

•

Unique class offerings, including Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT) and Performance Ensemble for Levels 2B and up.

•

Only School on the Gulf Coast attached to a professional world-renowned ballet Company.

•

On-stage performance opportunities in The Sarasota Ballet School’s production of The Nutcracker.

•

Complimentary Tickets to select Company Productions.

•

Opportunity to audition for pre-professional training at The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory starting at age 12.

Our daughter has been a student at The Sarasota Ballet School for over seven years, and she has absolutely loved it. The knowledgeable and kind teachers have pushed her to advance while also providing wonderful opportunities to perform on stage with both the School and the Company. We are deeply grateful and highly recommend The Sarasota Ballet School.

”

- THE CASART FAMILY

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”

EDUCATION

THE SARASOTA BALLET’S EDUCATION PERFORMANCES

Key Chorale Winter’s Glow

An Evening at Selby Gardens

December 1st, 2024 at the Sarasota Opera House

April 16th, 2025

The Nutcracker December 13th and 14th, 2024 at the Venice Performing Arts Center with The Venice Symphony

The Nutcracker December 22nd and 23rd, 2024 at the Sarasota Opera House

Images of Dance April 29, 2025 at the Sarasota Opera House

The Wizard of Oz End-Of-Year Showcase May 17th, 2025 at Riverview High School

2024 - 2025 SEASON

SAVE THE DATES

The Sarasota Ballet School’s magical production of The Nutcracker is now the holiday mustsee for the Sarasota and Venice communities. Following the success of last year’s sell out performances in Sarasota, this year we will be offering three performances at the Sarasota Opera House. In addition we are thrilled to continue our partnership with the Venice Symphony and the Venice Performing Arts Center, with two performances featuring live music. Directed by Risa Kaplowitz, our production of The Nutcracker features students ages 5 - 75 from all our education programs. This annual tradition is our holiday gift to you, offering a memorable experience for all to enjoy. 155

THE SARASOTA BALLET SUMMER INTENSIVE & SUMMER CAMPS

SUMMER INTENSIVE

PERFORMANCE

The Sarasota Ballet’s Summer Intensive is specially designed to develop young dancers technique alongside artistry. Through a series of auditions, students ages 12 - 21 are selected to spend up to five weeks dancing in Sarasota each summer.

The program culminates in performances at the beautiful Mertz Theatre at Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts. Students get the opportunity to show the range of dance styles they have learned over the summer including ballet, contemporary, jazz, and character.

We are proud to be part of NSIA (National Summer Intensive Audition Tour) – a collective of fifteen professional schools around the country that enable students to audition in one venue and be seen by school directors across the country. In addition, students are chosen from competitions such as Youth America Grand Prix and ADC/IBC as well as national dance organizations such as Regional Dance America.

RESIDENTIAL LIFE Students enjoy a wonderful home away from home experience outside the studio. We ensure all students feel safe with a strong and supportive residential staff. Weekend excursions include Disney World, Ringling Museum, and of course, the beach!

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NEW JUNIOR INTENSIVE In 2024, we launched a new Junior Intensive for children ages 9 - 11 who had at least a year of experience. The all-day program gives students an introduction to the Intensive experience, and includes ballet, pre-pointe, pointe, boys work, and Progressing Ballet Technique. Each week ends with an in-studio performance.

SUMMER CAMPS This past summer, we reintroduced our popular Summer Camps. Summer 2024’s themes included Barbie and Ken, Under the Sea and The Nutcracker in July. Inspiring children ages 3 - 7, the week long morning camps include ballet, creative movement, crafts, and all students receive a diploma of achievement.

JUNIOR SUMMER INTENSIVE

SUMMER INTENSIVE

SUMMER CAMPS

EDUCATION

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THE SARASOTA BALLET SCHOOL’S ADULT PROGRAM

ADULT PROGRAM

WEEKEND MINI-INTENSIVES

We offer a continuing education program for adults of all ages and experience levels. With both morning and evening classes, we have something for everyone. Adult classes are taught by our fantastic Education faculty as we believe that adult students deserve the best in dance education.

Twice a year, we hold a two-day intensive that enables adult dancers to immerse themselves in a weekend of unique experiences. As well as traditional technique classes, the program includes variations, repertoire, and an opportunity to see The Sarasota Ballet perform. Students join us from around the country and make new friends as part of the rich adult dance community.

MONTHLY WORKSHOPS Once a month we hold a special workshop focusing on a different area, eg. artistry, theory, and repertoire.

I have GREATLY enjoyed the classes I’ve taken at The Sarasota Ballet School in the adult program and the several instructors who I have taken class from. It’s been a pleasure to get back into the studio and move in a style that feels like home to me.

”

- LAUREN KADEL Adult Student

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offers support groups and classes as well as premier, licensed adult day services in Sarasota and Venice.

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT INCLUDING

DANCE - THE NEXT GENERATION The Sarasota Ballet believes dance is for everyone and takes pride in making dance accessible to all. For over 30 years, The Sarasota Ballet has been committed to its mission of “strengthening community through the art of dance”. The Sarasota Ballet’s Community Engagement Department offers complimentary or low-cost programs crucial in ensuring that a diverse range of people can experience and appreciate the beauty of dance. By reaching out to new audiences and revitalizing communities, The Sarasota Ballet is not only contributing to the cultural richness of the area, but also providing opportunities for individuals to connect with and find inspiration in the art of dance.

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT DANCE - THE NEXT GENERATION

WELCOME CHARMAINE HUNTER We are thrilled that renowned educator Charmaine Hunter has joined The Sarasota Ballet as our new Community Engagement Director. Charmaine brings a wealth of experience to The Sarasota Ballet. Charmaine was a Principal Dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Director of Disney’s The Lion King in Toronto, Talent Scout for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, and prior to joining The Sarasota Ballet, Charmaine held the position of Director of Community Enrichment for Orlando Ballet.

MAKING DANCE

ACCESSIBLE FOR EVERYONE. ABOVE (TOP): Hunter with The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory students at a community performance at Marie Selby Gardens. ABOVE (BOTTOM): Hunter teaching students at Wilkinson Elementary School.

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS

DANCE – THE NEXT GENERATION In 1990, Jean Weidner Goldstein, founder of The Sarasota Ballet, established Dance – The Next Generation (DNG) to directly impact underserved children of the local community. Now in its 34th year, The Sarasota Ballet is excited to expand upon this program’s successes with plans to reach further into Sarasota and Manatee Counties.

DNG’S MISSION DNG provides equitable access to quality dance education by offering a comprehensive tuition-free dance program to 3 - 12 graders from underrepresented areas with eligibility for free or reduced lunch. Through diversified dance offerings, progressing enrichment activities, and ever-increasing community partnerships, DNG students receive a complete 10-year dance experience that supports education, community, and academic excellence for each student.

DNG’S GOALS • To provide a progressive dance education to foster long-term appreciation for dance. • To enable students to achieve academic and personal goals while fostering skills leading to high school graduation and post-secondary success. • To enhance the research-proven behavioral and social skills gained through long-term engagement in dance education.

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT DANCE - THE NEXT GENERATION

ABOVE: DNG students had the opportunity to meet famous professional dancer, Misty Copeland, at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center, 2024.

DNG – MORE THAN AN AFTER-SCHOOL DANCE PROGRAM DNG is more than a dance program, it exists to nurture, enrich, and support the entire child. Elementary and middle school students are transported directly from their schools to our Tallevast studios via The Sarasota Ballet vans. All Faiths Food Bank assists students by providing healthy after-school snacks, and all students receive enrichment opportunities throughout the year. The Sarasota Ballet covers the cost of a complete dance education for each DNG student including class tuition, dance attire and shoes, transportation, performance costs, field trips, and activities. Each year, approximately 150 Sarasota and Manatee County students enjoy dance training across a variety of techniques including ballet, jazz, contemporary, and Latin. DNG also offers workshops at sites within the community, where DNG faculty travel to locations to offer dance classes.

PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLEGE OPPORTUNITIES We are fortunate to partner with some amazing organizations that provide guidance to our middle and high schoolers. With The Society, Take Stock in Children Sarasota, PLANit Sarasota, and Education Foundation of Sarasota, students in middle school and above receive access to mentoring, as well as college and career preparation. When students complete DNG’s 10-year program and graduate from high school, those who are academically eligible may apply for a dedicated college scholarship from State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota or may receive special financial assistance from the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee.

A PROGRAM TO

NURTURE, ENRICH, AND SUPPORT THE ENTIRE CHILD.

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS

YOUTH Programs: School Performances & Engagement The Sarasota Ballet appreciates the opportunity to engage our community’s children in what is often their first introduction to live, classical ballet. The Sarasota Ballet engages 2,500 students each Season bringing them to the theater for special matinee performances as well as going into schools and offering interactive workshops, in-school performances, as well as instructional masterclasses.

THE SARASOTA BALLET APPRECIATES THE

OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE THE COMMUNITY IN A VARIETY OF WAYS.

ADAPTIVE Programs: Joyful Movement Through Parkinson’s and Silver Swans® The Sarasota Ballet is honored to offer adaptive dance classes to community members wishing to enjoy dance in a modified yet structured manner. We strive to provide enjoyable, inclusive, and safe dance environments for those living with long-term or lifelong physical, social, cognitive, or social disabilities. Joyful Movement Through Parkinson’s offers dance classes for those with Parkinson’s in partnership with the Neuro Challenge Foundation. Our teachers are specially certified through Mark Morris Dance Group’s Dance for Parkinson’s teacher training program. Silver Swans® offers opportunities for those 55+ to dance within their retirement communities in classes which combine movement, music, and dance history.

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

COMMUNITY Programs: Community Experiences The Sarasota Ballet appreciates the opportunity to engage the community in a variety of ways. We aim to create awareness and appreciation of dance by offering quality experiences to communities and populations that may face barriers accessing the arts. We offer a variety of options through Community Experiences allowing our dancers and The Sarasota Ballet staff to interact with the community through small group events such as lecture demonstrations and community performances in unconventional spaces and family dance events. The Sarasota Ballet also offers low-cost or complimentary tickets to our professional performances for marginalized community groups. With a variety of experiences, individuals or groups can tailor offerings to best suit their needs. With continually expanding community relationships, The Sarasota Ballet is energized to broaden Community Experiences building long-term and invested audiences.

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CLASSICAL

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CLASSICAL WSMR 8 9 .1 w s m r. o r g

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WAYS TO SUPPORT The Sarasota Ballet’s performance, education, and community programs are made possible each year through the generosity of foundations, corporations, and individuals like you. Your gift at any level brings world-class performances and accessible arts education to our community.

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HOW TO SUPPORT THE SARASOTA BALLET

YOU PLAY A PRINCIPAL ROLE

IN TAKING OUR COMPANY TO NEW HEIGHTS. Your gracious, tax-deductible gift helps to inspire, preserve, and impact:

THE SARASOTA BALLET COMPANY • Repertoire Spanning from Beloved Classics to World Premieres • Live Music Accompaniment and Guest Conductors • National and International Company Tours • Guest Choreographers and Répétiteurs • Presenting Dance Companies

DANCE EDUCATION • The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory • The Sarasota Ballet School • Summer Intensive • Summer Camps • Adult Workshops

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT • Dance – The Next Generation • School Performances and Programs • Community Experiences • Joyful Movement Through Parkinson’s • Silver Swans®

SCAN HERE TO MAKE YOUR GIFT TODAY

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DANCE EDUCATION

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

COMPANY PERFORMANCES

WAYS TO SUPPORT

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THE MARTUCCI LEGACY SOCIETY

LEAVE A LEGACY THAT INSPIRES. When you include The Sarasota Ballet in your estate plan, your gift will continue to support The Sarasota Ballet Company, Dance Education, and Community Engagement for generations to come.

Why create a Legacy Gift? Hear from some of our members about why they wanted to make a lasting impact.

We wanted to give a gift that cannot be seen but is eternal.

”

- Frank and Katherine Martucci

”

LEGACY SOCIETY FOUNDERS

”

We want our Legacy to reach as many people as possible in a positive way. The work that The Sarasota Ballet is doing not only entertains and delights us, it brings real joy to people and opportunity to children. We want to see this organization continue to grow for generations beyond us. We also want to see it thrive, and the best way to do that is through giving a planned gift.

- David Welle and Rosemary Reinhart LEGACY SOCIETY MEMBERS

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”

WAYS TO SUPPORT

MARTUCCI LEGACY SOCIETY MEMBERS The Sarasota Ballet is proud to recognize the following individuals for their commitment to The Sarasota Ballet’s future:

George Allison and Alan Watkins Chuck Angulo and Kathleen Fischer Donald H. and Barbara K. Bernstein Jerry and Gay Bowles Marty and Barbara Bowling Kay Delaney and Murray Bring Donald Britt Ann Burroughs Judy Cahn Bonnie and William Chapman Lynn Chancer Alan Cohen Jonathan Strickland Coleman and Rick Kerby Edward N. Cooke Douglas Endicott Laura Feder Frances D. Fergusson Micki H. Gamer Alfred and Anne Garrett Ellen Goldman Jean Weidner Goldstein* Patricia A. Golemme Gudrun Graugaard Gerald and Deborah Hamburg Julie A. Harris* JoAnn Heffernan Heisen Elaine C. Herda Richard S. Johnson Deborah Kalb

Richard Kemmler Pat and Ann Kenny Lydia Landa Harry Leopold and Audrey Robbins Dr. Bart and Joan Levenson Richard March* Frank and Katherine Martucci* Joan Mathews Mary Jane McRae Peter B. Miller and Dr. Martha Harrison* Sandra Miranda Stu and Gini Peltz Dr. Richard L. Prager Rose Marie Proietti David Welle and Rosemary Reinhardt Terry and Susan Romine James and Kathleen Scholler Micki Sellman Bud and Betty Shapiro Arthur Siciliano and B. Aline Blanchard Jan Sirota and Alison Gardner* Hillary Steele Melliss Kenworthy Swenson Marcia Jean Taub and Peter Swain* Jean and Joseph Volpe Kim Wheeler Charles and Susan Wilson Richard Wires *Denotes Leadership Gift

We would gladly assist you with ways to make a gift that is meaningful to you and has a lasting impact for The Sarasota Ballet. Please contact our Philanthropy team at 941.225.6512 or development@sarasotaballet.org. 177

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ENDOWMENT FUND

WAYS TO SUPPORT

The Sarasota Ballet Endowment Fund is essential for securing the future of our beloved ballet Company, ensuring that we continue to captivate audiences for years to come. By supporting our Endowment Fund, you can make a lasting impact on The Sarasota Ballet and contribute to our continued growth and success. What is an Endowment? Endowments are like a safety net for organizations, allowing them to navigate uncertainties with confidence and security. Establishing an endowment demonstrates to the community and supporters that the organization is planning for the long-term and securing assets for their future sustainability. What are the Benefits of Supporting our Endowment? By contributing to our Endowment Fund, you can provide long-lasting support that will inspire, preserve, and impact The Sarasota Ballet, Dance Education, and Community Engagement. An Endowment gift will help us continue to thrive in artistic excellence and expand our visibility. A strong financial future is the best solution to ensuring The Sarasota Ballet’s continued momentum.

FRIENDS OF THE SARASOTA BALLET

We invite you to join the heart of The Sarasota Ballet community, the Friends of The Sarasota Ballet.

FRIENDS OF THE SARASOTA BALLET MISSION The mission of the Friends of The Sarasota Ballet is to support the performances and programs of The Sarasota Ballet through advocacy, fundraising, and volunteering.

ADVANTAGES OF BEING A FRIEND • Contribute to the success of one of the most exciting ballet companies in America. • Share in The Sarasota Ballet’s growth and achievements. • Meet the artists, key staff members, and leadership of The Sarasota Ballet. • Deepen your understanding of the art form. • Discover the inner workings of the Company through volunteering. • Form new relationships with those who are also dance and arts enthusiasts. • Receive a monthly letter from the President of the Friends. • Receive invitations to Special Events.

MAKE CONNECTIONS THROUGH VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES The Friends of The Sarasota Ballet have the opportunity to volunteer and get involved in many different aspects of the Ballet. Whether you wish to assist the Box Office, act as a performance greeter, or simply share your love for The Sarasota Ballet, there are endless opportunities to become an Ambassador for The Sarasota Ballet.

SHARE THE PASSION We hope you will join our community of dance enthusiasts and become a Friend of The Sarasota Ballet. To learn more about the Friends, events, or volunteer opportunities, please contact: Membership Chair Betty Ferguson at 917.885.4699 | bcamarest@yahoo.com Volunteer Coordinator Rosalyn Ehrenpreis at 941.400.1584 | rosalyn.ehrenpreis@gmail.com

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WAYS TO SUPPORT

SHOWCASE LUNCHEONS AND SPECIAL EVENTS Luncheons and special events are held by the Friends throughout each Season and are open to both Friends members and guests. Showcase Luncheons and other Friends events are designed to enhance understanding of the inner workings of the Company. These events offer the exclusive opportunity to interact with exciting special guests and gain access to unique programming, while also providing a social outlet to interact with others who share your enthusiasm for The Sarasota Ballet. The Friends dedicate proceeds from the Showcase Luncheons and Special Events to The Sarasota Ballet.

OCTOBER 28, 2024 | 11:30am Behind the Scenes Guest Speaker – Jessica Lang, The Sarasota Ballet’s Virginia B. Toulmin & Muriel O’Neil Artist in Residence DECEMBER 16, 2024 | 11:30am Friends of The Sarasota Ballet Holiday Luncheon JANUARY 13, 2025 | 11:30am Behind the Scenes Guest Speaker – Michael Trusnovec, Répétiteur of Paul Taylor’s Brandenburgs, performed in Sarasota Ballet’s Program 4 MARCH 3, 2025 | 11:30am Inside The Sarasota Ballet Guest Speaker – Margaret Barbieri, former Prima Ballerina and Assistant Director of The Sarasota Ballet APRIL 7, 2025 | 11:30am Iain Webb Celebrates Patricia Golemme Join us in celebrating Patricia Golemme’s years of service as our 24th President of the Friends

EX OFFICIO

STANDING COMMITTEES

The Sarasota Ballet Board Chair

Laura Feder

Iain Webb

Director of The Sarasota Ballet

Laurie Fitch

Joseph Volpe

Executive Director of The Sarasota Ballet

Elaine Foster & Phyllis Myers

Doricha Sales

Sara Rachon

Sandra DeFeo

Friends of The Sarasota Ballet Liaison

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Patricia Golemme President

Sara Rachon Vice President

Bruce Ensinger Secretary

Elaine Foster Treasurer

Richard March Past President

Advisory Council Liaison Communications Showcase Luncheons Meet Me at the Barre

Betty Ferguson Membership

Andi Lieberman & Carolou Marquet Outreach

Rosalyn Ehrenpreis

Volunteer Coordinator

Carol Arscott

Will Call/Box Office

Donna Maytham

Office Member-At-Large

Brenda Belsito

Member-At-Large 181

FRIENDS OF THE SARASOTA BALLET

The Friends of The Sarasota Ballet is an incredible group of individuals who champion the Company throughout the region. Through their events and volunteer work, The Friends are a vibrant part of The Sarasota Ballet community and play a vital role in the continued success of the Company, while forming close bonds through a mutual love of the art form.

Members of the Friends of The Sarasota Ballet: Julia Aaron Peggy and Ken Abt Priscilla Adams Kay Aidlin Charles Albers Janette Albrecht Charleen Alper and Mary Lee Martens Caroline Amory and Marjorie Floyd Andrea Anderson Chuck Angulo Carol Arscott Shari and Steve Ashman Nicholas and Jocelyn Baskey Joan W. Bauerlein Isabel A. Becker Patricia Belote Brenda and Alphonso Belsito Kacy Carla Bennington Barbara Blumfield John Bradbury Arline Breskin Donna Brownlee Susette Bryan Cynthia Edstrom Byce Diana Cable Brian Calka and Kim Azar-Calka Judy and Peter Carlin Frank Cerullo Bonnie and Bill Chapman Barbara L. Chertok Victoria and Frank Chester Dennis Ciborowski and Meryl Gale Mary Clupper Alan Cohen Naomi and Saul Cohen

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Jonathan Strickland Coleman Nicole Converse Evelyn and Glenn Cooper Edilia Correa Patricia Corson Katie Couchot Sandra Cowing Alan Creais and Melissa McCoy Joanne and Warren Crowell Michele Crutcher Jacqueline and Harold D’Alessio Lucille D’Armi-Riggio Robert De Warren Linda R. Dean Sandra DeFeo Kay Delaney and Murray Bring JoAnne DeVries Syble and Peter DiGirolamo Barbara Dingman Lynda and Fred Doery Jackie Donnelly Barbara and Les Dubitsky Cori S. Dykman Rosalyn and Joel Ehrenpreis David Eichlin and Bob Griffiths Ellen and Harold Ellis Douglas Endicott Bruce Ensinger and Clark Denham Barbrara Epperson Katherine Evans Jan and Bill Farber Laura A. Feder Shirley Fein Pat and Thomas Fennessey Elizabeth Ferguson

Frances D. Fergusson Sandy Fink Cherie and Jeff Finn Linda A. Fiorelli Beverly B. Fisher Rachael Fisk Laurie Fitch Dr. Bertram Fivelson Martine Flamen and Philippe Borremans Karol Foss Donald Fosselman Elaine and Robert Foster Michael E. Fox and Mary Schreibstein Tammy Fullum Geraldine and John F. Gibbs Jr. Kathryn L. Gibby Elizabeth and Thomas Glembocki Rita Glosser Nancy A. Gold Ellen Goldman Patricia Golemme and Tim Fullum Sue M. Gordon Dedrea A. Greer Robin and Roy Grossman Mary Hale Renee Hamad Debby and Jerry Hamburg Dr. Amy Harding Julie Ann Harris JoAnn Heffernan Heisen Marcia Hendler Ashley S. Hodson Anita Van Tassel Holec George Hollingworth and Joan Langbord Stephanie S. Horeis

WAYS TO SUPPORT

Dale Horwitz Jean and Peter Huber Charles Huisking and Jeffrey Sebeika Barbara Hyde Barbara Jacob and Karen Lichtig Barbara Jacoby Barbara N. Jarabek Linda Joffe Mary Johnson Richard Johnson Susan K. Johnson Alison Jones Anne Jones James Jordan Merrill Kaegi Joanne Kahn Deborah Kalb Cynthia and Barry Karafin Ken Keating Carolyn Keidel Margaret Kelly Ann and Patrick Kenny Marlene Kitchell Robin Klein-Strauss Mary and Joseph Klimasiewfski Susanne S. Klingeman Robert Kloss Carla Kortendick Margret Krakowiak Teresa Kravitz Melody and Peter E. Kretzmer Lydia Landa Gail Landry Mary and James Lang Harry Leopold and Audrey Robbins Judith Levine Margaret Levinson Carol Lewis Marlene and Hal Liberman Andrea Lieberman Tina and Rick E. Lieberman John Lindsey Barbara Fischer Long and James Long Maria Love Carole and George Ludlow Francine Luque Dorothy Lutter Nancy Mackenzie Margaret L. Maguire Maria and Guy Mandler Richard March Carolou and Louis Marquet Mary Lee Martens Jean Martin Katherine and Frank Martucci Jacqueline Massari Joan Mathews

Carol Mathias Donna Maytham Helen McBean Lydia McKenzie Peter Miller Sandra Miranda Jean Ann Mitchell Linda and Bill Mitchell Mary J Mitchell Maralyn and Raymond Morrissey Susan Morse Phyllis Myers Deanne and Jim Naples Mafalda and Eric Neikrug Susan Newsome George G. Nimick Marilyn E. Nordby Rosemary and Lou Oberndorf Mercedita OConnor Catherine and Olaf Olsen Lenée and Conrad Owens Jeannette Paladino Anne S. Parsons Lorelei A. Paster Gini and Stu Peltz Colette Penn Sue Peterson Marilynn H. Petrillo Cathy Phillips Steven Phillips and James E. Jordan Julie Planck and Charles Albers Richard S. Prescott and DJ Arnold Rose Marie Proietti Eric Pugh Barbara Quinn Jimmye Reeves Rebecca Reilly Rosemary Reinhardt and David Welle Natasha and Colin Reisner Pamela Reiter Cheryl Richards Anne Roberts Sara Robinson Ellen Roderick Susan and Terry Romine Nancy and Jack Rozance Beverly Ryan Sharon Sakson Richard O. Sales Sara Sardelli-Rachon Barbara E. Schott Mary Schreibstein Luise Scheier Liliana and Paul Sciré Eda Scott Carol and Erwin Segal Tracy Seider

Marilyn Sellman Paul Settle Susan and Timothy Sheehan Declan D. Sheehy Jane E. Sheridan Leslie Shriberg Linda R. Simons Jan Sirota and Alison Gardner Linda and David Sischy Beverly and James Smith Susan Spencer Irene J. Stankevics Gordon Stanley Hillary Steele Maureen and Tom Steiner Louise P. Stevens Susan Strahs Lauren Stroman Lois Stulberg Annie Sundeen Peggy Sweeney Melliss Swenson Susan Stokes and Paula Ball Virginia and Diran Tashian Joan J. Tatum Marcia Jean Taub and Peter Swain John C. Teryek Jackie and John Thompson Janet R. Tolbert Marianne and Niels Trulson Karen Vereb Jean and Joseph Volpe Carol Von Allmen Lauren and Bernie Walsh Sandra W. Warner Gwendolyn and Thomas Watson Judith Waxberg Myrna and Jeremy Whatmough Kim Wheeler Laurie Wiesemann Florence Wildner Anthony Winer and Paul Settle Edie Winston Ralph Winters and Katherine Evans Elizabeth Wolfe Earl Wright and Mary Hale Vivian Zaffuto Elaine Zwelling

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2024-25 SEASON VICTOR DeRENZI, Artistic Director RICHARD RUSSELL, General Director

2024 FALL SEASON

THE HOBBIT™ Dean Burry Nov. 9 & 10, 2024 Sarasota Youth Opera

THE MUSIC OF GIUSEPPE VERDI Nov. 15 & 17, 2024

2025 WINTER OPERA FESTIVAL

CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE

Pietro Mascagni

Gioachino Rossini Feb. 22 – March 29, 2025

AND

PAGLIACCI

Ruggero Leoncavallo Feb. 15 – March 29, 2025

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart March 8 – 28, 2025

STIFFELIO Giuseppe Verdi March 15 – 30, 2025

All performances in the original language with simultaneous translations above the stage.

TICKETS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS ON SALE NOW!

(941) 328-1300 • SARASOTAOPERA.ORG Sarasota Opera House 61 N. Pineapple Avenue, Sarasota, FL

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The Season of 2025 For more information, visit

SarasotaPolo.com (941) 907-0000 • 8201 Polo Club Ln, Sarasota, FL 34240

Sarasota Polo is proud to partner with the Sarasota Ballet for the 2024-2025 season

S R SOT

CONCERT

SSOCI TION

2024-25 80th Anniversary Season Chanticleer Holiday Concert

Dec 3, 2024, 7:30 pm | Sarasota Opera House This Grammy Award-winning, male vocal ensemble performs an all-new program of Renaissance classics and holiday favorites.

Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Jan 15, 2025, 7:30 pm | Riverview Performing Arts Center The world-renowned French pianist and Grammy award-winner performs Debussy’s Preludes Books I and II.

Cleveland Orchestra

Kahchun Wong, conductor | Sayaka Shoji, violin Jan 26, 2025, 7:30 pm | Van Wezel The Orchestra will perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

Czech National Symphony Orchestra

Steven Mercurio, Music Director | Maxim Lando, piano Feb 13, 2025, 7:30 pm | Van Wezel Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.”

An Evening with Yo-Yo Ma

Feb 27, 2025, 7:30 pm | Van Wezel Join cellist Yo-Yo Ma for some of his favorite pieces and stories about a life dedicated to music.

Vivaldi Four Seasons

Les Arts Florissants Théotime Langlois de Swarte, violin March 14, 2025, 7:30 pm Riverview Performing Arts Center A 300th anniversary celebration!

National Symphony Orchestra

Gianandrea Noseda, Music Director | Hilary Hahn, violin March 24, 2025, 7:30 pm | Van Wezel Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. and Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto featuring violinist Hilary Hahn

Order tickets today! SCAsarasota.org | 941-966-6161

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DOCTORS CIRCLE These physicians have agreed to see our dancers immediately and treat them at a substantially reduced fee or no fee at all. To show your appreciation, please consider using their services when you may have the need.

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CHIROPRACTIC:

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DR. JARED A. WINTERS

Florida Chiropractic & Rehabilitation Clinics 1918 Robinhood Street Sarasota, FL 34231 941.955.3272

DR. ERIC LARSON

INTERNAL MEDICINE: DR. BART PRICE

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DENTAL:

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DAVID A. SUGAR, MD

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DR. ERIN LONG

Intercoastal Medical Group 3333 Cattlemen Road, Suite 106 Sarasota, FL 34232 941.379.1799

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DR. SUSAN M. SLOAN

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Schedule your

event at The Ora • Book now: (941) 552-6306

Sarasota's Keshet Chaim Dance Ensemble Performing at The Ora for The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee’s 65th Anniversary, February 2024. Photo by Seth Berman.

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ADVERTISERS INDEX

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Plymouth Harbor

Beneva Weddings & Events

160

Rugs as Art

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Bradenton Heralds Tribune

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Sarasota Bay Club

Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation

Sarasota Bookstore One

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Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Inc.

Sarasota Concert Association

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Concierge Medical Services

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Sarasota Magazine

Cumberland Advisors

Sarasota Polo Club

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Eurotech Cabinetry, Inc.

Scene Magazine

Fifth Third Bank

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SNN

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SRQ

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The Jewish Federation

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Mauldin & Jenkins, LLC

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The Sarasota Opera

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Venice City Lifestyle

Northern Trust

WEDU

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Observer Media Group

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Williams Parker Attorneys at Law

Peter G. Laughlin Group

WUSF/WSMR

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THANK YOU We extend our great appreciation to our loyal subscribers for joining us each Season and for being such an important member of The Sarasota Ballet family. Your long-term support and commitment to this Company plays a vital role in the sustainability of our mission and to ensuring the experience and beauty of dance continues, from the stage and into the community.

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THE SARASOTA BALLET

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL TOURS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF IAIN WEBB ASHTON CELEBRATED JUNE 2024 The Royal Opera House, London, UK THE JOYCE THEATER AUGUST 2022 Joyce Theater, New York, US THE JOYCE THEATER AUGUST 2018 Joyce Theater, New York, US GUGGENHEIM WORKS & PROCESS NOVEMBER 2017 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City NATIONAL CHOREOGRAPHIC FESTIVAL MAY 2017 Eccles Theater, Salt Lake City, Utah, US ACADIA CENTENNIAL AUGUST 2016 Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor, Maine, US THE JOYCE THEATER AUGUST 2016 Joyce Theater, New York, US FALL FOR DANCE FESTIVAL OCTOBER 2015 New York City Center, New York City JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL AUGUST 2015 Ted Shawn Theatre, Becket, Massachusetts FALL FOR DANCE FESTIVAL OCTOBER 2014 New York City Center, New York City BALLET ACROSS AMERICA III JUNE 2013 John F. Kennedy Center, Washington DC THE SUZANNE FARREL BALLET OCTOBER 2011 John F. Kennedy Center, Washington DC

941.359.0099 | SarasotaBallet.org