The Sarasota Ballet is an American

ballet company A ballet company is a type of dance troupe that performs classical ballet, neoclassical ballet, and/or contemporary ballet in the European tradition, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-rou ...

based in

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, Florida, Punta Gord ...

. It was founded in 1987 by former ballet dancer Jean Weidner Goldstein and is now acclaimed for its performances of Sir

Frederick Ashton Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton (17 September 190418 August 1988) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue. Determined to be a dancer despite the oppositio ...

's ballets under its director Iain Webb and assistant director Margaret Barbieri.

History

In 1987, Jean Weidner Goldstein founded The Sarasota Ballet as a presenting organization, establishing its status as a resident ballet company in 1990 with the appointment of Montreal choreographer Eddy Toussaint as its director. The first performance was presented on November 3, 1990, at the Sarasota Opera House. Robert de Warren, former director of ballet at Teatro alla Scala Milan, served as Artistic Director from 1994 - 2007. With the appointment of former Royal Ballet dancer Iain Webb as director in 2007, the company has achieved national and international recognition, especially for its many productions of the ballets of Sir Frederick Ashton. The Sarasota Ballet has been invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet and Ballet Across America III, at Fall for Dance at the New York City Center, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and the Joyce Theater. At the Frederick Ashton Festival, staged at the Sarasota Opera House in May 2014, The Sarasota Ballet offered a wide selection of Ashton's works. These included '' Birthday Offering'', ''Illuminations'', '' Les Rendezvous'', ''Sinfonietta'', and ''Valses nobles et sentimentales''. Under Webb's leadership, the company performed 135 ballets and divertissements through the 2015 - 2016 season, including 36 world premieres and 7 American premieres. For their 25th anniversary season (2015–2016), The Sarasota Ballet became the first American company to present Ashton's ballets ''Marguerite and Armand'' and ''Enigma Variations''. During Iain Webb's directorship, ticket sales grew from $300,000 in 2007 to over $1.675 million in 2015. In February 2016, Joseph Volpe, retired general manager of the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...

, was appointed executive director.

Ballet company

The company includes thirty-seven professional dancers and eight apprentices (as of 2019) from around the world, many of them young Americans. Among the principals are Danielle Brown, Kate Honea, Victoria Hulland, Ricardo Graziano, Ricardo Rhodes and Luke Schaufuss. The Sarasota Ballet also maintains a Studio Company for supplementary performance support and cooperation with other local performing arts organizations. In August 2012, Margaret Barbieri, former principal dancer of the Royal Ballet, was appointed assistant director of The Sarasota Ballet. Barbieri has staged 22 ballets for The Sarasota Ballet, including Sir Peter Wright's ''Giselle'' and ''Summertide''; Sir Frederick Ashton's '' The Two Pigeons'', ''

Façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

'', '' Birthday Offering'', '' Les Patineurs'', ''Les Rendezvous'', '' La fille mal gardée'', ''Valses nobles et sentimentales'' and ''Jazz Calendar''; Dame Ninette de Valois' ''

Checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...

'' and ''The Rake's Progress''; John Cranko's '' Pineapple Poll''; Christopher Wheeldon's ''There Where She Loved'' and ''The American''; Michel Fokine's '' Les Sylphides'' and '' Petrushka'' and

Rudolf Nureyev Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is widely regarded as the preeminent male ballet dancer of his generation as well as one of the greatest ballet dancers of all ...

's ''Raymonda Act III''.

References

External links

* {{authority control Ballet companies in the United States Dance in Florida 1990 establishments in Florida Performing groups established in 1990 Companies based in Sarasota, Florida