2025 - 2026 Season Book

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

- Margie Barancik

At a Glance

INTRINSIC

PROGRAM ONE

October 24 - 26, 2025 | FSU Center for the Performing Arts

Michel Fokine's Les Sylphides

Jessica Lang‘s The Lorenz Butterfly (World Premiere)

Will Tuckett's Changing Light

WRITTEN

MOTION PROGRAM TWO

November 21 - 22, 2025 | Sarasota Opera House

Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

Sir Frederick Ashton’s Valses nobles et sentimentales

Mark Morris' The Letter V

World Premiere by Ashley Page

MASTERS

OF MOVEMENT PROGRAM THREE

December 19 - 20, 2025 | Sarasota Opera House

Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

George Balanchine's Divertimento No. 15

George Balanchine's Mozartiana (Company Premiere)

Sir Frederick Ashton's Jazz Calendar

NOTES UNSPOKEN PROGRAM

FOUR

January 30 - February 2, 2026 | FSU Center for the Performing Arts

World Premiere by Gemma Bond

Antony Tudor's Lilac Garden

Ricardo Graziano's Valsinhas

MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY PROGRAM

FIVE

February 27 - March 2, 2026 | FSU Center for the Performing Arts

Presented by The Sarasota Ballet

LIFE & LIBERTY PROGRAM SIX

March 27 - 28, 2026 | Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall

Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

George Balanchine's Stars and Stripes

Sir David Bintley's ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café

FOUNDATIONS OF ROYALTY PROGRAM

SEVEN

May 1 - 2, 2026 | Sarasota Opera House

Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

Sir Frederick Ashton's Birthday Offering

Dame Ninette de Valois' Checkmate

Sir Peter Wright's Summertide

Iain Webb

Director

I t is my honor to welcome you to The Sarasota Ballet’s 2025 – 2026. We opened this year with our long awaited return to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, another milestone in the Company’s national and international recognition. This exciting start follows on the heels of last Season’s triumphant London tour, where we helped launch the Ashton Worldwide Festival — an achievement that continues to resonate deeply as we remain part of this global celebration of Ashton’s legacy.

This Season is one of celebration, recognizing the anniversaries and legacies that have shaped ballet while also commissioning new works that carry the art form forward. At the very heart of this is Sir Frederick Ashton, whose ballets remain central to our identity and artistry. His brilliance shines throughout our programs — from the wit of Jazz Calendar to the grandeur of Birthday Offering. To close our Season with Ashton’s masterpiece, alongside Dame Ninette de Valois’ Checkmate and Sir Peter Wright’s Summertide, is not only a tribute to ballet’s heritage but also a deeply personal joy for me.

Balancing this devotion to history is our commitment to the future. We are thrilled to present three World Premieres this Season — including a new work from Jessica Lang, our Virginia B. Toulmin & Muriel O’Neil Artist in Residence, as well as premieres from Ashley Page and Gemma Bond. Alongside these new voices, we bring the Company Premiere of Balanchine’s Mozartiana, a work of profound elegance, together with his luminous Divertimento No. 15. We also celebrate Dame Alicia Markova’s production of Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Markova joining The Ballets Russes, and we also mark the 90th anniversary of Antony Tudor’s Lilac Garden. Together, these works create a Season that reflects the breadth, depth, and vitality of our art form.

None of this would be possible without the extraordinary dedication and support of those around me. I extend my deepest gratitude to Executive Director Joseph Volpe, Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri, our devoted Board of Directors, our generous donors, our tireless staff, and above all, our remarkable dancers, whose artistry brings these works to life. As we embark on this Season together, I invite you to celebrate not only the richness of ballet’s history but also the thrill of its future.

Thank you for joining us on this journey and for making The Sarasota Ballet such a vital and inspiring part of our community.

PROUD TO BE A PARTNER

in enriching lives, captivating emotions, and strengthening the community through the art of dance.

Each one of us has the potential to impact a person, a cause, a community. For more than 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

Joseph Volpe Executive Director

As we begin The Sarasota Ballet’s 2025–2026 Season, I am filled with both pride and gratitude. To witness this Company’s return to Jacob’s Pillow at the start of the Season, and to reflect on last year’s triumphant London tour to launch the Ashton Worldwide Festival, affirms the growing national and international recognition of our work. These achievements not only highlight the artistry of our dancers and the vision of our Directors, Iain Webb and Margaret Barbieri, but also reinforce The Sarasota Ballet’s place as one of the leading ballet companies in the United States.

This Season embodies the duality that defines us: a devotion to the legacy of ballet’s great masters, especially Sir Frederick Ashton, balanced with a commitment to commissioning bold new creations. It is this dual spirit — honoring the past while embracing the future — that allows The Sarasota Ballet to captivate audiences, inspire artists, and contribute meaningfully to the evolution of ballet today.

Our continued success rests upon the extraordinary support we receive from our Board of Directors, our generous donors, and our devoted audiences, whose belief in this Company is unwavering. Equally vital are the community members, local Foundations, and dedicated corporate partners whose commitment to the arts is a testament to the importance of ballet in today’s world. Their generosity ensures that The Sarasota Ballet can both preserve timeless traditions and bring new works to life for generations to come.

Beyond the stage, we remain steadfast in our dedication to education and outreach. Through The Sarasota Ballet School, The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory, and our many engagement programs, we are nurturing young dancers and opening doors for audiences of all ages to experience the transformative power of this art form. These efforts help secure ballet’s future by ensuring that its history and traditions are not only remembered but lived anew.

As we embark on this Season, I extend my heartfelt thanks for your belief in and support of The Sarasota Ballet. Together, we are proving that ballet continues to matter — as an art form, as a community, and as an enduring source of inspiration. I look forward to sharing this remarkable Season with you, both onstage and in our community.

” Margaret Barbieri Assistant Director

Jean Weidner Goldstein Founder & Chair Emerita

It is my pleasure to welcome you to The Sarasota Ballet’s 2025–2026 Season. Having had the privilege of working with Sir Frederick Ashton, I feel honored to share his legacy, along with the timeless works of Michel Fokine, Sir Peter Wright, and many others, with our Company. Staging these ballets for our dancers and watching them bring such artistry, passion, and life to each performance is one of my greatest joys. Their dedication inspires me every day, and I am so grateful you are here to celebrate their achievements and this remarkable Season with us.

”

”

When I founded The Sarasota Ballet in 1987, I could only dream of the extraordinary journey that lay ahead. To see the Company flourish under the leadership of Iain Webb, Margaret Barbieri, and Joseph Volpe, and to witness the artistry of our remarkable dancers on stages here in Sarasota and around the world, fills me with immense pride. None of this would be possible without the generosity of our supporters and the embrace of this wonderful community. I am deeply grateful for your belief in The Sarasota Ballet and invite you to join me in celebrating another extraordinary Season of dance. ”

Board of Directors

2025 - 2026 SEASON

Sandra DeFeo Board Chair

On behalf of the Board of Directors, welcome to The Sarasota Ballet’s 2025 – 2026 Season. This year is a reflection of the Company’s growth and distinction — from last Season’s triumphant international tour to London to our recent engagement at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and now to the exciting programming that brings both ballet’s greatest legacies and bold new creations to our Sarasota stages. We are proud to support the vision of Iain Webb, Margaret Barbieri, and Joseph Volpe, whose leadership continues to elevate The Sarasota Ballet as one of the leading ballet companies in the United States.

This would not have been possible without you — our patrons, donors, and community — who not only support our dancers on stage, but also our Education and Community Engagement programs to nurture and excite the next generation of ballet dancers and supporters. We are so grateful you are with us as we strive to bring the best of ballet to Sarasota and strengthen our community through the art of dance.

Charles Wilson Board Vice Chair

Pat Kenny Treasurer

Secretary

Advisory Council

2025 - 2026 SEASON

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 as Director. His first Season revolutionized the Company and set it on a path to national and international recognition. Drawing on his career with The Royal Ballet and his close relationships with leading choreographers, Webb introduced Sarasota audiences to extraordinary works by the great masters of the 20th century.

In 2012, former Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet Principal Margaret Barbieri joined full-time as Assistant Director, after staging numerous ballets for the Company. Together, Webb and Barbieri launched the acclaimed 2014 Ashton Festival, which brought dance luminaries from around the world to Sarasota to witness fourteen ballets and divertissements by Sir Frederick Ashton. During this period, the Company also received invitations to perform at prestigious venues across the United States, including The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., New York City Center, and the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.

2016

The next evolution of The Sarasota Ballet began in 2016 with the appointment of Joseph Volpe, former General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, as Executive Director. Volpe strengthened the Company’s economic and administrative foundations, restructuring and expanding staff, reinforcing its financial base, and growing the Board of Directors — bringing The Sarasota Ballet to new heights. Together with Director Iain Webb and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri, Volpe expanded the Company’s national profile, leading tours to The Joyce Theater in New York City and the National Choreographic Festival in Salt Lake City. During this time, the repertoire also deepened with works such as Ashton’s The Dream, Balanchine’s Jewels, and Bintley’s ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café, alongside two major Ashton revivals, Apparitions and Varii Capricci. In 2020, with the onset of the global pandemic, The Sarasota Ballet pivoted to digital streaming, producing seven specially staged programs that reached thousands of audience members in 30 countries.

PRESENT

Under the leadership of Director Iain Webb, Executive Director Joseph Volpe, and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri, The Sarasota Ballet has become one of America’s leading ballet companies. Webb and Barbieri have introduced more than 190 ballets and divertissements, including 63 world premieres and 12 American Company premieres, by many of the most important choreographers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Company has built a reputation for reviving rarely seen ballets while also commissioning new works, including premieres by Jessica Lang, Gemma Bond, and Ashley Page. In 2023–2024, The Sarasota Ballet announced a three-year collaboration with Lang as Virginia B. Toulmin & Muriel O’Neil Artist in Residence, further affirming its role in shaping ballet’s future.

Acclaimed nationally and internationally, the Company embarked on its first international tour in June 2024, performing at London’s Royal Opera House for the Ashton Worldwide Festival, with additional appearances at Jacob’s Pillow, The Kennedy Center, New York City Center, and The Joyce Theater.

Company

Under the direction of Webb since 2007

63 190

42

30,000+

Audience Members Annually World Premieres Ballets and Divertissements

63

Renowned Choreographers Professional Dancers American Company Premieres

12

150+ National and International Reviews

12 National Tours and International Tours

Community Engagement

Aug 1, 2024 - Jul 31, 2025

12,745

2,913

Students Attending Matinee Performances*

465

5,476 Lives Enriched through programs Students Reached through DNG Programs

Community Events Attendees

*During the 24-25 Hurricane Season we traveled to Students in Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte counties

Dance Education

Aug 1, 2024 - Jul 31, 2025

677

55

271 Margaret Barbieri Conservatory Students People Trained through Education classes Summer Programs Students

Repertoire

Under the direction of Webb since 2007

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, Mozartiana, 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, The Beginning, 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]

MEG EGINGTON

Cézanne’s Doubt

FLEMMING FLINDT

The Lesson

MICHEL FOKINE

Les Sylphides, Petrushka

PAVEL FOMIN

Hommage à Chopin

MARCELO GOMES

Dear Life...

MARTHA GRAHAM

Appalachian Spring

RICARDO GRAZIANO

A Study for One, Amorosa, Before Night Falls, En Las Calles de Murcia, In a State of Weightlessness, One Step Closer, 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

JESSICA LANG

The Lorenz Butterfly, Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring, A Time of Beauty

JOE LAYTON

The Grand Tour

LOGAN LEARNED

Nebulous, Scene de Ballet

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

ROBERT NORTH

Troy Game

RUDOLF NUREYEV

Raymonda Act III

ASHLEY PAGE

2025 World Premiere

RENATO PARONI

Rococo Variations

ANNA PAVLOVA

The Dragonfly Solo

EMELIA PERKINS

Washington Square

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]

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

ANTONY TUDOR

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

VASILY VAINONEN

Flames of Paris (Pas de Deux)

HANS VAN MANEN

Grosse Fuge

MACYN VOGT

Exurgency

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

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

Jacob’s Pillow Tour

July 16 – 20, 2025

The Sarasota Ballet began its 2025–2026 Season with a celebrated return to one of the world’s most prestigious stages—Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. From July 16 – 20, 2025, the Company presented six captivating performances, marking its first appearance at the historic festival in a decade.

The program featured a dynamic triple bill that showcased the Company’s artistic breadth and technical brilliance. Audiences were treated to a World Premiere by renowned choreographer Jessica Lang, whose innovative voice continues to shape contemporary ballet. The Lorenz Butterfly was complemented by two beloved ballets by Sir Frederick Ashton, affirming the Company’s deep affinity with the iconic choreographer’s legacy. Adding further excitement, the program included a performance by Resident Guest Principal Misa Kuranaga, whose presence brought additional elegance and star power to the Pillow stage.

As the longest-running international dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow has long been a touchstone for dance excellence, welcoming groundbreaking world premieres and visionary artists from around the globe. Originally founded by Ted Shawn, the festival’s survival was once in jeopardy—until legendary British ballerina Dame Alicia Markova and her partner Anton

Dolin stepped in, leasing the property to keep their company together for summer training. While there, they revived the International Dance Festival and The School, efforts that ultimately saved the institution. Markova would later go on to mentor The Sarasota Ballet’s Margaret Barbieri – coaching her in some of her most iconic roles. Their close working relationship grew to a lasting friendship, which in turn fortified The Sarasota Ballet’s enduring ties to Jacob’s Pillow.

“ “

This feisty Florida ensemble is made up of fine dancers with a unique standing in the American ballet landscape... [they] left audiences breathless with their beauty, spunk, and can-do charm.

Wendy Liberatore, To the Pointe

This summer’s performances were more than a return; they were a celebration of lineage, artistry, and vision. With grace and innovation, The Sarasota Ballet honored its historic ties while inspiring audiences anew—leaving an indelible mark on the Pillow stage and reaffirming its place among the most respected ballet companies performing today.

The intentionality of the work emphasized grace, beauty, and the exquisitely trained execution of a superb classical company... The efforts of Sarasota attempt to correct the imbalance between Balanchine and Ashton in American ballet.

Charles Giuliano, Berkshire Fine Arts “

Returning to Jacob’s Pillow after a decade feels like a full-circle moment, celebrating both our journey and the extraordinary growth of the Company.

Iain Webb and Margaret Barbieri

The Sarasota Ballet extends our heartfelt thanks to our incredible Jacob’s Pillow Tour Sponsors for making our 10th Anniversary return to Jacob’s Pillow Festival possible.

Tour Underwriter

Philip and Janice Levin Foundation

William A. Farber, Trustee

Elite Sponsor

Jean Allenby Goldstein Touring Fund

Gold Sponsors

Shari and Steve Ashman

Bob and Ginger Cannon Bailey

Robert Crandall and Barbara Bankoff

Sandra and Neil Defeo

Charlie Huisking

Huisking Family Fund of The Community Foundation of Sarasota County

Pat and Ann Kenny

Frank and Katherine Martucci

Barbara Stephen Mason

Bill and Linda Mitchell

Silver Sponsors

Bonnie and William Chapman

Marilyn Harwell Trust

Melliss Kenworthy Swenson

In Loving Memory of Curt Swenson

Benefactor Sponsors

Warren and Marie Colbert

Patron Sponsor

D’Anne Hurd

What you’ll find on the Your Observer app:

Hyperlocal news coverage in Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch & Longboat Key

Community events calendar

Inspiring local stories

The best in local arts & entertainment

Download the Your Observer app FREE today and tap into the heart of your local communitywherever you are.

YourObserver.com/app

Program One | October 24 - 26, 2025 FSU Center for the Performing Arts

Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides

Jessica Lang’s The Lorenz Butterfly (World Premiere)

Will Tuckett’s Changing Light

Les Sylphides

Choreography by Michel Fokine

Production by Dame Alicia Markova

Music by Frédéric Chopin

Costume Design by Alexandre Benois

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Staged by Margaret Barbieri and Iain Webb

Michel Fokine Choreographer

Michel Fokine (1880–1942), son of a prosperous merchant, was born in St. Petersburg and entered the Imperial Ballet School at age nine. He made his stage debut with the Imperial Ballet on his 18th birthday in Paquita (1898) and by 1902 was teaching at the school, where his students included Vaslav Nijinsky and Bronislava Nijinska.

Frustrated by the rigid traditions of the Imperial Ballet, Fokine sought to reform ballet by discarding artificial mime, outdated costumes, and meaningless virtuosity. He introduced innovations such as barefoot dancing and more expressive movement. His early works included Acis & Galatea (1905), the iconic solo The Dying Swan for Anna Pavlova, and Chopiniana/Les Sylphides (1908).

His career flourished when Sergei Diaghilev invited him to choreograph for the Ballets Russes in 1909. Over the next few years, Fokine collaborated with leading artists and composers—Bakst, Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy, Chopin, and others—creating landmark ballets such as Cléopatre, Scheherazade, The Firebird (all 1910), Le Spectre de la Rose (1911), and Petrushka (1912). Many featured Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina in roles that became legendary. He also staged dances for operas, including Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel in Paris (1914).

Fokine left The Ballets Russes in 1912 after clashes with Diaghilev and later moved with his family to Sweden and then New York, where he and his wife Vera opened a ballet school. Becoming a U.S. citizen in 1932, he continued to choreograph and teach until his death in 1942. His works remain central to ballet companies worldwide. PROGRAM ONE

This Season, Dame Alicia Markova’s staging of Fokine’s Les Sylphides honors the centenary of her joining the Ballets Russes. First presented in Russia in 1908 as Chopiniana, and redesigned by Alexandre Benois for Diaghilev’s legendary 1909 Paris season, it became a centerpiece of the Ballets Russes and one of Diaghilev’s personal favorites.

Set to Chopin’s piano works orchestrated by Roy Douglas, Les Sylphides is a homage to the great Romantic ballets of the mid-19th century—works such as Giselle and Pas de Quatre—and to the “white acts” of Ivanov’s Swan Lake. Yet it was revolutionary for its time: a plotless ballet, defined instead by atmosphere and style. Fokine called it “the personification of a poetic vision,” and with its single male hero in black velvet and a corps of sylph-like women in white tulle, it endures as the first and definitive “mood ballet.”

Dame Alicia Markova

Former Ballet Russes

Dame Alicia Markova, born Lilian Alice Marks in London, was Britain’s first prima ballerina and one of the twentieth century’s most influential dancers. Discovered as a prodigy, she joined Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at fourteen and became internationally celebrated for her lyricism and her definitive Giselle. She helped shape British ballet with the Vic-Wells Ballet and went on to co-found the Markova–Dolin Ballet and the London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet). A star on international stages, she also championed ballet through touring, teaching, and directing. Appointed Dame in 1963, she left a transformative legacy on dance history.

Alexandre Benois Costume Designer

Alexandre Benois (1870–1960), born in St. Petersburg to a distinguished artistic family, first trained in law but soon turned to art. His Versaillesinspired watercolors of 1897 drew the attention of Sergei Diaghilev and Léon Bakst, with whom he co-founded an art magazine promoting art nouveau in Russia. In 1901 he became scene director at the Mariinsky Theatre, designing his first ballets. Moving to Paris in 1905, Benois created influential stage designs for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, including Les Sylphides, Giselle, and Petrushka. After curating the Hermitage (1918–1926), he settled permanently in France, publishing memoirs before his death in Paris.

Frédéric Chopin Composer

Frédéric François Chopin (1810–1849), born in Poland to French-Polish parents, showed early brilliance at the Warsaw Conservatory. After the failed 1830 uprising, he left his homeland for Paris, where he became celebrated as both pianist and composer. Though he gave fewer than 30 public concerts, his artistry in salons and his revolutionary works—Études, Nocturnes, Mazurkas, and Polonaises—secured his fame. Admired by Schumann and connected with Liszt, Berlioz, and Delacroix, he also had a long, formative relationship with writer George Sand. In declining health, he gave his final concert in London in 1848. Chopin died in Paris the following year, his heart returned to Warsaw.

Premiered by The Ballets Russes | March 20, 1908

First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet | January 30, 2009

PROGRAM ONE

The Lorenz Butterfly

World Premiere

Choreography by Jessica Lang

Music by Robert Schumann

Costume Design by Jillian Lewis

Visual and Set Design by Jessica Lang

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Jessica Lang Choreographer

Jessica Lang is an American director and choreographer based in New York City. She currently serves as The Sarasota Ballet’s Virginia B. Toulmin & Muriel O’Neil Artist in Residence and Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Resident Choreographer. 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, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet, the National Ballet of Japan, and her eponymous company Jessica Lang Dance, among many others.

Her opera credits include directing and choreographing Stabat Mater at Glimmerglass Opera Festival, later presented

at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival, and choreographing San Francisco Opera’s Aida, seen at Washington National Opera (WNO), Seattle Opera, and LA Opera. She co-choreographed Turnadot with her Creative Associate Kanji Segawa for WNO, and Salome for Des Moines Opera.

She has also created works for the Kennedy Center, The Harris Theater, Dallas Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, and served as movement advisor for Carolina Herrera’s Pre-Fall 2022 collection. As Artistic Director of Jessica Lang Dance (2011–2019), the company was presented in over 85 cities at venues including Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, BAM Fisher, and Tel Aviv Opera House. A Juilliard graduate and former member of Twyla Tharp’s company, Lang is the recipient of the 2018 Martha Hill Mid-Career Award, 2017 Arison Award, and 2014 Bessie Award and has been a fellow of NY City Center, and The Center for Ballet at NYU. In 2019 named Choreographer-in-Residence at Princeton University.

In Jessica Lang’s World Premiere The Lorenz Butterfly, chaos theory meets color theory, offering a glimpse into her artistic process that often begins with the self meditative act of painting. For Lang, the brushstrokes mirror movement—fluid, expressive, and instinctual—free from critique or constraint. Chaos theory, which uncovers structures within disorder, proposes a scientific framework behind what initially may seem unpredictable. Color theory in nature often signals important ideas and changes – a grey sky fortells an approaching storm, itself an agent of change. Lang’s intent is to reflect these abstract ideas in her ballet, framed within a backdrop created from Lang’s paintings that were themselves born from this exploration of chaos, color, and change.

Robert Schumann Composer

Robert Schumann (1810–1856) stands as one of the great voices of Romanticism, blending music and poetry with rare imagination. A gifted critic as well as a composer, he championed young talents like Chopin and Brahms while shaping a rich body of works himself. His marriage to pianist Clara Wieck inspired a flowering of songs, including Dichterliebe and Frauenliebe und -leben. Schumann later turned to piano, chamber, and orchestral works, creating music of passion, intimacy, and dreamlike beauty. Though his life was shadowed by illness, his art endures as a profound testament to Romantic spirit and human longing.

Ethan Vail

Lighting Design

Ethan Vail, originally from Indiana, is a lighting designer whose passion for illuminating dance began at Purdue University. Since then, he has designed numerous ballets, from full-length works like Johan Kobborg’s La Sylphide to one-act masterpieces by Ashton, Balanchine, and MacMillan. He has also created original designs for choreographers Jessica Lang, Gemma Bond, and Ricardo Graziano. Beyond ballet, his work has appeared at Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, Urbanite Theatre, and Asolo Repertory Theatre. Career highlights include receiving the 2013 USITT Young Designers Award and lighting The Sarasota Ballet’s 2024 performances at London’s Royal Opera House.

Jillian Lewis

Costume Designer

Jillian Lewis is a New York–based fashion and costume designer with nearly two decades of industry experience. A Parsons School of Design graduate, she has held senior roles including Design Director at Ralph Lauren and Senior Design Contributor at Anthropologie. She gained national recognition on Season 4 of Bravo’s Project Runway, where her collection reached the final three and debuted at Bryant Park. Today, through Jillian Lewis Inc., she creates fashion collections, luxury uniforms, and ballet costumes for companies such as American Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet, and more.

PROGRAM ONE

Changing Light

Choreography by Will Tuckett

Music by Jeremy Holland-Smith

Costume Design by Bill Fenner

Lighting Design by Aaron Muhl

Staged by Victoria Hulland, Octavio Martin, & Ricardo Graziano

Will

Tuckett

Choreographer

As well as choreographing for and performing as a member of the Royal Ballet for over 25 years, Will is a multi award winning, internationally renowned director and choreographer, working in Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan and China.

He has directed and choreographed in theatre, opera, musical-theatre and film, including work for The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, National Ballet of Japan, National Ballet of China, Texas Ballet Theatre, The Sarasota Ballet, ABT Studio Company, The Royal Opera, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Garsington Opera, Grange Park Opera, Bregenz Festspiele, Sadlers Wells Theatre, Barbican Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare’s Globe,

Almeida Theatre, PARCO Tokyo, New National Theatre Tokyo, Sage Gateshead, Latitude Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Tate Modern, The National Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, the BBC, Channel 4, Sky Arts, Working Title and 87North.

He also acts as an arts consultant and was the first ROH2 Creative Associate for The Royal Opera House and was the 2008 Clore Dance Fellow. His Olivier Award winning ROH production of The Wind in the WIllows was the first to ever transfer into the West End and he has been nominated for three Critics Circle awards, two Evening Standard and Southbank awards.

Choreographer Will Tuckett created his first commissioned work for The Sarasota Ballet under Director Iain Webb with Changing Light. The ballet grew from a new score by composer Jeremy Holland-Smith, whose music accompanied Tuckett’s arrival in Sarasota. Crossing the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at sunset, he found the missing inspiration: the city itself. The shifting colors over sea and sky—blue, orange, pink, and purple—became the ballet’s heart.

Rehearsals were, in Tuckett’s words, “pure pleasure,” as the dancers’ passion and energy shaped the choreography. Onstage, lighting designer Aaron Muhl recreated the luminous beauty of that first sunset. Created during a time of uncertainty, Changing Light embodies faith, hope, and the power of dance to move forward together. As it returns to The Sarasota Ballet, Tuckett reflects on his joy in revisiting the piece with a company that continues to inspire him.

Jeremy Holland-Smith Composer

Jeremy Holland-Smith is a composer, orchestrator, and conductor whose career spans film, television, ballet, theatre, and concert music. Trained at the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music, he has built an international reputation for his versatility and artistry. His work includes scores for feature films, acclaimed collaborations in television, original music for ballet, and orchestration for major studios and stage productions. As a conductor, he has led distinguished orchestras across the UK and abroad, including a debut at the BBC Proms, showcasing the remarkable breadth of his musical achievements.

Aaron Muhl

Lighting Designer

Aaron Muhl, a Sarasota native, has over 20 years of experience in the performing arts. A graduate of the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Theatrical Design and Technology, he began his career as a freelance designer before serving as Technical Director of the Historic Asolo Theater from 2006–2019. For 15 years, Aaron was also The Sarasota Ballet’s resident lighting designer, creating or recreating over 100 ballets. His work has been seen at The Kennedy Center, The Joyce Theatre, New York City Center, and Jacob’s Pillow, with recent designs for Mthuthuzeli November, Omar Roman de Jesus, and Rosie Herrera.

Bill Fenner

Costume Designer

Bill Fenner is a costume designer best known for his longtime work with The Sarasota Ballet, where he served as Costume Director and Designer for more than a decade. He created and supervised costumes for numerous productions, combining artistry, craftsmanship, and an understanding of movement. Fenner’s designs, including the pink-and-black tutus for Shostakovich Suite, earned praise for their elegance and impact. He was also featured for his work on John Ringling’s Circus Nutcracker, showcasing his creativity in reimagining ballet traditions. Fenner’s dedication and vision left a lasting mark on Sarasota’s performing arts community.

Program Two | November 21 – 22, 2025

Sarasota Opera House

Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

Sir Frederick Ashton’s Valses nobles et sentimentales

Mark Morris’ The Letter V

Ashley Page’s World Premiere

PROGRAM TWO

Valses nobles et sentimentales

Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton

Music by Maurice Ravel

Costume Design by Sophie Fedorovitch

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Staged by Margaret Barbieri and Iain Webb

Sir Frederick Ashton Choreographer

Sir Frederick Ashton (1904–1988) was born in Ecuador and resolved to dance after seeing Anna Pavlova perform in Lima in 1917. In London he studied with Léonide Massine and later with Dame Marie Rambert, who encouraged his first choreographic ventures, including A Tragedy of Fashion (1926). After dancing briefly with Ida Rubinstein’s company, he accepted Dame Ninette de Valois’ invitation in 1935 to join her Vic-Wells Ballet as both dancer and choreographer, beginning a lifelong association with what would become The Royal Ballet.

His career extended beyond the company to opera, film, revues, and international commissions, but it was at Covent Garden, after wartime service in the RAF, that he created

Symphonic Variations (1946), affirming a new postwar spirit. Over the following decades he choreographed ballets often tailored to individual dancers, among them Cinderella (1948), Daphnis and Chloe (1951), Romeo and Juliet (1955), Ondine (1958), La Fille mal gardée (1960), The Two Pigeons (1961), Marguerite and Armand (1963), and The Dream (1964).

Ashton was appointed Associate Director of The Royal Ballet in 1952 and succeeded de Valois as Director from 1963 to 1970, during which time he also created works such as Monotones II (1965), Enigma Variations (1968), A Month in the Country (1976), and the film The Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971), in which he performed as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. Knighted in 1962 and later named Founder Choreographer of The Royal Ballet, Ashton left a body of work distinguished by versatility, musical sensitivity, and theatrical imagination.

Maurice Ravel’s fascination with the waltz produced his Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911), first performed anonymously in Paris and later orchestrated in 1912 as Adélaïde, ou le langage des fleurs. Music writer Roger Nichols praised the suite for offering “nostalgia without incoherence, sentiment without sentimentality.”

Sir Frederick Ashton first used Ravel’s score in 1935 for Valentine’s Eve with Ballet Rambert, returning to it in 1947 for Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet. This version reflected postwar Britain’s longing for elegance and escape, its lyrical dances woven seamlessly into Ravel’s ravishing music.

Designer Sophie Fedorovitch enhanced the atmosphere with abstract screens, silhouetted palms, and costumes of velvet and tulle in maroon and pink. Evoking both Romantic ballet and Dior’s “New Look,” her designs framed Ashton’s stylish homage to Ravel—an enduring celebration of glamour and grace.

Maurice Ravel Composer

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), born in Ciboure to a Basque mother and Swiss father, grew up in Paris and studied at the Conservatoire under Gabriel Fauré. Influenced by Debussy, he developed a distinctive style shaped by Impressionism, neoclassicism, jazz, and his lifelong love of Spanish music. Early masterpieces included the String Quartet (1903), Rapsodie Espagnole (1907), and the ballet Daphnis et Chloé (1912). Later works such as Le tombeau de Couperin (1917), La Valse (1920), L’enfant et les sortilèges (1925), Bolero (1928), and the two Piano Concertos (1930–31) cemented his fame. His orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (1922) remains definitive.

Sophie Fedorovitch

Designer

Sophie Fedorovitch (1883–1953) was an Anglo-Russian designer whose collaborations with Sir Frederick Ashton were central to the growth of British ballet. Born in Minsk to Polish parents, she studied art in Kraków before emigrating west in 1920, becoming a British citizen in 1940. She first worked with Ashton on A Tragedy of Fashion (1926) and went on to design for many of his ballets, including Les Masques, Le Baiser de la fée, Symphonic Variations, and Orpheus and Eurydice. She also designed operas for Covent Garden. Ashton dedicated A Month in the Country to her memory, praising her clarity of vision.

PROGRAM TWO

The Letter V

Choreography by Mark

Morris

Music by Joseph Haydn

Costume Design by Maile Okamura

Lighting Design by Nicole Pierce

Staged by Noah Vinson

Mark Morris Choreographer

Mark Morris was praised as “the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical” (The New York Times), was born on August 29, 1956, in Seattle, Washington. 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 opened the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, New York, in 2001 to provide a home for his company, subsidized rental space for local artists, community education programs for children and seniors, and a school offering dance classes to students of all ages and levels of experience with and without disabilities. Morris’ memoir, Out Loud, co-written with Wesley Stace, was published by Penguin Press in hardcover in 2019 and paperback in 2021.

Commissioned in 2015 by Stanton Welch for Houston Ballet, The Letter V marked the first collaboration between the Company and legendary American modern dance choreographer Mark Morris, though Morris had long created works for leading ballet companies including American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, and the Paris Opera Ballet.

Set to Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G Major, with lighting by Nicole Pearce and costumes by Maile Okamura, the ballet exemplifies Morris’ dynamic style and signature musicality. Its title comes from Haydn’s works once being catalogued by the alphabet, with this symphony designated “V.”

Reflecting on his process, Morris explained that he enters the studio with only the music studied, creating intuitively with the dancers before him. This spontaneity and vitality shine through in the finished ballet. Reviewing its New York premiere, The New York Times critic Gia Kourlas wrote she “only wanted to watch another ballet by Mr. Morris.”

Joseph Haydn Composer

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), often called the “Father of the Symphony,” was born in Rohrau, Austria. A chorister at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, he left the choir as a teenager and built his career as a freelance musician before becoming Kapellmeister to Count Morzin in 1757. From 1761 he served the Esterházy family for nearly three decades, composing prolifically under their patronage. International fame followed, especially after two successful trips to England (1791–92, 1794–95) that produced the celebrated “London” symphonies. Returning to Vienna, Haydn continued composing until ill health ended his career. He died in 1809.

Nicole Pierce

Lighting Designer

Nicole Pearce has designed thirteen works with Mark Morris, including All Fours, Cargo, and Candleflowerdance, and created Carnaval for Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble and Up and Down for Boston Ballet. She has collaborated with choreographers Robert Battle, Jessica Lang, Aszure Barton, John Heginbotham, Andrea Miller, Alexander Ekman, and Brian Brooks, and designed for companies such as Alvin Ailey, Joffrey Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Memphis, and The Joyce Theater. Her New York theater credits include The American Dream and The Sandbox (Edward Albee), Beebo Brinker Chronicles, Edgewise, Trouble in Mind, and Savage in Love

Maile Okamura Costume Design

Maile Okamura has designed and constructed dance and opera costumes for the Mark Morris Dance Group, Dance Heginbotham, Atlanta Ballet, Tanglewood Music Festival, American Classical Orchestra, Bard College, and Middlebury College. She danced with the Mark Morris Dance Group from 1998 to 2015.

Premiered by Houston Ballet | May 28, 2015 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet | April 29, 2022

PROGRAM TWO

World Premiere

Choreography by Ashley Page

Music by Igor Stravinsky

Costume Design by Emma Kingsbury

Set Design by Ashley Page and Ethan Vail

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Ashley Page

Choreographer

Ashley Page, born in Kent, began training locally before entering The Royal Ballet Schools. He joined The Royal Ballet in 1976, where formative collaborations with Sir Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, and Richard Alston profoundly shaped his artistry. Promoted to Principal Dancer in 1984, he combined a distinguished performing career with choreography, creating 17 works for the Company and receiving commissions from Rambert Dance Company, Dutch National Ballet, and others.

His choreography—praised for bold collaborations and stylistic versatility—has since been performed internationally by leading companies including San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, and

Vienna State Ballet. In 2002, after 27 years with The Royal Ballet, Page was appointed Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet. Over the next decade he revitalized the company, creating acclaimed full-length productions and expanding its repertoire with contemporary works and new commissions. Now working internationally as a freelance choreographer and opera director, Page continues to bring his distinctive voice to ballet.

His collaboration with The Sarasota Ballet marks his first World Premiere for the Company. Page’s achievements have been recognized with numerous honors, including the Olivier Award, the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement, and appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

F

ollowing an inspiring visit to observe the Company’s dancers, choreographer Ashley Page began shaping his new work, marking his first collaboration with The Sarasota Ballet. Drawn by the sense of balance in Stravinsky’s WWIIera score - where vigorous energies offset a mysterious serenity - the music thus became a guiding force for the dancers’ behavior.

Responding directly to the music, the ballet unfolds as an abstract exploration of contrasting atmospheres, with two leading couples gradually emerging from within the ensemble. The more delicate and languid central section is defined by a sense of intimacy, offering a moment of calm relief amid the surrounding dark intensity of the outer sections.

The designs echo these tensions, with the leading dancers clad in more familiar clothing while the ensemble is more streamlined. Above it all, a watchful presence passes slowly over the scene.

Igor Stravinsky Composer

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971), born in St. Petersburg, studied music with Rimsky-Korsakov after first pursuing law. His early ballets for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes—The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913)—brought him worldwide fame and redefined modern music. Exiled by war and revolution, he settled in France, creating neoclassical masterpieces such as Pulcinella, Apollo, and Symphony of Psalms. Emigrating to the United States in 1939, he embraced new styles, from The Rake’s Progress (1951) to the serialist Agon (1957) with Balanchine. Stravinsky’s career was one of continual reinvention, his influence echoing across ballet, opera, and concert music.

Emma Kingsbury Costume Design

Emma Kingsbury has designed extensively for film, ballet and opera. Emma has designed for a number of US ballet companies including San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, BalletX, Pennsylvania Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Richmond Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Texas Ballet Theater. International designs for dance include for København Danser in Copenhagen, The Crucible for Scottish Ballet winning the UK Award for Dance, Cinderella Royal New Zealand Ballet and for Hessisches Staatsballett, Germany. Emma is currently costume designing Der Ring des Nibelungen with La Scala, Milan and a new Sleeping Beauty

WEDU Arts Plus is a weekly program devoted to sharing vibrant stories about arts and culture in our community.

wedu.org/artsplus or on the PBS app.

Program Three | December 19 - 20, 2025 Sarasota Opera House

Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15

George Balanchine’s Mozartiana (Company Premiere)

Sir Frederick Ashton’s Jazz Calendar

PROGRAM THREE

Divertimento No. 15

Choreography by George Balanchine

Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Costume Design by Peter Farmer

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Staged by Sandra Jennings

George Balanchine Choreographer

George Balanchine (1904–1983), born Georgi Balanchivadze in St. Petersburg, became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century ballet. A graduate of the Petrograd Imperial Ballet School, he also studied piano and composition, joining the Mariinsky Ballet in 1921. In 1924 he left the Soviet Union, and Sergei Diaghilev soon appointed him chief choreographer of the Ballets Russes, where he created Apollo (1928) and Prodigal Son (1929), works that defined his neoclassical style.

After Diaghilev’s death, Balanchine worked across Europe before moving to the United States in 1933 with arts patron Lincoln Kirstein. Together they founded the School of American Ballet, from which emerged several companies

that culminated in New York City Ballet (1948), where Balanchine served as Ballet Master until his death.

Balanchine’s vast output includes collaborations with Igor Stravinsky and other leading composers, blending classical technique with modernist clarity and musical sophistication. His ballets—Serenade, Concerto Barocco, Jewels, Agon, and many more—redefined the art form, emphasizing speed, precision, and musicality over narrative. He also choreographed extensively for Broadway and film during the 1930s and 1940s, including On Your Toes and The Boys from Syracuse.

Known as the father of American ballet, Balanchine created a neoclassical aesthetic that gave the United States its own ballet identity. His legacy endures worldwide, his ballets still central to the repertoire of major companies.

George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15 is among his purest studies of classical form, set to Mozart’s radiant score. He arranged five ballerinas and three cavaliers into shifting ensembles and duets, mirroring Mozart’s elegance and inventiveness in choreography that is playful, refined, and surprising.

The ballet is especially admired for its Andante, where instead of a single pas de deux Balanchine created a series, each pairing dancers in luminous, fleeting encounters. His musical sensitivity is evident throughout: cadenzas originally intended for improvisation were specially composed for violin and viola, while the score was streamlined for theatrical clarity.

Balanchine first used this music in 1952 for Caracole, then reimagined it in 1956 for Mozart’s bicentennial, creating the definitive Divertimento No. 15. Hailed as one of his finest “plotless” ballets, it endures as a jewel of neoclassicism— demanding in technique, exquisite in style, and a celebration of dance as pure musical expression.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Composer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was one of the most prolific and influential composers of the Classical era, leaving over 600 works spanning symphonic, chamber, operatic, choral, and sacred music. Born in Salzburg, he displayed prodigious talent from childhood, composing by age five and touring Europe as a performer. At 17 he became a court musician in Salzburg, before settling in Vienna in 1781, where he composed many of his greatest masterpieces. Though admired, he often faced financial struggles. Married to Constanze Weber, he fathered six children, two surviving infancy. His Requiem remains among his most enduring works.

Peter Farmer Costume Designer

Peter Farmer (1941–2017), born in Luton, enjoyed a prolific career in theatre design, creating sets and costumes for more than 300 productions worldwide. Especially admired for his work in dance, he collaborated with leading companies including The Royal Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, London Festival Ballet, Australian Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Vienna State Opera. His first ballet design, Agrionia (1964) for Ballet Rambert, began long associations with choreographers such as Jack Carter, Ashton, MacMillan, and Wright. Renowned for his lyrical style and theatrical sensitivity, Farmer’s designs left a lasting impact on twentieth-century ballet and theatre design.

PROGRAM THREE

Mozartiana

Company Premiere

Choreography by George Balanchine

Music by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky

Costume Design by Rouben Ter-Arutunian

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Staged by Maria Calegari

George Balanchine Choreographer

George Balanchine (1904–1983), born Georgi Balanchivadze in St. Petersburg, became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century ballet. A graduate of the Petrograd Imperial Ballet School, he also studied piano and composition, joining the Mariinsky Ballet in 1921. In 1924 he left the Soviet Union, and Sergei Diaghilev soon appointed him chief choreographer of the Ballets Russes, where he created Apollo (1928) and Prodigal Son (1929), works that defined his neoclassical style.

After Diaghilev’s death, Balanchine worked across Europe before moving to the United States in 1933 with arts patron Lincoln Kirstein. Together they founded the School of American Ballet, from which emerged several companies

that culminated in New York City Ballet (1948), where Balanchine served as Ballet Master until his death.

Balanchine’s vast output includes collaborations with Igor Stravinsky and other leading composers, blending classical technique with modernist clarity and musical sophistication. His ballets—Serenade, Concerto Barocco, Jewels, Agon, and many more—redefined the art form, emphasizing speed, precision, and musicality over narrative. He also choreographed extensively for Broadway and film during the 1930s and 1940s, including On Your Toes and The Boys from Syracuse.

Known as the father of American ballet, Balanchine created a neoclassical aesthetic that gave the United States its own ballet identity. His legacy endures worldwide, his ballets still central to the repertoire of major companies.

S

et to Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 4—his orchestration of Mozart’s short works—Balanchine’s Mozartiana bridges centuries of homage. Tchaikovsky’s reverence for Mozart resonated deeply with Balanchine, who first choreographed to the suite in 1933 and returned in 1981 to create one of his final masterpieces. The ballet opens with the solemn Preghiera (“Prayer”), a hushed meditation that sets a spiritual tone. Variations follow, showcasing brilliance and sensitivity as dancers trace intricate patterns to Mozart’s themes refracted through Tchaikovsky’s lush orchestration. The work culminates in a buoyant Gigue, its sparkling rhythms translated into exhilarating movement. More than illustration, Mozartiana becomes an exploration of spirit—Mozart’s clarity transformed by Tchaikovsky’s Romantic voice, reimagined in Balanchine’s neoclassicism. Prayerful, joyous, and luminous, the ballet reveals the “inner sadness and delicate harmony” of the music. It endures as Balanchine’s profound farewell to the composer he revered above all others.

Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky Composer

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) gave Romantic music some of its most beloved and enduring works. Trained at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and later a professor in Moscow, he soon devoted himself entirely to composition. His music marries lyrical beauty with deep emotional resonance, from the sweeping melodies of his Piano Concerto No. 1 to the theatrical brilliance of his ballets. With Swan Lake (1876), The Sleeping Beauty (1890), and The Nutcracker (1892), Tchaikovsky transformed ballet into a richly symphonic art form. His works, filled with passion and poignancy, continue to captivate audiences around the world.

Rouben Ter-Arutunian Costume Design

Rouben Ter-Arutunian (1920–1992) was a prolific scenic and costume designer whose work spanned ballet, opera, theater, film, and television. Born on July 20, 1920, in Tbilisi, Georgia, to Armenian parents, he spent his early childhood in Paris before his family settled in Berlin. He later emigrated to the United States, where he became closely associated with New York City Ballet, designing striking productions that showcased his flair for color, texture, and theatrical imagination. TerArutunian’s artistry left a lasting mark on twentieth-century stage design, celebrated for its elegance, versatility, and deep sensitivity to music and movement.

PROGRAM THREE

Jazz Calendar

Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton

Music by Sir Richard Rodney Bennet

Costume Design by Derek Jarman

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Staged by Margaret Barbieri

Sir Frederick Ashton

Choreographer

Sir Frederick Ashton (1904–1988) was born in Ecuador and resolved to dance after seeing Anna Pavlova perform in Lima in 1917. In London he studied with Léonide Massine and later with Dame Marie Rambert, who encouraged his first choreographic ventures, including A Tragedy of Fashion (1926). After dancing briefly with Ida Rubinstein’s company, he accepted Dame Ninette de Valois’ invitation in 1935 to join her Vic-Wells Ballet as both dancer and choreographer, beginning a lifelong association with what would become The Royal Ballet.

His career extended beyond the company to opera, film, revues, and international commissions, but it was at Covent Garden, after wartime service in the RAF, that he created

Symphonic Variations (1946), affirming a new postwar spirit. Over the following decades he choreographed ballets often tailored to individual dancers, among them Cinderella (1948), Daphnis and Chloe (1951), Romeo and Juliet (1955), Ondine (1958), La Fille mal gardée (1960), The Two Pigeons (1961), Marguerite and Armand (1963), and The Dream (1964).

Ashton was appointed Associate Director of The Royal Ballet in 1952 and succeeded de Valois as Director from 1963 to 1970, during which time he also created works such as Monotones II (1965), Enigma Variations (1968), A Month in the Country (1976), and the film The Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971), in which he performed as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. Knighted in 1962 and later named Founder Choreographer of The Royal Ballet, Ashton left a body of work distinguished by versatility, musical sensitivity, and theatrical imagination.

When an opera production of Aïda was abruptly canceled in 1968, Sir Frederick Ashton was asked to create a new ballet on short notice. Inspired by the nursery rhyme “Monday’s Child,” he crafted Jazz Calendar, a witty suite of dances reimagining each day of the week through a 1960s jazz lens.

Ashton collaborated with designer Derek Jarman, who created candy-colored unitards, skull-caps, and bubble wigs that critics likened to “moving liquorice all-sorts.”

Composer Richard Rodney Bennett supplied a vibrant jazz suite, scored for saxophones, trumpets, piano, and bass, whose styles ranged from waltz to slow blues.

Each rhyme became a vignette—vanity for Monday, a lyrical trio for Tuesday, parody of the Sleeping Beauty Rose Adagio for Wednesday, playful group dances, blues duets, and a finale nodding to television variety shows. Premiered with Merle Park, Rudolf Nureyev, and Antoinette Sibley, Jazz Calendar dazzled with humor, style, and Ashton’s impeccable timing.

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (1936–2012), born in Broadstairs, Kent, grew up in a musical family and began composing young. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Lennox Berkeley and Howard Ferguson, and, through Elizabeth Lutyens, discovered a passion for the avant-garde. A French government scholarship enabled him to study with Pierre Boulez and attend Darmstadt, shaping his distinctive “neo-Romantic serialism.” Bennett composed prolifically across genres, including three operas in the 1960s (The Mines of Sulphur, A Penny for a Song, Victory), choral and orchestral works, concertos, and the popular children’s opera All the King’s Men. He lived in New York from 1979 until his death.

Derek Jarman (1942–1994) was one of Britain’s most original and uncompromising artists, whose vision crossed film, painting, poetry, design, and autobiography. Invited by Sir Frederick Ashton to design Jazz Calendar (1968), he brought a painter’s eye and a poet’s imagination to every medium he touched. His films—lyrical, provocative, and often defiantly personal— redefined the possibilities of avant-garde cinema, from Caravaggio to the haunting Blue. Jarman’s work fused beauty and rebellion, intimacy and spectacle, leaving a legacy that continues to inspire. He remains celebrated as a fearless auteur and a singular voice in twentieth-century British art.

SRQ MAGAZINE + SRQ DAILY

EXPLORE ARTS AND CULTURAL EXPERIENCES IN SARASOTA AND MANATEE COUNTIES EVERY MONTH IN THE PAGES OF SRQ MAGAZINE AND EVERY FRIDAY IN THE ONLINE SRQ DAILY ENEWSLETTER

DANCE, VISUAL ARTS, THEATER, ARCHITECTURE, OPERA MUSIC+ART EXHIBITS

SRQ ARTS ANNUAL GUIDE

SHOWCASING FLORIDA’S CULTURAL COAST® IN THE SRQARTS ANNUAL GUIDE TO THE SEASON IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE LIVING ARTS FESTIVAL.

REACHING ARTS AFICIONADOS IN MIAMI, FT LAUDERDALE, PALM BEACH, NAPLES, ST. PETERSBURG AND TAMPA ST PETERSBURG

Program Four | January 30 – February 2, 2026

FSU Center for the Performing Arts

Gemma Bond’s World Premiere

Antony Tudor’s Lilac Garden

Ricardo Graziano’s Valsinhas

PROGRAM FOUR

World Premiere

Choreography by Gemma Bond

Music by Henry Purcell

Costume Design by Lauren Starobin

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

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.

I

n a shift away from her typically abstract style, Gemma Bond’s world premiere marks a turning point in her artistic evolution. By revisiting an earlier work created years prior, Bond refines what once felt unfinished, approaching it now with fresh insight and emotional nuance, which she believes has evolved with her over time as a choreographer. The music of Henry Purcell, somber yet grounded, remains the only element from the original, now used in different ways to support a deeper sense of narration and storytelling. Described by Bond as a “gathering of people,” the piece unfolds in fleeting, memory-like moments. Rather than defined characters, the dancers embody presence—individuals linked by something intangible and unseen yet deeply felt. Dressed in formal attire and set in a more anchored atmosphere, Bond continues to expand her choreographic voice while also reshaping the ballet into a meditation on time, loss, and the power of shared experience.

Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell (born c. 1659, London, England—died November 21, 1695, London) was an English composer of the middle Baroque period, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, Dido and Aeneas; and his incidental music to a version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream called The Fairy Queen. Purcell, the most important English composer of his time, composed music covering a wide field: the church, the stage, the court, and private entertainment. His individual inventiveness marked him as the most original English composer of his time as well as one of the most original in Europe.

Lauren Starobin is a New York–based costume and fashion designer whose work merges couture craftsmanship with contemporary performance. She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, Studio Berçot in Paris, and the Fashion Institute of Technology, and her designs have appeared on world-class ballet stages as well as in projects for major pop stars. A recipient of awards for concept creation and intimate apparel design, Lauren is recognized for her precision and artistry. This marks her sixth collaboration with choreographer Gemma Bond and her fourth project with The Sarasota Ballet, a continuing partnership that has become a vital platform for her creative and artistic evolution.

PROGRAM FOUR

Lilac Garden

Choreography by Antony

Tudor

Music by Ernest Chausson

Designed by Raymond Sovey, after Hugh Stevenson

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Staged by Amanda McKerrow & John Gardner

Antony Tudor Choreographer

It took Marie Rambert’s instinct for talent to recognize the potential in 19-year-old William Cook (born 1908 in London), then an invoice clerk at Smithfield Market. Stage-struck and determined, he came to her Ballet Club for lessons after work, becoming her stage manager, pianist, and assistant. Adopting the name Antony Tudor, he soon emerged as Frederick Ashton’s chief British choreographic rival of the 1930s.

Tudor’s debut, Cross-Garter’d (1931), drew praise from Léonide Massine and was followed by Lysistrata, Adam and Eve (1932), The Planets (1934), and the acclaimed Lilac Garden (1936) and Dark Elegies (1937). Witty works such as Judgment of Paris and Gala Performance (1938) displayed his

range. That same year, frustrated with Rambert’s demands, he co-founded London Ballet with Andrée Howard, Agnes de Mille, and Hugh Laing, his lifelong partner.

In 1939 Tudor accepted Lucia Chase’s invitation to Ballet Theatre in New York, beginning a long association with the company (later American Ballet Theatre). As Resident Choreographer, he restaged earlier works and created the seminal Pillar of Fire (1942). Retiring from performance in 1950, he directed the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School and taught at Juilliard and UCLA, while choreographing for New York City Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada. He briefly led the Royal Swedish Ballet (1963–64) before returning to ABT in 1974 as Associate Artistic Director, where he created late works including The Leaves Are Fading (1975).

A committed Zen Buddhist, Tudor died in New York in 1987, remembered for choreography of psychological and emotional depth.

Created in 1936, Antony Tudor’s Lilac Garden is a landmark of twentieth-century ballet, shifting away from fantasy toward psychological realism. Beneath the refined surface of an Edwardian garden party, Tudor reveals private anguish and longing.

Caroline, the hostess, is about to wed “The Man She Must Marry,” though her true love is among the guests. Their brief encounters are shadowed by the presence of “An Episode in His Past,” a glamorous former mistress of Caroline’s fiancé. Public decorum masks unspoken passion, regret, and resignation.

Tudor’s choreography, classical yet pared to essentials, invests every gesture with intent—from Caroline’s first quiet breath to her final exhalation. Set to Ernest Chausson’s rhapsodic Poème for violin and orchestra, the ballet’s emotional intensity mirrors the music’s melancholy lyricism. Lilac Garden endures as one of Tudor’s most powerful works, capturing the tension between social duty and the heart’s unfulfilled desires.

Ernest Chausson (1855–1899) was born in Paris to a prosperous family and studied composition with Jules Massenet at the Conservatoire. Influenced early by Massenet’s lyricism, his style deepened after exposure to Wagner in Bayreuth and the symbolist poets, blending Romantic richness with the emerging Impressionism of Debussy. His works include the opera Le Roi Arthus, the Symphony in B-flat, the song cycle Poème de l’amour et de la Mer, and the violin masterpiece Poème. As secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique, he fostered French music while hosting artists such as Debussy, Fauré, Mallarmé, Turgenev, and Monet.

Raymond Sovey (c. 1894–1966) was an American designer renowned for his work in theater, opera, and ballet. He studied at Columbia University and began his career designing sets, costumes, and lighting on Broadway. Among his many credits, Sovey is credited with designing the original costumes for Jardin aux Lilas (Lilac Garden) after sketches by Hugh Stevenson. He earned a Tony Award nomination for costume design on All the Way Home. Sovey’s designs were distinguished by their elegance, precision, and harmony with dramatic storytelling. He passed away in Columbus, Ohio in 1966.

Premiered by Ballet Rambert | January 26, 1936 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet | October 24, 2008

PROGRAM FOUR

Valsinhas

Choreography by Ricardo Graziano

Music by Franz Schubert

Costume design by Bill Fenner

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

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 Circumstances, Valsinhas, Before Night Falls, En las Calles de Murcia, Sonata in Four Movements, The Jolly Overture, Somewhere, Amorosa, Sonatina, The Pilgrimage, Schubert Variations, and A Study for One 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 One Step Closer, his first ballet for Richmond Ballet, Virginia.

Ricardo Graziano’s Valsinhas, Portuguese for “Little Waltzes”, is a series of 25 waltzes from Franz Schubert’s 34 Valses Sentimentales, with each waltz less than a minute in length. First choreographed for The Sarasota Ballet’s 2013 production of Theatre of Dreams, Graziano was tasked by Director Iain Webb with creating a work that incorporated on-stage live music.

During the creative process the ballet was originally created with a cast of five men; however as rehearsals continued, and as Graziano saw where the ballet was moving, he decided to add another cast, this time composed entirely of women, creating an almost battle of the sexes feel to the performance.

“It is human to listen to music and start dancing. I decided to have a piano on stage so the dancers could hear the music and simply dance to it while having fun, making it a joyful and playful ballet.” – Ricardo Graziano

Franz Schubert Composer

Franz Schubert (1797–1828) was one of the most prolific composers in history, leaving over 600 lieder, nine symphonies, and a wealth of chamber, piano, and choral works despite his death at only 31. A former chorister in the Vienna Imperial Court chapel, he began composing as a child and created his first masterpiece, Gretchen am Spinnrade, at 17. Though often living in poverty, he produced music of extraordinary lyricism and emotional depth, including the song cycles Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, the “Unfinished” and “Great” Symphonies, the String Quintet, and late piano sonatas— works now central to the repertoire.

Bill Fenner

Bill Fenner is a costume designer best known for his longtime work with The Sarasota Ballet, where he served as Costume Director and Designer for more than a decade. He created and supervised costumes for numerous productions, combining artistry, craftsmanship, and an understanding of movement. Fenner’s designs, including the pink-and-black tutus for Shostakovich Suite, earned praise for their elegance and impact. He was also featured for his work on John Ringling’s Circus Nutcracker, showcasing his creativity in reimagining ballet traditions. Fenner’s dedication and vision left a lasting mark on Sarasota’s performing arts community.

Martha Graham Choreographer

Martha Graham had a deep and lasting impact on American art and culture. She defined contemporary dance as a uniquely American art form, which the nation shared with the world. Crossing artistic boundaries, she collaborated with leading visual artists, musicians, and designers, including sculptor Isamu Noguchi and composers Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Gian Carlo Menotti. Graham’s groundbreaking style grew from her experimentation with contraction and release. By focusing on basic human movements, she enlivened the body with raw, electric emotion. The sharp, angular, direct movements of her technique were a dramatic departure from the style of the time.

She influenced generations of choreographers including Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Twyla Tharp, altering the scope of dance. Classical ballet dancers Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov sought her to broaden their artistry. Artists of all genres were eager to study with Graham—she taught actors including Bette Davis, Kirk Douglas, Madonna, Liza Minnelli, Gregory Peck, Tony Randall, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, and Joanne Woodward to use their bodies as expressive instruments. During her long and illustrious career, Graham created 181 dance compositions. During the Bicentennial she was granted the United States’ highest civilian honor, The Medal of Freedom. In 1998, TIME Magazine named her “Dancer of the Century.” The first dancer to perform at the White House and act as cultural ambassador abroad, she captured the spirit of a nation. “No artist is ahead of his time,” she said. “He is his time. It is just that others are behind the time.”

ABOUT THE COMPANY

The MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY has been a leader in the evolving art form of modern dance since its founding in 1926. It is both the oldest dance company in the United States and the oldest integrated dance company. Today, the Company is embracing a new programming vision that showcases masterpieces by Graham alongside newly commissioned works by contemporary artists. During its 90-year history, the Company has received acclaim from audiences and critics in more than 50 countries.

“These men and women easily embody the choreographer’s sense of dancers as angelic athletes,” says Robert Greskovic of The Wall Street Journal, while Marina Kennedy of Broadway World notes, “This is contemporary dance at its very best.” Siobhan Burke of The New York Times asks, “Can this please never go away?”

Janet Eilber Artistic Director

Janet Eilber has been the Company’s artistic director since 2005. Her direction has focused on creating new forms of audience access to Martha Graham’s masterworks. These initiatives include contextual programming, educational and community partnerships, use of new media, commissions from today’s top choreographers and creative events such as the Lamentation Variations. Earlier in her career, as a principal dancer with the Company, Ms. Eilber worked closely with Martha Graham. She danced many of Graham’s greatest roles, had roles created for her by Graham, and

was directed by Graham in most of the major roles of the repertory. She soloed at the White House, was partnered by Rudolf Nureyev, starred in three segments of Dance in America, and has since taught, lectured, and directed Graham ballets internationally. Apart from her work with Graham, Ms. Eilber has performed in films, on television, and on Broadway directed by such greats as Agnes deMille and Bob Fosse and has received four Lester Horton Awards for her reconstruction and performance of seminal American modern dance. She has served as Director of Arts Education for the Dana Foundation, guiding the Foundation’s support for Teaching Artist training and contributing regularly to its arts education publications. Ms. Eilber is a Trustee Emeritus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts. She is married to screenwriter/director John Warren, with whom she has two daughters, Madeline and Eva.

W SMR

Classical Music Station

Program Six | March 27 – 28, 2026

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall

Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes

Sir David Bintley’s ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café

PROGRAM SIX

Stars and Stripes

Choreography by George Balanchine

Music by John Philip Sousa

Music Arrangement by Hershy Kay

Costume Design by Karinska

Set Design by David Hays

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Staged by Sandra Jennings

George Balanchine Choreographer

George Balanchine (1904–1983), born Georgi Balanchivadze in St. Petersburg, became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century ballet. A graduate of the Petrograd Imperial Ballet School, he also studied piano and composition, joining the Mariinsky Ballet in 1921. In 1924 he left the Soviet Union, and Sergei Diaghilev soon appointed him chief choreographer of the Ballets Russes, where he created Apollo (1928) and Prodigal Son (1929), works that defined his neoclassical style.

After Diaghilev’s death, Balanchine worked across Europe before moving to the United States in 1933 with arts patron Lincoln Kirstein. Together they founded the School of American Ballet, from which emerged several companies

that culminated in New York City Ballet (1948), where Balanchine served as Ballet Master until his death.

Balanchine’s vast output includes collaborations with Igor Stravinsky and other leading composers, blending classical technique with modernist clarity and musical sophistication. His ballets—Serenade, Concerto Barocco, Jewels, Agon, and many more—redefined the art form, emphasizing speed, precision, and musicality over narrative. He also choreographed extensively for Broadway and film during the 1930s and 1940s, including On Your Toes and The Boys from Syracuse.

Known as the father of American ballet, Balanchine created a neoclassical aesthetic that gave the United States its own ballet identity. His legacy endures worldwide, his ballets still central to the repertoire of major companies.

George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes is one of the most spirited tributes to his adopted country. Set to John Philip Sousa’s rousing marches, orchestrated by Hershy Kay, the ballet unfolds as “a campaign in five parts,” brimming with color, energy, and dazzling bravura. Inspired by the parades of the Fourth of July, Balanchine created a patriotic spectacle filled with baton twirling, crisp formations, and virtuosic dancing.

Karinska’s brightly hued military-style costumes add to the sense of pageantry, with each “campaign” showcasing solos, duets, and ensemble numbers that highlight both precision and exuberance. The celebrated pas de deux of the Fourth Campaign combines lyricism with fireworks of technical brilliance, before the full company surges onto the stage for a triumphant finale.

Premiered in 1958, Stars and Stripes has since been performed at major civic events, inaugurations, and celebrations, embodying Balanchine’s unabashed love of America in a bold, joyful, banner-waving display.

Hershy Kay Music Arrangement

Hershy Kay (1919–1981) studied at the Curtis Institute before becoming one of Broadway’s leading orchestrators, collaborating with Leonard Bernstein on On the Town, Peter Pan, and Candide. He composed for George Balanchine, including Western Symphony and Stars and Stripes, and revived Gottschalk’s music with his celebrated Grande Tarantelle reconstruction.

John Philip Sousa Composer

John Philip Sousa (1854–1932), the “American March King,” transformed military and concert music. Leader of the U.S. Marine Band (1880–92) and founder of the Sousa Band, he composed iconic marches including The Washington Post and The Stars and Stripes Forever, and developed the sousaphone.

Karinska Costume Designer

Barbara Karinska (1886–1983) revolutionized stage costume with elegance and practicality. Beginning her career at forty-one, she designed over seventy ballets for George Balanchine, creating the iconic “powder puff” tutu. An Academy Award winner, her work across ballet, theater, opera, and film continues to define the visual language of dance worldwide.

David Hays Set Designer

David Hays (1930–2017), a Harvard graduate and Fulbright scholar, designed sets for 50 Broadway shows and 30 Balanchine ballets. He co-founded and led the National Theatre of the Deaf, earning a Tony. Inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, he also authored the bestseller My Old Man and the Sea.

‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café

Choreography by Sir David Bintley

Music by Simon Jeffes

Costume Design by Hayden Griffin

Lighting Design by John B. Read

Staged by Patricia Tierney PROGRAM

Sir David Bintley Choreographer

Sir David Bintley (b. 1957) grew up in Honley, Yorkshire, and discovered his love of performance at a Sunday-school concert aged four. He trained at The Royal Ballet Upper School from 16 and joined Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet (SWRB) in 1976, becoming acclaimed for his musicality and comic gifts in roles such as Ashton’s Ugly Sister in Cinderella, Alain in La Fille mal gardée, Bottom in The Dream, and the title role in Petrushka.

In 1978, SWRB director Sir Peter Wright gave him his first choreographic commission, The Outsider. He became SWRB’s resident choreographer in 1983 and served The Royal Ballet in the same capacity from 1986–93. In 1995 he succeeded Wright as Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, leading the

company for 24 years while also serving as Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Japan (2010–14).

Bintley’s choreography, admired for its theatrical flair and musicality, spans dramatic works and lighter narratives. Among his best-known ballets are Allegri diversi (1987), ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café (1988), Hobson’s Choice (1989), Tombeaux (1993), Edward II (1995), Carmina Burana (1995), Beauty and the Beast (2003), Cyrano (2007), Sylvia (2009), and Cinderella (2010).

During his BRB leadership he balanced new creations with revivals of classics, enriching the repertoire and commissioning new scores. He stepped down in 2019, succeeded by Carlos Acosta, and was knighted in 2020 for services to dance. Now devoted to creative projects, Bintley continues to shape ballet with his distinctive neoclassical vision.

Created in 1988, David Bintley’s ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café is a witty yet poignant reflection on species extinction and conservation. Set in a stylized café, it presents a parade of endangered animals, each characterized through inventive choreography, whimsical costumes, and Simon Jeffes’ playful score from the Penguin Café Orchestra.

The ballet balances lighthearted cabaret with darker themes. At its core is the tragic fate of the Great Auk, the original “penguin,” hunted to extinction in 1844 when the last pair was killed in Iceland. In “White Mischief,” fashionable ladies in black-and-white stripes indifferently watch the demise of the Southern Cape Zebra, underscoring humanity’s destructive impact.

With designs by Hayden Griffin and choreography rooted in English traditions such as ballroom and Morris dancing, Still Life combines theatricality with charm. Since its premiere, it has remained a popular and timely work, celebrating nature’s beauty while warning of its fragility.

Simon Jeffes Composer

Simon Jeffes (1949–1997), born in Crawley, Sussex, studied classical guitar at the Royal Academy of Music but soon embraced experimental and world influences, from Japanese and African traditions to minimalism. In 1972, while recovering from illness in France, he conceived the Penguin Café Orchestra, a wildly eclectic ensemble blending classical, folk, and global sounds. Their albums, including Music for a Found Harmonium and Sign of Life, won a devoted following, with Still Life at the Penguin Café (1988) created for David Bintley. Jeffes also worked as arranger for punk and New Romantic artists. He died of a brain tumor at 48.

Hayden Griffin Costume Designer

Hayden Griffin (1943–2013), born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, studied at the Durban School of Art before moving to Britain in 1965 to escape apartheid. Stripped of his citizenship for his ANC ties, he became a UK citizen in 1973. After training with London’s Motley theatre design firm, his first job came in Coventry in 1968. Griffin went on to design over 30 world premieres, including works by Edward Bond and David Hare, as well as Plenty, Pravda, and Glengarry Glen Ross. His career extended to the Metropolitan Opera and ballets for David Bintley, including Hobson’s Choice and Cyrano.

John B. Read

Lighting Designer

John B. Read is an internationally acclaimed lighting designer working across dance, opera, theatre, and music. From 1992 to 2005 he was consultant lighting designer to The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and Birmingham Royal Ballet. He has collaborated with leading choreographers including Ashton, MacMillan, Tudor, Tetley, Robbins, Nureyev, Dowell, Bintley, and Makarova, and with companies from La Scala, Stuttgart, and Vienna to New York City Ballet, Houston, San Francisco, and Alvin Ailey. Notable productions include Rite of Spring (La Scala, Prague), La Bayadère (DNOB), Song of the Earth (Munich, Scottish), and Marguerite and Armand (Royal Ballet, Mariinsky, La Scala).

Program Seven | May 1 – 2, 2026

Sarasota Opera House

Accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra

Sir Frederick Ashton’s Birthday Offering

Dame Ninette de Valois’ Checkmate

Sir Peter Wright’s Summertide

PROGRAM SEVEN

Birthday Offering

Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton

Music by Alexander Glazunov

Costume Design by André Levasseur

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Staged by Margaret Barbieri

Sir Frederick Ashton Choreographer

Sir Frederick Ashton (1904–1988) was born in Ecuador and resolved to dance after seeing Anna Pavlova perform in Lima in 1917. In London he studied with Léonide Massine and later with Dame Marie Rambert, who encouraged his first choreographic ventures, including A Tragedy of Fashion (1926). After dancing briefly with Ida Rubinstein’s company, he accepted Dame Ninette de Valois’ invitation in 1935 to join her Vic-Wells Ballet as both dancer and choreographer, beginning a lifelong association with what would become The Royal Ballet.

His career extended beyond the company to opera, film, revues, and international commissions, but it was at Covent Garden, after wartime service in the RAF, that he created

Symphonic Variations (1946), affirming a new postwar spirit. Over the following decades he choreographed ballets often tailored to individual dancers, among them Cinderella (1948), Daphnis and Chloe (1951), Romeo and Juliet (1955), Ondine (1958), La Fille mal gardée (1960), The Two Pigeons (1961), Marguerite and Armand (1963), and The Dream (1964).

Ashton was appointed Associate Director of The Royal Ballet in 1952 and succeeded de Valois as Director from 1963 to 1970, during which time he also created works such as Monotones II (1965), Enigma Variations (1968), A Month in the Country (1976), and the film The Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971), in which he performed as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. Knighted in 1962 and later named Founder Choreographer of The Royal Ballet, Ashton left a body of work distinguished by versatility, musical sensitivity, and theatrical imagination.

Created in 1956 for the 25th anniversary of Sadler’s Wells Ballet—soon to become The Royal Ballet—Birthday Offering was Sir Frederick Ashton’s tribute to founder Dame Ninette de Valois. Drawing on the grand Imperial Russian style of Petipa, which de Valois absorbed from Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the work celebrates the tradition she shaped in Britain.

Set to Glazunov’s lush score with André Levasseur’s opulent décor of chandeliers and drapes, the ballet evokes the splendor of The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. Seven couples make a regal entrance before a series of solos, a vigorous Polish mazurka, and the centerpiece pas de deux for Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes. A jubilant finale crowns the tribute.

More than pageantry, Birthday Offering honors de Valois’ vision, celebrating the Company’s journey to international acclaim with brilliance and pride.

Alexander Glazunov Composer

Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936), born in St. Petersburg, was a precocious talent nurtured by “The Five,” studying with Rimsky-Korsakov, whom he later succeeded as Director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1905–30). Supported by the patron Mitrofan Belyayev, he met Liszt, toured Europe, and emerged as a major symphonist and composer of ballets including The Seasons and Raymonda. He also worked with Mikhail Fokine on Chopiniana (Les Sylphides). Though he left Russia in 1928, settling in Paris, Glazunov remained respected at home and abroad. His music blends Russian Romantic nationalism with Western lyricism, spanning eight symphonies, concerti, ballets, and chamber works.

André Levasseur Costume Designer

André Levasseur (1927–2006) was a French stage and costume designer celebrated for his imaginative collaborations in ballet, opera, and theatre. Trained in Paris, he began his career in the 1950s and soon became known for designs that balanced elegance with bold theatricality. Levasseur worked closely with choreographers and directors across Europe and North America, contributing to productions for companies including the Paris Opera Ballet, Ballets de Monte-Carlo, and American Ballet Theatre. His designs combined clarity of line with a flair for color and atmosphere, enhancing both classical and contemporary works. Levasseur’s artistry left a lasting mark on twentieth-century stage design.

PROGRAM SEVEN

Checkmate

Choreography by Dame Ninette de

Valois

Music by Sir Arthur Bliss

Costume Designs by E. McKnight Kauffer

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Staged by Margaret Barbieri

Dame Ninette de Valois

Choreographer

Dame Ninette de Valois (1898–2001) is widely credited with establishing a native British ballet tradition through the creation of The Royal Ballet, alongside her contemporary and colleague Dame Marie Rambert. Born Edris Stannus in County Wicklow, Ireland, she began dancing at age 10, studied with Enrico Cecchetti, and worked in pantomime, revue, and opera before joining the Massine-Lopokhova company in 1922 and Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1923. She legally adopted her stage name in 1921, when dancers were expected to appear French or Russian.

In 1926 de Valois opened her Academy of Choreographic Art in London, and two years later was invited by Lilian Baylis to provide dancers for the Old Vic. By 1931 she had closed

her school to become resident at Baylis’s newly reopened Sadler’s Wells Theatre, where she founded the Vic-Wells Ballet, which evolved into Sadler’s Wells Ballet and, in 1956, The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden.

As director, teacher, and choreographer, de Valois nurtured the talents of Margot Fonteyn, Robert Helpmann, Frederick Ashton, Moira Shearer, and many others. Before turning primarily to administration, she created important ballets including Job (1931), The Rake’s Progress (1935), and Checkmate (1937), often drawing on English themes and composers to develop a distinctively national style.

Her vision culminated in The Royal Ballet’s triumphant 1949 U.S. tour, which established the company internationally. Known affectionately as “Madam,” she continued to influence the company long after her 1963 retirement. De Valois received countless honors and remained a formidable presence in ballet until her death at 102.

Choreographed by Dame Ninette de Valois in 1937, Checkmate is among the most enduring works of The Royal Ballet’s early repertory. Though de Valois is best remembered as founder, this ballet reveals her instinct for dramatic storytelling and her drive to shape a distinctly English style.

Set to a commanding score and libretto by Arthur Bliss, Checkmate transforms a game of chess into a stark allegory of Love versus Death. Drawing on English folk traditions and Expressionist theatre, with bold designs by E. McKnight Kauffer, the ballet opens with Love and Death as symbolic players. The Red side—Love—faces the sinister Black forces, led by the elegant yet lethal Black Queen. When the Red Knight succumbs to her spell, his failure leads to the downfall of Love. The Black Queen’s merciless killing of the Red King seals the inevitable checkmate, a chilling conclusion to this powerful allegory.

Sir Arthur Bliss (1891–1975) was born to an American father and English mother, educated at Rugby and Cambridge, and studied composition at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford. After serving in World War I, he emerged as a leading English composer of the interwar years, with works influenced by Stravinsky and Debussy, including A Colour Symphony (1922). His 1930s output included the ballet Checkmate, Korda’s film score Things to Come, and his Piano Concerto. Knighted in 1950, he became Master of the Queen’s Musick in 1953, composing for the Coronation. Bliss’s legacy combines innovation with English tradition.

E.

E. McKnight Kauffer (1890–1954) transformed the poster into a work of modern art. Inspired by Cubism and European avant-garde movements, his bold, geometric designs for the London Underground and commercial advertising captured the speed, color, and optimism of the early twentieth century. Closely connected with the Bloomsbury Group and Omega Workshop, he blurred the boundaries between fine art and popular culture, making the city street his gallery. Though his later career in America never equaled his London triumphs, Kauffer’s vision endures: a pioneer who brought modernism into everyday life and left a lasting mark on graphic design.

PROGRAM SEVEN

Summertide

Choreography by Sir Peter Wright

Music by Felix Mendelssohn

Costume Design by Dick Bird

Lighting Design by Ethan Vail

Staged by Margaret Barbieri

Sir Peter Wright Choreographer

Sir Peter Wright (b. 1926) began his professional career during World War II with Ballets Jooss, later dancing with several companies before joining Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, where he created his first ballet, A Blue Rose (1957). In 1959 he became Ballet Master for Sadler’s Wells Opera and a teacher at The Royal Ballet School.

In 1961 he moved to Stuttgart as Ballet Master and teacher for John Cranko’s new company, choreographing works including The Mirror Walkers, Namouna, and Quintet. There he staged his first Giselle, later produced for The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and companies worldwide. His acclaimed interpretations of The Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker have become staples of

international repertory. He also directed television ballets and choreographed West End musicals and revues.

Returning to The Royal Ballet in 1969 as Associate to the Directors, Wright became Associate Director before his 1977 appointment as Director of Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet. He led the company’s move to Birmingham in 1990, transforming it into Birmingham Royal Ballet, and retired as Director Laureate in 1995.

Wright’s many honors include the Evening Standard Award for Ballet (1981), a CBE (1985), knighthood (1993), and the Critics’ Circle Award (1995). He holds honorary doctorates from London and Birmingham universities, is a Fellow of Birmingham Conservatoire, President of the Benesh Institute, and a Vice President of the Royal Academy of Dance. A distinguished teacher, director, and choreographer, Wright remains one of the most respected custodians of the classical ballet tradition.

Sir Peter Wright’s Summertide closes the Season in celebration of the choreographer’s 100th birthday on November 25, 2026. First created in the late 1970s for Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, this abstract ballet captures the spirit of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Its three movements unfold like a summer’s day—from the freshness of morning, through the warmth of afternoon, to the brilliance of night.

Long thought lost, Summertide was revived through a fortunate discovery. Before its 2015 American Company Premiere, The Sarasota Ballet searched without success for materials, until Doug Nicholson of Birmingham Royal Ballet uncovered a film and partial notation. With these, Wright collaborated with Director Iain Webb and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri to re-create the ballet.

Set to Mendelssohn’s rhapsodic score, Summertide glows with Wright’s musicality and elegance. Its revival honors one of Britain’s great ballet masters and restores a luminous gem to the stage.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), born in Hamburg to a prominent family, was a child prodigy hailed by Goethe as equal to young Mozart. By 17 he had written a symphony, six chamber works, and his Midsummer Night’s Dream overture. He revived interest in Bach with his landmark 1829 St Matthew Passion performance and championed Handel. Appointed Music Director in Leipzig in 1835, he founded the Conservatoire, shaping German musical life. Beloved in Britain, he composed the Scottish and Italian Symphonies, Hebrides Overture, and the oratorio Elijah. Baptized a Christian, married with five children, Mendelssohn died at 38, leaving a lasting legacy.

Dick Bird is an acclaimed set and costume designer whose work spans theatre, opera, and ballet on leading stages worldwide. His designs have been seen at the Royal Opera House, The Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, Birmingham Royal Ballet, K-Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet, and the National Ballet of Japan. Notable projects include Hamlet at the Comédie Française, Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at the Hammersmith Apollo, and Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker at the Royal Albert Hall. He won the 2015 UK Theatre Award for Best Design and was nominated for Outstanding Creative Contribution in the 2025 National Dance Awards.

Premiered by The Ballets Russes | October 12, 1976 First Performed by The Sarasota Ballet | November 20, 2015

From Stage to Story: Margaret Barbieri

By Alastair Macaulay

The great Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina (18851978) told the British choreographer Frederick Ashton, admiringly, “You are a link in the chain”. She saw ballet as a great tradition: that she had first studied as a dancer in St. Petersburg for the imperial Russian Ballet and for the great choreographer Marius Petipa. In her prime, she had been a prima of Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet in Western Europe and muse to the innovative choreographer Michel Fokine. And she spent her years of retirement in London, a friend to Frederick Ashton, Margot Fonteyn, and the young Royal Ballet in the era that their kind of ballet classicism was becoming the most admired in the West. She could see that Ashton, Fonteyn, and others understood the romantic style of Giselle, that they had rebuilt Petipa’s Petersburg classicism in London; that they were passing on the ballets of Fokine too; and that Ashton’s own ballets were living parts of the expressive classicism she had known.

Today, thirty-seven years after Ashton’s death, Margaret Barbieri - The Sarasota Ballet’s assistant director, and long married to Iain Webb, its artistic director - has herself become another link in the same chain. The history of ballet has abounded with migrations and imports. Barbieri was born in South

Africa to Italian parents. Ballet took her to the Royal Ballet School in London. At the time, the Royal Ballet was widely considered the most prestigious company in the West, touring the world, with Frederick Ashton (1904-1988) - in his prime - as its artistic director. The company had already achieved worldwide renown under Ashton’s predecessor, Ninette de Valois - who, on her retirement from directorship, taught Barbieri’s year at the Royal Ballet School. De

Valois was a famously inconsistent but important teacher, concentrating on épaulement with one year of students, on footwork with another, on arms with a third. Barbieri laughs: “I remember her working on arms - but also on very fast footwork too.”

On graduating from the school, Barbieri joined the Royal Ballet’s touring company. She ascended through its ranks to dance the leading roles of its repertory. De Valois, Ashton, and Tudor, were among the legendary figures who coached her in roles they had created, while Tudor and Wright - who became the company’s artistic director - was among the choreographers who created leading roles for her.

She always speaks of Ashton with special affection: he was both funny and tender with her, and he knew how to extend her. “I was just eighteen when I first worked with him - I was dancing the Gypsy Girl in The Two Pigeons for the Royal Ballet School performance at Covent Garden - and was lucky enough to go on studying roles with him for over twenty years. When I danced Titania in The Dream, he wanted me to use my arms more voluptuously than I had ever done before. Lise in La Fille mal gardée gave me a whole new set of challenges - she’s spirited, naughty, but also very much in love. He always wanted us to use every inch of our bodies.”

The 2025-2026 season of The Sarasota Ballet abounds in anniversaries - all of which connect to Barbieri. 2026 brings the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of de Valois (1898-2001), the formidable but generous founder and architect of the Royal Ballet for which both Barbieri and Webb danced. Barbieri studied the role of the Black Queen in de Valois’s Checkmate (1937) with de Valois, who firmly said “You’re all wrong for this - you’re a Romantic ballerina - but it will do you good.”

The Black Queen is a warrior queen, a seductress, and a killer. De Valois showed Barbieri how, in one solo, “You’re the cat!” - a cat stalking a mouse as its prey. Barbieri recalls, with a chuckle, “It became one of my signature roles!”

De Valois could be terrifying, but Barbieri had early on discovered her kindness. “In perhaps my last performance with the Royal Ballet School, I landed from a big jump in a way that immediately injured my knee, badly. But De Valois visited me the next day - I was in hospital - to assure me that my contract with the Royal Ballet touring company was safe, and that I’d start with them as soon as I had recovered. Any dancer will know how much that meant to me.”

The company this season also dances Michel Fokine’s plotless Romantic reverie Les Sylphides (1908/1909) in a production shaped by the prima ballerina Alicia Markova (1910-2004). Markova, despite her Russian stage name, was an English girl - Lilian Alicia Marks - who, as a seemingly fragile child phenomenon with a technique of invisible steel, joined Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet a hundred years ago this season. Much later, Markova often worked with Barbieri in England, coaching her in Les Sylphides, Swan Lake, and other ballets. Markova had begun to dance Les Sylphides in her teens for Diaghilev - but she often recalled that it was only in New York, in her thirties, when Fokine himself coached her, that at last she understood the nature of its poetry.

In her old age, Markova often seemed a far more quaint and old-fashioned figure than de Valois and Ashton (who were her seniors and old friends), and far less energetic. Yet she took a keen interest in the young dancers of her day; and she loved, by coaching the roles she had known, to pass on the nuances of the ballet repertory. Barbieri recalls, “She was aware of me, I think, and certainly I was aware of her - but it was for Les Sylphides she asked me to dance in her production, when I was in my thirties. After that, we worked together on a series of television masterclasses on various roles. She loved to impart all she could; I loved re-studying those roles with her.” Later, Barbieri was only too glad to invite Markova to coach her students in London.

In the 2025-2026 season, the Sarasota Ballet dances three ballets by Ashton (1904-1988), whose first ballet was staged a hundred years ago (June 2026) - all as part of a five-year Ashton Worldwide festival (2024-2028) in which it is a prime participant. It also dances Lilac Garden - originally “Jardin aux lilas” - a work created ninety years ago (January 1936) by the British choreographer Antony Tudor (1908-1987), who coached Barbieri in it (and who, in 1968, also created a leading role for her in the now lost ballet Knight Errant). Tudor - an intelligent and original artist - was notorious for being the most wounding of choreographers. Barbieri, waiting for her first session with him on Knight Errant, kept hearing sounds of despair from the other dancers he was rehearsing.

“With me, however, he was kind! Maybe he could see that I would have just collapsed if he’d been harsh? But I admired him - and I adored Lilac Garden above all for the beauty of its music.”

The Sarasota Ballet will also dance Peter Wright’s lyrical Mendelssohn ballet Summertide, created almost fifty years ago (October 1976), with Barbieri as its original ballerina. Barbieri’s association with Wright (who will be a hundred years old in November 2026) has been long and central to her career. He ran the touring branch of the Royal Ballet (today’s Birmingham Royal Ballet), with Barbieri becoming established as perhaps its most longterm and most versatile exponent of its leading roles. She, in turn, has been able to bring him to stage his productions in Sarasota.

No, Barbieri has not quite danced everything in ballet history - but quite an impressive proportion, to be sure. She only performed one work (The Four Temperaments, 1946) by the prolific George Balanchine, whose Stars and Stripes (1958) returns to Sarasota repertory this season. Still, her career has brought her valued friendships with leading Balanchine ballerinas, above all Violette Verdy (19332016). In London, Barbieri ran for many years the postgraduate company Images of Dance. It was when Verdy came to work with the Images dancers, here

she told Barbieri “Your dancers are ready to dance some Balanchine” - a policy Barbieri has carried on in Sarasota, where she has been able to welcome the most legendary of all Balanchine ballerinas, Suzanne Farrell.

She sustained a long career, becoming the company’s prima. Giselle, the leading role in which she was most acclaimed, she danced more than a hundred times. In the three-act Coppélia, she danced not only the vivacious leading role of Swanilda, she also brought particularly poetic refinement to the role of Prayer in Act Three. Having danced the seductive, virtuoso antiheroine, the Gypsy Girl, in Ashton’s The Two Pigeons for the Royal Ballet School, she now also began to dance the baller’s main heroine with the touring company, for many years. (Usually the two female roles fall into an either/or dichotomy. Barbieri is one of the few who has danced both, and many times.) This kind of diversity prepared her for the next stage of her career: coaching other dancers.

Now she and her husband Iain Webb, Sarasota’s artistic director, have been running the company for eighteen years. The company’s school bears her name: Margaret Barbieri Conservatory. Dancers from many countries study roles with her; she enthusiastically welcomes them. She just works, usually with laughter and patience and tenderness. But she and Webb have

made The Sarasota Ballet the only ballet company on the Gulf of Mexico - and to these Sarasota dancers she is passing on details of arms, of line, of footwork, of eyes. These are details that transform academic ballet into expressive style and into artistry. Nobody at Sarasota makes a fuss of Barbieri as “a link in the chain” - there’s too much work to do - but that’s what she certainly is.

On Stage and Behind the Scenes

YOURALL-IN-ONE BUSINESS RESOURCE

Now offering full-service folding carton packaging design & printing!

Work with our team to create one-ofa-kind consumer experiences through specialty-made packaging serving a broad spectrum of industries.

Serving a Broad Spectrum of Industries

Food • Medical • Vitamins • Cosmetics • Electronics

Pharmaceutical • Toys & Games • Educational

* Our new packaging equipment

DESIGN PRINT MAIL

Rely on our graphic designers for all of your business needs. Our creative team can start from scratch or apply your existing design to new projects.

With decades of print experience, we have the expertise to complete your digital, offset or large format projects on time and within your budget.

Let our mail department help you to determine the most successful method of distributing your next marketing or fundraising campaign.

Iain Webb

Director

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, LA, 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 as Assistant Director. Webb also worked with many stars including Adam Cooper, Johan Kobborg, with whom he co-produced Out of Denmark, and 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 Royal Opera House in London, England. Together with The Royal Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet opened the five-year festival, Ashton Worldwide, receiving critical acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

In July 2025, Webb led The Sarasota Ballet in its return to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, opening the 2025–2026 Season and further solidifying the Company’s place as one of the leading ballet companies in the United States.

Joseph Volpe

Executive Director

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 in 2024. This landmark tour at the Royal Opera House opened the five-year Ashton Worldwide Festival, further elevating the Company’s profile on the world stage and expanding its influence beyond American borders.

In July 2025, Volpe guided the Company through its return to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, opening the 2025–2026 Season and reinforcing The Sarasota Ballet’s place as one of the nation’s most respected ballet companies.

Margaret Barbieri

Assistant Director

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. 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 12 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 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 Ashmore, 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.

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.

Jason W. Ettore General Manager

Michelle Butler Deputy Executive

Director

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 Directors. 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.

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.

Amy Miller Finance Director

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 broad knowledge of the Company’s administrative workings. She first joined the finance team part time in 2016, and 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

2025 - 2026 SEASON

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 Virginia 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. She has created over 100 original works on renowned companies worldwide including American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and her eponymous company Jessica Lang Dance. Lang has also created for opera companies including San Francisco Opera, LA Opera, Seattle Opera and Washington National Opera. 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. Lang is a former member of Twyla Tharp’s company, THARP!

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 Bavarian 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 Bayadère – Act III, Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote and Les Sylphides. His repertoire also included many contemporary and neoclassical roles. He 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 Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova, Nacho Duato, Yuri Possokhov, Christopher Wheeldon, Peter Martins, Helgi Tomasson, and others.

The Sarasota Ballet Principals

Misa Kuranaga

RESIDENT GUEST PRINCIPAL

Previous Companies: San Fancisco Ballet, Boston Ballet

Misa Kuranaga was born in Japan and is a former Principal Dancer with Boston Ballet and a current Guest Principal Dancer with San Francisco Ballet. She joins The Sarasota Ballet as Resident Guest Principal for the 2025 – 2026 Season, and so far has performed in Sir Frederick Ashton’s Birthday Offering at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival with The Sarasota Ballet. Her repertoire includes works by Ashton, Balanchine, Bournonville, Cranko, Nureyev, Petipa, and Tomasson, including Cinderella, Apollo, La Sylphide, Onegin, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Giselle. She began her career with San Francisco Ballet as an Apprentice, trained at the School of American Ballet, and rose to Principal with Boston Ballet before returning to San Francisco Ballet in 2019. Acclaimed internationally, she performs as a guest artist worldwide, recognized for her artistry, versatility, and dedication.

Her international repertoire includes Ashton’s Cinderella, La Fille mal Gardée, Marguerite and Armand; Balanchine’s Apollo, Diamonds, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rubies, Serenade, Symphony in C, Theme and Variations; Bournonville’s La Sylphide; Cranko’s Onegin, Romeo and Juliet; Nureyev’s Don Quixote; Petipa’s Le Corsaire, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake; Tomasson’s Caprice, Giselle, Harmony

Jessica Assef

Joined in 2023

Previous Company: Atlanta Ballet

Lead and Featured Roles include:

Ashton’s Façade, Illuminations Pas de Cinq, Les Patineurs, Valses nobles et sentimentales; Balanchine’s Rubies, Theme and Variations, Who Cares?; Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast; Bond’s The Beginning; Graziano’s In A State of Weightlessness, Sonatina; Kobborg’s Napoli Act III; Lang’s A Time of Beauty; MacMillan’s Las Hermanas; Paroni’s Rococo Variations; Taylor’s Brandenburgs; Wheeldon’s The American; Wright’s Giselle

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;

Marijana Dominis

Joined 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, Romeo and Juliet, 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 Amorosa, 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 Napoli Act III, La Sylphide; Lang’s The Lorenz Butterfly, Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring; MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations, Las Hermanas; Robbins’ In The Night; Taylor’s Brandenburgs, Company B; Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs; Walsh’s I Napoletani; Wheeldon’s The American; Wright’s Giselle, Summertide

Ricardo Graziano

Joined 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, Méditation from Thaïs, Monotones II, Romeo and Juliet, Symphonic Variations, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci, The Walk to the Paradise Garden; Balanchine’s Diamonds, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Prodigal Son, Stars and Stripes, 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 The Lorenz Butterfly, 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

Ricardo Rhodes

Joined in 2007

Promoted to Soloist in 2010 and Principal in 2012

Lead and Featured Roles include:

Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, The Dream, La Fille mal gardée, Jazz Calendar, Méditation from Thaïs, Monotones II, Les Rendezvous, Romeo and Juliet, 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 in 2019

Previous Companies: Scottish Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet

Lead and Featured Roles include:

Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, Façade, Les Patineurs, Les Rendezvous, Romeo and Juliet, A Wedding Bouquet; Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Western Symphony; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors; Bond’s Excursions; Broad’s Frequency Hurtz; Graziano’s Amorosa, 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 Napoli Act III, La Sylphide; Lang’s The Lorenz Butterfly; MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations; Morris’ The Letter V; Paroni’s Rococo Variations; Robbins’ Fancy Free; Walsh’s I Napoletani; Wright’s Giselle, Mirror Walkers, Summertide

Sierra Abelardo

JUNIOR PRINCIPAL

Joined in 2022

Promoted to First Soloist in 2024, and Junior Principal 2025

Lead and Featured Roles include:

Ashton’s A Wedding Bouquet, Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, Façade, Les Patineurs, Romeo and Juliet, Sinfonietta, Valses nobles et sentimentales; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, Rubies, Serenade, The Four Temperaments, Theme and Variations, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast; Bond’s Excursions; Graziano’s Amorosa, In A State of Weightlessness, Schubert Variations, Sonatina; Kobborg’s Napoli Act III, Salute, La Sylphide; Lang’s The Lorenz Butterfly, Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring, A Time of Beauty; 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; Wright’s Giselle

Ricki Bertoni

CHARACTER PRINCIPAL

Joined in 2007

Promoted to Soloist in 2012 and Character Principal in 2014

Lead and Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Dante Sonata, The Dream, Enigma Variations, Façade, La Fille mal gardée, Romeo and Juliet, A Wedding Bouquet; Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bond’s The Beginning, Excursions; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café; Bruce’s Sergeant Early’s Dream; de Mille’s Rodeo; de Valois’ Checkmate, The Rake’s Progress; Flindt’s The Lesson; Fokine’s Petrushka; Graham’s Appalachian Spring; Graziano’s Amorosa, Before Night Falls, In a State of Weightlessness, Schubert Variations, Symphony of Sorrows; House’s Living Ghosts; Kobborg’s Salute, La Sylphide; Layton’s The Grand Tour; Liang’s The Art of War; MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations; North’s Troy Game; Robbins’ The Concert; Taylor’s Brandenburgs, Company B; Tharp’s In The Upper Room, Nine Sinatra Songs; Tuckett’s Changing Light, The Secret Garden; Walsh’s I Napoletani; Wheeldon’s The American; Wright’s Giselle

The Sarasota Ballet Soloists

Gus Payne

FIRST

SOLOIST

Joined in 2025

Previous Company: Birmingham Royal Ballet

Lead and Featured Roles in previous companies include: Altunaga’s City of a Thousand Trades; Ashton’s Birthday Offering, La Fille mal gardée; Acosta’s Don Quixote; Bintley’s Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café; Clugg’s Radio and Juliet; Crecis’ 24; MacMillan’s Concerto, Romeo and Juliet; Reinoso’s Black Sabbath the Ballet; Scholz’s The Seventh Symphony; Tharp’s In the Upper Room; Tucket’s Lazuli Sky; Van Manen’s 5 Tangos, Solo; Wright’s The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake

Samuel Gest

Joined in 2021

Promoted to Soloist in 2025

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, Les Patineurs, Romeo and Juliet, Valse nobles et sentimentales, Varii Capricci, A Wedding Bouquet; Balanchine’s Rubies, Serenade; Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast; Bond’s The Beginning; de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress; House’s Living Ghosts; Kobborg’s La Sylphide; Lang’s The Lorenz Butterfly, Shades of Spring; MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes; Morris’ The Letter V; Paroni’s Rococo Variations; Taylor’s Brandenburgs; Wright’s Giselle, Summertide.

Trevor Stalcup

Joined in 2024

Previous Companies: Orlando Ballet and Texas Ballet Theater

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, Romeo and Juliet, A Wedding Bouquet; Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast; Graziano’s Amorosa; Wright’s Giselle;

Lead and Featured Roles in previous companies include: Balanchine’s Serenade; 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

The Sarasota Ballet Coryphée

Kennedy Falyn Cassada

Joined in 2020

Promoted to Coryphée 2024

Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company (19-20)

Featured Roles include:

Ashton’s Birthday Offering, La Chatte Metamorphosee en Femme, Les Patineurs, A Wedding Bouquet; Balanchine’s Emeralds, Serenade, Who Cares?; Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast; Bond’s The Beginning; Kobborg’s Napoli Act III; Lang’sThe Lorenz Butterfly, Lyric Pieces, A Time of Beauty; Liang’s The Art of War; MacMillan’s Las Hermanas; Paroni’s Rococo Variations; Taylor’s Brandenburgs, Company B; Tharp’s In The Upper Room; Wheeldon’s The American; Wright’s Giselle

Willa Frantz

Joined in 2022

Promoted to Coryphée 2023

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

Featured Roles include:

Ashton’s A Wedding Bouquet, Dante Sonata, Façade, Les Patineurs; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Rubies, Serenade, The Four Temperaments, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bintley’sThe Spider’s Feast; Bond’s Excursions, The Beginning; Graziano’s In A State of Weightlessness, Schubert Variations; Kobborg’s La Sylphide, Salute; Paroni’s Rococo Variations; Robbins’ In The Night; Taylor’s Brandenburgs, Company B; Wright’s Giselle

Ze Ellis

Joined in 2022

Promoted to Coryphée 2025

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

Featured Roles include:

Ashton’s Dante Sonata, Facade; Illuminations Sacred Love Pas de Cinq; Les Patineurs, Varii Capricci; Balanchine’s Rubies, Serenade, Western Symphony, Who Cares?; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors; Bond’s Excursions, Panoramic Score; de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress; Graziano’s Amorosa, Schubert Variations, Sonatina; Kobborg’s Salute; Lang’s The Lorenz Butterfly, Lyric Pieces, A Time of Beauty; MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations; Taylor’s Company B; Wright’s Giselle

Mischa Goodman

Joined in 2024

Previous Company: English National Ballet

Featured Roles include:

Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Danate Sonata, Façade, Les Patineurs, Romeo and Juliet, Valses nobles et sentimentales, A Wedding Bouquet; Balanchine’s Serenade; Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast; Bond’s The Beginning; Kobborg’s Napoli Act III; Lang’s The Lorenz Butterfly

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

Joined in 2019

Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company (18-19)

Promoted to Coryphée in 2022

Featured Roles include:

Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Les Patineurs, Romeo and Juliet, Tweedledum and Tweedledee; Balanchine’s Divertimento No.15, Emeralds, Rubies, Serenade, The Four Temperaments; Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors, The Spider’s Feast; Kobborg’s Napoli Act III; Lang’s A Time of Beauty, Lyric Pieces, Shades of Spring; Morris’ The Letter V; Paroni’s Rococo Variations; Taylor’s Brandenburgs, Company B; Tharp’s In The Upper Room; Wright’s Giselle, Summertide

Bel Pickering

Joined in 2022

Promoted to Coryphée 2025

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

Featured Roles include:

Ashton’s A Wedding Bouquet, Dante Sonata, Les Patineurs, Romeo and Juliet, A Wedding Bouquet; Balanchine’s Rubies, Serenade; Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast; Bond’s Panoramic Score, The Beginning; Graziano’s Schubert Variations; Kobborg’s Salute, La Sylphides, Napoli Act III; Lang’s A Time of Beauty, Lyric Pieces; Liang’s The Art of War; Paroni’s Rococo Variations; Taylor’s Company B; Wright’s Giselle.

Iku

Okura

Joined in 2025

Previous Company: Teatrul de Balet Sibiu

Featured Roles include:

Lead and featured roles in previous companies include: Barte’s The Nutcracker; Gardner’s Cinderella; Petipa’s Don Quixote, Le Corsaire pas d’esclave, Swan Lake

Annie Wilson

Joined in 2025

Previous Company: Finnish National Opera and Ballet

Lead and featured roles in previous companies include: Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes, Symphony in C. ; Bintley’s Christmas Carol; Charles’s The Nutcracker; Corella’s Swan Lake; Liang’s Swan Lake; Neumeier’s Death in Venice; Nixon’s Dracula; Piaf’s La Vie en Rose; Torres’s Sleeping Beauty

PAIGE YOUNG

Joined in 2018

Promoted to Coryphée in 2023

Featured Roles include: Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Dante Sonata, 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

The Sarasota Ballet Corps de Ballet

Daniel Ayala Joined in 2024

Olivia Dugan Joined in 2023

Trained at San Francisco Ballet School and The Washington School of Ballet

Jonah Glickman

Joined in 2024

Trained at English National Ballet, School of American Ballet, and Northeast School of Ballet

2025

Trained

Mark Hare Joined in 2023

Trained at English National Ballet School

Ella Lau

Joined in 2025

Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company, The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory, and Theatre Arts Tulsa

Andrea Marcelletti

Joined in 2019

Previous Company: English National Ballet

Ben Moss

Joined in 2025

Australian Ballet School, Alegria Dance Studios, and Canadian National Ballet Schools Company Life Program

Pasha Levy

Joined in 2025

Ellison Ballet Professional Training Program and Eva Janiszewski Ballet

Jordan Micallef

Joined in 2023

Previous Company: National Ballet of Canada

Alessandra Nova

Joined in 2022

Trained at Pacific Northwest Ballet

Joined in 2022

Previous

Joined in 2025

Previous

Joined in 2023

Trained

Previous

The Sarasota Ballet Apprentices

Haley Dale

Joined in 2025

Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company and The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory

Isabella Damico

Joined in 2025

Trained at Chamberlain Ballet and Miami City Ballet School

Isabella Nova

Joined in 2025

Trained at Pacific Northwest Ballet School

Simon Plante

Joined in 2024

Trained at Ballet West Academy and Berrend Dance Centre

Trevin Ralphs

Joined in 2025

Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company and Margaret Barbieri Conservatory

Ella Tuite

Joined in 2025

Trained at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company and School of Philadelphia Ballet

The Sarasota Ballet Staff

2025 - 2026 SEASON

Development

Maya Collins Senior Manager of Individual Giving

Katherine Knowles Grants Manager

Administration

Leslie Van Brink Company Manager

John Johnson IT Consultant

Doricha Sales Senior Manager of Donor Engagement

Sara Kious Special Events Coordinator

Katie Zak Executive & Development Administrator

Judi King HR & Finance Administrator

Ingramm Tessitura Database Administrator

Mitra Finance Assistant

Barbara Epperson Executive Assistant

Marketing

Box office

Production

Education & Community Engagement Staff

2025 - 2026 SEASON

Lauren Avila Community Engagement Administrator

Isabelle Ball Community Engagement Manager

School Full-time Faculty

Teaching Faculty

Kaylin Carrera

Baylie Dockins

Thais Domingos

Rita Duclos

Colin Hathaway

Sea Lee

Addul Manzano

Heather Nelson

Gaida Paulovska

Drew Travis Robinson

Dizon School Operations Coordinator

Nicole Robinson

Amy Wensley

Flor Urbina Uriarte

Season Supporters

With Gratitude to Our Season Supporters

The Sarasota Ballet thanks our generous supporters for making this Season possible. Your passion for the arts allows us to share the beauty of ballet, inspire our community, and nurture the next generation of artists. Every performance is a testament to your belief in our mission. We are deeply grateful for your support.

Thank you for being an essential part of our Season.

LUMINARY CIRCLE

$100,000+

Our Special Angel Program 1

Program 6

Patricia Golemme and Timothy Fullum Program 4

Jan and Bill Farber Program 2

Bill and Linda Mitchell Program 3

LUMINARY CIRCLE

$100,000+

PHILLIP & JANICE LEVIN FOUNDATION

William A. Farber, Trustee

$75,000 - $99,999

In Loving

GUARDIAN CIRCLE

$50,000 - $74,999

Martha

The Lorenz Butterfly

The Letter V

$50,000 - $74,999

JEAN ALLENBY GOLDSTEIN TOURING FUND

THE MURIEL O’NEIL FUND FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

At the Community Foundation of Sarasota County

VIRGINIA B. TOULMIN FOUNDATION

CONNOISSEUR CIRCLE

$25,000 - $49,999

$25,000 - $49,999

CONNOISSEUR CIRCLE

$25,000 - $49,999

$25,000 - $49,999

AFICIONADO CIRCLE

$15,000 - $24,999

James

Maryann

$15,000 - $24,999

Feel the inspiration in your own backyard. Immerse yourself in Florida’s Cultural Coast ® and feel more alive in every moment.

$15,000 - $24,999

PATRONS CIRCLE

$10,000 - $14,999

$10,000 - $14,999

PATRONS CIRCLE

$10,000 - $14,999

CORDELIA LEE BEATTIE FOUNDATION

$10,000 - $14,999

DEVOTEE CIRCLE

$5,000 - $9,999

$5,000 - $9,999

DEVOTEE CIRCLE

$5,000 - $9,999

$5,000 - $9,999

GOLDEN CIRCLE

$2,500 - $4,999

Alexandra Armstrong

In Loving Memory of Jerry McCoy

Carol Arscott

Margaret and Isaac Barpal

Jerry and Helga Bilik

Jerry and Gay Bowles

Alan Cohen

In Loving Memory of Natalie Cohen

Jenny and Lee Duffey

John and Patricia Dupps

Barbara and Bill Epperson

Donna Jill Feldman

Kevin Fulcher and Kim Deme-Fulcher

Patsy and Ed Garno

Alfred Cope Garrett

In Loving Memory of Anne W. Garrett

Moira Hintsa

Ronald and Rita Karns

Maryann Kolb and Greg Goebel

Dr. Bart and Joan Levenson

Meg Maguire

Bonnie McIntyre

In Loving Memory of Bill Noonan

Margaret Melun and Lt. Col. Ky L. Thompson

Tara Olson and Will Dunkak

Jeffrey Peterson

Megan Powers

Susan L. Robinson

Dona and Sam Scott

Noreene Storrie and Wesley G. McCain

Charlotte and John Suhler

Emily Walsh

Janette Albrecht

Peggy C. Allen and Steve Dixon

Caroline C. Amory and Marjorie A.

Floyd

William Anderson and Gary

Satterfield

Patricia Anderson

In Loving Memory of Richard Anderson

Jewelle and Nathaniel Bickford

Barbara Blumfield

Linda and Glen Bodzy

Barbara Brizdle

Duncan and Susan Brown

William Buckingham

Diana Cable

Robert Cook and Danniel Anthon

Margie and Kelvin Cooper

Katie Couchot

Dr. and Mrs. Robert E. Crootof

Linda and Dick Dickinson

Fred and Lynda Doery

Carol and Gary Dornbush

Murray V. Duffin

Annette and Edward Eliasberg

Jonathan Elsner

Ronald and Sharon Erickson

Laurie Fitch

Donald Fosselman

Barbara Franke

Michael and Jean Freed

Suzan Friedman

Robert and Deborah Gasko

Roz Goldberg

Pat and David Goldrich

Charles and Bonnie Granatir

Helen and John Habbert

Peggy Lyman Hayes

Penny Hill

Ed and Judy Hoerr

D’Anne Hurd

Mike and Roxanne Jerde

Elizabeth M. Johnston Charitable Fund

Alison S. Jones

In Loving Memory of Thomas Jones

Anne E. Jones

Deborah Kalb

Terri and Michael Klauber

Joan Langbord and George Hollingworth

Melvy Erman Lewis

John Lindsey

Joan Lovell

In Loving Memory of Waldron Kraemer

Joyce B. Mailhouse

Carla Malachowski

Guy and Maria Mandler

Lynn M. McBrier

Joseph and Holly McDonough

Robert and Joyce Menschel Foundation

Peter B. Miller and Dr. Martha Harrison

Catherine and C. David Moll

Drs. Joel and Gail Morganroth

Michael and Michelle Morris

Roland Moser and Nati Shabat

Tania and Alexei Moskalenko

Deanne and Jim Naples

SILVER CIRCLE

$1,000 - $2,499

Eric and Mafalda Neikrug

Susan Newsome

In Loving Memory of Jon Newsome

George G. Nimick

Sharon and Lee Oberlander

Sally Peterson

Julie Planck

Victor and Joyce Rendano

Teresa and Clive Samuels

William R. and Gloria A. Schranz

Charitable Fund at CFSC

Felice Schulaner and Dennis Rees

Hilory and Douglas Seaton

Nancy Shapiro

Abby Sherry

In Loving Memory of Murray Sherry

Barbara B. and Jeffrey C. Shivers

Dawn Spencer

Robert and Mel Stanek

Willie M. and Rosa L. Stanfield

Hadassah Strobel

In Loving Memory of Martin Strobel

Julie G. Swanger

Joan Tatum

Jacqueline and John Thompson

Anna Maria Troiano

Joan Volpe and Ronald Kluck

Wendy and Chad Weiss

Carol Williams

John and Debbi Wilson

Mary Lou Winnick

In Loving Memory of Ed Winnick

Earl Wright and Mary Hale

Stanley Zielinski

CANADIAN BRASS HOLIDAY CONCERT

Tue. December 2, 2025, 7:30 pm | Sarasota Opera House

The world’s most famous brass quintet brings their wildly popul holiday concert back to Sarasota for a program of festive favor

ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Vasily Petrenko, Music Director

Mon. Jan 19, 2026, 7:30 pm | Van Wezel

The program includes Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor.

THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director

Mon. Feb 16, 2026, 7:30 pm | Van Wezel

The world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra performs Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 and No. 4.

DANISH STRING QUARTET

Tue. Feb 24, 2026, 7:30 pm

Riverview Performing Arts Center

The acclaimed Quartet performs Beethoven’s String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130, and Norwegian folk melodies.

PIANIST ALEXANDER MALOFEEV

Tue. March 10, 2026, 7:30 pm

Riverview Performing Arts Center

This astounding 23-year old pianist performs virtuosic works, from Grieg to Prokofiev, Scriabin and Stravinsky.

JOSHUA BELL & THE ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS

Sun. March 15, 2026, 7:30 pm | Van Wezel

Superstar violinist Joshua Bell leads the Academy in Dvo Symphony No. 8 and Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3.

ENTHUSIASTS CIRCLE

$500 - $999

Anthony Albano, MD and Dr. Kyuran Ann Choe-Albano, MD

Joan W. Bauerlein

Marc Behrendt

In Loving Memory of Everett Behrendt

Barbara Blackburn

Marty and Barbara Bowling

Dr. and Mrs. S.D. Braun

Barbara Callahan

Lynn Chancer

Kyuran Ann Choe-Albano, MD

Dr. Stanley Cohen

Louis and Marianne Cohen

Patricia Corson and Martin Goldstein

Sandy Fink

Cherie and Jeff Finn

Martha and Thomas Galek

Nancy A. Gold

Bonnie and David Goldmann

Marjorie and Bruce Goldstein

John T. Grant and Daniel Weiss

Dedrea A. Greer

Beverly A. Harms

Dr. Terry Hynes

Sue Jacobson

Susie Klingeman

Robert Kloss

Judith and Ike Koziol

Sandra and Benjamin Krause

Nancy J. Laird

Sara LeFloch

Lisa R. Markham

Nancy Markle

Nancy Milbauer

Dean and Patty Miller

Winnie and George Quarterman

Richard Reston and Brenda Griffiths

Lawrence V. Sage

Tobi Schneider

Ronnie and Steven Schnoll

James and Kathleen Scholler

Lenore Shapiro and Glen Behrendt

In Loving Memory of Everett Behrendt

Jane Sheridan

Margaret Stauffer

Lisa Titterud

Dr. Martin Tucker

James Tuite

Sandra Wolsfeld Warner

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.

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.

*Denotes members of the Martucci Legacy Society

Make a Difference

Make a Difference

Play a Principal Role

The Sarasota Ballet’s performances, education programs, and community engagement are made possible each year through the generosity of foundations, corporations, and individuals like you. Ticket sales alone cover only a portion of the cost of producing the extraordinary ballets you see on stage. It is through philanthropic support that we are able to preserve ballet’s greatest legacies, commission innovative new works, and bring accessible arts education to people of all ages in our community.

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 ®

Every gift to The Sarasota Ballet helps inspire, preserve, and impact.

SCAN HERE TO LEARN ABOUT OUR GIVING

CIRCLES

Patron Benefits & Experiences

We invite you to be part of the patron experience and celebrate the upcoming Season on stage, behind the scenes, and in the community.

As a Patron, your giving level unlocks a range of exciting benefits, including:

Devotee Circle - Opening Night Receptions

Kick off every Program with a VIP Cocktail Party while you mingle with fellow supporters, dancers, directors and special guests.

Connoisseur Circle - Celebration Dinner

An elegant evening of dinner and conversation, held in appreciation of our valued patrons, with the opportunity to engage with company dancers and leadership.

Luminary Circle - Studio Dress Rehearsal

Be the first to access every dress rehearsal—a unique chance to experience the magic before it hits the stage.

These events build community, offer joy and insight, and enrich the connection between audiences and artists throughout the Season.

Annual Gala

An Evening of Celebration & Support

For years, The Sarasota Ballet Gala has been the crown jewel of our Season — a radiant evening that marries elegance with purpose. More than just a night of fine dining and performance, the Gala is the Company’s largest annual fundraiser, essential to sustaining our artistic and community mission.

Guests are treated to exclusive performances by our dancers, gourmet cuisine, and spirited dancing in stunning venues such as the Sarasota Opera House and The Circus Arts Conservatory. These gatherings are a testament to Sarasota’s cultural vibrancy and our commitment to connecting art with community.

Through the generosity of Gala patrons, The Sarasota Ballet continues to flourish as both an artistic leader and a heartbeat of our cultural community.

Where else do you get an exclusive performance this breathtaking, surrounded by such elegance? The Gala is more than a celebration; it’s a rare glimpse into the soul of Sarasota’s artistic brilliance.

- Robin Grossman

The Martucci Legacy Society

Leave a Legacy that inspires.

Uncover the heart and purpose behind The Sarasota Ballet.

You can secure the future of The Sarasota Ballet when you include The Sarasota Ballet in your estate plan. Your generosity ensures a lasting impact on our organization, supporting performance, education, and community engagement initiatives for generations to come.

By joining the Legacy Society, you help guarantee that the art form we cherish will continue to inspire, educate, and uplift long into the future.

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

”

- Frank and Katherine Martucci Legacy Society Founders

WE ARE DEEPLY GRATEFUL TO THE FOLLOWING MEMBERS OF THE MARTUCCI LEGACY SOCIETY:

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

Michael Corrigan

Douglas Endicott

Laura Feder

Frances D. Fergusson

Geoffrey W. Fulton

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

Donna Maytham

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

Bud and Betty Shapiro*

Arthur Siciliano and B. Aline Blanchard

Jan Sirota and Alison Gardner*

Jeffrey and Marion Shields

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

Securing the Ballet’s Future

The Sarasota Ballet Endowment Fund is essential for safeguarding the Company’s long-term stability and success Endowments are like a financial safety net — they provide both confidence and security, ensuring that the Ballet can navigate uncertainties while planning for the future.

A strong financial future is the best solution to ensuring The Sarasota Ballet’s continued momentum.

- Joseph Volpe

By contributing to the Endowment Fund, you create lasting support that strengthens the Ballet’s ability to:

• Present world-class performances.

• Preserve and expand dance education.

• Sustain vital community engagement programs.

The Impact of Endowment Support

An endowment gift is more than a contribution — it is a declaration of belief in the Company’s mission and a promise to future generations. These gifts help ensure artistic excellence, expanded visibility, and a secure foundation for the Ballet’s continued growth.

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 Development team at 941.225.6512 or development@sarasotaballet.org.

Additional Giving Opportunities

The Sarasota Ballet is proud to collaborate with companies that share our vision of elevating Sarasota’s cultural landscape. As Gulf Coast Florida’s first—and only—professional ballet company, we offer unique opportunities for corporations to align with our artistry, expand their community presence, and support lasting cultural impact.

Why Become a Corporate Partner?

• Support Exceptional Artistry: Corporate support makes possible the world-class performances, educational programming, and community engagement initiatives that enrich Sarasota’s cultural life.

• Reach Engaged Audiences: Partners connect with thousands of dedicated patrons each Season through recognition in print, digital, and live performance materials.

• Enhance Brand Visibility: Thoughtfully placed marketing ensures your organization is highlighted to over 30,000 ballet enthusiasts as a supporter of the arts while demonstrating a strong commitment to the community.

For more information on corporate giving, please contact Development at 941-225-6512 or development@sarasotaballet.org.

School Leadership

Christopher Hird

Education Director

Christopher Hird studied at The Royal Ballet School, earned a BA in Dance from Roehampton University, and a Diploma from Canada’s National Ballet School’s Teacher Training Program. After performing with a company featuring Sylvie Guillem, he returned to The Royal Ballet School as Assistant to the Development Manager. He later served 13 years as Artistic Manager and Head of Adult Programming at Boston Ballet School and guest taught for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Cecchetti Council of America, and Harvard University. Hird has also been a juror for Youth America Grand Prix, ADCIBC, and the Japan Grand Prix.

In July 2016, The Sarasota Ballet appointed him Education Director, where he has expanded and strengthened the Company’s Education and Community Engagement Programs.

Dierdre Miles Burger

Assistant Education Director

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 eight-year 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.

Alberto Blanco

Principal of The Sarasota Ballet School

Alberto Blanco, a native of Spain, began his training in Gijón at the Centro de Danza Karel before studying under Victor Ullate in Madrid and later at Boston Ballet School, where he performed in Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Nutcracker. He went on to dance with Orlando Ballet II and the main company, performing in Robert Hill’s Vampire’s Ball, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, and Carmina Burana. Awarded a Jacob’s Pillow scholarship, he studied Bournonville with Dinna Bjørn and trained in Copenhagen with Vivi Flindt and Thomas Lund.

A passionate teacher, Blanco has served on the faculties of Orlando Ballet School and UNC School of the Arts, and is an ABT® Certified Teacher. He frequently guest teaches, coaches, adjudicates competitions, and supports outreach bringing ballet to diverse communities.

The Sarasota Ballet School

TRAIN WITH THE BEST

At The Sarasota Ballet School, we offer world-class ballet training beginning at age 3. We are proud to teach the American Ballet Theatre® National Training Curriculum, a breakthrough 9-level program that combines high-quality artistic training with child development. Our faculty, made up of certified educators and former professional dancers, foster an environment where every child is encouraged to thrive.

Primary Levels

Children discover the magic of dance in a joyful and imaginative program designed just for them.

In these early levels, students are introduced to movement and music through:

• Playful storytelling

• Rhythm games

• Creative expression

All while learning the fundamentals and basic principles of ballet.

Levels 1 - 4

As students progress into the upper levels, we focus on:

• Increasing strength and flow in classical technique

• Developing ballet artistry and personal expression

• Balancing discipline with creativity and exploration

In addition to ballet, students begin training in alternative programs, ballet technique, pre-pointe, and pointe.

Experience The Sarasota Ballet Difference

• Faculty of professional, certified, and caring educators.

• Unique class offerings including Progressive Ballet Technique and Character.

• Only school on the Gulf Coast attached to a world-renowned ballet company.

• Complimentary tickets to Sarasota Ballet performances.

• Pathway to pre-professional training through the Margaret Barbieri Conservatory with special bridge class.

• On-stage performance opportunities with The Nutcracker, end-of-year show, and Performance Ensemble.

My daughter has always been an extremely reserved and shy child and to see her flourish with SB over the last several years has been amazing! She loves Ballet so much and I’m so happy to have found Sarasota Ballet thank you so much.

- Dina Breneman

DEC 2025 & APRIL 2026

FEB 14–MAR 8

SAILOR CIRCUS – HOLIDAY & SPRING SHOWS

America’s longest-running youth circus takes flight! Watch Sailor Circus students flip, fly, and soar in two spectacular seasonal shows.

CIRCUS SARASOTA

World-class thrills under Sarasota’s iconic Big Top! A family-friendly show with an award-winning international cast from top circus festivals and America’s Got Talent

MAR 13-15

CIRQUE DES VOIX ®

Breathtaking circus artistry meets the soaring voices of Key Chorale and a 30-piece orchestra unite under the Big Top.

NEXT GEN SRQ PERFORMANCE

MAR 29

Sarasota’s brightest young talent from leading performing arts organizations shine in this one-of-a-kind showcase.

Adult Program

We offer a continuing education program for adults of all ages and experience levels. With both morning and evening classes available, there’s something for everyone, whether you’re new to dance or returning after time away. Our Teachers are passionate about educating and inspiring adult dancers.

Summer Camps

From June to July, The Sarasota Ballet School invites tiny dancers ages 3-7 to discover the joy of dance through creative fun, play, and crafts during themed activities, cultivating in a familyfriendly in-studio performance. The themes of 2025 featured Wicked, Happily Ever After, and Nutcracker in July.

Junior Intensive

In 2024, we launched an exclusive two-week intensive for students ages 8–11, designed as an introduction to the full intensive experience. The program includes ballet, pre-pointe, pointe, boys’ work, and Progressing Ballet Technique. Level 1 is open to students with no prior experience, while Level 2 requires at least one year of training. Each week concludes with an in-studio performance, giving students the chance to share their learning with family and friends.

Summer Programs

The Summer Intensive with The Sarasota Ballet is thoughtfully designed to develop both the technical skill and artistic expression of young dancers. Through a selective audition process, students ages 12 to 21 are invited to spend up to five weeks training in Sarasota each summer, immersed in a professional and inspiring environment.

We are proud to participate in the National Summer Intensive Audition Tour (NSIA)—a prestigious network of fifteen professional schools that allows dancers to audition once and be seen by directors from across the country. Students are also selected through leading competitions such as Youth America Grand Prix and ADC/IBC, as well as through national organizations like Regional Dance America.

Residential Life

In 2025, The Sarasota Ballet began a new partnership with University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, enabling our summer intensive students to stay in their new Atala Hall of Residence. As part of the residential experience, students enjoy weekend excursions including Universal Studios, Ringling Museum and the beautiful Sarasota beaches.

Exchange Program

We offer an exchange program with Canada’s National Ballet School.

InMotion

InMotion is the culminating performance of the Summer Intensive, showcasing students who have attended either 3 or 5 weeks. Presented at FSU’s Center for the Performing Arts, one of the Company’s mainstage venues, InMotion features a compelling mix of classical and contemporary works. It gives the summer students a special opportunity to perform in a professional setting for their friends and families.

Margaret Barbieri Conservatory

YAGP OUTSTANDING SCHOOL AWARD 2025

Named after Assistant Director of The Sarasota Ballet, Margaret Barbieri, the Conservatory offers a preprofessional training experience for talented young dancers. Our exceptional faculty led by Education Director, Christopher Hird, and Assistant Education Director, Dierdre Miles Burger, are committed to providing the highest quality dance education in an inclusive and nurturing environment. 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.

Trainee Program

Designed to prepare students for second companies or dance programs at major universities, students are provided with a well-rounded curriculum and extensive performing opportunities. Former Trainees are now with The Sarasota Ballet, Ballet Austin, Indianapolis Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet II, and Nevada Ballet II among many others.

Alumni

Students are training with the John Cranko School Germany, American Ballet Theatre JKO School, Cincinnati Ballet Academy, and The Juilliard School.

Youth America Grand Prix

We are proud to be a Youth America Grand Prix partner school. Each year we prepare students for the competition and offer scholarships to the Conservatory.

It is one of my greatest joys to witness the dedication and artistry of our teaching staff as they guide the next generation of dancers at the Margaret Barbieri Conservatory. From the very beginning, my vision was to build a faculty whose passion, experience, and care would nurture young artists and uphold the traditions of classical ballet. Each day, our teachers carry forward this legacy—instilling discipline, creativity, and love for the art form in every student they work with. Watching them inspire growth, preserve excellence, and shape the future of ballet fills me with immense pride and gratitude.

Margaret Barbieri Assistant Director

2025 – 2026 Studio Company

Studio Company

As part of the Education Department, The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company offers emerging dancers a stepping stone toward a professional career. Through a comprehensive training curriculum, dancers refine their artistic and technical abilities while gaining meaningful performance experience in a supportive and professional environment.

Studio Company dancers have the opportunity to join main Company classes, understudy Company roles, and perform featured parts in The Sarasota Ballet School’s The Nutcracker and the annual Images of Dance.

Performing throughout Sarasota is an important part of the Studio Company’s role. Each season, dancers appear in special collaborations with Key Chorale, at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, and in performances throughout the local community.

Former Studio Company members are now dancing with The Sarasota Ballet, The Royal Swedish Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Semperoper Ballet Dresden, Germany, Nevada Ballet Theatre, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Richmond Ballet, and The Washington Ballet among others.

Images of Dance

Each season, The Sarasota Ballet spotlights the next generation of artists through Images of Dance, a onenight-only performance that features the talented students and trainees of The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory alongside dancers from The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company. By partnering with the Sarasota Music Conservatory and Sarasota Youth Opera, young performers across multiple disciplines are brought together in a dynamic collaboration.

The Nutcracker in Venice | December 12 - 13

Live Music by the Venice Symphony

The Nutcracker in Sarasota | December 21 - 23

The Sarasota Ballet School’s enchanting production of The Nutcracker has become a beloved holiday tradition for audiences in Sarasota and Venice, offering a magical, must-see experience for the whole family during the holiday season. With demand higher than ever, we are offering six opportunities to witness The Nutcracker, including four at the Sarasota Opera House and two special performances with live music in a continued collaboration with The Venice Symphony at the Venice Performing Arts Center. Directed by Risa Kaplowitz, our production of The Nutcracker showcases over 100 performers ages 5 to 75 from across all of The Sarasota Ballet School’s education programs.

Audiences will be transported as Clara and the Nutcracker battle the Mouse King and journey to the Castle in the Sky, where they meet the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. With lavish sets and costumes, live orchestral music [during our Venice performance], this annual tradition is our holiday gift to you.

Visit our campus to see the future of animal rescue, and meet the animals waiting to find their forever homes.

At Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue Center, second chances take center stage. With double the capacity for dogs, a brand new kitty city, and adoption center now open, we’re saving more lives than ever before. Give animals a new leash on life. Scan to learn more.

Community Engagement

The Sarasota Ballet is proud to extend into the community, ensuring that people of all ages and backgrounds can experience the transformative power of dance. Spanning 35 years, we are privileged to deepen the cultural richness of the area by offering individuals the chance to discover inspiration through dance.

Dance – The Next Generation

Our tuition-free, after-school dance training program for 3-12 graders eligible for free or reduced lunch.

I often tell my daughter Sofia “Dance is food for the soul.”  For Sofia, the DNG program has helped her gain security and confidence in herself. As a family we are proud of the young lady she is becoming and are encouraged by her dedication and hard work learned through DNG.

- Janine Arguello 11th grade DNG Parent

Dance Education Experiences

Partnering with schools across Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte counties we offer dance education experiences for students including School Matinees, in-school performances, interactive workshops, and masterclasses.

Joyful Movement is the perfect name for our classes. Each week the exercises draw on ballet principles, engaging both body and mind. I’m grateful The Sarasota Ballet and Neuro Challenge Foundation created this joyful series, giving us strength and a renewed identity as movers—not people defined by Parkinson’s.

- Marion Shields Joyful Movement Student

Adaptive Dance

Through two programs, The Sarasota Ballet safely adapts ballet making the joy of dance accessible to those living with physical, cognitive, or social disabilities.

• Silver Swans® – a dance program for adults ages 55 and older held inside retirement communities across Sarasota and Manatee counties.

• Joyful Movement Through Parkinson’s – tuitionfree dance classes taught by specially trained faculty for individuals living with Parkinson’s.

Community Experiences

The Sarasota Ballet removes barriers through a variety of opportunities including community performances, events, and tickets to Company performances.

Dance – The Next Generation

Dance – The Next Generation (DNG) , The Sarasota Ballet’s pioneering community engagement program, provides underserved children in Sarasota and Manatee counties the opportunity to study dance tuition-free if they are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Operating since 1991, Dance – The Next Generation immerses students in grades 3–12 in an inclusive, diverse, and well-rounded after-school program that combines quality dance training with academic support, mentoring, and enrichment opportunities. Serving 150 students each year, DNG is more than a dance program — it is a program designed to nurture the whole child.

Mission

To nurture and enrich underserved students through quality dance education while supporting academic growth leading to high school graduation.

Goals

• To provide a progressive dance education to cultivate a long-term appreciation for dance and the arts.

• 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.

More Than An After-School Dance Program

• Free dance attire and shoes for every student

• On-site classroom and computer lab within DNG Studios

• Cultural field trips

• Enrichment activities and homework assistance

• College and career planning from 6-12 grades

• Free tickets to Sarasota Ballet Company performances

Guiding Students Through Academics to Future Success

• For DNG elementary students the focus is on cultivating strong academic foundations

• Middle school DNG students gain access to on-site college and career planning workshops and at-school mentoring through Take Stock in Children Sarasota

• High school DNG students benefit from individualized college and career planning along with on-site mentoring provided by PLANit Sarasota and Education Foundation of Sarasota.

• The DNG Scholarship: for those completing the 10-year DNG program, students meeting academic criteria may apply for special funding offered through State College of Florida and the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee.

Dance Education Experiences

We are honored to often be many children’s first experience with live, classical ballet.

School Matinees

Targeted to elementary students, School Matinees are performance adaptations of classical ballets as an Emcee narrates and guides audience members through the story, history, and music.

In-School Masterclasses

Designed for students to experience dance movement incorporating elements of ballet, jazz, and additional dance styles.

In-School Performances

Designed for K–12 students, our dancers and Education faculty bring the magic of ballet directly into schools. These interactive performances introduce students to a beloved classical ballet.

Adaptive Dance

The Sarasota Ballet opens the joy and benefits of movement to individuals of all abilities by tailoring dance to meet diverse needs. By celebrating each person’s abilities, these programs foster confidence and community showing that dance truly is for everyone.

Community Experiences

Joyful Movement Through

Parkinson’s is a tuition-free program offering weekly dance classes led by Sarasota Ballet faculty trained in the Mark Morris Dance Group’s internationally acclaimed Dance for PD® method. Participants enjoy improved balance and flexibility, overall well-being, and a supportive community.

Silver Swans® is the Royal Academy of Dance’s special movement program designed for adults ages 55 and older. Presented by The Sarasota Ballet within retirement communities, this engaging program blends movement, music, and dance history, connecting participants to the artistry and repertoire of the current Sarasota Ballet season.

Community Experiences opens the doors of The Sarasota Ballet by breaking down barriers to the performing arts, creating opportunities for everyone to engage, explore, and be inspired through events such as Community Performances, Lecture Demonstrations, and Backstage Tours. We also offer complimentary or discounted tickets to our partner organizations serving those within the community with limited access to live performing arts.

2025 -2026 Friends Committee

Patricia Golemme, Chair

Bruce Ensinger, Recording Secretary

Doricha Sales, Friends Liaison

Carol Arscott, Will Call Coordinator

Edilia Correa, Welcome Table Coordinator

Rosalyn Ehrenpreis, Volunteer Coordinator

Bruce Ensinger, Education Coordinator

Laura Feder, Advisory Council Liaison

Betty Ferguson, Membership Coordinator

Marge Kelly, Luncheon Coordinator

Andi Lieberman, Backstage Tour Coordinator

Richard March, Member-At-Large

Carolou Marquet, Backstage Tour Coordinator

Sara Sardelli-Rachon, Meet Me At the Barre Coordinator

The 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.

Connections Through Volunteering

The Friends of The Sarasota Ballet enjoy opportunities to support and engage with the Company in a variety of ways. Whether volunteering with the Box Office, welcoming guests as a performance greeter, or sharing your passion for dance within the community, there are countless ways to get involved. As a Friend, you become a true Ambassador for The Sarasota Ballet, helping to enhance the audience experience and strengthen the connection between the Company and its supporters.

Showcase Luncheons and Special Events

Throughout each Season, The Friends of The Sarasota Ballet host a variety of luncheons and special events, open to both members and their guests. Showcase Luncheons and other gatherings are designed to deepen appreciation and understanding for the Company by offering a behind-the-scenes look at its work. These engaging events feature exciting special guests and unique programming, while also serving as a social hub for those who share a passion for The Sarasota Ballet. The Friends dedicate proceeds from the Showcase Luncheons and Special Events to The Sarasota Ballet.

Showcase Luncheon Details

Monday, October 27, 2025 | 11:30 AM

Luncheon #1: Spotlight Interview with Misa Kuranaga

Get to know Misa Kuranaga, Resident Guest Principal of The Sarasota Ballet, immediately following Program One – Intrinsic.

Monday, December 1, 2025 | 11:30 AM

Luncheon #2: Holiday Luncheon

Join the Friends of The Sarasota Ballet for one of the most anticipated Sarasota holiday traditions - the annual Friends of the Ballet Holiday Luncheon!

Monday, January 5, 2026 | 11:30 AM

Luncheon #3: A Special Session with Christopher Hird

Don’t miss an interactive session with Education Director of The Sarasota Ballet, Christopher Hird.

Monday, February 9, 2026 | 11:30 AM

Luncheon #4: Behind the Curtain with Jerry Wolf

Learn all about costumes with Jerry Wolf, Head of Wardrobe for The Sarasota Ballet. With an extensive 30+ year career in theatrical and dance costuming, Jerry always entertains as he delves into some of the unique costuming of the 2025-26 Season.

Monday, April 13, 2026 | 11:30 AM

Luncheon #5: A Sneak Peek at the 2026-27 Season

Join the Director of The Sarasota Ballet, Iain Webb, as he provides insights into the 2026-27 Season of local favorites, beloved classical works, and world premieres.

Members of the Friends of The Sarasota Ballet:

Julia Aaron

Ken & Peggy Abt

Priscilla Adams

June Adesanya

Kay Aidlin

Christine Albritton

Caroline Amory & Marjorie Floyd

Andrea Anderson

Carol Arscott

Shari & Stephen Ashman

Jocelyn & Nick Baskey

Joan Bauerlein

Isabel Becker

Lynne Becker

Kacy Carla Bennington

Arline Breskin

Donna Brownlee

Diana Cable

Willam & Bonnie Chapman

Barbara Chertok

Dennis Ciborowski & Meryl Gale

Jonathan Strickland Coleman

Edilia Correa

Pat Corson

Katie Couchot

Joanne & Warren Crowell

Jacqueline & Harold D’Alessio

Lucille R. D’Armi-Riggio

Robert DeWarren

Sandra DeFeo

Kim Deme-Fulcher

JoAnne DeVries

Syble DiGirolamo

Lynda & Fred Doery

Barbara & Les Dubitsky

David Eichlin & Bob Griffiths

Rosalyn Ehrenpreis

Bruce Ensinger & Clark Denham

Barbara E. Epperson

William & Janice Farber

Laura Feder

Patricia & Denyse Fennessey

Betty Ferguson

Sandy Fink

Cherie & Jeff Finn

Linda Fiorelli

Laurie Fitch

Martine Flamen & Phillipe

Borremans

Karol Foss

Don Fosselman

Michael Gada

Randee Gervertz

Elizabeth & Thomas Glembocki

Nancy Gold

Ellen Goldman

Patricia Golemme

Dedrea A. Greer

Robin Grossman

Mary Hale

Renee Hamad

Julie Harris

JoAnn Heffernan Heisen

Marcia Hendler

George Hollingsworth & Joan

Langbord

Dale Horwitz

Charles Huisking

Barbara Hyde

Barbara Jacob & Karen Lichtig

Barbara Jacoby

Danielle Brown Jamil

Barbara Jarabek

Richard Johnson

Alison Jones

Anne Jones

James Jordan & Steven Phillips

Deborah Kalb

Carolyn Keidel

Margaret Kelly

Ann & Pat Kenny

Marlene Kitchell

Robin K. & Michael Strauss

Susanne Klingeman

Margaret Krakowiak

Gail Landry

Jim & Peggy Lang

Sara LeFloch

Margaret Levinson

Marlene Liberman

Andrea Lieberman

Tina Lieberman

Sharon Linder

John Lindsey

Barbara Fischer Long

Dorothy Lutter

Meg Maguire

Maria Mandler

Richard March

Carolou & Lou Marquet

Jean Martin

Frank & Katherine Martucci

Joan Mathews

Carol Mathias

Helen McBean

Lydia McKenzie

Peter Miller & Martha Harrison

Sandra Miranda

Linda Mitchell

Penelope Morrison

Phyllis Myers

Marilyn Nordby

Rosemary Oberndorf

Mercedita OConnor

Conrad & Lenee Owens

Jeannette Paladino

Virginia Peltz

Colette Penn

Betty Perlmutter

Cathy Phillips

Julie Planck & Charles Albers

Rose Marie Proietti

Sara Sardelli-Rachon

Jane Reed & Zerbe Sodervick

Jimmye Reeves

Rosemary Reinhardt & David Welle

Cheryl Richards

Audrey Robbins & Harry Leopold

Ellen Roderick

Terry & Susan Romine

Nancy& Jack Rozance

Beverly Ryan

Lynne Sacks

Sharon Sakson

Richard & Marie Sales

Sara Sardelli-Rachon

Paul & Lilianna Scire

Eda Scott

Carol Segal

Tracy Seider

Micki Sellman

Susan & Timothy Sheehan

Declan Sheehy

Jane Sheridan

Linda Simons

Jan Sirota & Alison Gardner

Linda & David Sischy

Beverly & Jim Smith

Irene Stankevics

Hillary Steele

Maureen & Thomas Steiner

Louise Stevens

Susan Strahs

Lois Stulberg

Ann Sundeen

Virginia Tashian

Joan Tatum

John Teryek

John & Jacqueline Thompson

Carol Tillotson

Janet R. Tolbert

Anita Van Tassel Holec

Carol Von Allmen

Sandra Warner

Tom & Gwen Watson

Judith Waxberg

Kim Wheeler

Anthony Winer & Paul Settle

Edie Winston

Elizabeth Wolfe

Vivian Zaffuto

Judith Zilkowski

Dr. Elaine Zwelling

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.

Acupuncture:

FILIPP A. GADAR, A.P, D.O.M

Gadar Oriental Medicine

3205 Southgate Circle, Suite 18

Sarasota, FL 34239

941.735.6786

Chiropractic:

DR. JARED A. WINTERS

Florida Chiropractic & Rehabilitation Clinics

1918 Robinhood Street Sarasota, FL 34231

941.955.3272

DR. ERIC LARSON

Larson Natural Health Center

3560 S Tuttle Avenue Sarasota, FL 34239

941.363.6744

Dental :

DR. PETER MASTERSON

Lakewood Ranch Dental 6270 Lake Osprey Drive Sarasota, FL 34240

941.907.8300

Dermatology:

DR. ELIZABETH CALLAHAN

SkinSmart Dermatology

5911 N Honore Avenue, Suite 210 Sarasota, FL 34243

941.308.7546

Diagnostic Services: PARTNERS IMAGING CENTER OF SARASOTA

1250 S Tamiami Trail, Suite 103 Sarasota, FL 34239

941.951.2100

Internal Medicine:

DR. BART PRICE

1250 S Tamiami Trail, Suite 301 Sarasota, FL 34239

941.365.7771

Orthopaedics:

DAVID A. SUGAR, MD

Sugar Orthopaedics

1630 S Tuttle Ave Sarasota, FL 34239

941.556.6900

Podiatry:

DR. ROBERT F. HERBOLD

4717 Swift Road Sarasota, FL 34231

941.929.1234

Ballet Foundations and Trusts

The Frederick Ashton Foundation George Balanchine Trust

Birthday Offering, Valses nobles et sentimentales, and Jazz Calendar are performed by arrangement with The Frederick Ashton Foundation and are three of over 100 ballets created by Frederick Ashton (1904 –1988). These performances are presented as part of the Ashton Worldwide 2024-2028 festival. For further information, visit frederickashton.org.uk

The Royal Ballet School

Part of Ashton Worldwide Festival 2024 - 2028

Divertimento No. 15, Mozartiana, and Stars and Stripes, Choreography George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust. The performances of Divertimento No. 15, Mozartiana, and Stars and Stripes, Balanchine® Ballets, are presented by arrangement with The George Balanchine Trust and has been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style ® and Balanchine Technique®. Service standards established and provided by the Trust.

Antony Tudor Ballet Trust

Dame Ninette de Valois’ Checkmate is performed with permission of The Royal Ballet School. Founded by Dame Ninette de Valois, The Royal Ballet School trains and educates outstanding classical ballet dancers, while also preserving the rich heritage and legacies of British Ballet.

Fokine Estate-Archive

Antony Tudor’s Lilac Garden (Jardin Aux Lilas) is performed by kind permission of the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust, which is dedicated to preserving Antony Tudor’s artistic genius and to sharing his master works through restagings and education so they may breathe with new life through future generations of dancers.

Michel Fokine’s Les Slyphides performed with the permission of the FOKINE ESTATE-ARCHIVE.

The Sarasota Ballet offers special thanks to choreographers Will Tuckett, Jessica Lang, Ashley Page, Mark Morris, Gemma Bond, Ricardo Graziano, Sir David Bintley, and Sir Peter Wright

Advertisers Index

1st Source Bank

Beneva Weddings & Events

Bradenton Heralds Tribune

Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation

The Circus Arts Conservatory

Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Inc.

Concierge Medical Services

Cumberland Advisors

Eurotech Cabinetry, Inc.

The Exchange

Gulf Coast Community Foundation

Herald Tribune

The Jewish News Federation

Justice Pays

McCarver & Moser

Michael’s

Peter G. Laughlin Group

Plymouth Harbor

Ritz Carlton

Rugs as Art

Sarasota Bay Club

Sarasota Bookstore One

Sarasota Concert Association

Sarasota Magazine

Sarasota Polo Club

Scene Magazine

Sarasota Opera

Sarasota Orchestra

Selva Grill

Senior Friendship Centers SNN SRQ

Media Sponsors

Season Sponsors

Program Sponsors

The Nutcracker Sponsors

THE SARASOTA BALLET

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL TOURS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF IAIN WEBB

JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL

JULY 2025

Ted Shawn Theatre, Becket, Massachusetts

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

ARCADIA 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