♦ Location: Sarasota, Florida – United States
♦ Artistic Director: Iain Webb
♦ Affiliated School: Sarasota Ballet School
♦ Founded in 1987 by Jean Weidner Goldstein
Sarasota Ballet 2024-2025 Season
The Sarasota Ballet 2024-2025 Season features a line-up of works by world-renowned choreographers, three of which are new ballets, two performed by the company for the first time, and several pieces from the neo-classical and contemporary canon.
“This upcoming Season will offer the ideal blend of brilliant choreography, acclaimed artistry, and imbued emotion inherent to the art of dance. We continue to strive to bring the best of ballet to the stage for our audiences, and this Season will be no exception.”
Iain Webb, Artistic Director of Sarasota Ballet
In the opening program, Relative Works, Ricardo Graziano’s (Principal Dancer and Resident Choreographer of the company) romantic, neoclassical ballet Amoroso returns to the stage for the first time since its world premiere in 2019. A neoclassical work for five couples, the ballet’s sensual atmosphere is enhanced by its striking red corset costuming for the women and the stark black high collared outfits for the men. Jessica Lang’s new creation and Johan Kobborg’s classical production of August Bournonville’s Napoli Act III round out the program.
Fanciful Journey is a triple-bill which includes the Rubies section of George Balanchine’s iconic full-length ballet Jewels, opening the program with a vibrancy and flair that is perfectly counterbalanced by Stravinsky’s dissonant and edgy score. The company premiere of Edwaard Liang‘s Wunderland set to Philip Glass, features movement which seamlessly molds striking poses and geometric formations which inspire tension and harmony.
Sir David Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast whimsically transports audiences to a bustling garden filled with colorful insects while an arachnid menace surreptitiously stalks its prey. The ballet is brought to life through Bintley’s acclaimed choreography and incredible sets and costumes by renowned designer Dick Bird.
The Quintessential program features Renato Paroni’s Rococo Variations, a classical ballet choreographed to Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra, Paul Taylor’s powerful Brandenburgs, and the world premiere of Gemma Bond’s Preludes.
Of the two full-length classical ballet scheduled, Sir Frederick Ashton’s Romeo and Juliet is a company premiere, bringing the grandeur and passion of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy to the Sarasota stage. Infused with Ashton’s musicality and penchant for beautiful pas de deux, Romeo and Juliet evidences Ashton’s choreographic genius and ability to portray the nature of humanity through dance.
Sir Peter Wright’s Giselle is revered as one of the greatest and most faithful productions of this beloved story ballet and has been performed across the globe on virtually every continent. The ballet brings to life a story of young love, foolish betrayal, haunting tragedy, and finally redemption through forgiveness. Considered by many as the crowning achievement of the romantic ballet era, Giselle perfectly exemplifies how this art form is a living tradition: taught, preserved, adapted, and handed down from generation to generation.
Closing the season is aptly titled Movements of Genius, showcasing works by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Ashton:
- Serenade, set to the four movements of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings;
- In the Night, a trio of pas de deux which contemplates romantic love in stages, one euphoric, another restrained, and a third tempestuous;
- A Wedding Bouquet, an avant-garde work containing fragmented narrative originally spoken by Gertrude Stein and set to a series of incidents at a provincial wedding in France around the turn of the century where, comically, everything seems to go wrong.
Source: Sarasota Ballet
Sarasota Ballet Upcoming Performances
Sarasota Ballet: Giselle
Sarasota Ballet: Fanciful Journey
Sarasota Ballet: Quintessential
Sarasota Ballet: Romeo and Juliet
Sarasota Ballet: Movements of Genius
Sarasota Ballet Reviews
Sarasota Ballet News and Features
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