Sarasota Ballet
| The Sarasota Ballet | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| Name | The Sarasota Ballet |
| Year founded | 1987 |
| Founder | Jean Weidner Goldstein |
| Principal venue |
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| Website | www.sarasotaballet.org |
| Senior staff | |
| Director | Iain Webb |
| Assistant Director | Margaret Barbieri |
| Executive Director | Joseph Volpe |
| Artistic staff | |
| Resident Choreographers | Ricardo Graziano |
| Other | |
| Associated schools | |
The Sarasota Ballet is an American ballet company based in Sarasota, Florida. It was founded in 1990 by former principal ballerina and choreographer Jean Allenby-Weidner and is now acclaimed for its performances of Sir Frederick Ashton's ballets under its director Iain Webb.
In 1987, Jean Weidner founded The Sarasota Ballet as a presenting organization, establishing its status as a resident ballet company in 1990 with the appointment of Montreal choreographer Eddy Toussaint as its director. The first performance was presented on November 3, 1990 at the Sarasota Opera House. Robert de Warren, former director of Ballet at Teatro alla Scala Milan, served as Artistic Director from 1994 - 2007. With the appointment of former Royal Ballet dancer Iain Webb as director in 2007, the company has achieved national and international recognition, especially for its many productions of the ballets of Sir Frederick Ashton. The Sarasota Ballet has been invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet (2011) and Ballet Across America III (2013), at Fall for Dance 2014 at the New York City Center, the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2015 and the Joyce Theater in 2016.
At the Frederick Ashton Festival, staged at the Sarasota Opera House in May 2014, The Sarasota Ballet offered a wide selection of Ashton's works. These included Birthday Offering, Illuminations, Les Rendezvous, Sinfonietta, and Valses nobles et sentimentales. Under Webb's leadership, the company performed 135 ballets and divertissements through the 2015 - 2016 season, including 36 world premieres and 7 American premieres. For their 25th anniversary season (2015 - 2016), The Sarasota Ballet became the first American company to present Ashton's ballets Marguerite and Armand and Enigma Variations. During Iain Webb's directorship, ticket sales grew from $300,000 in 2007 to over $1.675 million in 2015.
In February 2016, Joseph Volpe, retired General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, was appointed Executive Director.
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