Coryphée Dancer Christine Windsor Retires from the Stage

January 13, 2021 – Sarasota

The Sarasota Ballet announced today that Coryphée dancer Christine Windsor has made the decision to retire from the stage. Windsor, who has been with The Sarasota Ballet since 2007, has performed a diverse assortment of roles over the years, including featured roles in ballets by Dame Ninette de Valois, Sir Frederick Ashton, and Christopher Wheeldon. She departs The Sarasota Ballet to pursue personal endeavors as well as to dedicate more time to her family.

“Christine has been an important part of our Sarasota Ballet family for over thirteen years, and we will all miss her,” said Iain Webb, Director of The Sarasota Ballet. “She was amongst the first dancers that I hired when I arrived in Sarasota, and it has always been a pleasure to see her perform, whether she was amongst her peers in ballets like George Balanchine’s Diamonds or center stage with principal roles in works like Ashton’s Les Patineurs. Unfortunately, this past year has been challenging for all our dancers, and it’s sad that we’ve not to be able to provide Christine with a proper farewell. I know, however, that she will have great success in whatever she chooses to do next.”

Windsor adds, “I’m so thankful to Iain and Margaret for enabling me to have such a beautiful career, filled with incredible opportunities and unforgettable experiences. It has been a true joy and a thrill to see The Sarasota Ballet, under their direction, evolve into the world-class company it is today. I will forever be grateful that I got to be a part of that. I am eternally grateful for the seriousness with which they took the virus from the very beginning, and the measures they have taken to get us back in the studio and back onstage safely. However, as time has gone on and the virus still rages, it has come to a point where I have to make a decision, not just for me, but for my entire family. While this is not the ending I envisioned for my career, I do think that it is this decision that is best for my family.”

Windsor joined The Sarasota Ballet as an apprentice in 2007 and was promoted to a member of the Corps de Ballet for the following Season. At the start of the 2010 – 2011 Season she was promoted once again to the rank of Coryphée. Over her fourteen Seasons with the Company, she has entertained and enthralled audiences in Sarasota and elsewhere across the country as part of tours to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, New York’s Joyce Theater, and New York City Center. Principal roles of hers include the White Couple pas de deux in Sir Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs; The Betrayed Girl in Dame Ninette de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress; and Gertrude Lawrence in Joe Layton’s The Grand Tour. Featured roles included Sir Frederick Ashton’s Jazz Calendar; Ricardo Graziano’s Symphony of Sorrows; Antony Tudor’s The Leaves are Fading; and Christopher Wheeldon’sThere Where She Loved.

“It has been enormously rewarding watching Christine develop over the years we’ve worked together,” said Margaret Barbieri, Assistant Director of The Sarasota Ballet. “I’ve known Christine ever since she was very young and trained with me at London Studio Centre, so it has been wonderful; to share so much with her throughout her dancing career. She has become a beautiful dancer and a loving wife and mother, and while I will dearly miss coaching her and watching her perform, I look forward to seeing where this next phase of her journey takes her.”