Philanthropy: On Board with The Sarasota Ballet

Richard Johnson Continues a Love Story

By Sylvia Whitman | Photo By Nancy Guth

The great pas de deux of Richard Johnson’s life lasted more than 50 years. He and his late wife, Marsha, spent much of his long business career in Asia before splitting their retirement between Pennsylvania and Florida. “A Renaissance woman,” according to Johnson, Marsha had grown up in an arts-minded family in Philadelphia, and once the couple began wintering in Sarasota, she rediscovered her love of ballet. 

Fine. But that wasn’t Johnson’s schtick. Until Marsha dragged him to a rehearsal of The Sarasota Ballet. 

“And what I discovered at the rehearsal were two things,” he says. “One was the amazing energy and athleticism of the dancers. This lovely, fluid, flowing physicality—and underneath that is this true athleticism.” He marveled at the expenditure of energy, all the more evident when the dancers stepped off stage and dredged for air, in heavy breathing recovery. “I just never knew; I never understood them as actual athletes.” 

His second realization was more personal. “I’m somewhat tone deaf,” Johnson says. As he watched the choreography and listened to the accompaniment, “the only way you can describe it is I began to see the music. I don’t know that there’s any science behind that. But I felt like the dancers echoed the music. I saw it visually, but it connected with what I was hearing.”

That enjoyment and Marsha’s enthusiasm so drew in Johnson that he joined The Sarasota Ballet board of directors in 2015. His appreciation for both the art and the organization deepened. Welcomed behind the scenes, he marveled at “the almost word-of-mouth way in which the tradition is passed on from the choreographer to the dancer, to the dancer becoming a teacher like both Iain and Maggie [director Iain Webb and assistant director Margaret Barbieri]. They both danced in London and then passed that art, person to person, face to face, to the next generation of dancers. It’s a lovely tradition and one that I don’t think really exists in the other performing arts.”

Johnson has also witnessed The Sarasota Ballet’s impact on the community, especially “with groups that you wouldn’t automatically associate with the ballet.” He points to Dance—The Next Generation, a 30 year-old program that engages youth from grades 3 through 12 in a comprehensive 10-year program including dance education, mentorship, and life skills. “After school, three days a week, we pick them up in our vans and bring them to our studios, where they get a combination of dance training and tutoring in their classroom subjects,” explains Johnson. “The goal, which seems to work with great effectiveness, is to take the discipline of dance and marry it to the discipline of studies.” Children who put in the work “find themselves very successful in their educational experience. That’s exciting and something that just doesn’t show up on most of my friends’ radar.”

Until Johnson gets talking, that is. In 2018, Johnson succeeded Hillary Steele as chair of The Sarasota Ballet’s board. Although he lost Marsha the year before, their philanthropy continues, with Johnson the dance aficionado. 

His social circle loves ballet performances, the color and the flair, but Johnson hopes they also notice how positively the dancers are embedded in the Sarasota community. “They’re here with us nine months out of the year,” says Johnson, “and many of them live here year-round.” They’re artists but also neighbors. In partnership with the local nonprofit Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson’s, for instance, one dancer started Joyful Movement with Parkinson’s. Now taught in rotation by members of The Sarasota Ballet, the class guides participants with the neurological disorder and caregivers through stretches and exercises that tie into ballet music and history. 

Prevailing in Trying Times

Johnson says respect for the company as human beings, beyond their roles as artists and performers, has guided The Sarasota Ballet’s response to the pandemic. The board endorsed executive director Joe Volpe’s decision to pay all the dancers under contract through the full season, despite the spring 2020 lockdown and a slimmed-down program of virtual performances in the fall. That humanity wouldn’t have been possible, however, without the generosity of ballet lovers. Few season subscribers asked for refunds, and donors “went deep into their pockets” to create an emergency fund, Johnson says. Combining city, state, and federal relief with the gift of a major donor, the ballet has continued subsidizing health insurance—including individuals’ share of the cost. The company can count on a paycheck whatever spring 2021 brings. 

“This is a great reflection of the importance of the dancers as part of our family,” Johnson says.

About this winter/spring season—The Sarasota Ballet plans to continue the fall’s innovative digital programs, which Johnson reports have been “well received.” Filmed by multiple cameras, the solos, duets, and small-pod performances offer intimate views impossible on a live stage, supplemented by rehearsal clips and interviews and conversations with dancers and choreographers. A ticket equals a password for audience members to stream the videos safely from home, anywhere in the world. 

“I think for the folks who were able to participate, it’s been a chance to get a fuller sense of who we are,” says Johnson. “And perhaps get a new perspective on us.” 

In addition to the online offerings, The Sarasota Ballet is aiming for outdoor live performances in spring 2021 as well. “We’re still exploring what we can do, and more importantly what we should do. And should begins again with the dancers’ health first,” says Johnson. The ballet wants to make sure that dancers feel comfortable and confident that the organization is looking out for them.

Veteran of several local nonprofit boards, Johnson downplays his contribution to the ballet. Yes, those decades abroad—in Japan mostly, but also India, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the Philippines—did teach him to work in other people’s culture and languages, which is helpful for a board member transitioning from the for-profit to nonprofit world.  And, yes, he and the rest of the board have varied workplace experience adapting to challenging circumstances. But Johnson defers to The Sarasota Ballet’s leadership team, with their decades in the arts, as the experts who will lead the organization, now celebrating its 30^th anniversary, into a bright future. 

In this “year of the plague environment, nobody’s got all the answers,” he says. “But it’s exciting to say that an uncertainty is also challenging, and it lends itself to creativity.” The board’s role? To listen and serve as a sounding board. “That’s what we’re doing, and it’s working very well. Just look at the programs they have come up with.”

Marsha would have been so pleased.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about The Sarasota Ballet, please visit sarasotaballet.org or call 941.359.0099.