Six New Dancers Join The Sarasota Ballet

July 28, 2021 – Sarasota

With The Sarasota Ballet’s highly anticipated return to the theater comes not only new and returning ballets, but dancers as well. Today, The Sarasota Ballet announces updates to the Company for the 2021 – 2022 Season including dancer promotions, new additions, and departures.

Dancer promotions that took place over the course of this past Season were: Marijana Dominis, promoted to Soloist after her performances in Sir Frederick Ashton’s Aurora’s Vision Solo during Digital Program 1; and Lauren Ostrander and Janae Korte promoted to Coryphée after their performances in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments and Who Cares? during Digital Program 2. For the 2021 – 2022 Season, Yuri Marques has been promoted to Soloist following several featured roles this past Season including Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs and the male principal role in Balanchine’s Donizetti Variations.

At the start of the 2021 – 2022 Season, six dancers will join the Company of The Sarasota Ballet. These dancers include: Marco Corcella, joining as a Soloist; Arcadian Broad and Luis Gonzalez, both joining as Coryphée; Taylor Sambola, joining as Corps de Ballet; and Evan Gorbell and Morgan Rust, both joining as Apprentices.

Marco Corcella trained at the Teatro di San Carlo Ballet School at Naples, in his home country of Italy. From there, he continued his training at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart and, upon graduation in 2015, immediately joined the Stuttgart Ballet. The following year, Corcella joined the ballet of the Romanian National Opera, Bucharest as a demi-soloist, where he has danced until joining The Sarasota Ballet.

Originally from Titusville, Florida, Arcadian Broad began dancing at age nine and, after winning a scholarship at ADC IBC, attended the Orlando Ballet summer program. At sixteen, Broad joined the Orlando Ballet’s professional company, the youngest hire in their history. He then joined the Cincinnati Ballet in 2019, but is eager to return to his home state of Florida next Season. Broad is also a choreographer and composer, having created several contemporary works and two full-length ballets, Beauty & the Beast and WonderLand: Mad Tales of the Hatter, also composing original orchestral scores for his full-length works. His choreography has been performed by Orlando Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, DanceWorks Chicago, and also seen on television and streaming channels. Additionally, Broad is a certified teacher with the ABT® National Training Curriculum.

Luis Gonzalez hails from Bogota, Colombia, and moved to Atlanta, Georgia to train with Maniya Barredo. He started his professional career at age sixteen with Houston Ballet II, then joined Orlando Ballet two years later. In 2015 Gonzalez joined the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, where he remained for four years before returning to Orlando Ballet. He also teaches, choreographs, and is currently finishing his degree in Business with a minor in Psychology.

Raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Taylor Sambola studied ballet locally as well as training at institutions including the School of American Ballet and ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. Her professional career launched with Orlando Ballet II in 2014, where she continued for two years until her promotion to the professional company. Sambola danced with Orlando Ballet for the following four years, and is excited to join The Sarasota Ballet this Season. She has also been a certified Power Pilates instructor since 2011 and emphasizes the incorporation of pilates in dancers’ training routines.

The Sarasota Ballet sends a fond farewell to dancers Elizabeth Sykes (First Soloist) and Christine Windsor (Coryphée), who retired during the course of our past Season, as well as Ellen Overstreet (Principal) and Katelyn May (Principal), who will not be returning for the 2021 – 2022 Season. Overstreet has made the difficult decision to retire from ballet, after nine Seasons dancing with The Sarasota Ballet including five as a Principal. May will be moving to join her husband in Arizona, where he has been pursuing his own career opportunities, and continuing her ballet career with Ballet Arizona. Director Iain Webb adds: “It’s always sad to say goodbye to a member of the Company, and in particular I want to thank these four ladies for their artistic contributions to the Company over their performing careers. And of course we will miss them greatly and wish them the best in their future endeavors.”