The Sarasota Ballet

No one who’s ever seen a pas de deux doubts that female dancers own half the stage. Only recently, however, has the public begun to look beyond tutus and toe shoes to recognize women’s creativity and leadership in all the spheres of ballet, from choreography to administration. 

Buzz in the dance world overlapped with ongoing conversations between The Sarasota Ballet’s director, Iain Webb, and assistant director, Margaret Barbieri, about how to honor women’s contributions. They wanted more than a passing tip of the hat. The first fruit: Voices of Her, a multiyear initiative, which they launched during the 2020-2021 season.

“Voices of Her celebrates the artistry and leadership of women, highlighting the remarkable choreographers of the past, present, and future,” Barbieri says. The original plan called for culminating the company’s 30th anniversary season with a triple bill at the Sarasota Opera House in 2021: Agnes de Mille’s Fall River Legend, Dame Ninette de Valois’ Checkmate, and Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Biches. 

Alas, COVID-19 scrambled this “Heroines” program. The company could not stage these ballets without violating the safety protocols that had kept dancers and audiences safe throughout the pandemic. In keeping with Voices of Her, though, The Sarasota Ballet substituted Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs as the final digital program of the season. 

The ballet also created an opportunity for young women to find and strengthen their own voices. By late spring 2021, The Sarasota Ballet was performing in person outside the FSU Center for the Performing Arts. The second of these Terrace Programs featured female choreographers close to home, six dancers from the main and studio companies. Some had choreographed before, but others had only executed moves, never orchestrated them. 

Inspired by Arcade Fire and Owen Pallet’s “Song on the Beach,” coryphée dancer Asia Bui, for instance, created a collaborative sunrise/sunset piece for eight dancers. “I am so grateful to The Sarasota Ballet’s Voices of Her project for supporting me and giving me the platform to choreograph for the very first time,” Bui says. “Seeing my vision come to life, from studio to stage, was an incredible experience that has inspired me to further develop my interests in choreography.”

In the 2021-2022 season, Voices of Her continues its choreographic homage to women with Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring (October), Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs (November, back in person), and Dame Ninette de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress (January). 

The Sarasota Ballet has a personal connection to de Valois, founder and first director of what became The Royal Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet. At the start of her career, Barbieri crossed paths with de Valois, and The Sarasota Ballet is the only American professional company incorporating her choreography into its repertory. “From the guidance I received from Dame Ninette de Valois, through learning some of the greatest roles of my life from her and the legendary Dame Alicia Markova, to sharing a dressing room with the astounding Dame Margot Fonteyn, powerful women have sculpted my career from an early age,” Barbieri says. An acclaimed dancer turned educator, stager, and now director, Barbieri adds that she’s “incredibly fortunate” to have spent her career working with “inspiring and extraordinary women.”

She’s joined that matriarchal line of influencers. 

But Barbieri is not the only woman with a strong voice at The Sarasota Ballet. Throughout the organization, students, apprentices, new staff, and new company members—male and female—can find mentors and role models. From founder Jean Weidner Goldstein to ballet mistress Mandy-Jayne Richardson to education administrator Lauren Taylor to chief advancement officer Sara Robinson to vice chair of the board of trustees Patricia Golemme, the bench runs deep. 

When women talk, The Sarasota Ballet listens.

THE SARASOTA BALLET

Margaret Barbieri

Assistant Director/Repetiteur

Weidner Goldstein, Jean

Founder

Golemme, Pat

Vice Chair, Board of Trustees

Richardson, Mandy-Jayne

Balet Mistress

Robinson, Sara

Chief Advancement Officer

Stroman, Lauren

Senior Development Officer

Miles Burger, Dierdre

Assistant Education Director

Krazit, Sarah

Principal of The Sarasota 

Ballet School

Taylor, Lauren

Education Administrator

Brown, Danielle

Principal Dancer

Hulland, Victoria

Principal Dancer

Bui, Asia

Coryphée

555 North Tamiami Trail,

Sarasota, FL 34243

(941) 359-0099

sarasotaballet.org