The Sarasota Ballet Announces 2022 – 2023 Season

April 18, 2022 – Sarasota

The Sarasota Ballet’s Director, Iain Webb, announces today the Company’s 2022 – 2023 Season. Over the seven programs, The Sarasota Ballet will perform 15 works by some of the most celebrated and prestigious choreographers and composers of the ballet world. Of particular note are the six World Premieres featured in the season, which include the much-anticipated The Spider’s Feast by Sir David Bintley and a new ballet by Jessica Lang—which will premiere as a part of The Sarasota Ballet’s August residency at the Joyce Theater in New York. Another Season highlight comes in the form of the full-length Company Premiere of Johan Kobborg’s production of August Bournonville’s La Sylphide. One of the oldest surviving ballets and one of Bournonville’s most celebrated works, it provides a poignant contrast to the Season’s World Premieres. The Season concludes with a program dedicated the father of American ballet, George Balanchine, paying tribute to the great choreographer in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of his passing.

“New works are a major element of the Season, not just from the standpoint of the number of world premieres, but also in the number of new ballets being introduced into our repertoire,” says Webb. “Almost two-thirds of the ballets will never have been performed by The Sarasota Ballet before, which is particularly exciting for both our dancers and audiences! Within these premieres you have the perfect counterbalance of exciting world premieres with breathtaking works from ballet history. While one program features up and coming choreographers make new strides, the next sees extraordinary ballets like Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes impact audiences and dancers anew.”

In addition to the remarkable choreography on stage, The Sarasota Ballet continues its dedication to Live Music with the return of full orchestral accompaniment to four of its seven programs. For programs two, three, six, and seven, The Sarasota Ballet will be accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra performing works by Franz Liszt, Albert Roussel, Herman Severin Løvenskiold, and Giacomo Meyerbeer to name but a few. “Live music has such a profound impact on how a dancer performs,” explains Joseph Volpe, Executive Director of The Sarasota Ballet. “It changes how they express the choreography and deepens their connection to the ballet, and that of course has a dramatic effect on our audience. It’s why we’ve created our Live Music Subscription this Season so that orchestral lovers won’t miss out on a single note.”

Before the 2022 – 2023 Season commences in Sarasota, the Company will return to the famed Joyce Theater in New York City August 16th – 21st, closing the theater’s 2022 Spring / Summer Season. The performances will feature Sir Frederick Ashton’s Birthday Offering, a world premiere by Jessica Lang, and Sir Frederick Ashton’s Varii Capricci—which returns to New York for the first time since its 1983 world premiere.

The curtain rises on The Sarasota Ballet’s 2022 – 2023 Season with a triple bill of World Premieres, all choreographed by Dancers of The Sarasota Ballet. Program 1, performing October 21st – 23rd at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, features a World Premiere by Resident Choreographer and Principal Dancer Ricardo Graziano, and World Premieres by dancers Asia Bui and Richard House. While both Sarasota audiences and dancers are more than familiar with the choreography of Graziano, for both Bui and House, this will mark their first works performed as a part of The Sarasota Ballet main Season. House’s choreographic credits include works created for The Australian Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company, and Trainees of The Margaret Barbieri Conservatory. Bui’s previous choreographic works include Song on the Beach, which premiered as a part of Terrace Program 2 – Voices of Her towards the end of The Sarasota Ballet’s 2020 – 2021 Season.

Program 2 sees three ballets—including two Company Premieres—by two of the choreographic leaders of 20th century British ballet, Sir Frederick Ashton and Sir Kenneth MacMillan. Opening on November 18th through the 19th at the Sarasota Opera House, Program 2 opens with the Company Premiere of MacMillan’s Danses Concertantes and pays tribute to the 30th Anniversary of the great choreographer’s passing. The ballet is representative of several MacMillan firsts: the choreographer’s first ballet created on the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet; his first, of an eventual seven, set to a score by Igor Stravinsky; and his first collaboration with Nicholas Georgiadis, who would go on to design a wide variety of sets and costumes for later MacMillan ballets. Next follows the Company Premiere of Ashton’s Dante Sonata. A chilling reflection of the grim futility of war, Dante Sonata was choreographed in 1940 during the early stages of the Second World War; set to, and heavily inspired by, Franz Liszt’s piano piece of the same name—itself composed on Liszt’s reactions to Dante Alighieri’s Inferno—the ballet is a jarringly bleak example of Ashton’s choreographic range, with Roslyn Sulcas of The New York Times describing it as, “an embattled expressionist encounter between good and evil with no clear outcome.” Program 2 comes to a close with the return of Ashton’s exquisite Rhapsody. Created on the renowned star Mikhail Baryshnikov during his guest tenure with The Royal Ballet, Rhapsody combines Ashton’s penchant for musicality and exquisite details in the upper body, as well as fast and meticulous footwork, with the spectacular bravura that encapsulated Baryshnikov’s artistry.

The winter season commences at the Sarasota Opera House December 16th and 17th with Program 3, a perfect holiday celebration for the whole family to enjoy. Opening with the return of a beloved Sarasota Ballet classic, Ashton’s Les Patineurs depicts a Victorian skating party that takes place on a frozen pond during a winter’s eve. The Sarasota Ballet’s performances of Les Patineurs have gifted the Company with international acclaim, for both the Company’s performances in Sarasota as well as during performances at Ballet Across America III at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and at New York City Center’s 2015 Fall For Dance Festival. After the performances at the Kennedy Center, dance critic Sarah Kaufman hailed The Sarasota Ballet’s performance of Les Patineurs as “the jewel of this year’s Ballet Across America.” Continuing on from his recent critically acclaimed World Premiere, A Comedy of Errors, Sir David Bintley returns to The Sarasota Ballet for the long-awaited premiere of The Spider’s Feast. Bintley’s original iteration of the ballet was created in 1997 for The Royal Ballet School’s Golden Jubilee celebrations; returning to the ballet over 20 years later, and complete with extravagant new designs by Dick Bird, Bintley aims to re-choreograph this entertaining and humorous work for The Sarasota Ballet. Set to the music of Albert Roussel’s 1913 “ballet-pantomine” Le Festin de l’araignée, audiences are whimsically transported to a bustling garden of wasps, caterpillars, and their fellow insectoids, while a menacing spider surreptitiously stalks its prey.

Program 4 rings in the new year by transporting The Sarasota Ballet back to the FSU Center for the Performing Arts for a thrilling mix of the historic and the novel. Performing January 27th – 30th, Program 4 begins with a World Premiere by choreographer and dancer Arcadian Broad. Broad has gained national recognition not only as a performer, but also as a choreographer and composer—creating ballets for Orlando Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and DanceWorks Chicago. Next, American director and choreographer Jessica Lang, having garnered great acclaim through her more than two decades’ work with American Ballet Theatre and other major companies worldwide, stages her latest as-yet-untitled ballet for its inaugural Sarasota performance. This creation, choreographed on the Dancers of The Sarasota Ballet and with sets and projections by Roxane Revon and costumes by designer Jillian Lewis, will see its World Premiere at the Joyce Theater this August as part of The Sarasota Ballet’s upcoming tour, scheduled August 16th – 21st. This exhilarating world premiere marks the first collaboration between Lang and The Sarasota Ballet. The program closes with a Sir Frederick Ashton classic, Façade. Combining Ashton’s tongue-in-cheek choreography with Sir William Walton’s knowing take on the popular songs and dances of the 1920’s, Façade is a rich and delightful affair. The ballet is that very rarest of English creatures, a perfect marriage of high art and sheer enjoyment, with a generous dash of genteel camp.

The Sarasota Ballet continues their tradition of hosting a major dance company for the Sarasota community to experience with Program 5. February 24th – 27th at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Theatre of Harlem makes its triumphant return to the Sarasota stage. Founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook, Dance Theatre of Harlem is considered “one of ballet’s most exciting undertakings,” The New York Times. A singular presence in the ballet world, the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company tours nationally and internationally, presenting a powerful vision for ballet in the 21st century. The 18-member, multi-ethnic company performs a forward-thinking repertoire that includes treasured classics, neoclassical works by George Balanchine and Resident Choreographer Robert Garland, as well as innovative contemporary works that use the language of ballet as a celebration of Arthur Mitchell’s belief that ballet belongs to everyone. Through performances, community engagement, and arts education, the Company carries forward Dance Theatre of Harlem’s message of empowerment through the arts for all.

The 2022 – 2023 Season’s Program 6 sees The Sarasota Ballet take to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall stage on March 24th and 25th for Johan Kobborg’s production of August Bournonville’s iconic full-length romantic ballet with La Sylphide. A crown jewel of Danish ballet, Bournonville’s La Sylphide premiered on 28 November 1836 at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark; the ballet recounts a narrative of a Scottish man, betrothed to a local woman, becoming entranced by the vision of a sylph, and the ensuing chaos as he is torn between two romances. Kobborg’s production preserves the source material’s dramatic potency while reinvigorating the choreography and designs and maintaining a thoroughly Danish flair. This production has become one of the preeminent versions of Bournonville’s ballet and has been performed by companies across the world including The Royal Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet. Kobborg has distinguished himself as a dancer, choreographer, and director—dancing as a Principal with companies like The Royal Danish Ballet and The Royal Ballet; and choreographing and staging works for The National Ballet of Canada, Zurich Ballet, and others.

In honor of the iconic choreographer George Balanchine and marking the 40th anniversary of his passing, The Sarasota Ballet’s Program 7 features a trio of Balanchine ballets. April 28th and 29th at the Sarasota Opera House, the program opens with Divertimento No. 15, dance critic and historian Alastair Macaulay wrote in 2011 that the ballet is “resplendent in line, dazzling in speed, calm in phrasing, tingling in musical precision.” Originally planned for the American Shakespeare Theater’s Mozart Festival as a revival of his earlier Caracole, he named this 1956 new work after its music, calling Mozart’s creation the finest divertimento ever written. Next, Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, an abstract neoclassical expression of the eponymous proto-psychological theory, with orchestration by Paul Hindemith powerfully expressed through the lens of Balanchine’s musicality. The ballet’s 1946 premiere brought to the stage a display, in biographer Bernard Taper’s words, “unlike anything that had ever been seen in ballet before” – it has since gone on to be regarded as one of the choreographer’s “black and white ballet” masterpieces, seeing many revivals around the world. The return of Americana-saturated favorite Western Symphony closes this homage to the legendary choreographer with a rollicking journey to the Old West. Inspired by Balanchine’s adoration of the “spaghetti Westerns” popular upon his arrival in the United States, Western Symphony pairs cowboys and dance hall girls with an arrangement of folk tunes in a series of charming vignettes, sending off the 2022 – 2023 Season on an uplifting, joyous note.

“This season, more so than many others, brings so many fresh and inspiring treasures to The Sarasota Ballet’s Repertoire,” enthuses Margaret Barbieri, Assistant Director of The Sarasota Ballet. “From the most beautiful of Romantic ballets, La Sylphide, to Jessica Lang’s exhilarating world premiere, I look forward to seeing the dancers and audience alike inspired by the beauty and depth of this extraordinary Season.”

Performance Schedule and Ticket Information
Program 1 | 21 – 23 October 2022
FSU Center for the Performing Arts

World Premiere
Choreography by Ricardo Graziano
Music to be announced

World Premiere
Choreography by Asia Bui
Music to be announced

World Premiere
Choreography by Richard House
Music to be announced

Program 2 | 18 – 19 November 2022
Sarasota Opera House

Danses Concertantes (Company Premiere)
Choreography by Sir Kenneth MacMillan
Music by Igor Stravinsky

Dante Sonata (Company Premiere)
Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton
Music by Franz Liszt

Rhapsody
Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton
Music by Sergei Rachmaninov

Program 3 | 16 – 17 December 2022
Sarasota Opera House

Les Patineurs
Choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton
Music by Giacomo Meyerbeer

The Spider’s Feast (Company Premiere)
Choreography by Sir David Bintley
Music by Albert Roussel

Program 4 | 27 – 30 January 2023
FSU Center for the Performing Arts

World Premiere
Choreography by Arcadian Broad
Music to be announced

New Jessica Lang Ballet (Sarasota Premiere)
Choreography by Jessica Lang
Music to be announced

Façade
Choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton
Music by Sir William Walton

Program 5 | 24 – 27 February 2023
FSU Center for the Performing Arts

The Sarasota Ballet Presents:
Dance Theatre of Harlem

Program 6 | 24 – 25 March 2023
Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall

La Sylphide (Company Premiere)
Choreography by Johan Kobborg after August Bournonville
Music by Herman Severin Løvenskiold

Program 7 | 28 – 29 April 2023
Sarasota Opera House

Divertimento No. 15
Choreography by George Balanchine
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Four Temperaments
Choreography by George Balanchine
Music by Paul Hindemith

Western Symphony
Choreography by George Balanchine
Music – American folk tunes arranged by Hershy Kay

Subscription Tickets

Full Season Subscribers can renew their subscription now, new full Season Subscriptions to The Sarasota Ballet’s 2022 – 2023 Season will be available starting 8 May 2022, and Four Ballet Packages are available starting 20 June 2022. For information, please visit www.SarasotaBallet.org or call the box office at 941.359.0099, Monday through Friday, 10am to 4pm.

Single Tickets

Individual tickets for The Sarasota Ballet’s 2021 – 2022 Season, starting at $30, go on sale 16 August 2022 at www.SarasotaBallet.org or by calling 941.359.0099.