The Sarasota Ballet is heading into its 34th season on a high. Director Iain Webb just picked up the Ninette de Valois Award in London. The company was there to dance with the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
Webb called the recognition from the British dance critics an honor.
“I was shocked, because it's literally, the award has been given for what I've been able to do with the Sarasota Ballet. And I think the fact that it was the 'Dame Ninette de Valois Achievement Award' meant even more special, because she was the founder of the Royal Ballet. She was probably one of the first people I told that I was a dancer. And she became a very close friend,” Webb said.
Lyndsey Winship is the Guardian’s dance critic and is on the awards committee for The Critics' Circle National Dance Awards, and provided this context.
“The De Valois Award is given once a year and it's essentially a lifetime achievement award for someone who has made a significant impact on the dance world. Iain (and Margaret) have done an amazing job of celebrating and preserving the legacy of Frederick Ashton, including ballets that we don't often see here in the U.K. — it's valuable work and evidently done with a great deal of love and sincerity,” she wrote.
She added the Sarasota Ballet's recent shows in London were "very well received."
Both Webb and his wife, Margaret Barbieri, have danced with the Royal Ballet.
The London performances last month are part of a five-year celebration of the work of Sir Frederick Ashton. He was the founding choreographer of the Royal Ballet.
And Sarasota Ballet has been connected to Ashton’s work throughout Webb and Barbieri’s tenure, which started in 2007.
Webb said presenting the works of Ashton, which he and Barbieri have done consistently through the years, was one of those things from the heart, rather than from the business side of it.
In 2014, Sarasota Ballet hosted a national Ashton Festival. And it drew people to the company’s performances.
Famous people like Conductor Richard Bonynge.
Webb said he'd heard Bonynge was trying to get in touch with him and then ran into the man and asked him what he was doing in town.
He said Bonynge told him he’d flown all the way from Switzerland to attend the Ashton Festival.
And that’s when Webb, Barbieri and Sarasota Ballet Executive Director Joe Volpe, knew they were onto something special.
“And, and I don't believe that Iain purposely planned to do so much Ashton in order to sort of get this reputation. Both he and I love working with Sir Fred. We loved his ballets, both to watch and to dance. So, it was natural for him to bring some of these ballets into the repertoire,” Barbieri said.
Webb said Ashton helped to put the Sarasota Ballet on the map.
"And so therefore, when they started talking about this celebration, I was amazed that Kevin O'Hare, the director of the Royal Ballet actually said, 'Well, why don't we launch the celebration together?'" Webb said.
Sarasota Ballet put together a tour so its donors and supporters could see the company in action on the stages of the Royal Opera House.
“And you know, it's so important that because the dancers themselves, you know, went out there knowing that there were people there who … really wanted to support them,” Webb said.
Webb and Barbieri both credit the success of their company to donors and audiences of Sarasota, whose support Barbieri said is incredible.
Now the Sarasota Ballet looks ahead to its coming season.
It will feature world premieres by Jessica Lang and Gemma Bond and the historical ballet, “Giselle,” which launched Barbieri’s career. She will produce that performance.
Webb said the music, the design and the dances themselves will provide more than enough to draw people in for the 2024-25 season. You can find out more about it here.
