Iain Webb
Born in Yorkshire, England, Iain Webb started ballet at 14 and moved to London at 16, where he trained for two years with The Rambert School of Ballet and a year at The Royal Ballet School. He further spent a year as an apprentice with The Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, where he was offered a full-time position. His main principal repertoire included Ashton’s The Dream (Oberon), The Two Pigeons (Young Man), La Fille mal Gardée (Colas and Alain); Bintley’s The Snow Queen (Kay); Fokine’s Les Sylphides (Poet), Petrushka (Petrushka); Balanchine’s Prodigal Son (The Son), Cranko’s Card Game, Lady and the Fool, Taming of The Shrew; Nureyev’s Raymonda; Massine’s La Boutique Fantasque; van Manen’s Five Tangos; and Wright’s productions of Coppélia (Franz), The Sleeping Beauty (Blue Bird), Swan Lake (Prince and Benno).
In 1989 Webb transferred to The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, to perform character roles that included Ashton’s The Dream (Bottom), Cinderella (The Small Sister, Dancing Master and Napoleon), Tales of Beatrix Potter (Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Pigling Bland); Baryshnikov’s production of Don Quixote (Sancho Panza); and MacMillan’s Different Drummer (The Doctor), Manon (The Client). During this time he was a board member of Sir Matthew Bourne’s “Adventures in Motion Pictures.” In 1996 Webb retired from The Royal Ballet, but was invited back as a guest artist to give three farewell performances at Covent Garden as The Small Sister in Ashton’s Cinderella. After retiring as a dancer, he was invited by Sir Matthew Bourne to be Rehearsal Director for The West End, L.A. and Broadway seasons of Swan Lake and continued to work with Bourne on his production of Cinderella.
In 1999 Webb was asked by Tetsuya Kumakawa to join his newly formed K-Ballet Company in Japan as Ballet Master and two years later was appointed Assistant Director. During this time, he worked with Kumakawa on building the company into one of Japan’s leading ballet companies and the only company to tour extensively throughout Japan as well as New York and Shanghai. Webb also worked with many international stars, including Adam Cooper, with whom he co-directed The Adam Cooper Company and organized its tour to The Kennedy Center. Likewise, he co-produced with Johan Kobborg the London performances of Out of Denmark and staged Roland Petit’s Carmen Pas de Deux for Alessandra Ferri and Julio Bocca for American Ballet Theatre’s 65th Anniversary Gala.
Throughout Webb’s career he has produced and directed many international performances, presenting dancers from The Royal Danish Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet, to name a few. He has been a guest teacher for White Oak Dance Project, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Rambert Dance Company, as well as teaching master classes and workshops for all the major ballet schools in England. In 2013 he became an Ashton Associate for the Sir Frederick Ashton Foundation.
In July 2007 Webb took over the directorship of The Sarasota Ballet and under his leadership the Company will have performed 146 ballets and divertissements by the end of the 2017 - 2018 Season, including 38 world premieres and 7 American premieres. These include ballets by Ashton, Balanchine, Bourne, Cranko, de Valois, MacMillan, Tharp, Tuckett, Tudor, van Manen and Wheeldon.
In 2011 The Sarasota Ballet performed George Balanchine’s Diamonds at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet. In 2013 The Company was invited back, this time to perform Sir Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs for Ballet Across America III. In 2014 Webb and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri organized The Sir Frederick Ashton Festival, commemorating the 25th anniversary of Ashton’s passing. The Festival garnered national and international acclaim, both for its dedication in preserving and presenting the choreographic legacy of Sir Frederick Ashton. As a result, the Company was invited to perform at the 2014 Fall for Dance Festival at the New York City Center, marking The Sarasota Ballet’s first appearance in New York City. In August 2015 The Sarasota Ballet performed to critical acclaim at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts. The 2016 - 2017 Season marked Webb’s 10th Season as Director of The Sarasota Ballet and began with a week long residency at New York’s Joyce Theater, followed by two performances at the 1932 Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor, Maine.
