News & Press

The Sarasota Ballet announces its 2025 – 2026 Season, an enthralling celebration of the rich history, remarkable versatility, and timeless artistry of dance.

While much of the focus has been on the many Ashton ballets the company presents, the new season, which officially begins in October, will include three world premieres.

The Sarasota Ballet will perform July 16-20 in the Ted Shawn Theatre, marking the company’s first program there since 2015.

The Sarasota Ballet’s Margaret Barbieri Conservatory experienced great success at the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) Semi-Finals held in Tampa, FL, between 9-12 January 2025.

Considering its alumni success stories, its prominence on the competitive ballet landscape, and the rising profile of its affiliated professional company, The Sarasota Ballet School has clearly emerged as a training destination. Helmed by Sarasota Ballet’s education director Christopher Hird since 2016, The Sarasota Ballet’s Margaret Barbieri Conservatory is committed to cultivating company-ready artists.

When current Sarasota Ballet coryphée Willa Frantz auditioned for Sarasota Ballet’s Summer Intensive at age 15, she didn’t plan to stay with the company for the next five years.

Jennifer Welch Cudnik is a former dancer and longtime arts educator.

At The Sarasota Ballet’s summer intensive, dancers are often recipients of offers to join the Margaret Barbieri Conservatory full-time, but they also have the opportunity to participate in a community that offers a glimpse into company life.

“Seventeen years ago, people didn’t really know The Sarasota Ballet. And now we’re sort of flying the flag of the city, shining a light on Sarasota.”

The Sarasota Ballet returns from a triumphant tour in London

The Sarasota Ballet has announced that Director Iain Webb was awarded the 2024 British National Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Now back from the company’s international debut—and with all the rave reviews to accompany—Sarasota Ballet Director Iain Webb and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri look back on a once-in-a-lifetime experience and forward to a 2024-25 season to match it.

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.

All hail the Sarasota Ballet. They came, they saw, they conquered. The glowing reviews of their June 4-9 London residency at London’s Royal Opera House provide the proof.

The company performed works by Sir Frederick Ashton with and for The Royal Ballet.

From the cheeky, colorful energy of Façade to the opulent elegance of Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, The Sarasota Ballet brought a selection of its extensive Frederick Ashton repertory back to where most of them originated: at London’s Royal Opera House.

Webb has been honored with the British National Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement.

A former member of the Royal Ballet who now directs a major dance company in America has said he once had to hide his talent during his childhood in Yorkshire.

The Sarasota Ballet shares the news today that Director Iain Webb was awarded the 2024 British National Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement. Graham Watts and Dame Monica Mason presented the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement to Webb at The Coronet Theatre in London on June 3, 2024.

The polished performances sent ripples of accolades across the ballet world, drew some of the biggest names in British dance to the audience and elicited enthusiastic reviews.

The Sarasota Ballet’s impassioned Dante Sonata was a particular highlight of the programme.

This charming, chic and chucklesome evening of splendid nostalgia topped off a great week of dance. Bringing Ashton from Florida to The Royal Opera House sounds like “coals to Newcastle” but I think that “discovering buried treasure” might be a more appropriate idiom.

The aforementioned range confirms who Ashton is as a dance maker, and what his canon can do for dancers who are lucky enough to experience it. I believe it makes interesting artists more so, which consequently means trips to the theatre are hence worthwhile.

As part of the Royal Ballet’s season devoted to the British choreographer, the Florida company brings three of his works to radiant, graceful life.

Today Sarasota Ballet is a vibrant company with over 154 ballets in the repertoire.

Who could have predicted, when he died in 1988, that it would be a ballet company based in Florida, in years to come, that would best honour the memory of Frederick Ashton?

Former Prima Ballerina and assistant director of Sarasota Ballet, Margaret Barbieri, talks to Paul Arrowsmith as the company visits London in a celebration of Frederick Ashton.

We have a small ballet company in Florida to thank for bringing back to Britain a selection of Frederick Ashton ballets unseen here in decades.

By contrast, little Sarasota Ballet, taking three ballets in which British companies lost faith decades ago, show how alive Ashton still can be.

Just days after he arrived in London to oversee his company’s first international performances at the Royal Opera House, Sarasota Ballet Director Iain Webb was named the winner of the British National Dance Awards for outstanding achievement.

The premier ‘lifetime’ award, the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement was presented to Iain Webb, formerly a dancer with The Royal Ballet, who has been artistic director of Sarasota Ballet since 2007. Sarasota Ballet is about to make their Royal Opera House debut.

Sarasota’s arts scene has long enjoyed a reputation for its ambition, innovation and international-level quality.

So curious are British ballet aficionados to see the little company from America that has made such a big splash by dancing the works of one of their most beloved choreographers, all performances sold out within weeks of being announced.

This June, The Sarasota Ballet will perform in the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House for a limited run of performances as part of Ashton Celebrated.

The company will take its first-ever international tour at the invitation of The Royal Ballet.

The specially curated performances will feature the works of renowned Royal Ballet choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton.

The Sarasota Ballet, which has built a growing international reputation on the strength of its performances of works by Sir Frederick Ashton, has been invited to perform Ashton choreography for a week in 2024 at The Royal Ballet in London, where he was a longtime principal choreographer, associate director and director.

Not all the guests are pleased about the nuptials, the dog least of all.

Sarasota Ballet’s “Movements of Genius” features a triple bill by some of the greatest choreographers of the 20th century.

The Sarasota Ballet is closing its current season by offering audiences a chance to see works by three of the most revered choreographers of the 20th century.

The Sarasota Ballet Nominated for the Stef Stefanou Award for Outstanding Company.

The Dance Section of the UK Critics’ Circle announces the short-listed nominations for the 25th National Dance Awards

It’s fair to say the Sarasota Ballet – led since 2007 by the former Royal dancers Iain Webb and Margaret Barbieri – now leads the world in standards of Ashton style.

The Program features a triple bill by some of the greatest choreographers of the 20th Century.

Best Local Dance Performance 2024-25 Season goes to The Sarasota Ballet Sashay, sashay, pas de bourr-yay—these stunning spinners twirled into the hearts of SRQ readers and leapt onto the Best Of list. In first position is Platinum winner The Sarasota Ballet.

With the addition of this admirably executed production – taking place in the middle of a five-year world-wide celebration of the choreographer’s work and following the company’s acclaimed first tour to London last summer – The Sarasota Ballet has only further cemented its reputation as the premiere expositor of Ashton’s oeuvre.

“You may see a third generation dancing elsewhere, but not in such a significant work that was done by the original people. You’re not going to see that again, anywhere.”

The Florida premiere of the romantic, rarely seen ballet was delayed by the pandemic.

Witness The Sarasota Ballet’s long-awaited Company premiere of Sir Frederick Ashton’s full-length story ballet, Romeo and Juliet, bringing the grandeur and passion of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy to the Sarasota stage.

The Sarasota Ballet kicks off the new year with a program of two prominent past favorites and a long-aborning world premiere from international choreographer Gemma Bond.

June was a mega celebration of the genius of Frederick Ashton with guest performances by Sarasota Ballet and a celebration programme by The Royal Ballet.

Decades after he first explored the concept and over four years after it was originally scheduled to run, British choreographer Sir David Bintley’s The Spider’s Feast will have its world premiere at The Sarasota Ballet this month on a triple bill that includes Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs and George Balanchine’s “Rubies.”

If ever there were a long-awaited ballet premiere, Sir David Bintley’s “The Spider’s Feast” must be it.

Sir David Bintley’s fanciful world premiere follows a spider’s search for food.

As a Principal Dancer with The Royal Ballet, Margaret captivated audiences worldwide. Adding to her impressive repertoire, her guest appearances with international companies in iconic ballets such as Giselle, Swan Lake, Coppélia, and Cinderella further solidified her status as a global dance sensation.

Although some of the dancers are new to the roles in this full-length ballet, which runs two hours and 15 minutes including an intermission, they have the benefit of Barbieri and Hulland’s experience.

Sarasota Ballet audiences will have a chance to see three similar but distinct performances of the classic story of “Giselle” with three of its company members paired with different partners during a weekend production.

From Understudy to Maestro: Margaret Barbieri’s Dance with Destiny.

In this episode, we sit down with Iain Webb, Director of Sarasota Ballet, who has played a pivotal role in showcasing Sarasota’s talent on the international stage.

Choreographer Jessica Lang found celestial inspiration for her world premiere, “A Time of Beauty.”

Fresh off a successful international debut, which saw the company performing the works of Sir Frederick Ashton alongside The Royal Ballet in London, the Sarasota Ballet kicks off an ambitious season with no less than three world premieres, two company premieres and a November glissade down memory lane.

Join The Sarasota Ballet as we begin our highly anticipated 2024 – 2025 Season with Relative Works, a dynamic program running from October 25 to 27, 2024, at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts.

In this podcast, Iain Webb, Director of The Sarasota Ballet shares his inspiring journey from taking his first dance steps in Yorkshire, England to leading one of America’s most dynamic ballet companies.

The ballet will offer several world premieres, play host to guest companies, and perform classics like Giselle, Romeo and Juliet and, of course, works by Sir Frederick Ashton.

After a week in June performing at the Royal Ballet in London, dancers with The Sarasota Ballet will be back to work earlier than usual this fall to prepare for a season that will include two world premieres and three company premieres.

It has been a dazzling season in Sarasota

The Sarasota Ballet held its annual gala on Feb. 16 at Sarasota’s newest event space: The Ora.