The Sarasota Ballet will perform at The Joyce Theater 18 – 23 August 2020, and at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 26 – 30 August 2020.
Sarasota, FL (January 31st, 2020) – The Sarasota Ballet today announces that the opening of the Company’s forthcoming 30th Anniversary Season will commence with a National Tour this summer to the Joyce Theater in New York and the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts. The Sarasota Ballet’s previous national tours have met with sold-out shows and critical acclaim; during the Company’s Jacob’s Pillow debut in 2015, Janine Parker described the performances for the Boston Globe as one “with intensity and beauty,” and during the Company’s 2018 Joyce Theater performances Alastair Macaulay writing for The New York Times stated that The Sarasota Ballet “has established its credentials as the foremost exponent of Ashton work.”
“It is a remarkable honor to be invited to perform at these two incredible institutions of dance, and we are very grateful to both Linda Shelton at the Joyce and Pamela Tatge at Jacob’s Pillow for making this happen,” enthuses Iain Webb, Director of The Sarasota Ballet. “It is a credit to all of us, from our dancers and staff through to our audiences and patrons, to be able to start our 30th Anniversary Season at these prestigious theaters.”
Joseph Volpe, Executive Director of The Sarasota Ballet, adds, “These engagements demonstrate exactly why The Sarasota Ballet has become such an important member of the American ballet world. It is the Company’s extraordinary repertoire, artistic achievement, and dedication to the integrity of each ballet performed that has led to these invitations to the Joyce Theater and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.”
The Sarasota Ballet’s return to New York’s Joyce Theater this summer marks the Company’s third visit at the theater over just a six-year period. The Sarasota Ballet returns to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 5 years since their Pillow Premiere at the opening of their 25th Anniversary Season in 2015, a fitting parallel to this upcoming tour commencing The Sarasota Ballet’s 30th Season. While the two touring programs will share Sir Frederick Ashton’s Birthday Offering as part of their performance lineup, the other ballets performed will be different for the two venues.
The Sarasota Ballet’s 2020 performances at The Joyce Theater and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival are made possible in part through the Jean Allenby Goldstein Touring Fund.
Performance Schedule and Ticket Information
18 August – 23 August 2020
The Joyce Theater | New York City, New York
Tuesday, 18 August 2020 at 7:30 PM
Wednesday, 19 August 2020 at 7:30 PM
Thursday, 20 August 2020 at 8:00 PM
Friday, 21 August 2020 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, 22 August 2020 at 2:00 PM
Saturday, 22 August 2020 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, 23 August 2020 at 2:00 PM
26 August – 30 August 2020
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival | Becket, Massachusetts
Wednesday, 26 August 2020 at 8:00 PM
Thursday, 27 August 2020 at 2:00 PM
Thursday, 27 August 2020 at 8:00 PM
Friday, 28 August 2020 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, 29 August 2020 at 2:00 PM
Saturday, 29 August 2020 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, 30 August 2020 at 2:00 PM
Performance Tickets
Tickets for The Sarasota Ballet’s performances at The Joyce Theater are available at www.joyce.org and tickets for The Sarasota Ballet’s performances at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival are available for pre-sale beginning February 10 at www.jacobspillow.org.
About The Sarasota Ballet
Since 1990, the mission of The Sarasota Ballet has been enriching lives, captivating emotions, and strengthening the community through the art of dance. Under the leadership of Director Iain Webb, Executive Director Joseph Volpe, and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri, The Sarasota Ballet has received national and international recognition for its diverse repertoire of rarely performed ballets, as well as the integrity and artistry of its performances. The Company’s expanded repertoire includes works by world-renowned choreographers such as Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Sir Matthew Bourne, Dame Ninette de Valois, Michel Fokine, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Rudolf Nureyev, Jerome Robbins, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Antony Tudor, and Christopher Wheeldon. During Webb’s tenure, The Sarasota Ballet has been invited to perform twice at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and twice at the Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center, as well as week-long residencies at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and the Joyce Theater in New York. In May 2017 The Sarasota Ballet performed at the inaugural National Choreographic Festival in Salt Lake City and in August of 2018 returned to the Joyce Theater for another sold out week-long residency.
About The Joyce Theater
The Joyce Theater Foundation (“The Joyce,” Executive Director, Linda Shelton), a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community for over three decades. Under the direction of founders Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, Ballet Tech Foundation acquired and The Joyce renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea. Opening as The Joyce Theater in 1982, it was named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther’s clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. Ownership was secured by The Joyce in 2015. The theater is one of the only theaters built by dancers for dance and has provided an intimate and elegant home for over 400 U.S.-based and international companies. The Joyce has also expanded its reach beyond its Chelsea home through off-site presentations at venues ranging in scope from Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, to Brooklyn’s Invisible Dog Art Center, and to outdoor programming in spaces such as Hudson River Park. To further support the creation of new work, The Joyce maintains longstanding commissioning and residency programs. Local students and teachers (K–12th grade) benefit from its school program, and family and adult audiences get closer to dance with access to artists. The Joyce’s annual season of about 48 weeks of dance now includes over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 150,000.
About Jacob’s Pillow
Jacob’s Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, recipient of the National Medal of Arts, and home to America's longest-running international dance festival, currently in the midst of its transition to becoming a year-round center for dance through a five-year strategic plan titled Vision ‘22. Each Festival includes more than 50 national and international dance companies and over 500 free and ticketed performances, talks, tours, classes, exhibits, events, and community programs. The School at Jacob’s Pillow, one of the field’s most prestigious professional dance training centers, encompasses the diverse disciplines of Contemporary Ballet, Contemporary, Tap, Musical Theatre Dance, Photography, Choreography, and an annual rotating program (Street & Club Dances in 2020). The Pillow also provides professional advancement opportunities across disciplines of arts administration, design, video, and production through seasonal internships and a year-round Administrative Fellows program. With growing community engagement programs, the Pillow serves as a partner and active citizen in its local community. The Pillow’s extensive Archives, open year-round to the public and online at danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org, chronicle more than a century of dance in photographs, programs, books, costumes, audiotapes, and videos. Notable artists who have created or premiered dances at the Pillow include choreographers Antony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, Alvin Ailey, Donald McKayle, Kevin McKenzie, Twyla Tharp, Ralph Lemon, Susan Marshall, Trisha Brown, Ronald K. Brown, Wally Cardona, Andrea Miller, and Trey McIntyre; performed by artists such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Carmen de Lavallade, Mark Morris, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Edward Villella, Rasta Thomas, and hundreds of others. On March 2, 2011, President Barack Obama honored Jacob’s Pillow with a National Medal of Arts, the highest arts award given by the United States Government, making the Pillow the first dance presenting organization to receive this prestigious award. The Pillow’s Executive & Artistic Director since 2016 is Pamela Tatge. For more information, visit www.jacobspillow.org.
