Iain Webb thinks it’s time The
Sarasota Ballet takes its rightful
place among the world’s premiere
ballet companies, which is why
the 2018 spring season opener will hit
the ground running with Dreams of
Nature on March 2 and 3 at the Van
Wezel Performing Arts Hall.
“We’re bringing in the best people
around to ensure Sarasota audiences
see some of the finest ballet anywhere,”
said Webb, director of The Sarasota
Ballet. “We’re a little like a touring
company in Sarasota, because we
perform at the FSU Center for the
Performing Arts, the Opera House and
the Van Wezel. So when I get a chance
to go into the Van Wezel, which is
usually twice a year, I have to pick
ballets that are really special.”
Webb explained Dreams of Nature
features two ballets: The Dream, which
is Sir Frederick Ashton’s depiction of
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s
Dream and David Bintley’s Still Life at
the Penguin Café.
“The Dream was originally
choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton
and the role of Oberon was created
by Sir Anthony Dowell,” Webb said.
“When Sir Frederick passed away he
left the ballet to Sir Anthony, who was
and ever will be the greatest British
dancer of all time. The Dream is a
ballet that is very close to us, but it has
taken me eight years to get permission
from Sir Anthony to perform it.”
Still Life at the Penguin Café, Webb
added, was originally choreographed
by Bintley, renowned director of
the Birmingham Royal Ballet. It is
set to the music of composer Simon
Jeffes, founder of the Penguin Café
Orchestra and features a menagerie of
endangered animals seeking shelter
from a storm at the Penguin Café. This
ballet offers a prophetic message of
environmental awareness.
50 SARASOTA SCENE | FEBRUARY 2018
“The Dream has been performed by American companies
before, but we’re the first American company that has
permission to perform Penguin Café,” Webb said. “I was
pleasantly shocked that we got permission to do it here in
America.”
Webb added Dowell will actually fly in to Sarasota for
a week to coach the dancers and oversee renowned
repetiteur Christopher Carr’s staging of The Dream at The
Sarasota Ballet.
“Christopher is one of the Royal Ballet’s great repetiteurs,”
Webb said. “He came to us in September and basically
taught most of the ballet, which (Assistant Director and
Repetiteur) Margaret Barbieri and I also oversaw. Sir
Anthony will come in then Christopher will also return
for two weeks before it goes on stage. It’s going to be
absolutely perfect.”
He added Penguin Café is an ideal companion piece to
The Dream, because it too is a fanciful piece that focuses
on denizens of a natural setting. Bintley had an image of
Noah’s Ark, full of half animals and half people. He then
found a book called The Doomsday Book of Animals, about
extinct species, which inspired a story of their plight.
Ricardo Rhodes & Ivan Duarte in
Sir Frederick Ashton’s The Dream
- Photo Frank Atura
“We’re bringing in the best people
around to ensure Sarasota
audiences see some of the finest
ballet anywhere.”
- Iain Webb