It’s Cuban time in Sarasota this weekend when Gulfcoast Studio Company presents "Classical + Contemporary" in the Sarasota Cuban Ballet Auditorium on Cattlemen Drive. It’s a great opportunity to see the Cuban method of ballet up close.
“It's a very intimate performance space for the audience,” Barbara Worth, the Sarasota Cuban Ballet’s administrative director, explained. “The dancers are just a few feet from them when they're performing for shows. And in some of our pieces when the dancers are leaping through the air, they're landing a foot from the front row.”
The Cuban method is a fusion of Russian, Dutch and French disciplines.
“This particular performance is a great representation of that concept because we're doing a piece that represents the Russian style called ‘Awakening of Flora,’ choreographed by Boreas Petipa, and another piece that reflects the Danish style of ballet, La Sylphide,” said Worth.
A dance known as “The Swan” is certain to be a sentimental favorite at this performance.
“We had a patron, Donna Maytham, who was a supporter of the Sarasota Cuban Ballet since the very beginning for over 14 years,” Worth said. “She was also an arts icon in the Sarasota region. She passed away at the end of July of this year, and we wanted to dedicate this piece to her.”
The dancers will be accompanied by a pianist and cellist, friends who worked with Maytham in the arts community, and the ending has been changed by Birmingham Royal Ballet Director Carlos Acosta.
“Most people know this piece as ‘The Dying Swan.’ Instead of the swan ending on the ground in a dying position, she ends up with her arms raised to the heavens, walking away in a very positive way.”
Performances are Friday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 4 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; and Sunday, Oct. 5 at 2 p.m.
The Sarasota Cuban Ballet Auditorium is located at 4740 Cattleman Road, Sarasota, Florida 34233.
Seating is limited to just 60 people per performance.
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On a verdant 9-acre wetland preserve in Sarasota is a school and professional company that attracts ballet talent from around the globe. Dancers come to learn the Cuban technique that founders Ariel Serrano and Wilmian Hernandez studied at the Cuban National Ballet School in Havana. Fourteen years after they opened, Sarasota Cuban Ballet is one of the few Cuban technique training centers in the United States.
While the Cuban technique gives expression to the influence of the Spanish, African and Creole cultures prevalent in Cuba, originators Fernando and Alicia Alonso gave careful consideration to ballet’s European tradition and the influence of its Russian, Dutch, French and British origins before evolving their own distinctive style.
The Cuban technique is still evolving.
“I went to Cuba in 2013 when I first opened the school and I could not believe the development of the [National Ballet School],” Serrano noted. “In my young days, 1983, ‘84, we were holding two hands on the bar, we were doing lots of balance, not truly pushing forward. When I went back in 2013, kids 12, 13 years old, they were already turning … not very clean, not very aesthetically beautiful … but already doing turns. And I said to my old teacher, ‘Wait, wait, what’s going on? How is it that these kids are doing these steps that they’re not even ready for?’ And she’s ‘Well, we keep evolving. With you guys we learned that you took longer to find and master these steps. With these guys, we’re throwing them in there and by the time they’re 15, we clear them, and they’re already done.’ And it hits me like a brick. Oh Jesus, it took so long for me to lose the fear of turning, because I started turning later in the air. That was very scary, you know, turning in the air and getting spun around. And right there it was, these young kids turning all crooked, and landing.”
As Worth noted, this weekend’s “Classical + Contemporary” showcases the Russian and Dutch influences on the Cuban technique.
On the Russian side, Gulfcoast Studio Company will perform “Awakening of Flora” (“Le Reveil de Flore"). It is a one-act ballet with original choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Riccardo Drigo. It was first presented by the Imperial Ballet at Peterhof Palace on August 6, 1894, in honor of the wedding of Emperor Alexander III's daughter, the Grand Duchess Xenia, to the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich.
“La Sylphide” is a timeless ballet that has enchanted audiences since 1832. It tells the story of James, a Scotsman torn between his fiancée and a magical Sylphide. It premiered in 1832 and is a landmark ballet that established the Romantic era’s themes of unattainable love and supernatural allure.
“La Sylphide’s” enduring legacy includes its pioneering use of pointe work and its profound influence on subsequent ballets, altering the dance genre’s narrative structure and thematic depth.
There are two significant versions of the ballet: the original by Filippo Taglioni and an adaptation by August Bournonville. Gulfcoast Studio Company is performing the Bournonville version of the ballet.
“It’s very different than the Russian style,” noted Worth. “It’s a historic full-length ballet. We're doing an excerpt from it.”
Among the Gulfcoast Studio Company dancers who will perform in “La Sylphide” is Wilmian Hernandez and Ariel Serrano’s nephew, Brian Guerrero, who returned last season from the Minnesota Ballet, where he appeared as Oberon in “A Midsummer Night's Dream,”Cavalier Prince in “The Nutcracker” and one of the four princes in the “Rose Adagio,” among other roles.
In “La Sylphide,” Guerrero will partner with Evelyn Lyman.
“The Dying Swan” is a solo dance choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to Camille Saint-Saëns's Le Cygne from “Le Carnaval des Animaux” as a pièce d'occasion for the ballerina Anna Pavlova, who performed it about 4,000 times. The short ballet (four minutes) follows the last moments in the life of a swan, and was first presented in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1905. The ballet has since influenced modern interpretations of Odette, heroine of Tchaikovsky's ballet “Swan Lake,” and has inspired non-traditional interpretations as well as various adaptations.
“But we are doing an adaption of it that was done during COVID by Carlos Acosta, a legendary ballet dancer who was with the Royal Ballet for approximately 20 years and is now the director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet,” Worth noted. “He also is a childhood friend of Ariel Serrano, our director. He and Ariel trained together as young men and still have a very close relationship. Carlos is one of our advisory members and has supported us through the years.”
Acosta re-imagined the ending, making it uplifting and hopeful.
“Normally the swan dances and then she dies at the end,” Worth added. “It's very moving and very touching. While Carlos wanted to reflect the uncertainty of COVID, he also wanted to reflect love and hope for the future.”
As Worth noted, the re-imaged “Swan” is being performed in honor of Sarasota Cuban Ballet supporter Donna Maytham, who died in July.
A classically trained dancer, Maytham co-founded the Richmond (VA) Ballet in 1957. She and her husband, Walter, moved to Sarasota in 1996 and played an integral role in the Friends of the Sarasota Ballet and the Carreño Dance Festival. She also played an instrumental role in rebranding The Fine Arts Society of Sarasota as the Arts Advocates Ballet Club.
In addition to supporting the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School, Maytham provided scholarships for many young dancers. She often expressed that she considered Sarasota Cuban Ballet Artistic Director Ariel Serrano to be one of the finest teachers of male ballet students in the country.
“She specifically said that when her time came that she left the Earth, she did not want anyone to do a big memorial remembrance service for her,” Worth said. “But she would be OK if some arts organizations wanted to do something to remember her by in some way. So, Ariel and I talked about what we could do to honor Donna and we both came to the idea of doing Carlos' version of ‘The Swan’ because of its hopeful ending.”
The performance will mark a first at Sarasota Cuban Ballet. It will be performed to live music on a reconditioned Steinway grand piano from 1920 that another patron donated in honor of his wife.
“We don't often get an opportunity to share that wonderful gift with our audience, and so we'll have that opportunity now,” said Worth.
In addition to the three classical pieces, the program includes two contemporary dances that have been choreographed by two members of the Sarasota Cuban Ballet faculty.
“One of them is a flamenco-style piece, contemporary piece inspired by Maurice Ravel and the other was created by Tania Vergara Perez, the associate director of the studio company, specifically for this event,” Worth pointed out.
Now in its fourth year, Gulfcoast Studio Company is Sarasota Cuban Ballet’s professional company. It consists of young professional dancers 18-23 years old who are preparing for careers at major ballet companies around the world.
“'Classical + Contemporary'” gives our dancers a true professional performance opportunity,” Worth noted.
The Sarasota Cuban Ballet is a premier destination for Cuban training in the United States. Its mission is to celebrate and sustain the cultural legacy of the Cuban Ballet tradition, sharing its uniqueness through performance, education, and community outreach. Its faculty are former professional dancers and qualified educators who are passionate about sharing their knowledge and experiences with the next generation of ballet stars.
Students of the Sarasota Cuban Ballet have gone on to perform with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Houston Ballet, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Washington Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, and many other national and international professional companies.
For more:
- “Sarasota Cuban Ballet reflects worldwide influences; attracts dancers from across the globe;” and
- “Sarasota Cuban Ballet’s summer intensive show to include Royal and Boston ballet stars.”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
