- September 15, 2024
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When the temperatures rise in Sarasota, the snowbirds head home for the summer. But this year four local arts organizations also took wing and performed for out-of-town audiences in France, England, North Carolina and Massachusetts.
The summer road trips were a chance for Sarasota performers to strut their stuff and to show the world just how lucky we are to have first-class cultural institutions in our cozy beach town.
The four groups who took their shows on the road were:
As anyone who has ever taken a big trip knows, lots of things can go wrong. Even with all the high-tech tools at our disposal, plans can still go awry. The security detail of a president can unexpectedly close down a travel route, a hurricane can result in delayed airline flights and costumes can be damaged.
When you’re a touring arts organization, you have to make compromises about lighting, sets and personnel to keep costs manageable. You learn to travel light, bring your best people and rely on the expertise of locals who are familiar with the venue where you’ll be in the spotlight.
But Sarasota’s intrepid arts ambassadors were troupers (that’s what they call them in the theater) this summer. Some were even troopers, like the members of Choral Artists who marched alongside veterans and military personnel in honor of the U.S. invasion of Normandy to liberate France from the Nazis.
In addition to performers and staffers, Sarasota arts organizations brought along well-wishers and donors to accompany them on their summer adventures.
Those of us who had to hold down the fort at home can still take pride in their high-profile appearances. Read on to learn more about each cultural organization’s summer sojourn.
The Bible tells the story of the prodigal son who is welcomed when he comes home to ask for forgiveness after squandering his inheritance. Sarasota Ballet Director Iain Webb has multiplied his investment in the works of Sir Frederick Ashton, so his triumphant return to his native England doesn’t exactly fit the biblical story line.
What’s more, he returned to Covent Garden with his wife, Sarasota Ballet Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri, who also danced Ashton’s ballets during the couple’s days with the Royal Ballet.
What if Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden and returned to paradise with the fruits of their labors? That sounds more like it. And since we’re talking about Old Testament tales here, of course, judgment had to be handed down — and it was good.
With rare exceptions, the critics loved the Sarasota Ballet’s performances of such Ashton ballets as the ensemble-driven “Dante Sonata,” the showcase of choreographic satires “Facade,” the abstract “Sinfonietta,” the waltzing “Valses nobles et sentimentales” and Ashton’s self-parody “Varii Capricci.”
These same critics sent Webb home with the British National Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time to celebrate because the June 3 ceremony was the night before Sarasota Ballet’s debut at the Royal Opera House.
In an interview following his return to Sarasota after the London residency, Webb confessed his fears that the critics who had just feted him would turn around and torch his efforts to preserve the legacy of Ashton.
“Even though it was a great honor, there was the fact that we’ve been known for doing Sir Fred’s ballets — it’s what put the company on the map. But you’re basically taking his ballets, which are very special, back to his home theater,” Webb noted in an July 3 interview.
“There’s long been a perception that the Royal can’t dance Balanchine and the Americans can’t dance Ashton. We were going up against that by bringing in rarely seen works with new dancers,” he adds.
It’s not just the leadership of Webb and Barbieri that have put Sarasota Ballet on the map. With the spread of YouTube and other streaming services, the ballet’s performances are being watched by people around the world, noted principal dancer Jennifer Hackbarth in a post-mortem of the London trip.
If the London reviews and robust ticket sales are any indication, the Sarasota Ballet is acquiring devoted fans on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
With the London trip behind him, Webb has his eye on returning to the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Massachusetts Berkshires. The company made its Jacob’s Pillow debut to great acclaim in August 2015, with a program featuring the world premiere of Graziano’s “In a State of Weightlessness.”
Sarasota Ballet was scheduled to appear again in August 2020, but the pandemic terminated all those plans. But Webb is determined to return to the Berkshires in the years ahead.
People who travel outside the United States for the first time are often surprised to discover that Americans don’t always receive a warm welcome, for a variety of reasons. That’s not the case in Sainte-Mère-Église, the first town in France that U.S. troops liberated in 1944.
Members of Choral Artists of Sarasota and their entourage got to experience the love and gratitude the village have for Americans firsthand when they took part in ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
“It was so incredible as people of all walks of life and ages ranging from the youngest child to the oldest person were cheering us as we marched,” says Joseph Holt, artistic director of Choral Artists. “They were so thankful for the Americans that freed them from the ravages of WWII and thankful for us as current Americans who made the trip back to this town to commemorate and celebrate the event.”
During their trip to Normandy, Choral Artists participated in a mass gathering of music ensembles at Brittany American Cemetery that also included several groups from Australia and New Zealand. As they performed a piece entitled “Blades of Grass and Pure White Stones,” members of the group could see hundreds of gravestones stretching into the distance as well as members of the audience.
“Many were in tears as we performed, as this piece is a poignant recognition of those that lost their lives in the fight against tyranny and domination by an evil empire,” Holt said.
One of the most moving parts of the trip for Holt was watching Ben Colvard visit the grave of his father, also named Ben Colvard, at the Normandy American Cemetery. Colvard had joined Choral Artists’ trip to France precisely for this opportunity.
Colvard was born in October 1944, several months after his father died in July 1944 participating in the massive invasion of Normandy by Allied troops.
Because the ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery was curtailed by a visit by President Joe Biden, it wasn’t clear whether Colvard would have the opportunity to find his father’s grave, Holt said.
“A last-minute change in our schedule allowed us to visit the enormous cemetery — there are almost 10,000 buried there — and Ben was able to locate his father with help from cemetery staff,” he said.
“An aide took Colvard and his wife to the grave and gave him sand to rub over the gravestone so the name would stand out. When Colvard shared the story with Chorale Artists members later and showed them pictures and a video of the event, we all had tears in our eyes. This was likely the most memorable event of the entire trip,” Holt recalls.
The changing schedules of President Biden and French Presidential Emmanuel Macron created some challenges for Choral Artists’ travel plans. At the last minute, they had to cancel their participation in a large-scale ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery. Instead, the tour company working with Choral Artists took them to Bayeux, where they were able to tour a museum dedicated to the invasion.
While they were at the museum, French soldiers and police stationed in the entrance openly speculated about the possibility of President Macron’s imminent arrival. “As it turned out, President Macron altered his plans and we were able to continue without interruption,” Holt said.
Some other groups scheduled to take part in the ceremonies had already arrived at Normandy and were stranded on their buses for hours due to President Biden’s visit. “We were the lucky ones,” Holt said.
He is no stranger to military operations and political maneuverings, having spent more than two decades as principal pianist with the United States Army Chorus in Washington, D.C., performing for presidents and generals from around the world.
Yes, its performers use high wires and trapezes, but are the circus arts as “elevated” as the orchestra or the ballet? In the town that John Ringling made the winter home of his circus, few would disagree that the circus arts can hold their own against classical performing arts.
But what about in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, home to Tanglewood, the summer residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and the live theater company Shakespeare & Company?
How would the circus arts be viewed there? This summer, Pedro Reis and Dolly Jacobs, founders of Sarasota’s Circus Arts Conservatory, found out for themselves. Thanks to the efforts of Robin Eldridge, a former producer at Shakespeare & Company, the CAC held its first-ever summer residency in the Berkshires.
From July 19-28, the group of international artists performed 18 shows at the Duffin Theater in Lenox, Massachusetts. “The Berkshires is a family destination,” said Reis in a telephone interview following his return to Sarasota. “We took an ensemble from last season, with the exception of one act, and the model of a one-hour show to Massachusetts.”
Reis says the CAC’s residency, called “Sommersaults in the Berkshires,” didn’t fill all 500 seats in the Duffin for its shows, but he still considers it a great success. “The audience went crazy for the show,” he says. “They loved it. At least 90% of the audience was three generations.”
He said the performers — master of ceremonies Heidi Herriott, clowns Dick Monday and Slappy, crystal balance act Serge Sergeev and Aurika Annaeva, speed juggler Tersit Asefa Dersu and Garrett Allen on aerial rope —stayed at the Whistler’s Inn bed and breakfast in Lenox. “It was great sharing breakfast and hanging out in the living room,” Reis says.
iOne of the high points of the trip for Reis was meeting Chris Noth (best known as Mr. Big in “Sex and the City”) and having the actor attend the circus with his family.
On July 11, Eldridge organized a panel discussion on how the performing arts shape culture. Moderated by Williams College President Maud Mandel, the panel featured Reis and leaders from Shakespeare & Company, Tanglewood Music Center, Jacob’s Pillow, the art museum MASS MoCA and Berkshire Theatre Group.
“Some of the institutions represented on the panel haven’t recovered as well as others from the disruptions of Covid,” Reis says. “We’ve been fortunate in Sarasota.”
In his 11 years attending the International Black Theatre festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe founder and Artistic Director Nate Jacobs has gone from being a rising star to an elder statesmen.
Asked how WBTT’s peer organizations at the festival are faring post-pandemic, Jacobs replied, “We’re one of a kind. We don’t have any peers. People at the festival call us the miracle theater.”
What’s the reason for the nickname? “Because I am based in a predominately white community that supports a Black theater. Folks ask me, ‘How are you doing that?’”
There are lots of reasons: Jacobs’ dedication and eye for talent, WBTT’s executive director, Julie Leach, and the generosity of Sarasota’s arts patrons.
With their help, WBTT was able to attend what Jacobs calls “the powwow of the Black theater world” for the sixth time (it’s a biannual festival) and present three shows out of the 50 that were showcased in Winston-Salem.
WBTT brought two of its own shows to the festival — the original musical “Soul Crooners: Solid Gold Edition” and the one-act play “Float Like a Butterfly” based on the life of “The Greatest of All Time” heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali.
It also collaborated on a third, the one-act play, “From Birmingham to Broadway,” which was written by and starred Tarra Conner Jones. Presented in tandem with “Float,” a tribute to Broadway and TV performer Nell Carter, it was directed by Jacobs.
Jacobs said he would like to bring “Ruby,” WBTT’s first homegrown musical production that premiered in the 2023-24 season, to the Winston-Salem festival, but that it isn’t yet feasible because of economics.
The IBTT pays its presenting companies a flat fee for their shows and a large, elaborate production such as “Ruby” is too costly to take to the festival, he says.
In an telephone interview following the festival, Jacobs himself was still floating. “The whole city shuts down, just like the Olympics. You have buses taking people all over the city. We were one of the highlights of the show,” he said.
The tough part was getting home to Sarasota as Tropical Storm Debby approached and strengthened into a hurricane. Jacobs escaped unscathed because he was headed north to New York City for meetings.
The rest of the entourage made it to Atlanta. After their flights were repeatedly canceled, Leach made the decision to rent vans and have the WBTT team drive to Sarasota. By the time they got home, the worst of the storm had passed.
