Painterly Expression

The Sarasota Ballet’s return to Jacob’s Pillow for five days of a triple bill that included two little-seen works by Sir Frederick Ashton and a world premiere by Jessica Lang, was charged with anticipation and curiosity. Not only has it been a decade since the Florida Gulf coast company made its debut at the iconic American dance festival—a scheduled return in 2020 was dashed by the Covid pandemic—but it marked the first appearance of the troupe since reporting in June revealed 18 dancers had departed the company amidst charges of a “toxic” work environment and internal strife.

Performance

Sarasota Ballet: Frederick Ashton’s “Birthday Offering” and “Dante Sonata,” and “The Lorenz Butterfly,” a world premiere by Jessica Lang

Place

Ted Shawn Theatre, Jacob's Pillow, Becket, MA, July 16, 2025

Words

Carrie Seidman

Sarasota Ballet in Jessica Lang's “The Lorenz Butterfly.” Photograph by Christopher Duggan

Would the appearance of San Francisco Ballet’s Misa Kuranaga who, it was announced shortly after the dancer exodus, would appear with the company several times during the coming season as a “resident guest principal” make up for the loss of former favorites like principal ballerinas Macarena Gimenez and Jennifer Hackbarth? Would a handful of young new hires be able to assimilate the distinctive Ashton style that has been the trademark of the company under artistic director Iain Webb and his wife and assistant director Margaret Barbieri, both former Royal Ballet dancers? Could the company live up to the enthusiastic reviews it received for its Ashton prowess on its first international visit to London in the summer of 2024?

For those seeing the Sarasota Ballet or Ashton’s work for the first time, the answers may have been less ambiguous, but for longtime observers of either, the dancer upheaval was clearly discernible on opening night. Nowhere was that more evident than in the first piece of the evening at the Ted Shawn Theatre, Ashton’s “Birthday Offering,” created in 1956 as a celebration of the 25th anniversary of Sadler’s Wells Ballet (later the Royal Ballet). Steeped in the Russian imperial style, it features the music of Alexander Glazunov, sumptuous, old-school costumes and seven female solos, originally choreographed to highlight the individual strengths of Royal ballerinas Elaine Fifield, Rowena Jackson, Svetlana Beriosova, Nadia Nerina, Violetta Elvin, Beryl Grey and Margot Fonteyn. As a typical gala piece, it’s meant to be grandiose, energetic and effervescent.

Instead, with the dancers’ efficient but toilsome delivery, it came across as one-dimensional, uninspired and deflated. Though technically there were no major gaffes or bobbles, there was little life or liveliness to the solos, nor any evidence of the unctuous use of the upper body so favored by Ashton. Not surprisingly given that almost all the other dancers were performing their roles for the first time, Kuranaga—dancing the role recreated for Fonteyn—was the most confident and proficient of the bunch. But even her rendition lacked any zing. In fact, the strongest appearances were by the seven men, led by principal Ricardo Rhodes, who made the all-male mazurka—usually overshadowed by the female theatrics—the sole satisfying portion of the work.

Misa Kuranaga in “Birthday Offering” by Frederick Ashton. Photograph by Christopher Duggan

“Dante Sonata,” the second Ashton offering—chosen, according to a pre-performance introduction by Jacob Pillow executive director Pamela Tatge, to showcase the range of the choreographer’s work—was a stark contrast in both vocabulary and presentation. Created in 1940 during the height of World War II, this barefoot ballet, charged with metaphorical and Biblical references, depicts a symbolic struggle between the “Children of Light” (flowing white costumes, flipping loose hair) and the “Children of Darkness” (minimalist black or nude outfits entwined with rope). To a demonic score by Franz Liszt inspired by a Victor Hugo poem, the forces of good fight, fret and flee as the sinister forces of evil writhe, inveigle and pounce.

With no pointework or much technical challenge to deal with, the company’s dancers were here more at ease, abandoning themselves to the intentional theatrics of the work, unusual for a choreographer known more for his elegance or wittiness. Likewise, the audience, which responded politely but tepidly to “Birthday Offering,” seemed to relax and embrace this work that still looks strikingly contemporary today.

Luke Schaufuss, Dominique Jenkins, and Marijana Dominis in “Dante Sonata” by Frederick Ashton. Photograph by Christopher Duggan

The final piece of the evening, Lang’s “The Lorenz Butterfly,” provided yet another stark contrast. Lang is in the final year of a three-year partnership as “artist in residence” with the southwest Florida company, having presented two previous world premieres to mixed reviews. During the pandemic, the choreographer—whose father is a visual artist—began to explore painting as a catalyst for her choreographic inspiration and this newest work, which she describes in program notes as “chaos theory meets color theory,” bears testament to the success of this creative process.

With a backdrop of two enormous projections of her colorful, abstract artwork; costumes of unitards with flowing asymmetrical skirts for men and women alike in colors mirroring the paintings; subtly evocative lighting by Ethan Vail and Robert Schumann’s tumultuous Piano Quartet in E flat major, Lang manages to integrate the dancers into the painting and vice versa despite the at times frenetic pace of the action.

As do many of Lang’s pieces, with as many as 10 dancers on stage at once, often all doing different things, the magnitude and diversity of the movement can feel overwhelming. That said, the intention here is for the audience to do exactly what the choreographer was trying to do—explore the structures within the disorder, view color as a change agent and find connections within the chaos.

Despite the nonstop action and a plethora of challenging moves—runs, slides, whirling dervish turns—the dancers again seemed freer and more confident, throwing themselves into the work with all the alacrity, enthusiasm and mastery missing from the evening’s first piece. In particular, the zest of first soloist Sierra Abelardo, one of the few upper-level ballerinas remaining from the past season, was contagious and joyful.

To date the company has hired at least a half dozen new dancers, none higher than the rank of coryphee (one step above corps de ballet). Kuranaga will appear in two programs during the upcoming season but, like a baseball team that’s suffered multiple free agent losses, it’s clear there is some rebuilding to be done in the upper ranks. Even though just one male principal departed, those who remain are nearer the end of their careers than the start (as is Kuranaga).

Time will tell how that transition takes shape and whether the company will continue to rely on the Ashton repertoire as its avenue to renown, as it has for the duration of Webb’s 18-year tenure.

Carrie Seidman

Carrie Seidman is an opinion columnist and the dance critic for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on Florida’s Gulf coast. A graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism and an award-winning daily newspaper reporter, critic and columnist for more than 40 years, she previously worked for the New York Times, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Albuquerque Journal and Albuquerque Tribune.

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