The Sarasota Ballet returns to the stage with a world premiere

In creating a new room to welcome audiences back to the Sarasota Ballet after a long hiatus from the coronavirus pandemic, resident choreographer Ricardo Graziano was looking for something festive.

“I didn’t want to open with something dramatic and sad. It’s a happy time for us, and I think I found that joy in what we do, ”he said in a recent Zoom interview. “Hope this is good to watch.”

For the opening program of the “New World” season next weekend at the Mertz Theater of the FSU Performing Arts Center, Graziano will be both performer and creator. He will be seen dancing in “Appalachian Spring” with choreography by Martha Graham to the familiar music of Aaron Copland, who made his company debut in 2018. And he will stand in the back to watch his fellow dancers perform the premiere. world of his latest creation, “Sonatina”, with music by Anton Dvorak.

Director Iain Webb, in a statement, said the “New World” program expressed the company’s feelings about returning to the theater.

“You have hope for a new future that comes from the pioneer era so perfectly staged by legendary Martha Graham, and you have the excitement that comes from a world premiere through Ricardo’s ‘Sonatina’ “, did he declare.

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This is Graziano’s first new work since the premiere of “Amorosa” in 2019 and it is his first classical style ballet in some time.

“I haven’t created a classical ballet for a few years,” said Graziano. He had originally planned to finish a track he had started during the pandemic “while we were experimenting with things.” But Webb thought “it would be nice to start the season with a classical ballet with the whole company so I had to put my idea aside and look for a classical piece.”

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Sometimes Graziano has an idea and looks for music that will suit. In other cases, he hears music that inspires him, that’s what happened with “Sonatina”.

“I found the music, heard it several times and began to imagine ballet. It’s almost like the music is telling you what to do, ”he said. “The more I hear them, the more I start to imagine things. I see entrances. I see guys. I see the girls. I see elevators and turns.

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Movements came to him as he listened to the music over and over again.

“I like to go to the studio on my own and just play music, play with movement and see what works, what works. I filmed myself a bit so as not to forget,” he said. As he starts working with the dancers, it becomes more of a collaboration. “I love hearing their ideas. I try to keep an open mind in case things don’t work out.”

It helps that he knows the company so well and adapts the steps and movements to suit each of the different combinations of dancers that will be performing during the weekend production.

Richard House, who joined the company in 2018 as a soloist, will share his score with star dancer Luke Schaufuss and soloist Yuri Marques.

“What’s exciting about this piece is that we all do the same steps, but there’s something special about the movements,” House said. “We can all be ourselves and show ourselves in our own way. You just feel comfortable expressing yourself in a song. You don’t feel like you’re trying to be someone else, and you can also rejoice in feeling like an artist.

Graziano said he tried to create something that would suit all the players “while challenging them. In a lot of cases when I’m working with three lead actors, some things might not look better for this couple, but might be good for another couple, so we make adjustments. We all have different bodies and different abilities, and I try to help them as much as possible, while staying true to my ballet and my vision.

House said Graziano told the dancers that unlike some ballets where they have to do an arm movement or an exact pose, “it’s about movement and that’s how we get to every movement. We have the freedom to use music to achieve this form.

Graziano said freedom is his desire to “create something pleasant and happy to watch and you can only do that if the dancers like what they are doing.” This is what I am trying to portray.

But he also strove to do something he had never done before and said it was the piece most influenced by the choreography of Frederick Ashton, whose work has become a specialty of the company.

“I’ve learned a lot since I joined this company (in 2010) and performed a lot of Ashton ballets,” said Graziano. “I have used this knowledge in my contemporary ballets. It wasn’t easy because it wasn’t classic.

He said “Sonatina” is a tour de force for the directors, mainly for the main girl. ” It’s a lot of work. I have a habit of working the body, and then the main one comes in, and in this one the main ones are in each section.

House said the dancers weren’t complaining as they were happy to be able to perform to a live audience again after a season of video streaming performances filmed on the stage at the Mertz Theater. They even got used to wearing masks during rehearsals and going through security checks.

“It’s weird, but it almost feels normal because it’s been going on for so long,” House said. “It’s hard to think what it was like before this COVID thing happened. It almost doesn’t seem real that we’re going to have an audience sitting in front of us and we’re not going to be recorded. We know this is happening, but it is not yet real.

Graziano said the only real difference from last season is that more people can now be in a rehearsal room at the same time.

“We’ve reached a different normal and we’re going all out, repeating several ballets at the same time,” he said. “We started at the end of August with and barely a month and a week of work, we have already learned five different ballets. It’s almost like a normal season.

‘New world’

The Sarasota Ballet presents “Appalachian Spring” by Martha Graham and “Sonatina” by Ricardo Graziano, at 7:30 p.m. from October 22 to 24 and at 2 p.m. from October 23 to 24 at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets start at $ 35. 941-359-0099; sarasotaballet.org

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