Sarasota Ballet, orchestra offer some rare ‘Jewels’

It promises to be a thrilling evening of dance and music. The Sarasota Ballet will perform George Balanchine’s “Jewels.” It’s perhaps the greatest ballet ever created by greatest ballet choreographer of the past 100 years.

And the music will be provided by the Sarasota Orchestra, playing live. The orchestra will perform varied works, including excerpts from Gabriel Fauré's “Pelléas et Mélisande” and “Shylock,” “Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra” by Igor Stravinsky and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 3 in D major.”

It’s powerful music on its own. Even people who are immune to the appeal of ballet should appreciate the rich and stylistically diverse music by three masters.

“An orchestra, if they were going to do a concert, it would be one of the big concerts of the season,” said Iain Webb, the director of the Sarasota Ballet.

Balanchine’s “Jewels” is set for this weekend, with one performance Friday evening and two performances Saturday at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota.

It’s sort of a two-for-one, with a great orchestra playing works by great composers, and a great ballet company presenting one of the classic works of the form. But it’s more than just an extraordinary program. It’s a significant event in the 25-year history of the Sarasota Ballet.

Not just any company can perform “Jewels.” The Balanchine Trust, which licenses the work, is very picky about who gets to do it. The fact that a relatively young, relatively small company such as the Sarasota Ballet is doing it says a lot.

“The Trust is very impressed with this company,” said Sandra Jennings. “They feel very comfortable with this company doing ‘Jewels.’ ”

Jennings works with the Balanchine Trust, and she is the Trust’s representative who is staging “Jewels” for the Sarasota Ballet.

She can easily rattle off the names of other companies across the United States who perform “Jewels.” There are only six. Most are at least twice as old as the Sarasota Ballet, and half of them have a personal connection to Balanchine.

“The Sarasota Ballet is only 25 years old,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing for a company to get it after only 25 years.”

“Jewels” is divided into three related movements, “Emeralds,” “Rubies” and “Diamonds.” They can each be performed as separate pieces, and in fact it was the Sarasota Ballet’s staging of “Emeralds” that first made the Balanchine Trust take notice.

“The Trust was very impressed with the way they did ‘Emeralds,’ ” Jennings said.

Performing one of the three segments is an achievement. Performing the entire piece, which is often considered the first neo-classical ballet, is something that few companies in the world attempt.

“I would say it takes a rich company (to stage ‘Jewels’),” Jennings said. “Rich not in money, but in the depth of the dancers.”

Each movement is completely different in style, and the cast is large. “Diamonds” has 17 couples on stage. Not too many companies outside of large cities can handle that.

For audiences, it’s a rare chance to see one of the greatest works of ballet, and a rare opportunity to see the Sarasota Ballet perform an evening-length piece with a live orchestra. (The three movements of “Jewels” are so distinctive that they’ll still offer the stylistic variety that Sarasota Ballet audiences have come to expect.)

For the Sarasota Ballet, it’s a sign that the company has come of age. It’s not too much of a stretch to call this weekend historic for the Sarasota Ballet. Performing “Jewels” in its entirety, one company official said, has become the metric for the artistic status of a ballet company.

It will also focus the attention of the dance world on Sarasota. Prestigious visitors from around the country will be there to see the performance, including people from the New York City Ballet, Balanchine’s own company.

The Sarasota Ballet, because of its budget, is still considered a “small” company, on the verge of being considered a “medium” company. Even Webb, the Sarasota Ballet’s director, is impressed the the company is staging “Jewels,” and performing it so well.

“I was just down in rehearsal thinking, ‘Wow, this is a real company now,’ ” Webb said. “It’s not just a small regional company any more.”

Details: Dec. 16-17, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. $30-$110. 941-359-0099, sarasotaballet.org.

This story was originally published December 9, 2016 at 9:56 PM with the headline "Sarasota Ballet, orchestra offer some rare ‘Jewels’."