Sarasota Ballet opens 25th season with 'Best of Theatre of Dreams'

One of the most distinctive aspects of the Sarasota Ballet is its "Theatre of Dreams" program. The ballet offers its own dancers an opportunity to become choreographers by setting their work on their fellow company dancers. They're staged with the same kind of production values that the company would offer an established ballet.

"There are other companies that have competitions or invite in young choreographers," said Sarasota Ballet dancer Kate Honea. "But it's pretty unique that our company gives us the opportunity to do this."

While the rest of the Sarasota Ballet season is filled with works by such masters as Balanchine and Ashton, the works in the "Theatre of Dreams" concerts don't suffer by comparison.

"It's really popular with audiences," Honea said. "There's so much variety, and they get to see the different personalities."

It's also provided fertile ground for aspiring choreographers to grow in. Richard Graziano was a Sarasota Ballet dancer when "Theatre of Dreams" gave him a start as a creator of dances. Now he's the company's resident choreographer.

To start its 25th anniversary season, the Sarasota Ballet is presenting an anthology of some of the best and best popular ballets from its "Theatre of Dreams" series.

Honea, who has been with the Sarasota ballet for 14 years -- longer than any other dancer -- is the creator of one of the six pieces on the program. "Giatana Galop," set to music by Johann Strauss II, was part of the 2013 "Theatre of Dreams" program.

The piece includes eight corps de ballet dancers, a male soloist and a pas de deux couple.

"It's very elegant," she said. "It takes place in a very grand ballroom. It's supposed to give you that 'Vienna Waltz' kind of feeling,

but it's very upbeat."

Honea's piece has a classical tone, but not all the works in the program aren't so traditional.

Logan Learned's "Nebulous," which also premiered in 2013, is a piece for six dancers set to a violin concerto by John Cage.

"I had a copy of the CD and I thought, 'Ooh, this would be good really good music to choreograph a ballet to,' " he said.

"Nebulous" he said, uses a classical ballet vocabulary but a more contemporary style of movement. It's pure dance with no attempt at a story.

"The music is just so powerful," he said. "I want the steps to just reflect that. I didn't want the dance to get in the way of the music. The steps had to be just basic dance."

The other pieces in the programs are Ricki Bertoni's "Ragtop," Jamie Carter's "À Deux Mains," Pavel Fomin's "Hommage à Chopin" and Alex Harrison's "The Blue Hour."

Details: Through Oct. 23-25, FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Show times: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24-25. Tickets: $35-$105. Information: 941-359-0099, sarasotaopera.org.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Sarasota Ballet opens 25th season with 'Best of Theatre of Dreams' ."