Will Tuckett's The Secret Garden, Sarasota

Founded in 1990, the Sarasota Ballet has been enriching lives, captivating emotions and strengthening the community through the art of dance. Led by acclaimed director Iain Webb, executive director Joseph Volpe and assistant director Margaret Barbieri. In over the past decade, the company has cemented its reputation as both a reliable source of ballet standards and an innovative troupe unafraid to break genre conventions. Besides commissioning brand new pieces to stage, the company is known for integrating child-friendly elements into their performances, from puppets to multiplication tables. They've earned high praise from such sources as the New York Times, who found "glittering virtuoso ballerinas" and plenty of "charm, wit, humanity, affection, [and] love of dance itself" on display.

In the last five years, The Sarasota Ballet has been invited to perform twice both at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and the Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center, as well as week-long residencies at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and the Joyce Theater in New York. In May 2017 The Sarasota Ballet performed at the inaugural National Choreographic Festival in Salt Lake City.