The Sarasota Ballet released the sixth Digital Program of the 2020-2021 season this past weekend. The triple bill was comprised of a splendid array of Sir Frederick Ashton ballets. Although the dancers are versed in many different choreographic styles, the Ashton style is arguably the strongest from Corps de Ballet to Principals.
Kate Honea and Ricardo Graziano in Sir Frederick Ashton s Facade. (Frank Atura photo)
Director Iain Webb and Assistant Artistic Director Margaret Barbieri have worked tirelessly to preserve the original choreography of Ashton’s ballets; they have even revived some of his lost or forgotten works.
“Valses Nobles Et Sentimentales,” is one of the lost ballets that The Sarasota Ballet revived and first performed in 2011. Elegant scenery and costume designs by Sophie Fedorovitch suggest a ballroom setting in post - World War II Britain. Victoria Hulland brings sophistication to the Principal role; her footwork is crisp and epaulement generous. The ball
They also have revived ballets no longer performed anywhere else. One of those is “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales,” from 1947, which had not been seen in decades when Barbieri and Webb brought it back in 2011. It is the opening ballet in the company’s sixth digital program, an hour-long triple bill devoted to Ashton. (The program is available through Wednesday, one day longer than planned, because of a technical glitch that delayed the digital release.)
“Valses Nobles” is set to Ravel’s suite of the same name. With its layered melodies and unsettling dissonances, the music suggests both a dreamy euphoria and a kind of foreboding. Just four years later, Balanchine would use the same suite to much darker effect in his own ballet “La Valse.”