The Sarasota Ballet
Festival Week 4 | Wednesday, July 16 – Sunday, July 20 | Ted Shawn Theatre
First Appearance Since 2015 | World Premiere
Beloved among ballet fans the world over, The Sarasota Ballet returns to Jacob’s Pillow for the first time in ten years. Pushed to new heights under the leadership of director Iain Webb, assistant director Margaret Barbieri (both formerly of The Royal Ballet), and executive director Joseph Volpe (formerly of the Metropolitan Opera), the company has garnered a reputation for its truly diverse repertoire of works.
This summer, the company returns to the Ted Shawn Theatre with a mixed program including a piece by Sir Frederick Ashton and a world premiere by American choreographer Jessica Lang, the Virginia B. Toulmin & Muriel O’Neil Artist in Residence at Sarasota Ballet, who has presented three previous world premieres at Jacob’s Pillow with her own company, as well as two premieres with other groups.
The Sarasota Ballet is recognized for its unparalleled active repertoire of the choreography of Sir Frederick Ashton, and is known worldwide as the main exponent of his ballets outside of the United Kingdom. The company has presented an expansive range of over 180 ballets by acclaimed choreographers, including George Balanchine, Sir David Bintley, Gemma Bond, Sir Matthew Bourne, Michel Fokine, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Twyla Tharp, Antony Tudor, and Christopher Wheeldon. The company works to infuse their community and beyond with the highest quality and diversity of dance in America. According to The Guardian’s review of the company’s 2024 tribute to Sir Fredrick Ashton at The Royal Opera House: “the whole programme, danced with grace and care, is a history lesson and a delight.”
“The whole programme, danced with grace and care, is a history lesson and a delight.”
The Center Will Not Hold: A Dorrance Dance Production
Festival Week 1 | Wednesday, June 25 – Sunday, June 29 | Ted Shawn Theatre
Live Music
Jacob’s Pillow fan favorites and close collaborators Michelle Dorrance and Ephrat Asherie kick off Festival 2025 with a lively celebration of street, club, and vernacular dances, born from their many years of creating together. Originally crafted in 2022 as a short duet, The Center Will Not Hold premiered as a 30-minute piece at New York City Center’s 2023 Fall For Dance Festival.
Now, in this reimagined evening-length work, Dorrance and Asherie offer an eclectic ensemble of 11 performers, each deeply rooted in regional music and movement—from tap dance and hip hop to breaking, house, Chicago footwork, Detroit jit, litefeet, Memphis jookin’, and body percussion. The Center Will Not Hold features original music composed by Donovan Dorrance with live percussion by world-class drummer and percussionist John Angeles.
Jacob’s Pillow has long been an artistic home for Michelle Dorrance, a tap performer, choreographer, teacher, and the Artistic Director of Dorrance Dance, which has headlined at the festival nine times, most recently in 2021 and 2023. An artist “with a transcendent strength of spirit” (The Washington Post), Dorrance received the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award in 2013 and a MacArthur “Genius” Award in 2015. Ephrat Asherie is a b-girl dancer and choreographer whose works are hailed as “a magnificent celebration of movement and art” (Charleston City Paper). She has performed at Jacob’s Pillow numerous times since 2013, and her company, Ephrat Asherie Dance, developed its break-out work Odeon in the Pillow Lab in 2017 and had its world premiere at Festival 2018. Both based in New York City, Dorrance and Asherie have also served as Program Directors at The School at Jacob’s Pillow.
An artist “with a transcendent strength of spirit”
