Summing Up With Robert De Warren
Sarasota Ballet Company was a small company searching for a new director when Robert De Warren visited his friend, Ben Shonberg, a Danish, ballet critic, who lived on Longboat Key. It was almost happenstance or, perhaps fate, that Mr. De Warren, who had spent the last seven years as Artistic Director of the La Scala Opera Ballet in Milan, as well as Director of their 175-year old school, was in Sarasota at this time.
"My friend introduced me to Jean Allenby-Weidner, a founder of the original group," Mr. De Warren said, "and they asked if I would advise them on the candidates for the position of artistic director. We reviewed all the applicants...and there were ninety...and I gave them my opinion and at the end they said, we'd like you. I said I still had a three year contract at La Scala and didn't know if I could come, but in the end it all worked out," he recalled in his slightly accented English, the result of years living in England when he was a student at The Royal Ballet School, before dancing with The Royal Ballet. "You know," Mr. De Warren mused, "I thought Sarasota seemed like a budding community, as if it could become a Monte Carlo in America, and there was so much promise here, and," he added, his voice softening, as if sharing a secret, "I was tired of the continuous strikes at La Scala; so when I got my release from the theater, I came. That was in 1994, but there was a lot to be done to build up the company, though there were some very good dancers here at that time."
Ballet choreographers are an elite group of people who create magical performances, and while Mr. De Warren had a list of ballets to his credit, his varied experiences in England, Germany, and Iran as a dancer, company director, and teacher made him just the right person for strengthening and developing The Sarasota Ballet. He would have to nurture a company style, choreograph new ballets, stage the classics, and start a ballet school connected to the company. And that is what he has done over the last twelve years: building a unique repertoire danced today by a company of thirty, young, versatile dancers. "My major priority was that though we were a small company, we couldn't be small artistically, because if you don't have a good standard artistically, no matter how much you spend on scenery and costumes...it doesn't work."
That devotion to artistic excellence is a passion that is shared by Pavel Fomin, the principal ballet master, who has worked with Mr. De Warren from his first day with the Company. "We have worked well together the whole time, because I completely trust Mr. De Warren's artistic sensibility," said Mr. Fomin, an intense, former dancer who came to Sarasota from Odessa, Russia, and inspires the dancers with his detailed knowledge of classical ballet learned at the Kirov Ballet School in Leningrad. Both men also share the experience of having come to the United States as adults. In fact, it was Mr. De Warren's earliest years on a large, family ranch in Argentina that prompted his ballet, "Evita," a complex study of that legendary woman.
"I wanted ballets that were better presentations in the way of scenery and costumes, not necessarily expensive, but more thought out so that the performances would have a more complete visual picture," Mr. De Warren explained, answering my question about his original thoughts when he accepted the position. "I believe that the visual involves everything on stage, not just the movement. In fact, "Swan Lake" was the first full-length ballet I did here, and I used my sets and designs from the staging I did when I was with the Northern Ballet Theatre in England. And because the choreography is really hard, I thought it would be a big challenge for the dancers. I find that when you want to create a company, it's necessary to push the dancers: give them more than the can bite, so to speak. Of course," he added," we did have Diane Partington and Alexei Dougoplyi, who could have been principals anywhere, so the principal roles were covered in those early days."
Though Mr. De Warren has created over twenty-five ballets in his tenure with The Sarasota Ballet, he has shown a fondness for original plots that engage characters in a dramatic situation. Perhaps the ballets he danced with the Stuttgart Ballet Company as a young man, or perhaps his own life experiences in Argentina, England, and in Iran during the last days of the Shah's reign, where he lived for eleven years and headed the National Ballet of Iran while also founding the Mahali Dancers, an Iranian, folk dance company, have been a strong influence on his choice of exotic themes. Whatever the motivation, he has certainly challenged both himself and the dancers with his plans for the current season.
I have been used to seeing Mr. De Warren's enthusiasm as he stepped out on stage to introduce the evening's performance. Now, I was surprised by his passionate commitment to the upcoming season, for he sounded as if he were beginning his tenure, instead of being on the brink of retiring. "Othello," my new ballet opens our season," he began. "I think it's a fascinating subject. You have the complexity of the characters and you can't do better than Shakespeare for a scenario, and the roles are wonderfully theatrical and a challenge for the dancers. And also I'm excited that Jose Manuel Carreno has agreed to return as a guest artist."
Mr. Carreno had appeared in a Gala performance with the Sarasota Ballet during the 2005/2006season, and is scheduled to appear at another Gala at the end of November. In addition, he will appear in some performances of "The Nutcracker" and "Coppelia." Of course, there was great excitement last season to have a dancer of Mr. Carreno's stature dance with the Company. The fact that he is willing to return shows that the there is enough of the right kind of support. For Mr. De Warren, having a star dancer guest with Sarasota Ballet reminds him of his days with Northern Ballet Theatre in England when Rudolf Nureyev was often a guest. Speaking of that time, he remembered how Nureyev often said, 'Robert, you do everything,' and then told the story of how Nureyev had thrown a chair at a mirror at another company. "But with me," Mr. De Warren confided, "he was an angel. When a director can foresee whatever everyone needs, then people don't have to be hassled."
The current season will also include a performance of Balanchine's "Concerto Barocco," and a visit from Miami's Ballet Gamonet de los Heros, though Mr. De Warren's personal favorites won't be seen this season. "I think we do a small, but coherent version of "Swan Lake," and then "Madame Butterfly" is one of my favorites...that story and ballet, somehow, caught my imagination. And "Carmina Burana" is a ballet that I put off for years, and then I thought 'why not.' I think those three productions are my biggest contribution to the ballet world, though I thoroughly enjoyed choreographing "Ca'daZan" about the Ringling mansion, and the Persian "Zal and Rudabeh," but they are specialized works."
With such a demanding schedule, Mr. De Warren hasn't had much time to think of his future plans, and also his thoughts are still primarily with The Sarasota Ballet. "Pavel and I have been working with the dancers to create a more unified style so you don't feel as though you're watching dancers from many different, eclectic schools, but that they merge into a company style, that I think, is expressive. My strength is bringing a theatrical, dramatic quality to our productions, and that has been an important part of my work throughout my career. I've worked nonstop since I was sixteen, so its time that I slow down," he paused, "but I'm thinking about doing a ballet about Salvador Dali."
Still, audiences who have been used to seeing Mr. De Warren's exquisite staging in a wide range of ballets will be holding their breath until a new director is announced. The dancers, an inter-national group of men and women, must continue to dance as if there were no doubt about their future with The Sarasota Ballet. Hopefully, the new person will divine Mr. De Warren's wish that whoever he or she is, will not start from a new beginning, but will build on what he has nurtured.