SARASOTA BALLET - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Development Associate
Job Titles:
- Trustee Development Committee Chair
Job Titles:
- Development Associate
- Education Administrative Manager
- Principal of the Sarasota Ballet School
Christopher Hird is from England and studied at The Royal Ballet School. He toured Europe as part of a company headlined by the internationally acclaimed Ballerina Sylvie Guillem. After retiring from the stage, Hird worked as the Assistant to the Director of the British Ballet Organization, and later as Assistant to the Development Manager at The Royal Ballet School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from the University of Roehampton and a Diploma from Canada's National Ballet School's Teacher Training Program.
Hird joined Boston Ballet School in 2003 and was promoted to Artistic Manager and Head of Adult Programming in 2009. He has served on the international jury of the Youth America Grand Prix, the Japan Grand Prix, the Surrey Festival of Dance (Canada), the ADC International Ballet Competition, and the Seminário Internacional de Dança de Brasília. He has been a guest teacher for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Canada's National Ballet School, Academy of Nevada Ballet Theatre, Cecchetti Council of America, and Harvard University.
The Sarasota Ballet appointed Christopher Hird as Education Director in July 2016. During his tenure, Hird has expanded the visibility of the Education Programs, and enhanced the Margaret Barbieri Conservatory, launching a new Trainee Program, as well as a summer exchange program with Canada's National Ballet School and The Royal Danish Ballet. In addition, Hird oversees Community Engagement, at The Sarasota Ballet Studio Company, and has developed the Adult Program to offer more engagement opportunities.
Job Titles:
- Trustee Audit Committee Chair and Relevé Liaison
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Education Director
Born in Burlington, Massachusetts, Dierdre Miles Burger began her formative dance training with Margaret Prishwalko Fallon and subsequently the Boston Ballet School. In 1974, she joined Boston Ballet, where she would dance countless principal roles in the classical and contemporary ballet repertory.
In June of 1993, Miles Burger retired from performing and joined Boston Ballet's Artistic Staff and in September 2002 she was appointed Principal of Boston Ballet School. The summer of 2006, she left Boston Ballet to move to Florida. During this time, Miles Burger became an ABT® Certified Teacher, successfully completing the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive and was later appointed to the prestigious Board of Examiners for the curriculum. She has served on the jury for several ballet conventions and competitions including Youth America Grand Prix regional semi-finals and New York City finals.
In July 2010 she was appointed Director of Orlando Ballet School, serving there for eight years until August 2018. Under her leadership Orlando Ballet School grew and developed programming, most notably the Orlando Ballet School Academy which develops young dancers for professional careers. In June 2019, Miles Burger was appointed Assistant Education Director at The Sarasota Ballet.
Job Titles:
- Advisory Council
- Honorary Trustee
Job Titles:
- Production Manager & Resident Lighting Designer
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Job Titles:
- Director
- Becomes Director
Born in Yorkshire, England, Iain Webb started ballet at 14 before moving to London at 16, where he trained for two years with The Rambert School of Ballet and a year at The Royal Ballet School. He further spent a year as an apprentice with The Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet where he was offered a full-time position. His principal repertoire included Ashton's The Dream (Oberon), La Fille mal gardée (Colas and Alain), The Two Pigeons (Young Man); Bintley's The Snow Queen (Kay); Fokine's Petrushka (Petrushka), Les Sylphides (Poet); Balanchine's Prodigal Son (The Son); Cranko's Card Game, Lady and the Fool, Taming of The Shrew; Nureyev's Raymonda; Massine's La Boutique Fantasque; van Manen's Five Tangos; and Wright's productions of Coppélia (Franz), The Sleeping Beauty (Blue Bird), and Swan Lake (Prince and Benno).
In 1989 Webb transferred to The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, to perform character roles that included Ashton's Cinderella (The Small Sister, Dancing Master, and Napoleon), The Dream (Bottom), Tales of Beatrix Potter (Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Pigling Bland); Baryshnikov's production of Don Quixote (Sancho Panza); and MacMillan's Different Drummer (The Doctor), Manon (The Client). During this time he was a board member of Sir Matthew Bourne's Adventures in Motion Pictures. In 1996 Webb retired from The Royal Ballet, but was invited back as a guest artist to give three farewell performances at Covent Garden as The Small Sister in Ashton's Cinderella. After retiring as a dancer, he was invited by Sir Matthew Bourne to be Rehearsal Director
for The West End, L.A. and Broadway seasons of Swan Lake and continued to work with Bourne on his production of Cinderella.
In 1999 Webb was asked by Tetsuya Kumakawa to join his newly formed K-Ballet Company in Japan as Ballet Master and two years later was appointed Assistant Director. During this time, he worked with Kumakawa on building the company into one of Japan's leading ballet companies-and the only company to tour extensively throughout Japan as well as New York and Shanghai. Webb also worked with many international stars including Adam Cooper, with whom he co-directed The Adam Cooper Company and organized its tour to The Kennedy Center. Likewise, he coproduced with Johan Kobborg the London performances of Out of Denmark and staged Roland Petit's Carmen Pas de Deux for Alessandra Ferri and Julio Bocca for American Ballet Theatre's 65th Anniversary Gala.
Throughout Webb's career he has produced and directed many international performances, presenting dancers from The Royal Danish Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Stuttgart Ballet, to name a few. He has been a guest teacher for White Oak Dance Project, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Rambert Dance Company, as well as teaching master classes and workshops for all the major ballet schools in England. In 2013 he became an Ashton Associate for the Sir Frederick Ashton Foundation.
In July 2007 Webb took over the directorship of The Sarasota Ballet. Under his leadership the Company will have performed 183 ballets and divertissements by the end of the 2023 - 2024 Season, including 51 world premieres and 13 American Company and American premieres. These include ballets by Ashton, Balanchine, Bintley, Bourne, Cranko, de Valois, Lang, MacMillan, Robbins, Taylor, Tharp, Tuckett, Tudor, van Manen, Wheeldon, and Wright.
In 2011 Webb secured The Sarasota Ballet's first national tour, performing George Balanchine's Diamonds in collaboration with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. This would be swiftly followed by invitations to perform at festivals and theaters including The Kennedy Center's Ballet Across America III, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, New York City Center's Fall for Dance Festival, the Joyce Theater, and Ballet West's inaugural National Choreographic Festival.
In January 2007, The Sarasota Ballet announced de Warren's retirement and the appointment of Iain Webb, who would take the helm as Director. That first Season would revolutionize The Sarasota Ballet and set the Company on a path to both national and international recognition. Heavily inspired by his career with The Royal Ballet and combined with his close personal relationships with some of the biggest names in the dance world, Webb brought extraordinary ballets to the Sarasota stage by some of the great choreographers of the 20th century.
Together with his wife Margaret Barbieri, Assistant Director and former principal of The Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, Webb has introduced over 170 ballets and divertissements through the 2023 - 2024 Season. This new repertoire has included works by some of the greatest choreographers in the dance world, such as Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Sir David Bintley, Dame Ninette de Valois, Johan Kobborg, Jessica Lang, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Christopher Wheeldon, and Sir Peter Wright, to name only a few. Several of these ballets have received their American premieres with The Sarasota Ballet, and the Company has been integral in bringing rarely seen ballets to today's audiences. In addition, The Sarasota Ballet has continued to push the art form forward through commissioning new works, from both budding choreographers within the Company and established choreographers around the globe.
The Sarasota Ballet's expansive repertoire, coupled with the athleticism and artistry of the Company's dancers, has brought the Company national and international acclaim. With rave reviews in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Dance Europe, Dancing Times and numerous other publications, The Sarasota Ballet has been invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, at City Center and the Joyce Theater in New York City, and the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires, Massachusetts.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Job Titles:
- General Manager
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Job Titles:
- Principal of the Sarasota Ballet School
Originally from St. Louis, Jennifer Welch Cudnik trained on full scholarship at the School of American Ballet; training under master teachers Stanley Williams, Hèléne Dudin, Elise Reiman, Antonina Tumkovsky, Suki Schorer, Kay Mazzo, and Suzy Pilarre, among others. Welch Cudnik danced professionally with Pennsylvania Ballet and Saint Louis Ballet for a decade. She had the honor of performing soloist and principal roles in George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, Serenade, Allegro Brillante, Who Cares? and Divertimento No. 15, as well as in classical ballets such as Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Coppélia, and the title role of Giselle.
A dance educator for twenty-five years, Welch Cudnik was most recently on faculty at Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis and has taught in universities, charter and public schools and directed and co-founded the nonprofit, Ballet Initiative. She is a commissioned choreographer, a career consultant for dancers, an adjudicator for dance and choreography competitions, and a curator for dance festivals and productions. She is certified with the American Ballet Theatre® National Training Curriculum through Level 5 and holds an MFA in Dance from Hollins University. As an educator who teaches future generations of dance advocates, Jennifer passes on her love of dance with compassion and empathy, ensuring technique and artistry are instilled and achieved with pride and prowess. Welch Cudnik was appointed Principal of The Sarasota Ballet School in June 2023.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees - Officers Team
- Secretary
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- BECOMES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
- Retired General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera
Joseph Volpe, retired General Manager of The Metropolitan Opera and theater and management consultant, was appointed Executive Director of The Sarasota Ballet in February 2016. Volpe first joined the Board of The Sarasota Ballet in 2014 after a long history in the world of the performing arts. He spent 42 years working at The Metropolitan Opera, rising from apprentice carpenter to General Manager from 1990 to 2006. In that role Volpe expanded the length of The Met repertory season as well as the number of new productions, including four world premieres, 22 Met premieres, four commissions, and expanded international touring activities. His term was characterized by sound fiscal management, fresh customer service initiatives, and no contract disputes for over three decades of his leadership in contract negotiations.
He conceived and developed "Met Titles," an innovative titling system providing multilingual translations of the operas on the backs of each seat, visible only to the individual audience member who wished to utilize them, and initiated the development of Tessitura, a management software program for targeted marketing and fundraising appeals, which is now licensed to more than 400 companies worldwide. In 1998, Volpe instituted an education outreach project for young children in cooperation with the City of New York Department of Education emphasizing direct experience with music and opera for students. He also established a partnership with the University of Connecticut that provides students from music and drama departments with behind-the-scenes access to the creative and technical processes that bring the opera to life on The Met stage.
Volpe retired from The Met in July of 2006, leaving the company with a strong administration, an endowment fund that had increased from $100 million to $345 million and exceptional artistic plans for the future. Since then, Volpe has consulted with Theatre Projects Consultants where he provided comprehensive advice from project conception and design to daily operations and fiscal management. Additionally Volpe helped major arts organizations and universities as they planned moves into new facilities or addressed the reorganization and renovation of existing ones. He has also served as a Senior Consultant for Hudson Scenic Studios, advising on all aspects of management, labor negotiation, and strategic planning.
Volpe taught a course entitled "Managing in the Performing Arts" for five years at New York University's Stern School of Business. He has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, Georgetown, SUNY Purchase, Harvard University, and Oxford University. He has received honorary degrees from numerous universities, including Georgetown University, Fordham University, and Hamilton College. Volpe is the author of The Toughest Show on Earth, My Rise and Reign at The Metropolitan Opera, published by Random House in 2006.
As Executive Director of The Sarasota Ballet, Volpe has overseen a period of significant and sustained growth and financial stability. He has focused on expanding and strengthening the administrative structure, increasing not only staff, but also refining and augmenting administrative infrastructures. Through his support of the visions of Director Iain Webb and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri, The Sarasota Ballet has expanded its national touring, and has undertaken some of its largest and most significant projects, including The Sarasota Ballet School's expansion into The Patricia A. Golemme Studios and commissioning hugely successful World Premieres such as Sir David Bintley's A Comedy of Errors and Jessica Lang's Shades of Spring.
In 2016, the renowned Joseph Volpe, former General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, took on the role of Executive Director of The Sarasota Ballet. His mission has been to bring the organization's administrative staff and financial foundation to a level that matches the Company's artistic excellence. Over the past 5 years, Volpe has expanded the organizational structure of The Sarasota Ballet and strengthened the Company's future.
Job Titles:
- Marketing & Design Specialist
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- Finance
- HR Director
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Job Titles:
- Company Manager
- Finance and Administration
Born in South Africa of Italian parents, Margaret Barbieri moved to England to study at The Royal Ballet School. In 1965 she joined The Royal Ballet Touring Company (now Birmingham Royal Ballet), and became a Principal Dancer in 1970. During a highly successful 25-year dancing career, she danced most of the leading roles in the classical repertoire (including The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Coppélia, Romeo and Juliet, La Fille mal gardée, Taming of the Shrew, The Two Pigeons, and The Dream). However it was her major impact in the title role of Giselle at the age of 21 that first established her special reputation as a Romantic Ballerina.
In 1973 she was invited to dance Giselle at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and received high praise from the press and audiences alike, a triumph which she repeated in 1974 when she returned to her native South Africa to dance the role in Durban. She replaced an indisposed Natalia Makarova at short notice in the same role for Norwegian National Ballet and made many guest appearances with companies internationally in Giselle, Swan Lake, Coppélia, and Cinderella. In addition to guesting, Barbieri also performed worldwide with The Royal Ballet.
Barbieri worked closely with most of the great masters of the 20th Century, including Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Dame Ninette de Valois, John Cranko, Antony Tudor, Rudolf Nureyev, and Hans van Manen. Roles were created on her by Ashton, Sir Peter Wright, Tudor, Sir David Bintley, Michael Corder, Ronald Hynd, and Joe Layton. Many of her best-known roles were televised, including Swanhilda (Coppélia), Black Queen (Checkmate), The Mother (Bintley's Metamorphosis), Young Girl (Le Spectre de la Rose), and van Manen's Grosse Fuge. With David Ashmole, she was featured in BBC TV's Ballet Masterclass series, given by Dame Alicia Markova, who later coached her in Fokine's The Dying Swan and Pavlova's The Dragonfly.
Barbieri retired from The Royal Ballet in 1990 to become Director of the new Classical Graduate Programme at London Studio Centre and Artistic Director of the annual touring company, Images of Dance. During her tenure, she was instrumental in devising the Classical Ballet Course for the BA Honours degree. Here she gave Christopher Wheeldon his first professional commission and Sir Matthew Bourne his first classical ballet commission. She also found time to teach at Birmingham Royal Ballet Company, English National Ballet School, and The Royal Ballet School. Additionally she served on The Royal Ballet's Board of Governors from 1994-2000 and participated as an External Assessor for the Arts Council of England from 1995-2001.
Her staging credits include Swan Lake Act II, Le Jardin Animé from Le Corsaire, and Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadère for Images of Dance; Nureyev's production of Raymonda Act III for K-Ballet in Japan; Ashton's Façade for Scottish Ballet, K-Ballet, and Oregon Ballet Theatre; and The Two Pigeons for K-Ballet and State Ballet Theatre of Georgia. During the last 10 years at The Sarasota Ballet she has staged Wright's production of Giselle, Mirror Walkers, Summertide; Ashton's Birthday Offering, Façade, La Fille mal gardée, Jazz Calendar, Les Patineurs, Les Rendezvous, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, The Two Pigeons, Valses nobles et sentimentales, The Walk to the Paradise Garden; Bintley'sFour Scottish Dances; Bourne's Boutique; Cranko's Pineapple Poll; Darrell's Othello; de Valois' The Rake's Progress, Checkmate; Fokine's Les Sylphides and Petrushka; Layton's The Grand Tour; Nureyev's Raymonda Act III; Samsova's production of Paquita; Wheeldon's The American, There Where She Loved.
Barbieri has been invited to judge at numerous ballet competitions across the globe, including Brazil, Japan, South Africa, the United States, and Europe. In April 2010, she was awarded Distinction by the University of the Arts, London, for her Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning. In 2013 she was invited to speak at the Ashton Symposium in London and became an Ashton Associate for the Sir Frederick Ashton Foundation.
Having previously staged several works for The Sarasota Ballet, Barbieri was appointed Assistant Director in August 2012. During her time with the Company, in addition to staging ballets, Barbieri has focused on the coaching and nurturing of dancers, passing on her unparalleled experience and artistry to former, current, and future members of the Company. Her expertise as a stager proved especially valuable during the 2020 - 2021 Digital Season, as she oversaw revised production techniques necessary to stage ballet for a digital medium. Through her keen eye and remarkable dedication and work ethic, her impact on the Company is evident from the moment the curtain rises.
Job Titles:
- Trustee Governance Committee Chair
Job Titles:
- Senior Development Officer
- Development
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Senior Director of Philanthropy
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees - Officers Team
- Treasurer
Job Titles:
- Trustee Friends of the Sarasota Ballet President
Job Titles:
- Company Teacher / Education
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees - Officers Team
- Vice Chair of the Board
Job Titles:
- Immediate past Chair
- Member of the Board of Trustees - Officers Team
Job Titles:
- Box Office & House Manager
Job Titles:
- Trustee Education Committee Chair
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
Job Titles:
- Tessitura Database Administrator