Founded in 1962, Florida Ballet Arts Academy is a landmark for the arts in Sarasota.
FL
| Monday | 16:00 - 20:45 |
| Tuesday | 16:00 - 20:45 |
| Wednesday | 16:00 - 20:45 |
| Thursday | 16:00 - 20:45 |
| Friday | 17:00 - 18:30 |
| Saturday | 09:00 - 17:00 |
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Florida Ballet Arts was first formed in Sarasota in 1962 as the official school of the The Florida Ballet Company, Sarasota’s first professional ballet troupe, both directed by Jean Spear. The professional company folded in the mid-late 1970’s after sixteen seasons, but the school carried on for decades to follow. In the late 1970’s, Lynn Winslow took ownership and direction of Florida Ballet Arts, continuing the traditions of training the top dancers in Sarasota and maintaining the school as Sarasota’s most sought after studio for professional classical training in Ballet, Modern, and Jazz. When Lynn retired in 1995, she passed the baton to Richard Cash, who had come on board as Lynn’s associate director in 1992. The school continued its tradition of serious training and professional performances, but something was missing in the years that followed Lynn Winslow’s retirement. Within four years, the school had dwindled from 150 students down to only 18. In December of 1999, Cash locked the studio doors and walked away for good.
Two weeks later, a determined 24 year old unlocked the studio door and breathed new life into what had been Sarasota’s strongest and longest standing dance studio for nearly four decades. Like so many dancers who grew up in Sarasota, MaryElizabeth Mock had trained at Florida Ballet Arts for her first twelve years of training before she made the move at age 16 to New England to train at a world renowned ballet conservatory while finishing up high school. She had begun her professional ballet career at age 17, dancing for Sarasota Ballet, Classical Ballet Theatre, and guest performances with Ballet South, Southern Ballet Theatre, and Miami City Ballet and had recently returned to Sarasota prior to the school’s closure. She set out on a mission to save the school that she called home for the majority of her childhood and adolescent years.
Upon unlocking the doors and reviving the historic school, MaryElizabeth immediately revamped everything about the studio, from the physical appearance of the studio itself to the literature and forms, while restructuring the business operations as well as the curriculum. Within the first few months, the studio more than quadrupled in size and within the first few years, she had increased enrollment by ten times the number she started with. Having been trained in FBA as a child, MaryElizabeth made sure to continue the traditions that FBA had been long known for, but she brought the school to a much higher level of training and success by incorporating studio principles and business structures she had experienced from her time furthering her training in the northeast, as well as from her professional dance experience. Under the direction of MaryElizabeth, Florida Ballet Arts’ esteemed faculty consisted of MaryElizabeth Mock, Ariel Serrano, Wilmian Hernandez, Sasha Yapparov, Addul Manzano, Sybil Manzano, Octavio Martin, Yaima Franco, Sergiy Mykhaylov, Darya Fedotova, Isabel Dubrocq, Stefan Gernaga, Morgan Rivers, Kristi Gregory, Gloria Gaither, and for Hip Hop, Josiah Steele. Master Classes taught by professional ballet and modern dancers with highly respected companies such as Martha Graham Modern Dance Company were regularly offered to the greater dance community at FBA and the studio became an audition site destination for highly sought after schools and companies traveling through the area in search of promising talent.
During her time as the owner and director of this historic school in Sarasota, MaryElizabeth revived the Florida Ballet Arts Foundation, a nonprofit organization, which brought scholarships to students in financial need while also underwriting performances for the retirement community to be able to attend annual performances of the Nutcracker without charge. She formed the Florida Ballet Arts Ensemble, a student performing company for Intermediate/Advanced - Advanced level students of the school, which further prepared the students for a professional career in dance while allowing them the opportunity to dance alongside seasoned professional dancers. In 2004, she began to lay the foundations of her professional dance troupe, Imaginique Contemporary Ballet.
