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was pert as Elaine Fifield; Danielle Brown, not surprisingly, was effective in the mock aban don and tricky balances that defined Rowena Jackson; Amy Wood was effective in a dreamy solo as Svetlana Beriosova; Kate Honea was perfect in a quick silvery reference to Nadia Nerina; Ellen Overstreet charmed as Violetta Elvin; and Sareen Tchekmedyian was a flirta tious Beryl Grey. Victoria Hulland was given the role of Margot Fonteyn, who was Ashton's special muse. In addition to her solo, Hulland was paired in two duets with Ricardo Graziano. Margot Fonteyn was noted for her musicality and grace, as is Hulland. Though Graziano was an attentive partner, he lacked a sense of urgency in his dancing, sliding over the movements. Graziano is fast becoming the star of the Sarasota Ballet, and in a surprise moment during the evening, Director Iain Webb, named him the company's resident choreographer for the 20142015 season. As a choreographer, Graziano shows promise, but he is still finding his way. On the positive side, he has an ear for the right music and does not crowd the chore ography with a lot of busy movement. In fact, one of his strengths is an eye for spare stage design. However, he has to be aware that a reliance on lifts — no matter how unusual, acrobatic or dramatic — can become repeti tious, undermining their usefulness. ANOTHER TURN BY GRAZIANO Symphony of Sorrows, Graziano's first piece for the Sarasota Ballet, performed in 2012 and reprised on this program, is set to a score of emotional songs by the contemporary Polish composer Henryk Gorecki. Overall, this is a dance portraying grief and the responses to loss. There are some effective sections, partic ularly when the first dancers emerge silently from the darkness, followed by another two and another two until all 10 have stepped out onto the stage. Over and over, the danc ers reach out to one another in desperation, searching for support. At moments, their hands cover their faces to hide their grief while their arms reach out like wings sputter ing in the air. The women wear black; the men have bare torsos and are there to support their part ners as they frantically clutch one another in a series of dramatic lifts. It is here that the ballet is weakest, for the lifts get repetitious, diminishing the overall emotional impact, even though Symphony of Sorrows is danced with deep feeling and intense concentration by the cast of 10. THE TOUCH OF TUDOR Regarding the final, but not least noteworthy, ballet of the evening: Antony Tudor cast a witty and jaundiced eye on the ballet world, and the result was Gala Performance, a piece set to the music of Sergei Prokofiev. Though it premiered in 1938, it still charms audiences in 2014. This is a ballet ostensibly about the bal let world, but the constant emphasis on vanity and competition is Tudor's sly comment on humanity in general. One of the 20th century's giant choreographers, Tudor created ballets that are dark explorations of human emo tions. In this ballet, though his preoccupation with the human condition remains the same, he has shifted the angle of his approach. In the first of two scenes of Gala Performance, set to Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto, there is a haphazard rehearsal in preparation Sarasota News Leader April 11, 2014 Page 99