Sarasota Ballet to revive ‘Paquita’

The Sarasota Ballet will revive Galina Samsova’s production of Paquita during the company’s 2018-19 Season. The performances will take place on October 26-28 at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts in Sarasota, Florida. Samsova’s production of Paquita was first staged for the Sarasota Ballet in 2010. 

Galina Samsova was born in Stalingrad and began her career with the Ukrainian Ballet in Kiev. She emigrated with official permission and has since been back to Kiev as a guest artist to dance Swan Lake and to research for The Royal Ballet’s production of Swan Lake.

In the West, Samsova moved first to Canada, where she became a principal dancer with The National Ballet of Canada, dancing ballets by George Balanchine, Antony Tudor and John Cranko, as well as the classics. Her European debut was dancing the title role in the famous Orlikovsky-Raymond de Larrain production of Cinderella, for which she won a gold medal at the Paris International Dance Festival.

She then joined London Festival Ballet as a principal ballerina, appearing in all of the classics and many one-act ballets. She also made frequent guest appearances abroad. Later, she and Andre Prokovsky formed their own small company, the New London Ballet, which toured successfully on five continents with a repertoire comprised of specially created works.

Samsova first danced as a guest artist with The Royal Ballet in 1978, and joined the company as a principal dancer and teacher in 1980.

During her career, Samsova created leading roles in ballets by Jack Carter, Peter Darrell, Ronald Hynd, Andre Prokovsky and others. She appeared as a guest artist with The National Ballet of Canada, The National Ballet of Washington (Washington D.C.), The Australian Ballet, The Scottish Ballet and the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

With The Royal Ballet at Sadler’s Wells, Samsova created the role of “The Woman” in Lynn Seymour’s Intimate Letters, and principal roles in Kenneth MacMillan’s Quartet, Peter Wright’s Adagio, Andre Prokovsky’s Vocalise, Graham Lustig’s Paramour, Derek Deane’s The Picture of Dorian Grayand Michael Corder’s Gloriana. She created the role of Frau Stahlbaum in Peter Wright’s new production of The Nutcracker for The Birmingham Royal Ballet and Carabosse in Peter Wright’s production of The Sleeping Beauty, a role she danced during The Royal Ballet’s American tour in 1986.

In 1980 she produced the Grand Pas from Paquita for The Royal Ballet and danced the principal ballerina role. Later she staged her Paquita for the National Ballet of Spain in Barcelona, a few years before she was appointed The Scottish Ballet’s artistic director. Now she’s in great demand as a master teacher and coach, and has had teaching engagements in Europe, the Far East and the United States.

To see her Paquita performed by The Sarasota Ballet, book tickets at www.sarasotaballet.org.

Photo: The Sarasota Ballet in Galina Samsova’s production of Paquita. Photo by Frank Altura.