Ron
Cunningham
In 1988, Ron Cunningham was engaged as Artistic Director for The
Sacramento Ballet. Mr. Cunningham is a choreographer of distinction in
a variety of styles and has created over sixty ballets for the
international stage. His ballets have received critical acclaim in
London, Peking, Shanghai, Canton, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Milan, Rome, San
Francisco, Chicago, and Boston. His Cinderella was the first American ballet to be seen in the People’s Republic of China and was televised to over 30 million viewers.
In 1989, Carinne Binda joined her husband Ron Cunningham at The
Sacramento Ballet, and in 1991 became Co-Artistic Director for the
company. Ms. Binda’s career began with the Boston Ballet where she
quickly emerged from the corps de ballet to the rank of soloist, as
well as ballet mistress and personal assistant to the Artistic
Director, Violette Verdy. She served as ballet mistress for Rudolf
Nureyev’s Swan Lake and Don Quixote, and has won praise from audiences and critics throughout more than a dozen international tours.
Through the vision and leadership of Artistic Directors Cunningham and
Binda, the company has enjoyed substantial success and is widely
recognized as a major leading arts organization in Sacramento. They
have successfully chosen ballets that balance public appeal with works
that stretch and develop the artistic capabilities of the dancers. The
Sacramento Ballet is well known for Cunningham’s world premieres of
such works as Carmina Burana, The Rite of Spring, Bolero, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream as it is for his classics, including The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, A Streetcar Named Desire and Hamlet.
The Ballet’s audience has had the opportunity to experience a vast
repertoire, including works by Septime Webre, David Parsons, Kathryn
Posin, Agnes de Mille, Glen Tetley, Val Caniparoli,Trey McIntyre and
Twyla Tharp. In 18 seasons, the Ballet has added 13 full-length
ballets, 18 Balanchine masterworks, 36 Sacramento premieres, and 34
world premieres. The company is highly regarded as a cultural asset to
the community and consistently receives outstanding reviews for its
artistic quality.
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