The Sarasota Cuban Ballet was originally founded to train student dancers in the Cuban ballet tradition, without any intention to evolve into a performing company.

But not surprisingly, aspiring professionals crave performance opportunities. So four years ago the school’s founders, Ariel Serrano and Wilmian Hernandez, launched the Gulfcoast Studio Company with just four company members, as a pilot program toward creating a professional company. Students from the school were still required to fill out the ranks and make full-fledged productions possible.

Recently expanded to eight dancers, three apprentices and two guest artists, the professional troupe – officially renamed the Sarasota Cuban Ballet Studio Company last year -- presented its first program without student amplification this past weekend in the school’s black box performance space. “Classical + Contemporary” covered a lot of ground -- from an historic ballet that first premiered in 1845 to a contemporary piece created in 2019 – but the young ensemble handled the diversity with the artistry, professionalism and polish of a company of much longer standing.

Because fewer men enter the ballet field than women and thus face less competition, it’s rare to observe a company where the male dancers can keep pace with their distaff counterparts. But in this case the cadre of new male dancers were outstanding, upholding the Cuban tradition of strength and athleticism, uncanny leaping and turning ability and raw animal magnetism.

With just four pieces on the program, the all-male  “Canto Vital,” was the one that audience members likely went home savoring. Choreographed by Azari Plisetski (brother of the great Bolshoi ballerina Maya Plisetskya) for the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1973, it’s a metaphorical allegory that reflects on the coexistence – sometimes dialectical, sometimes harmonious – of humanity and the forces of nature (water, air and forest).

To Gustav Mahler’s dramatic Rondo Symphony No. 5, three dancers dressed in nothing but primary colored shorts and matching wrist bands – Leo Okuna as water (green); Gian Narayassamy as forest (yellow) and Jhostin Jiménez as air (blue) – alternately shun and interact with a fourth, Brian Guerreo, representing humanity (red). The steps, initially primitive (the flexed hands and crouching stance are reminiscent of Nijinsky’s “Afternoon of a Faun”), evolve into dramatic conflicts and resolutions.

At one point, Narayassamy walks up the crouching backs of the three others, as if climbing a mountain. At another, the elemental dancers dive to the floor with reckless abandon, as if plunging into a pool of water. The eternal struggle and reconciliation between man and the environment that is so much a part of our world today, is captured in movement both despairing and hopeful.

But the sheer visual impact could be attributed to this remarkable group of men. Okuna, formerly with Atlanta Ballet; Narayassamy, previously with Washington Ballet; and Jiménez, a guest artist, are all of shorter or slighter stature than a traditional male danseur, which likely limits their roles and ladder-climbing in the ballet world. But oh what a loss to ballet audiences if their precise technique, astounding balón (hang time in the air) and head-spinning turns were overlooked. Locals audiences can only hope they won’t be snatched away by a company that appreciates prowess over height.

The first of the two classical pieces on the program, “Grand Pas de Quatre,” is familiar to any lover of ballet history. Choreographed in 1845 by Jules Perrot for four legendary 19^th century ballerinas  – Lucile Grahn, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito and Marie Taglioni (allegedly the first ballerina to dance a full production on pointe) – it is the essence of the Romantic style, emphasizing the ballerinas’ delicacy, lightness and mannered politesse.

Due to the ballerina rivalries of the era (Fanny Elssler was originally cast, but her ego wouldn’t allow it), Perrot gave each dancer a solo turn, youngest (Grahn) to oldest (Taglioni), his steps emphasizing their individual strengths.

 Sofia Johnson as Grahn, had a pursed-lip facial expression that detracted from her perky, buoyant batterie of beats; Isabella Serrano (as Cerrito) was fluid and subtly flirtatious; Evelyn Lyman was regal and elegantly reserved as Taglioni; and Addison Josey, filling in on very short notice for an injured Katherine Lane as Grisi, was appropriately timid and coltish. It’s not an easy thing for young women of the 21^st century (Josey is still in her teens) to authentically capture the stylized postures and airs of ballerinas of the 19^th.  It is a credit to them and the Cuban school’s dedication to historical accuracy that this came off as an intriguing period piece rather than affected parody.

The other historical work on the program was listed as “Le Corsaire Suite,” but was somewhat a mashup of the original by Marius Petipa and Jules Perrot to music by Adolphe Adam and Riccardo Drigo, which was first staged in 1863. Ariel Serrano threw in everything but the kitchen sink in order to test his young dancers and give them the opportunity to show their mastery over the devilishly difficult choreography.

With his charismatic smile, Okuna could steal a scene, but he took a backseat in partnering Johnson in the opening Pas d’esclave with finesse and steadiness, before blasting off again in his solo turn. The famous Diana and Acteon variations are not actually originally from Le Corsaire, thought they are frequently performed together on ballet gala programs and often confused. But Serrano chose to add them to the mix as a last-minute vehicle for Harold Mendez, his former student and a five-year member of the State Street Ballet in California, who recently returned to Sarasota in advance of entering the military next year.

Like the other new male additions to the company, Mendez’ shorter stature has hampered his professional career, but no one could find fault with his refined technique, the stunning speed and control of his turns and his very Cuban combination of both modesty and magnetism. The Army’s gain is the ballet world’s loss.

The final program piece, “Fractales,” was choreographed by SCBS faculty member (and director of her own eponymous company), Tania Vergara, who created it to music by Soldan Bardo, Ezio Bosso and Julie Kent for a gala performance by students of the school in 2019. Vergara, who loves to tinker with and transform her works long after they are “finished,” originally had five females dancing on demi-pointe. With the expansion of the company and the dancers’ capabilities, she not only added men to the work, but a section on pointe as well.

Vergara’s work, which is full of body waves and sharp angled arms and acrobatic moves that leave you wondering “How did they…?” finished with the ensemble in a crouched posture, with outstretched, arched arms that made them look like nothing so much as a flock of birds ready to take flight. It was a suitable metaphor for this emerging company, poised to rise, which needs only live music, professional lighting and an actual performance stage to reach its full potential.