Sierra Nevada Ballet Offers a Summer of Exciting Events

Published June 6, 2025

Sierra Nevada Ballet Offers a Summer of Exciting Events

While many ballet companies take a hiatus in the Summer months, Sierra Nevada Ballet has a very busy schedule of exciting performances planned for Summer 2025.

Filer image element — *Photo: SNB 2025 Award Best Ballet School in Reno*

SNB opened this year’s Summer offerings on June 1, 2025 with the Sierra Nevada Ballet and Northern Nevada Performing Arts Collective’s Free Grand Performance Event at the new, state of the art facility at 500 East Moana Lane in Reno.

The day’s events began at 10:30am with the SNB Academy Recital which highlighted six levels of talented ballet students (SNB Academy was awarded the “Best of Reno” Ballet school for the 8th year in a row, which is a credit to both the dedicated teaching staff and the wonderful students). Later that afternoon, SNB and the Northern Nevada Performing Arts Collective (nicknamed “Reno’s little Juilliard”) presented the 2nd annual, free to the public, Grand Performance Event which featured the SNB professional company, the SNB Trainee/Apprentice Program, students from the SNB Academy, performers from Sierra School of Performing Arts, and musicians from the Steinway Society Music School.

Experiencing both these magical events in one day at our new venue filled me with pride and gratitude. It is inspiring to look back and see what SNB has built for the community through 24 years of educating, performing, and passing down our legacy from generation to generation. That legacy was highlighted at the Grand Performance Event in a piece of choreography by Ananda Bena-Weber to the music of Ravel played by pianist Albina Asryan. Ananda danced the role of the student, and I portrayed her strict mentor. This piece seemed to touch the hearts of our audience members, as many shared that they really related to the subject matter. Each of us has had at least one special teacher in our lives: someone who has helped us grow to realize our potential. Master Music Teacher Christine Barden (co-founder of the Music for Little Mozarts Program) shared, “That piece brought tears to my eyes. It brought back so many memories for me as a teacher and as a pupil.” SNB will repeat this piece by audience request on July 5, 2025 on SNB’s free Dancing at Bartley Program.

SNB’s free Bartley Ranch performance on July 5 features the full SNB professional company with guest artists: international tap star Sam Weber; Reno community favorite singer Cami Thompson; principal dancers Hikari Jacobson and Juan Magacho, and pianists Albina Asryan and Angelo Monroy. The eclectic program offers many different dance and music styles with something for every taste including two excerpts from SNB’s summer full length story comic ballet, 12th Night – A Ballet Noir.

SNB will perform 12th Night – A Ballet Noir in three locations in northern Nevada this Summer:

July 26 at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts (7:30pm)
July 28 at Sand Harbor as part of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival (7:30pm)
August 2 at the Carson City Community Center (7:30pm)

This new ballet version of the comic Shakespeare Classic, set in the time of film noir, is choreographed by popular ballet artist Ananda Bena-Weber (creator of SNB’s DRACULA) and showcases contemporary ballet, Tango, and hilarious mime to a collage of music from the 1940s.

The story centers around twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a ship wreck, and involves a comic love triangle and hilarious subplot, which makes it a tale easily adapted for ballet’s use of comedic mime. SNB’s version features a large cast of over 40 dancers headed by several fabulous international ballet stars including Malachi Squires (Fort Worth/Dallas Ballet, Lawrence Pech Dance Company, Lyric Opera Chicago); Domingo Rubio (Joffrey Ballet, Ballet Hispanico); Juan Magacho (Theatro Municipal de Rio de Janeiro, San Jose Dance Theatre); Hikari Jacobson (San Jose Dance Theatre) and SNB principals: Ananda Bena-Weber, Sara Weir, and Anthony McMenamy with wonderful sets and costumes, fabulous music of the 1940s, and all with a film noir twist.

The late Wayne Prim (The Wayne L. Prim Foundation) was a ballet lover and president of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Ballet for 17 years. As a great supporter of SNB, Wayne attended SNB’s 12th Night – A Ballet Noir when it was first performed in 2019 and he told us, ”That is one of the best ballets that I have ever seen. I love the music, the comedy, the exciting dancing, and the terrific choreography. It is a fabulous and entertaining piece of performance art.”

Come share an exciting summer with SNB in 2025!

For ticket information or information on SNB and the SNB Academy call Sierra Nevada Ballet at 775-360-8663 or visit sierranevadaballet.org