Published June 9, 2023

SNB is the Only Company in the World Authorized to Perform The Last Unicorn

by Rosine Bena

This is an amazing time for me as we are starting to work on our annual full-length summer story ballet. This year it has great personal significance for me because it is an original ballet that I first created in 1989 in the SF Bay Area and it received rave reviews from critics, standing ovations from audiences, and was so popular that it was repeated in 1991 by audience request.  

The Ballet is based on the unforgettable story by Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn. I am so honored to have been allowed to create the only ballet in the world that its author has ever authorized and SNB is honored to be the only ballet company to be performing The Last Unicorn ballet. It is exciting that it will be recreated for the first time in 34 years in our own northern Nevada community.  

The ballet took me three years and an amazing amount of hard work to create. Author Peter Beagle attended the original production and called it, “a work of genius.”  

Producing The Last Unicorn was quite a difficult journey. First, I had to make a collage of music by Franz Liszt in order to fit the story; then create the scene-to-scene storyboard; then design the costumes with a costume team; and create the sets with my father, Edward Bena, who was a dancer-turned-professional set designer. Only after all those things were in place, could I make the choreography.  

In the original production I performed the role of The Last Unicorn/Lady Amalthea opposite former San Francisco Principal dancer Horacio Cifuentes in 1989 and, in 1991, danced opposite Varna Silver medalist, former Stuttgart Ballet, Australian Ballet and San Francisco Ballet Principal dancer Simon Dow.

In this year’s SNB production the title role will be danced by Polish ballerina Dajana Klos and her Prince Lir will be performed by former Joffrey Ballet Principal Randy Herrera.       

Dajana Klos was born in Poland and trained at the National Ballet School in Bytom. Dajana has danced professionally with the Opera Wroclaw in Poland for 14 years and has performed numerous principal roles in well-known ballets such as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, The Firebird, Anna Karenina, Lisa in La Fille mal Gardee and Swanhilda in Coppelia. Dajana has been featured in the movie Daas and the sitcom Tancerze in Poland. Klos performed with SNB in 2019 as one of the leading dancers in SNB’s Twelfth Night – A Ballet Noir choreographed by SNB Associate Artistic Director Ananda Bena-Weber.  

We all absolutely loved working with Dajana. Ananda said, “Dajana is a beautiful ballerina inside and out. She is willing and able to create any choreographic image through her superb artistry. She is always up for trying anything the choreographer requests and, while her talent is great, she is always respectful and maintains an attitude of humility.” 

Former Joffrey Principal dancer Domingo Rubio worked with Randy Herrera in the past and describes him in a similar way: “Randy Herrera is a superb dancer. He can do anything you ask and do it really well. He is a star but he never acts like one. He is very warm and personable and always willing to do whatever the choreographer asks.”     

Randy Herrera trained at the Chicago Academy of the Arts. After graduation, he joined the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago for several seasons before joining the Houston Ballet where he became Principal in 2006, and in 2010 moved on to dance with Ballet Hispanico. 

The Houston Press described Herrera as, “Graceful and strong at the same time, with a style that masks the difficulty of the dance.” Herrera won several international awards and represented the Houston Ballet in the 2006 International Ballet Competition.

Klos and Herrera will head a large cast of 60 including Los Angeles Ballet’s David Naquin as the frightening Red Bull; Domingo Rubio as the evil King Haggard; Ananda Bena-Weber as the heart-warming Molly Grue; Alexander Biber as the comic Schmendrick the magician, and a full company of professional SNB dancers augmented by some student dancers from the community. SNB is honored that Peter Beagle also plans to attend one of the performances.   

Complete with many wonderful characters and filled with romance, humor and drama, The Last Unicorn is a story to delight all ages. SNB will perform this unforgettable ballet on July 22, 2023, at the Pioneer Center for Performing Arts in Reno as part of Reno’s Artown Festival; on July 24, 2023, at the Sand Harbor venue as part of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, and on August 5, 2023, at the Carson City Community Center.   

For ticket information visit www.sierranevadaballet.org or call 775-360-8663

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