Sara Webb: Mormon Dancer
Sara Webb Bardo was prima ballerina and a principal dancer with Houston Ballet, the company she had been with since 1997. She had performed lead roles in several of Ben Stevenson's classical productions including Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Odette in Swan Lake, Alice in Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella in Cinderella and continued under artistic director Stanton Welch. In between these lead roles, she was pregnant and gave birth to her four children: Joshua, Lillian, Luciana, and Benjamin. She has been able to perform until her fourth or fifth month of pregnancy.[1]
She has also served as a guest principal dancer for The Australian Ballet and Ballet West. She has traveled throughout the world and performed on many stages, including Hong Kong, London, Australia, Moscow, Spain, Canada, and the United States.
A native of Henderson, Nevada, she began training at the age of eight with the Nevada Dance Theater Ballet. At age fourteen, she left home to train at the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida. After graduation at the age of seventeen, she moved to Houston where she trained with the Houston Ballet Academy for one year. At the age of eighteen, she was hired as an apprentice with the Houston Ballet, which followed with three years in the Corps de Ballet. She then was promoted to soloist ad after two-and-one-half years she became a principal dancer. As of 2018, she has enjoyed twenty-one years with Houston Ballet.
Sara retired in July 2018, two months after the birth of her fourth child. She said she wanted to spend more time with her children. “I made it further than I thought I ever would,” she said. “But the older kids get, the more they need you.”[2] She and husband Ryan Bardo are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
