{"id":209820,"date":"2026-03-08T03:06:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T03:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/209820\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T03:06:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T03:06:25","slug":"sacramento-ballet-artistic-director-ron-cunningham-1939-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/209820\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento Ballet Artistic Director Ron Cunningham, 1939-2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ron Cunningham, the artistic director of the Sacramento Ballet<\/a> from 1988 to 2018, died Saturday after a long illness. He was 86.<\/p>\n

During his decades leading the ballet alongside his wife and co-artistic director, Carinne Binda, he helped the company establish itself as a professional troupe, staged many original works and nurtured the careers of numerous dancers.<\/p>\n

The ballet\u2019s annual \u201cNutcracker,\u201d which could involve hundreds of roles for local children, became a cherished annual tradition for the community.<\/p>\n

Longtime Sacramento Ballet co-artistic director Ron Cunningham dies at 86<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Ballet Artistic Director Ron Cunningham directs fencing practice for a production of \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d with his dancers in 1995. <\/p>\n

(LAURA CHUN\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Ron<\/p>\n

Ron Cunningham, artistic director of the Sacramento Ballet, center, smiles with dancers Charles Torres and Nina Baratova in advance of a production of \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d in 1995. <\/p>\n

(LAURA CHUN\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Artistic<\/p>\n

Artistic Director Ron Cunningham directs dancers during a Sacramento Ballet rehearsal in 1997.<\/p>\n

(LEILANI HU\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Ron<\/p>\n

Ron Cunningham, artistic director for the Sacramento Ballet, watches dancers audition for the Nutcracker on Sept. 19, 1998.<\/p>\n

(HECTOR AMEZCUA HECTOR AMEZCUA\/Sacramento Bee file)<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

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\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Ballet dancer and choreographer Luis Napoles, left, answers questions from the audience with Artistic Director Ron Cunningham during an outreach program at C.K. McClatchy High School in 2001.<\/p>\n

(FLORENCE LOW\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Ron<\/p>\n

Ron Cunningham, artistic director of the Sacramento Ballet, checks the shipping document for props and back drops from St. Petersburg, Russia, for \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d which were delivered to the ballet studio in 2003.<\/p>\n

(JAY MATHER\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Ron<\/p>\n

Ron Cunningham, artistic director of the Sacramento Ballet, discusses the new sets for a \u201cNutcracker\u201d production of the with then-Mayor Heather Fargo at the Sacramento Community Center Theater in 2003. <\/p>\n

(JAY MATHER JAY MATHER\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Ballet artistic directors Carinne Binda and Ron Cunningham in 2005. <\/p>\n

(RANDY PENCH\/Sacramento Bee file)<\/p>\n

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\"Ron<\/p>\n

Ron Cunningham as Drosselmeyer with Megan Horton as a doll for a Sacramento Ballet \u201cNutcracker\u201d production in 2005.<\/p>\n

(Jay Mather\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Artistic<\/p>\n

Artistic Director Ron Cunningham as Drosselmeyer with dancers Colby Damon as the prince and Samantha McKenzie, 11, as Clara for a Sacramento Ballet \u201cNutcracker\u201d production in 2005.<\/p>\n

(JAY MATHER\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Ballet dancers rehearse at the direction of Ron Cunningham, center, at the ballet\u2019s studio in 2008.<\/p>\n

(RANDALL BENTON\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Artistic<\/p>\n

Artistic Director Ron Cunningham makes some adjustments to props during a dress rehearsal of “Nutcracker” at the Community Center Theater in Sacramento in 2008.<\/p>\n

(RANDALL BENTON\/Sacramento Bee file)<\/p>\n

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\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Ballet co-artistic director Ron Cunningham shows a group of young hopefuls how to do the bunny hop during an audition for \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d in 2009. Over 700 children and their parents lined the block around the ballet studios for one of the 500 roles for children roles in the holiday classic.<\/p>\n

(MANNY CRISOSTOMO\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Artistic<\/p>\n

Artistic Director Ron Cunningham auditions a group of young dancers for \u201cNutcracker\u201d at the Sacramento Ballet studio in 2010.<\/p>\n

(RANDALL BENTON\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Alexandra<\/p>\n

Alexandra Cunningham as Juliet and Artistic Director Ron Cunningham as Friar Laurence in the 2012 Sacramento Ballet production of “Romeo & Juliet,\u201d which celebrated Cunningham\u2019s 25th year as co-artistic director.<\/p>\n

(MANNY CRISOSTOMO\/Sacramento Bee file)\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Ballet Artistic Director Ron Cunningham works with children and professional dancers during a 2017 rehearsal of his final \u201cNutcracker\u201d production.<\/p>\n

(JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS\/Sacramento Bee file)<\/p>\n

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\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Ballet Artistic Director Ron Cunningham, center, listens during a dress rehearsal at the B Street Theater of his final production on June 14, 2018.<\/p>\n

(JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS\/Sacramento Bee file)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ron Cunningham, the artistic director of the Sacramento Ballet from 1988 to 2018, died Saturday after a long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[96579,96581,96580,96427,121,96428,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-209820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-carinne-binda","9":"tag-original-works","10":"tag-professional-troupe","11":"tag-ron-cunningham","12":"tag-sacramento","13":"tag-sacramento-ballet","14":"tag-sacramento-headlines","15":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}