INSPECTING THE UNEXPECTED

Dwight Currie, Associate Director of Exhibitions and Programs

With the launch of New Stages, the Ringling joins a roster of select American museums that are, according to Claudia La Rocco in the September 18, 2012 edition of The New York Times, “examining how to collect ephemeral work and strengthen their performance departments.” In doing so, the presentation of performative art is moving out of the realm of ancillary programming and into the creation of “curatorial offerings on par with exhibitions.” For the current exhibition of contemporary performances now onstage at the Historic Asolo Theater, the curatorial point-of-view is best expressed in the words of H.P. Lovecraft cited above –an invitation to inspect the unexpected.

As a mime who ironically embraces the power of language, Bill Bowers provocatively subverts the clarity of movement through the vagaries of words as he investigates the silence surrounding the enigma of gender. In like manner, LEO simultaneously explores the pain of loneliness and the pleasure of solitude as a man inhabits two worlds that are seemingly governed

NEW STAGES: Narrative in Motion, THURSDAY—SATURDAY, 7:30 PM

by opposing laws of physics. And as you enter the choreographed Garden created and inhabited by Kate Weare, you will find that nothing is as it seems, yet everything appears as it should. These are artists who have chosen (again in the words of Lovecraft) “to trace the remote in the immediate; the eternal in the ephemeral; the past in the present; the infinite in the finite; these are to me the springs of delight and beauty.”

The Ringling’s New Stages of contemporary performance heralds the welcome return of storytelling in theatrical and choreographic forms for the 21st century. By embracing the power of language, gesture, character, and emotion, artists are moving beyond the inscrutable abstractions of the experimental to once again explore the narratives of human relations. Tickets: $25, $20, $15. Historic Asolo Theater Box Office: 941.360.7399 or ringling.org

Beyond Words

By Bill Bowers

February 7‒9

In an eloquent mixture of music, monologues, and movement, one of the most acclaimed multi-disciplinary artists in America explores what it means to be a boy.

LEO

Produced and Created by Circle of Eleven

February 21‒23

From Berlin, a blend of music, acrobatics, dance, and theater that won the “Best of Edinburgh Award” in 2011 and went on to become the hottest ticket for Spoleto 2012.

Garden Kate Weare Company

March 7‒9

With rawness and precision, Kate Weare maps a humanism that is contemporary and profoundly stirring.

The presentation of Garden is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

FSU Dance Theatre

March 22 & 23

Friday and Saturday only

Works by the renowned resident faculty, alumni, and guest artists performed by the highly skilled students of this top-ranked university dance program.

Tickets: $20, $15, $10 or ringling.org