WIP ART OF PERFORMANCE
MICRO
WORKS
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PROGRESS
JAN 26 | 7:30 PM Catch the first glimpse of the newest performance being made in the Sarasota-Manatee area! The Ringling’s commitment to Florida-based artists includes emerging performance practitioners, and The Art of Performance’s MicroWIP (Micro Works-in-Progress) presentations provide local creatives with a platform to advance new work. By presenting works-in-progress, we offer a semi-formal way for artists to experiment with new ideas in front of live audiences. For artists, this important step is key in the creative cycle and provides space for experimentation and feedback. Post-performance talk back with tonight’s artists will be moderated by Choreographer, dancer and Director of Moving Ethos, Leah Verier-Dunn.
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THE ARTISTS AND THEIR NEW WORK MABLE RINGLING ROSE GARDEN SOUNDSTITCHING by Cassia Kite Based on Mable Ringling’s Rose Garden, this work began with documenting the roses in 2016, then evolved to hand-stitching and translating several of the flowers into music compositions. This series of works is intended to translate the roses into a collaborative, site-based performance involving multiple instrumentation and interpretive dancers. For this performance, I will be exploring my own curiosities in musical instrumentation to allow for the roses to perform in an innovative way. Cassia Kite is an interdisciplinary artist who created Soundstitching. Soundstitching is an interdisciplinary, multimedia project that transforms color from a hand-stitched image into a musical composition that can be interpreted by a musician and/or performance artist. Kite has collaboratively produced large-scale work for chamber ensembles and dancers using colorcoded graphic scores derived from her hand-stitched tapestries. Kite has been awarded artist-in-residence at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in 2018 and The Hambidge Creative Residency Program in 2019. She is the recipient of many awards and honors; discover more at cassiakite.com/florida. UNTETHERED BREATH (ripples from soul to soul) by Alyssa Braud Untethered Breath (ripples from soul to soul) is an ethereal dance piece that dives into one’s journey of life. The breath of our journey is impacted by decisions of those around us, as well as our own. Ultimately, this breath changes one’s energy, radiating out to others, and affecting them in either a positive or negative manner. To enhance the perspective of the piece, this ripple of energy between souls will be portrayed using multiple mediums of art. In the end, you, the audience, will leave feeling meditative, intangible, and questioning your own existence. Alyssa Braud is modern and contemporary choreographer and dancer from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has dedicated her life to two careers: teaching students with visual impairments and freelance dancing. She has danced with Of Moving Colors, Tennessee Ballet Theater and her own company, Soairse Movement, to find the freedom, beauty, and breath with everyday movement through dance. Music composed by Max Richter | Dancers: Alyssa Braud, Sabine Dimante, Sami Mangione, Barbara Monteiro | Videographer: Nicholas Riggs.
CONFESSIONALS by Gabriele Keusch A reclaiming and embracing of story instead of shame. The power of repetition and ritual to cleanse and heal. With this piece, I will invite the audience to witness and participate in the act of confessing to heal and dismantle shame. When communal stories can be shared without judgment, we can break down hierarchies within gender, race, and religious or spiritual expression. Gabriele Keusch is a poet and performance artist. Her work consists of ritualistic symbolism, repetition, and soundscapes alongside spoken word. In 2023, she exhibited at Amplifying Visions, a group art exhibition and artist talk with Fabulous Arts Foundation and Fogartyville, and Swamp Yell Collective debut, a group exhibition with Sarasota Modern and Fabulous Arts Foundation. In 2022, she performed in OutSpoken II, a group exhibition at Love Wins Art with Fabulous Arts Foundation and DreamLarge, as well as Spoken Words and Deep Sounds at Art Love Repeat Gallery, and exhibited at the PINC Fest at DreamLarge. RHYTHMIC DIALOGUE by Karim Manning and Monessa Salley This performance is an exploration of rhythm through a conversation between music and movement. Karim Manning is a DJ and freestyle musician known for beatboxing, lyricism, and music production. After teaching music for Booker Middle School’s afterschool program in 2017, he is now a teaching artist at a private school in Sarasota and facilitates interactive workshops at various schools in the Tampa Bay area and nationally. Monessa Salley is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher from South Carolina. She has been with Sarasota Contemporary Dance Company for five seasons and currently serves as Production Lead for the company’s In-Studio Performance Series. Salley also teaches at New College of Florida, West Coast Black Theater Troupe, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, and Booker High School’s Visual and Performing Arts Department.
A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR 2023/24 ART OF PERFORMANCE SPONSORS
This program is supported in part by the Art of Performance Fund, Arthur F. and Ulla R. Searing Endowment, Dorothy Jenkins Endowment at the John and Mable Ringling Museum, Ellin Family Art of Our Time Endowment, Ed & Elaine Keating Endowment, Ringling Art of Performance Endowment, Selby Foundation Ringling Museum Endowment, Cowles Charitable Trust, Huisking Foundation, David and Mary Benfer, Michael and Kathy Bush, Warren R. and Marie E. Colbert, Leon and Marge Ellin, Judith and Stephen Shank, and Marge and Irv Weiser.
THE RINGLING’S ART OF PERFORMANCE delivers broad access to provocative and timely performing arts that reflect a wide range of experiences, disciplines, and relevant cultural expressions. The series embodies The Ringling’s values of inclusion, inspiration, and excellence through programs that elevate community engagement, equitable partnerships, and the plural exchange of ideas in tandem with visiting artists. Besides public programs, we support Florida-based, national, and international performance makers in developmental residencies and creative research. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is the State Art Museum of Florida administered by Florida State University. It features an art museum, historic mansion, circus museum, historic theater, conservation laboratory, arboretum, and research library, situated on 66-acres of bayfront property in Sarasota. The Ringling is an extraordinary center of art and culture engaging with the local, state, and global communities, and is accessible to and inclusive of all.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The Ringling respectfully acknowledges that we are located on the traditional Homelands and the ancestral territories of the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, as well as the ancient tribes of the Calusa, Uzita and Tocobaga. We also acknowledge the local freedomseeking community called Angola, and the people later known as Black Seminoles. We honor the resiliency of Indigenous communities, and we extend our gratitude as we live and work on their Homelands. We pay our respect to the Elders, both past and present, who have stewarded these lands and waters through generations since time immemorial.