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 inaugural 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.  

This year’s showing features excerpts of new performances by Cassia Kite, Gabriele Keusch, Alyssa Braud, Karim Manning and Monessa Salley. After the show, join us for a talk back with Florida Woman choreographers Leah Verier-Dunn and Rosie Herrera. Read about 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 color-coded 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 additional awards and honors; discover more at http://www.cassiakite.com/florida.php 

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. 

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 companies like Of Moving Colors in Baton Rouge and Tennessee Ballet Theatre in Memphis to bring peoples’ life stories to the stage and community. In 2023, she created Saoirse Movement, meaning Freedom Movement, to find the freedom, beauty, and breath with everyday movement through dance. 

Rhythmic Dialogue with 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.