Ringling's Art of Performance Series

Ringling's Art of Performance Series

By: Carrie Seidman - May 16, 2026

Agrupación Señor Serrano, a theater collective from Barcelona, Spain, presents Birdie Photo provided by The Ringling

Elizabeth Doud, The Ringling museum’s Currie-Kohlmann Curator of Performance. / Photo provided by The Ringling

José “Pepito” Gómez and LaRoyal Orquestra will kick off The Ringling’s 2026-2027 Art of Performance. Photo provided by The Ringling

: Robin Frohardt, from Brooklyn, New York, will present “The Shopping Center of the Universe.” Photo provided by The Ringling

Georgia Heers, a jazz vocalist from South Carolina, will perform at the Historic Asolo Theater on November 13. / Photo provided by The Ringling

Leïla Ka, a choreographer and dancer from France, presents “Maldonne. ‘Photo provided by The Ringling

The Kif Kif Sisters, twin sisters from Quebec, Canada, present the comedic “Returns Department” Photo provided by The Ringling

Artist-in-Residence LaMichael Leonard, Jr., presents a contemporary dance work, “Skin Noise,” in March 2027. / Photo provided by The Ringling

Twin sisters who spin a comedic circus act while examining defective objects rejected by customers moving along a conveyer belt. Dancers donning thrift store dresses, embodying the lives of their former owners. Hundreds of miniature figures manipulated to invoke the ominous atmosphere of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.” A multimedia look at our pervasive consumerism, told with handcrafted props made from natural and reclaimed materials.

That’s but a taste of what The Ringling’s “Art of Performance” series will bring to Sarasota in the coming season. The lineup for the eclectic performing arts program epitomizes the vision of The Ringling’s first director, Everett “Chick” Austin, who believed a museum’s role was not to simply be a repository for gilt-framed Old Masters, but a living, dynamic space where all art forms intersect to stretch patrons’ palates, minds and imaginations.

“The people we’re bringing in are not household names and most people are taking a gamble,” admits Elizabeth Doud, the museum’s Currie-Kohlmann Curator of Performance, who selected the nine programs for the 2026-2027 season. “But I’m a big believer that your audience is ready for more than you think. If they like the vibe, they’re willing to take a gamble.”

Doud, a former dancer who spent 25 years in Miami creating, participating in and presenting edgy performance art, became The Ringling’s inaugural curator of performance in 2019. The position, endowed by the Shank Family Foundation, is named after Dwight Currie and Michael Kohlmann, curators who were instrumental in bringing avant-garde artists from around the world to the museum’s campus for the Ringling International Arts Festival (RIAF), a three-day even that ran from 2009 through 2017. The “Art of Performance” series is an outgrowth of RIAF.

“We’re not trying to recreate the festival, but bringing in a lot of global sensibility is super important for me,” Doud said. “And if we’re going to be working in these modalities, let’s do something that’s pushing the boundaries. We want to be presenting stuff that’s not already being presented locally.”

Though she finds her current title as curator “hilarious” – “That’s a museum word” – many of the choices for the upcoming season have been informed by her previous experiences, which instilled both a deep connection to the art and culture of Latin American and the Caribbean and a passion for eco-performance, which merges performance art with environmentalism, exploring the relationship between the human body, nature and the climate crisis.

“Ringling Revealed – Where Wonder Begins,” the season kickoff on Oct. 16 in the museum’s courtyard, will feature music by José “Pepito” Gómez and La Royal Orquestra, a big band known for reviving the golden-era mambo sound of 1950s Cuba. Gomez is a Grammy-nominated vocalist who blends traditional music with high-energy infectious contemporary rhythms.

“I’ve seen this band and I can assure you, no one sits,” Doud said.

Doud partnered with the Science and Environmental Council and Eco-Summit 2027 to bring Robin Frohardt’s “The Shopping Center of the Universe” in February. A multimedia performance that merges puppetry, film, text and music, it frames America’s big-box stores as both the literal and symbolic “center of the universe.” To an immersive score and with live cast media projections, Frohardt, who hails from Brooklyn, New York, animates meticulously hand-crafted props, often made of natural or recycled materials, to examine consumer culture, environmental crisis and human behavior.

“The Shopping Center of the Universe,” which will be presented at the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium,  is one of several performances in the series that will be held in venues other than the Historic Asolo Theater (HAT). Another, in December, featuring the neo-folk, Appalachian and “roots rock” music of Valerie June, will take place at the Bolger Campiello, the outdoor space along the waterfront, directly behind the Ca’ d’Zan. June, a three-time Grammy nominee and multi-instrumentalist from Tennessee, performs on acoustic and electric guitar, five-string banjo and the banjolele.

Georgia Heers, from South Carolina, a jazz vocalist who puts a unique spin on revivals of old standards as well as her own original compositions, will perform in the HAT in November. She was recently featured in George Clooney’s Broadway adaptation of “Goodnight and Good Luck” and was a contender for the prestigious Sarah Vaughan award for emerging jazz vocalists.

Two groups from Europe will also perform in the HAT. In October, Leïla Ka, a French choreographer and dancer who began her career as an urban street and hip-hop performer, brings “Maldonne,” an exploration of the journey of womens’ self-reclamation performed by five female dancers. Central to the work are approximately 40 second-hand dresses that are continuously worn, exchanged, layered and discarded throughout the performance.

February brings Agrupación Señor Serrano, an acclaimed Spanish theater collective founded in Barcelona and known for its innovative fusion of live performance, video, scale models and digital technology. “Birdie,” which weaves live action, video projection, soundscapes and more than 2,000 miniature figures into recurring images of birds in flight and descent. An unsettling meditation on global inequality and resilience, it reveals two disparate narratives, one reflecting ecocide, displacement and human exploitation, the other an idyllic yet fragile reality.

In celebration of World Circus Day, in April 2027, the Kif Kif Sisters – twin sisters from Quebec who create wildly funny, family-friendly shows – present “Returns Department,” using contemporary dance, physical theater and clown and circus traditions within a setting where merchandise returned to a store by disgruntled customers is inspected. With humor inspired by Charlie Chaplin as well as comic strips, it’s a playful look behind the scenes of a production line.

The season also features home grown talent. In March, LaMichael Leonard, Jr., a Tallahassee native and transplant to Sarasota (where he graduated from Booker High) will present an expansion of “Skin Noise,” an excerpt of which he showcased at the HAT earlier this year. Currently a Ringling Artist-in-Residence, Leonard is a former dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and was the first Black principal dancer and Master of Ceremonies at The Lido Cabaret in Paris. “Skin Noise” investigates the body as a living archive, where cultural, political, familiar and historical forces accumulate and are continuously re-inscribed through movement.

The “Art of Performance” season concludes, as this year’s recently did, with the MicroWIP@TheHAT showcase of works in progress by four emerging artists from Sarasota and Manatee Counties who will be selected from an open call this fall. Each will present a 10-minute excerpt from a work they hope to expand into a full-evening production. MicroWIP is intended to give local artists the time, space and support to test new material and underscores the museum’s commitment to investing in and nurturing the artists shaping the local cultural landscape.

Doud says that “maybe two” of the nine programs in the series “could be hitting the weird end of the spectrum.”

“But as a good host, you don’t do it to shock people,” she said. “You want to make an authentic invitation for them to connect, to create a space for them to experience something new and maybe a little out of their comfort zone.”

Learn more at ArtsBeat.org.