The lineup for October's Ringling International Arts Festival features New York cabaret sensation Meow Meow. Meowmeowrevolution.com.
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, in partnership with the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York, announces the first Ringling International Arts Festival, scheduled to take place in Sarasota this October. The festival, which runs Oct. 7-11, features an array of dance, music and theatrical performances. (Somewhat disapointingly, it looks like the visual arts offerings will be limited to the museum's planned exhibitions, Venice in the Age of Canaletto and Louise Fishman Among the Old Masters.)
However, the festival's dance and theater offerings are out of this world (or, at least, out of this region, in the sense that aficionados would ordinarily make a pilgrimage to PS 122 or Jacob's Pillow to see performances like these). Both a world premiere by Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton and an extended version of Arena, choreographed by Deganit Shemy, are festival commissions. Theater offerings include a world premiere (another festival commission) by Elevator Repair Service and Ella Hickson's Eight, winner of the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival's highest honor.
Also not to be missed, "post post-modern showgirl" Meow Meow's Beyond Glamour: The Absinthe Tour.
Click here to access the festival's website, including an order form for festival passes. (Individual ticket sales start May 15.) Ringling members, of course, get the best deals— like an eight-performance pass for $180.
Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.
This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2009.