The challenges for local, relatively unknown artists trying to get new creations off the ground are myriad: Raising funds. Finding collaborators. Locating rehearsal space.  And, most difficult of all, procuring a venue and an audience for an initial performance.

The Ringling Museum’s MicroWIP@TheHat (micro works-in-progress at the Historic Asolo Theater, or HAT) is specifically designed to address those obstacles and kickstart the careers of emerging local artists. Begun in 2023 by the Ringling’s curator of performance, Elizabeth Doud, and Sydney Lemelin, her former assistant performance producer, the program each year selects four local artists and gives them just enough support to catalyze at least the beginnings of a new performance idea.

“Oftentimes, the performance that gets the support is the big, shiny stuff, the big company on tour—those are the things that are celebrated,” says Doud, a former dancer and performance artist who joined the museum as the inaugural Currie-Kohlmann Curator of Performance in 2019. “Somebody had to give somebody a chance at some point to scratch around in a studio or show a little something in front of an audience—something that is not fully cooked, but you’re going to lay it out anyway.”

Applicants to the program must reside in Sarasota or Manatee counties, cannot be students and must define themselves as working artists. They’re asked to pitch a proposal of what they’d like to try, why now is the right time to do it, and how it will help leverage their exposure. It can’t be something they’ve done before or a do-over of a previous work. (Open call for next year’s MicroWIP applicants will be posted on The Ringling website in August.)

The four artists selected are given a $1,000 stipend, 10-plus hours of rehearsal time in a small studio upstairs from the theater, and the opportunity to present a 10-minute snippet of their work as part of an evening showcase at the HAT of work by all the artists that also includes performer/artist talk-backs and an informal reception.

The point, Doud says, is not necessarily to discover and foster the next big hit— though that would be a welcome outcome—but to give these emerging artists a place to experiment.

“Sometimes [what they produce is] great—but I don’t need it to be great; that’s not what it’s about,” she says. “Things can’t get good until they learn to walk. People need to be able to fail. I myself have been that artist that went down in flames. Our job is to hold that very gently and make space for this.”

Audiences for this show, Doud says, are different than those drawn to the HAT for The Ringling’s Art of Performance programs, an invitation-only series of nationally and internationally recognized, often edgy work. MicroWIP tends to draw a very supportive group of local residents that include family members and friends of the artists involved, who “are invested in the performers and want them to succeed,” Doud says. As a former performer who knows the power of publicity, Doud also hopes MicroWIP provides "something for the artists’ resumes.”

“That is precious capital—to be able to use this institution’s heft to help artists leverage this experience in some way to help them move forward," she says.

For Rita DuClos, a professional ballerina from Brazil who danced with The Sarasota Ballet from 2008 to 2013, MicroWIP has provided a way to reconnect with her art following a move back to Sarasota after a decade spent dancing in Germany.

“I love this art form so much and I didn’t want to be away from the theater,” says DuClos, who has two children, ages 9 and 4. “But at the time we moved back, it was a huge transition with two kids, and I didn’t have a plan.”

After returning, she continued to take class with The Sarasota Ballet and last year, enjoyed a largely non-dancing role in its production of Romeo and Juliet. She also reconnected with Doud, who asked her to assist behind-the-scenes with a production of Indian dance that was part of the Art of Performance series this season and encouraged her to apply to the MicroWIP program.

DuClos had done some choreography in Germany under the guidance of her company’s staff, but lacking confidence about trying something on her own, she stalled on applying until the last minute.

“Elizabeth really encouraged me, but I wasn’t convinced,” she says. “But as it was close to the deadline, I realized I was really missing being in the theater, really missing being involved. So I came up with a concept and applied. And somehow everything fell into place.”

The concept DuClos came up with has become Single exposure, a contemporary ballet solo that explores photographic images as a split second in time and imagines the broader implications of what occurs before and after the shutter opens and closes. It will have its debut as part of this year’s MicroWIP showcase May 8 at the HAT. 

Still reluctant to work on her own and wanting to focus on choreography rather than performing the dance herself, DuClos reached out to Bridgett Zehr, who had also recently moved back to Sarasota. Zehr is a graduate of The Sarasota Ballet’s Dance the Next Generation public school program who had, coincidentally, ended up at the same company as DuClos in Germany, where they danced together for eight years.

With a concept and a dancer, DuClos still lacked music to complete her vision. After hearing Harry Styles’ “Aperture” on the radio while she was in the car— “aperture” was an alternate title she’d considered for her piece—she jumped on its possibilities. But when it proved to be too fast and frenetic for her purposes, she reached out to another ballet friend in Europe, Paul Calderon, who composed a nearly nine-minute score fashioned after Styles’ song that provided the perfect fit for the MicroWIP format.

Grateful as she was for the impetus, stipend and rehearsal space, DuClos, who had never before created without the support of a company behind her, was at first a bit overwhelmed that neither Doud nor anyone else was “looking over my shoulder.”

“Honestly, she gave us so much freedom, I could be as experimental as I wanted to be,” DuClos says. “When I created before in Germany, I had a whole group of ballet masters behind me, and at first I thought, ‘What? No one’s going to check on me?’ But it was nice to have that trust.”

 As to where her work will go from here, DuClos says she doesn’t have an expectation or a plan.

“I’m open to whatever happens,” she says. “It was not my plan to do it at all, but it happened and I’ve really enjoyed it. In my opinion, everything is a work-in progress; the process is never finished. I don’t think of it as unfinished, just as something that can be continued. Hopefully something else can come from it.”

Three other artists’ work will also be included in the May 8 performance. They include:

Fly Chicken, Fly!

A solo theatrical performance by Terrance Jackson that explores what happens when a community of chickens discovers that one of their own dares to dream bigger than anyone ever has and attempts to achieve the impossible: to fly.

Jackson, a Sarasota native and current education and engagement director for Asolo Rep, is a theater artist and storyteller who blends humor and honesty and invites the audience to see their own experiences in the stories he shares. He approaches storytelling as a live exchange between artist and audience, where truth and vulnerability create a connection.

Given the Room

Magician and mentalist Star Newman creates a shared moment of magic inspired by the makeup of each unique audience, making each performance different and distinct. Newman, originally from Minnesota and now based in Sarasota, is passionate about using magic not only to entertain but as a catalyst for connection and exploration of the human experience. Her work is rooted in curiosity, empathy and connection, with the goal of creating moment of wonder that resonate long after a performance ends.

Echoes of My Barrio

This performance, by Tania Vergara Perez, director of Tania Vergara Dance-Theater, is drawn from audio recordings the Cuban choreographer gathered in her native Camaguey, documenting the everyday sounds of her former neighborhood. The sensory memories of her city—often musical, rhythmic and compelling—are juxtaposed with the reality of today’s Cuba. These humble voices, born of necessity, reveal the resilience of a people who have endured oppression and yearn for freedom, respect and dignity.

Now a U.S. citizen based in Sarasota, Vergara Perez is a prize-winning teacher and choreographer known for a distinctive style that merges ballet, theater and contemporary dance.

MicroWIP@TheHat performances take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 8, at the The Ringling’s Historic Asolo Theater, 5401 Bay Shore Road. The cost is $5 museum members; $10 non-members. Click here for tickets.