Accolades for the artists performing in the Festival accelerate by the day. Just today an article by Fast Forward Weekly, a leading cultural magazine in Calgary, Canada, features Canadian dance standout Azure Barton. The feature highlights Azure’s commissioned piece, Busk, and mentions her performance at the Ringling Festival. Fast Forward Weekly describes Azure’s style as “… collaborative and project-based because she loves the nurturing intensity that comes with a commission. Her company, Aszure & Artists, are her collaborators but her inspiration comes from any and all forms of art.” Check out the article and learn more about Azure Barton. It is an enjoyable read.
Posts Tagged ‘Ringling International Arts Festival’
On the Road Again
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009I’m meeting with media around Florida again this week to promote the Ringling International Arts Festival. Yesterday the SCVB public relations rep and I visited the Naples/Ft. Myers area. Today we plan to be in the Ocala/Gainesville area. Then Wednesday we’ll cross the state to visit Florida’s largest metropolitan area, Jacksonville.
If you are media, or if you know any media that we should meet with, drop me a line. Every lead helps to promote this awesome fesitval.
Posted by Lynn Hobeck Bates, Public Relations Manager, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
Can’t Have A Festival Without Food
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009One of the best things about festivals is often the food. After all, festivals focused solely on food have popped up across the country from New York to L.A. In additon to the Festival Cafe (more to come soon!) Treviso Restaurant on the Ringling Museum grounds will offer fresh ingredients blended into dishes that will make your taste buds dance. In addition to being open 11 a.m.-11 p.m. every day of the festival, Treviso will also serve up a Sunday brunch–every Sarasotans favorite–on Oct. 11. I hope to share some recipes from the chef soon.
For patrons wanting a more casual lunch between performances, grab a bite to eat at the Banyan Café and dine beneath the banyans. If you are in the mood for some culinary explorations beyond the Museum gates, you are in luck. The area is home to some highest-rated restaurants in the country.
And, by the way, you can actually hit up Disney World’s Food and Wine Festival before or after the Ringling International Arts Festival. Orlando is just a hop-skip-and-a-jump from Sarasota/Bradenton.
What is Flamenco?
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009Spain and South American have been on my mind this week. Naturally, my mind drifts to thoughts about food and cultural arts. I realized that while I am familiar with the tango, Argentina’s spicy aphrodisiactic dance, I am not as familiar with flamenco. Since Spain’s leading flamenco virtuosos María Pagés will be performing at the Festival, I thought I should freshen up.
Flamencos’ origin is most commonly attributed to Andalusia, an autonomous region now part of Southern Spain, however the colorful history is richly debated. More details to come in a future blog. Let’s keep it simple for now. There are three main forms of flamenco–dancing or baile, guitar playing or guiterra and songs or cante-and a mixture of any three of these elements, or any one element on its own, can be considered “flamenco.” Flamenco takes on a variety of themes from love, passion, loss and heartbreak to politics and humor and is performed around the world. Performers clap, kick, sing, snap small hand-held percussion instruments call castanets and move their body in tempered rhythms to music unleashing a presentation of passion and emotion that is seemingly unbridled yet precisely structured.
Compañia María Pagés will present Flameco y Poesía with her company of nine dancers and musicians in October. It is sure to be a passionate display of song, dance and music that is alluringly graceful and exotically enticing.
Lynn Hobeck Bates, Public Relations Manager at the Ringling Museum
What does “international” arts festival really mean?
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009I got to thinking today about what we mean by “international” arts festival. Its’ meaning is indeed trifold. Many of the artists hail from a foreign land (for instance Israel, Australia, and France), most of the Festival artists have performed around the world and Sarasota/Manatee is already a sun-kissed haven for international tourists. To top it off, the BAC and Ringling Museum have illustrious international reputations so it is a no-brainer that we are working across the world to invite our international friends and fans to take part in the Festival. In fact, I’m shipping a box of brochures to France today for a public relations company working with the Sarasota and Manatee CVB’s. Bon Voyage!
Lynn Hobeck Bates, PR Manager The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
Meow Meow In the Lead
Thursday, June 4th, 2009For all of you dying to know who has the lead in ticket sales, wait no longer. Drum roll please…Meow Meow. it is. As I crawled the web looking for her most recent ditty, I came across, after purging all of the mentions of cats and kitties, some colorful reviews in various media outlets around the world of her Beyond Glamour: The Absinthe Tour which will be featured in Sarasota/Manatee. Is it your cup of tea?
Lynn Hobeck Bates, PR Manager Ringling Museum of Art
Voting for Eight Cast
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Photo: Idil Sukan
Playwright and director Ella Hickson’s performance Eight is now showing in London and they are doing a really “cool and snazzy” online voting page. Basically, when you purchase your ticket online you get to vote for four characters you want to be in the cast. There are no plans to do this at the Ringling International Arts Festival-Eight will be performed by young actors from the UK and students from the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, but it is cool food for thought for some other savvy theater company looking to shake things up a bit. What do you think?
Love is my sin
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
Theater director Peter Brook adds another award to his list of accolades which include two Tony Awards. Earlier this month, Brook received the UK’s Critics Circle Award for his “distinguished service to the arts.” Brook joins the ranks of Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, and Alan Bennett among noteable others.
The 84-year-old brings his most recent production Love is my sin, to the U.S. with a premiere at the Ringling International Arts Festival. The production premiered in Paris at the Théatre du Bouffes du Nord in April. The production is based on Sonnet 142 by William Shakespeare.
Here is Sonnet 142 by William Shakespeare in case you are not familiar with it:
Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,
Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving,
O, but with mine, compare thou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not reproving,
Or if it do, not from those lips of thine
That have profaned their scarlet ornaments
And sealed false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robbed others’ beds’ revenues of their rents.
Be it lawful I love thee as thou lov’st those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee.
Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example mayst thou be denied!
