Pictured: A member of Moving Ethos practices for the performance at Ringling Museum. Photo courtesy of Moving Ethos.

In partnership with the Ringling Museum and on March 7, Moving Ethos dance company teams up with spoken word artist Cedric Hameed for a special collaborative performance, entitled Spoken Word, examining the issue of homelessness.

Leah Verier-Dunn, artistic director and cofounder of Moving Ethos, wanted to select an issue that affects Sarasota daily. “We wanted to find engagements that aren't only meaningful to us,” Verier-Dunn says, “but we felt were actually going to have an impact.” Collaborating with Hameed stems from the importance of working together as a community. “Anytime we get the chance to collaborate with other people in town,” says Verier-Dunn, “it also makes the voice of the statements louder.”

Booker High School will start the event with a musical performance from the students, inspired by ongoing discussions about homelessness in the community. Afterward, Hameed will ask questions of the audience addressing and engaging the topic, quickly creating a spoken word performance centered around their responses. Alongside, Moving Ethos will improvise a moving piece using Hameed’s words as accompaniment. No small feat, but the company prepares as it can. “We give ourselves different boundaries to stay within,” says Verier-Dunn, “in order to get the point across.” The greater question will be how the performance comes together as a whole. “The chance-taking is moreso in how will it all work together,” she says, “or how we will work with each other in this type of setting.”

In the end, Verier-Dunn hopes the gallery performance leads to some sort of community action. “My hope always is that it initiates some kind of conversation and it makes peoples’ minds work,” she says. “Is there a change they can make? Is there a hand to help? What change can they initiate to move themselves forward?”

Spoken Word comes to the Ringling Museum on March 7.

Pictured: A member of Moving Ethos practices for the performance at Ringling Museum. Photo courtesy of Moving Ethos.