Pictured: Rosie Herrera and Leah Verier-Dunn in Florida Woman. Photo by George Echevarria.

“Imagine if ‘Florida Man’ were a female choreographer.”

And so director Rosie Herrera cheekily sums up her latest dance theater project, a tragicomic social commentary bringing everything from Pub Subs and live alligator wrestling to the Historic Asolo Theater stage. Entitled Florida Woman and co-created with Moving Ethos Dance Company founder Leah Verier-Dunn, the show promises a heady mix of the serious and the surreal, the activist and the absurd, as the performers examine the changing political climate in the Sunshine State, while reveling in the raucous mythology that surrounds its people. “Florida has this reputation for being a bastion for all that is wild,” Herrera says. “But in reality, the government is becoming more and more strict, specifically with women’s bodies.” With Florida Woman, Herrera and Verier-Dunn hope to shine a light on this strange juxtaposition—and how it plays out in everyday life.

Not to be confused with a contemporary dance performance, Florida Woman blends dance and theater to craft a single narrative over the course of one-hour of interwoven stories told through uninterrupted performance. So it’s not so much an operation in esoteric movement and physical abstraction, as it is classical storytelling told through dance. Actors inhabit roles and these characters have their arcs, it just so happens that most of their “dialogue” is spoken with their bodies. And by focusing on the personal journeys of these characters, as opposed to the politics, Herrera and Verier-Dunn find a way to be pointed without being preachy. “We’re not focusing on those big picture questions,” says Verier-Dunn. “We’re focusing on how the big picture affects us personally and telling that story.”

What it means to be a woman in Florida. What it means to be a parent. These were the questions running through Herrera and Verier-Dunn’s minds when creating Florida Woman, spurred on by the transformation they were seeing within their own communities, whether it be Verier-Dunn witnessing rightwing politics take hold of her local school board or Herrera watching gentrification upend families and neighborhoods in Miami. “We’re two people who are deeply passionate about living here and are slowly feeling pushed out,” Herrera says. “It’s that feeling of having a clear sense of home and then also questioning if it’s feasible to even stay.” But at the same time that Florida Woman critiques these growing issues, it also celebrates the singular wildness that made ‘Florida Man’ a nationwide meme.

“The delightful comedy of Florida is something we put in the work because we know it speaks to our audiences here in Sarasota and Miami,” Herrera says, and so the show plays with a fair bit of the iconography specific to Florida, whether that be the aforementioned Pub Subs and alligator wrestling or an obsession with orange juice and pageants of all sorts. “I hope that Floridians who love this state will see themselves in the work, and see our love for Florida,” she says.

“And if you don’t already know the Florida Anthem,” Verier-Dunn adds, “you’ll know it by the end of the show.”

Florida Woman opens next Friday, March 22, at the Ringling Museum and runs for only three nights, closing on March 24.

Pictured: Rosie Herrera and Leah Verier-Dunn in Florida Woman. Photo by George Echevarria.