To work in the realm of performing arts, Mica Thomas will tell you, requires a good amount of open-mindedness.

You must be able to think big. Have the ability to suspend disbelief, at least temporarily, in the pursuit of something special. Have the utter confidence to know that even the most abstract idea can, with the right people and resources behind it, be molded and shaped into a living, breathing, tangible thing.

And yet, when Thomas first heard Anthony Magliano’s idea for the group that would eventually become Quixotic Fusion …

“I wouldn’t say I thought he was crazy or anything,” said Thomas, who now serves as the group’s associate artistic director. “But I was like, ‘That’s an interesting idea. It could really work, or it could really not work.’ ”

Seven years later, Magliano’s multisensory performance arts group, which combines aspects of dance, music, aerial acrobatics, fashion and visual effects, has ascended from a grassroots novelty act to a nationally recognized entity.

After holding roughly 60 shows last year, Quixotic expects to perform 100 this year. The company will present its first overseas show later this month in Barcelona and is scheduled to perform at national festivals including Wanderlust, Electric Forest and Wakarusa. On Feb. 28, Quixotic will perform at the national TED event, a popular technology/innovation conference in Long Beach, Calif.

There are few aspects of the company that Magliano, 39, doesn’t have a hand in. In addition to playing drums for the group’s band, he holds weekly two- to three-hour meetings with the group’s core staff and oversees casting, music and aesthetics. Even away from the stage, he is always in control of the product.

It’s this tunnel-vision approach, as well as his admittedly hands-on style and strict attention to detail, that has been instrumental in transforming Quixotic from a group that performed one show a year at its outset to what it is now: a bona fide performing arts company that features 25-30 regular members and a slew of other contributors.

When Magliano began trying to put together his concept, there was little reason to think it had a chance to become a citywide phenomenon.

Convincing talented performers to get behind him wasn’t always easy. Dan Barickman, a former volunteer who is now Quixotic’s business manager, remembers receiving a 12-pack of beer and $15 for his first paycheck. The group’s first two shows were at the Boley Gallery at 12th and Walnut in 2005 and at an abandoned building at 1814 Oak St. the following summer.

“We spent more time patching up the holes in the walls and shoveling up bird crap than actually working on some of the other parts of the show,” Thomas said about the first performances.

By its second year, word had begun to spread about the quirky performances, and the shows started to attract crowds. The first show drew roughly 200 people. The line to get into the second performance stretched down the block, and the group was eventually forced to turn some people away.

That initial success paved the way for more shows and larger venues. Quixotic began performing at WaterFire on Brush Creek at the Country Club Plaza in 2008 and at Starlight Theatre. It sold out a 2008 show at the Uptown Theater, drawing roughly 3,000 people in what Magliano considers a major turning point in the group’s evolution.

“The feedback we got was next-level,” Magliano said. “It went from local to ‘This could be national if we play the right chess game and make the right moves.’ ”

Perhaps the most tangible evidence of the group’s growth is that in March 2010 it was able to move into its own 2,700-square-foot space. Before, group members were forced to rehearse wherever they could. They used a loading dock near 20th Street and Broadway that didn’t have heat or running water. They used industrial buildings after hours, waiting until employees had left for the day before setting up apparatuses and holding impromptu rehearsal sessions.

The new building, near the intersection of Cherry and 28th streets, allows members to rehearse at their convenience and has turned into a bustling headquarters, a two-story think-tank with individual work spaces, rehearsal space and a steady stream of people coming and going from 8 a.m. until 2 a.m.

The group’s innovative techniques drew the attention of TED representatives. In September 2009, Quixotic held a show in front of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, during which performers rappelled down the wall of the museum’s Bloch Building. It held back-to-back-to-back nightly performances at the Wakarusa music festival in Ozark, Ark., last spring, and last September, it performed as part of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts’ grand opening.

“They’ve been really wonderful to work with because they’re so eager to push the boundaries,” said TED content director Kelly Stoetzel. “That’s something that we love.”

Also impressive is Magliano’s ability to sustain the group in the wake of some significant changes.

From the beginning, Quixotic has had strong ties with the Kansas City Ballet. Co-founder Keelan Whitmore and Magliano’s wife, Kimberly Cowen, hailed from the ballet, and Quixotic used its dancers in performances.

In 2006, Whitmore left to join San Francisco’s Alonzo King Lines Ballet. Magliano and Cowen, a longtime dancer with Quixotic and one of its early visionaries, divorced, and Cowen no longer performs with the group.

“We’re still friends,” Magliano said. “She (exposed) me to all of these things. She turned me on to the whole world of performance arts and dance, introduced me to a lot of the dancers.”

Whitmore was replaced by Thomas, who joined the staff full time in 2006. Magliano is the group’s ultimate authority, but Thomas, a good-natured, pony-tailed 33-year-old, has been instrumental in shaping the group’s quickly growing brand and serving as a more laid-back alternative to Magliano’s intense style.

Keeping things going financially is also a constant concern.

While sponsorships with local businesses such as propaganda3 and Parisi Coffee have helped the group implement ambitious ideas, with few exceptions, the group’s members aren’t paid as full-time employees. The majority of Quixotic’s funding comes from the sponsorships, donations, grants and the revenue it generates from performances, but it is poured almost entirely back into the product or the business end of Quixotic. It’s not uncommon for performers to stay four to a room during out-of-town shows, and the majority of company members hold outside jobs.

“It’s hard for a group like ours because you have really well-established organizations in Kansas City like the ballet, the symphony, the opera, which are all amazing organizations, and we totally respect them,” Thomas said. “And then there’s us, where we’re trying to struggle to get up that (ladder). We’re kind of past the grassroots level of some other organizations, but we’re not quite to that (top) level.”

The long-term goal is to reach a point where all of the company’s contributors, from performers to musicians to designers to tech people, work as full-time Quixotic employees, receiving regular paychecks and benefits and having the financial freedom to dedicate their full attention to Quixotic’s ambitious mission.

“I look at what people are able to do now, when they have all these other things they have to do on the side,” Thomas said. “And if they were able to dedicate all their time and energy to this, you can just take it that much further, you know?”

For now, the group will try to build on its momentum.

“I think that what we all hope for is for it to be stable,” Magliano said. “Just to be where it can sustain itself and the artists within. At the end of the day, (we want to) continue to create new works of art as a collective and just keep performers busy and doing what they do.”