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Inkiling
Magazine
Q&A: Jodi Lomask
A modern dancer and her troupe turn their attention to science ... and really
big trees
5/9/2007
For any electrician a capacitor is a device for accumulating and holding a
charge of electricity. But for Jodi Lomask, it’s the name of the San
Francisco dance company she founded in 1997. The group regularly employs aerial
acrobatics, juggling and even video game avatars to make their point, which
starts with science and spreads outward. And, yes, their performances are
highly charged.
“Within Outer Spaces,” a 2002 performance, used human bodies as a metaphor for heavenly ones to great acclaim. Their latest show, “Digging in the Dark,” journeys through the layers of the Earth so well that one Berkeley geophysicist suggested that it should be requisite viewing for all geology students.
With the upcoming “Biome,” Lomask will tackle the relationships that underpin ecological webs. For homework, she took her dancers to rainforests in Costa Rica. With such unorthodox methods situated so proudly on her sleeve, it’s hard to imagine that this sprightly brunette carries the triple crown of modern dance, having studied at the State University of New York, London Contemporary Dance School and Rotterdam Dansacademie.
I caught up with Lomask last August in southeastern Washington, during her visit to tree ecologist Nalini Nadkarni’s field sites. Every so often I would catch sight of Lomask dangling from virgin Douglas-firs on a rope the width of my thumb, gracefully building the movement lexicon for “Biome.”
With Capacitor, you’ve often brought scientists into the dance
studio as consultants. How is it that the tables have turned and you’re
now an artist in the field surrounded by ecologists?
I was looking for Capacitor lab participants to join us in Costa Rica this
fall for our new show. So I emailed Nalini Nadkarni to invite her and in the
meantime she invited us to join her for this scientist/artist confluence in
Washington. I just thought it was such an amazing opportunity.
