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Review Capacitor: Digging in the Dark
Voice of Dance June 2003
Joanna Harris
Jodi Lomask, Director of Capacitor, is certainly plummeting the depths. In
her new show, "Digging in the Dark", an experiment in process, Lomask
and her extraordinary creative group of performers and technicians, attempt
‘’ a trip through the world and out the other side." For six
months, Capacitor met with geophysicists, brainstorming the about our planet,
"experimenting with ways that we might capture a very personal relationship
with the Earth, through movement, sound and visuals". She calls it a
Beta Test and invites the audience to respond with feedback.
Lots is exciting and intriguing about "Digging", from the initial
dancer’s descent from the flies, to the use of red light video doubling
on screen of what dancers do on stage. There are fascinating costume pieces;
two men in white are ‘hung’ in a series of white tubes, that expand
when they suddenly are pulled upward, dangling and quickly released. Although,
visually this, and many other aspects of the work, deals with gravity, Lomask
likens these two to our expanding and deflating ego trips.
There are seven dancers and a juggler to complement the continuing flow of
projected visuals. Most noteworthy among these are the Capoeristas, Lindell
Dixon and Felice Gomez. Capoeria, a Brazil martial art that combines dance,
music, history and philosophy works with, not against, gravity as ballet and
western dance forms tend to do. So, the rolls, kicks, tumbling and general
weight use of these dancers add to the ‘digging’. Capoeria particularly
provides the choreographic basis for the finale, where, the juggler begins
by throwing sticks and the dancers, dressed in a semblance of tribal costumes,
uses the sticks with Capoeria moves. As the Capoeria web site notes, "The
capoeirista must learn to balance the physical with the mental". That
through line drives this Capacitor production. Most of the time it is realized;
sometimes there are just too many images, too much non-integrated material.
However, it never stops moving, proving fascinating physical, aural and visual
dimensions.
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