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Capacitor: Making the Scene
Dance Magazine
May 2002
Capacitor choreographer Jodi Lomask builds dance from big topics--space, technology,
evolution--and unorthodox stylistic combinations, then stages her work in
places where most companies rarely go. Dancers do capoeira by strobe light,
ballet in leather shorts and pointe shoes, modem embellished by aerial work
and fire handling. Astronomers collaborated with Lomask on Within Outer Spaces,
which the Bay Area-based company performed excerpts of in November 2001 at
San Francisco's Club Townsend, then as a full concert at SomArts Theater two
weeks later. The piece's futuristic mood was a natural for a nightclub setting,
beginning with white unitard-clad dancers spinning in harnesses suspended
above the crowds. Spaces might look especially spectacular under the influence
of chemical party favors (theoretically, of course), although they weren't
really necessary-company co-founder Zack Bernstein's glow-in-the-dark red
juggling balls and the dancers' fire-tipped claws and headdresses were illuminating
enough, drawing oohs and aahs from across the darkened room. By the time the
company began flinging itself around on a bouncy "bungee box" to
techno-y bleeps and blips, most of the crowd was hooked. "They have to
be athletic, I'll give 'em that," remarked a man in the front row.
Capacitor, like any company, is always trying to attract viewers, and it's
by no means the first to challenge the concert dance status quo to do so.
Ballet companies have been trying to lure first-timers to the theater with
informative pre-show talks and "Casual Friday" socials and by alternating
classical repertoire with contemporary programming. Modern dance companies--unconstrained
by the use of pointe shoes and, in many cases, traditional notions of performance
space-have taken dance outside the theater and directly to the people, from
the Judson Dance Theater's 1960s-era performances at lakes, on rooftops, and
in roller rinks through Shipp Dance Theatre's recent Retail Dance shopping-mall
shows. Project Bandaloop, a California company mixing dance and rock climbing,
has used both city buildings and the sheer face of Yosemite's El Capitan as
backdrops.
