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Capacitor: Making the Scene (cont.)
Dance Magazine
Anandha Ray, a choreographer and member of the Isadora Duncan ("Izzie")
Awards committee, first saw Capacitor in a small theater, then in a nightclub,
which she felt was an effective place to draw new audiences. "You need
to have a unique format like Capacitor in order to use this marketing format-[it]
wouldn't work for everyone," she said. "They have a niche that really
works in the nightclub environment quite spectacularly."
Martt Lawrence, a dancer/choreographer and pilates instructor, agreed: "I
think that only certain companies would be successful at building audiences
through the club scene," she said. "I do think that Capacitor appeals
to the Web-savvy, dot-com, Burning Man audience member. I was surprised to
see some acquaintances that fit that category at the Capacitor show, when
otherwise they would not be drawn into modern dance."
A Capacitor audience, Lomask said, is not "people who go to theater or
consider themselves high-art people necessarily. That is maybe a little bit
intentional. I wanted to be the kind of artist someone didn't need to study
to appreciate," said Lomask. "I want someone who's never seen dance
before to walk into a club and say 'Wow, that's far out. I didn't know people
were doing that.' If they weren't
expecting it, even better-they come in more open." If audiences are drawn
to
spectacle and technology from this democratizing approach, maybe (or so
dancemakers could hope) they would be willing to further explore the more
subtle art of choreography.
"Zack is always talking about how we want to appeal to anyone on the
street,
regardless of background," Lomask said. "I feel like that's a tall
order, but I also think it's not a bad goal."
Heather Wisner is an associate editor for Dance Magazine.
