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San
Francisco Chronicle
Open to Interpretation - Capacitor to mix up multidisciplinary dance
with rave setting
Resourcefulness is a trait that serves modern dancers well, but the members
of Capacitor take special pride in theirs. Tomorrow night, the 4-year-old
company mounts its most ambitious project to date -- a one-time-only, site-
specific event in a rave setting at the vast King Street Garage in San Francisco.
Ropes, pulleys, bungee cords, neon rings, old computers and a flaming helmet
are just some of the resources the seven-person company plans to use for the
show, dubbed "Flux Capacitor." The dancers will be accompanied by visual designers
Telemetric and Dimension 7, with music from four DJs, a violinist, a cellist
and two contemporary composers.
It's a major step in Capacitor's continuing effort to bend the rules of the
movement arts by integrating ideas from various disciplines: martial arts,
extreme sports, the "new circus." Tomorrow's show is inspired by the sensory
immersion of late-night dance parties, where the audience becomes an art form
all its own.
Barefoot, in mismatched T-shirts and sweat pants, the dancers -- in addition
to the founders and Culp, Patricia West, Jennifer Maecker, Oscar Trujillo
and Lindell Dixon, median age 25 -- twined their bodies together in physical
poetry, forming four-legged trains and turtles. Jason Sneed, a.k.a. DJ Chameleon,
sat in a corner, watching closely and taking notes, while electronic music
washed from the speakers of a boom box.
In August, the Capacitor dancers will travel to Scotland for the Edinburgh
Fringe Festival, where they will perform 20 nights. It's the company's first
extended opportunity abroad. In October, they'll do a three-week residency
at Berkeley's Julia Morgan Center for the Arts.
In the meantime, however, they're focused on the rave. "A lot of people our
age group don't go to the theater," Bernstein said after rehearsal. "We want
to bring something to them." It's an interactive age, and Capacitor wants
to prove it.
"The goal isn't 'Wow, look at me. I can do something you can't,' " says Lomask.
"It's more like, 'I'm gonna use this ability to tell you about myself. ' "
(James Sullivan)
