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SF
Examiner
THE
MIX - But is it art?
ArtAngels, a charity website where people interested
in preserving this city's art scene can contribute to arts organizations online,
celebrated its launch with a party at SomArts that included everything from
modern dance and live theater to photography and interactive multi-media presentations.
DJs Lorin, Tree and Paul Godwin spun the inspiring freaky beats for art enthusiasts
and newcomers hooched up on Redtails. The night featured performances by some
of this city's most cutting-edge performance artists -- ODC and Capacitor,
to name two -- and tripped out art installations, the likes of which will
surely grace the global village at this year's Burning Man festival.
Capacitor,
an SF-based group of "interdisciplinary movement artists", organized a "next
generation dance party," Flux Capacitor, at King Street, transforming the
venue from an ordinary nightclub into a performance space and summoning the
disco brigade - Ellen Ferrato, Kramer, Chameleon and Ethan Miller - to provide
the appropriate wattage for their electrically charged performance. The group
used brief breaks during DJ sets to tell the story of the creation of our
universe using beautifully choreographed dance pieces that incorporated elements
of Capoeira, a form of martial arts, acrobatics, flames and even bungee chords
set to a space-age soundtrack composed by Thomas Day and electronic-cello
player Alex Kort. Ellen Ferratto threw down a set of twisted house so tight
she had kids bouncing off the walls. Even the boys in line for the toilet
couldn't keep still. So waiting for the first performance, I was unsure how
the dance-happy crowd was going to respond to the interruptions and afraid
that the artistic value of modern dance might fly right over their heads and
the time be used instead to grab another drink at the bar or go outside to
have a smoke. It was clear just minutes into the first performance, however,
that the talent before us was undeniable. Judging from the deafening applause
and screams following each set, Capacitor's accomplished its mission to expose
its work to a new audience. A far cry from the almost sideshow acts of rave
yesteryear, is this a promising evolution of our club scene? Let's hope so.
(Bill Picture)
