User:Kate.hutch68/Capacitor Performance
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Capacitor Performance is a non-profit cirque-nouveau/dance company based out of San Francisco. Their work synthesizes the human body with abstract structures and interactive media to create science-inspired shows that deepen audience connection with the natural world. [1].
Jodi Lomask[edit]
the Artistic Director of Capacitor, formed the company in 1997 after graduating cum laude from SUNY Purchase in 1996. Lomask has trained at the Royal Ballet Academy, Merce Cunningham Studio, London Contemporary Dance School, the Rotterdam Dansacademie, L' Espace Catastrophe, and Jacob's Pillow. She has performed with Bandaloop, Kneejerk, Erica Essner Performance Co-op, Zaccho Dance Theatre, and Capacitor and has taught workshops and classes in modern dance technique at universities across the United States.
Performances and Repertory[edit]
Capacitor's performances are a multidisciplinary experience that connects the audience to the science behind the movement. Jodi's works often include self-designed sculptures and apparatus, interactive video, dance, cirque-nouveau, and visual art to create a full sensory experience. The creation of each new work begins with scientific inquiry in which the dancers and choreographer collaborate directly with the leading scientific minds.
Future Species[edit]
Future Species (1998) was one of Jodi's first works with Capacitor. This production included elaborate costumes emblazoned with electrical wiring which provided a visual map of the energy coursing through all of us. The goal of this work is to break down personal identities whether they be racial or ethnic. By trading ideas and our respective cultural ideas we have the potential to create a more highly developed future species [2].
Flux Capacitor[edit]
Flux Capacitor premiered in 1999. The work delves into the possibilities of the future and the next generation.
Within Outer Spaces[edit]
Within Outer Spaces (2000) is the story, Jodi says, of earth's migration from a cosmic concept to the big ball we know and love. Seven performers lead your journey through the creation of the planets, the evolution of living things and the appearance of man [3]. To tell this story the company made use of their new think-tank, the Capacitor Lab. Here Jodi and the dancers met with leading local astronomers and philosophers who provided information to mold and inspire the work [4]. The show includes aerial, acrobatics, juggling, trampoline bouncing and culminates in a duet between a man and a woman attached by bungee cords [5].
Avatars[edit]
In 2002 Jodi created a work that revolved around the voyage of five mythical characters in a video-game style universe. Avatars is composed of athletic combat sequences and video projections [2].
Digging in the Dark[edit]
Digging in the Dark premiered in 2004. This work explores the geography of the planet by uniting the geophysical mapping of the hidden layers below the Earth's surface with the terrain of the human mind [2].
Biome[edit]
Biome (2007) is "A corporal, visual and audio exploration of desire and yearning in the forest canopy" [6]. Jodi and the company traveled to the Monteverde Cloud forest of Costa Rica in 2006 to study the canopy and the wildlife that interacts there. The combination of this exploration and the knowledge of leading scientific adviser, Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, Capacitor created a corporal, visual, and audio experience of the great interconnected web within the forest [7]. The scientific data collected was critical in creating an informative and yet poetic work that urges the preservation of this mystic and intricate environment.
The Perfect Flower[edit]
In 2009 Jodi and her company utilized the Capacitor Lab once again to collaborate with the scientists at California Academy of Sciences as well as blacksmith/artist Mark Nichols, fashion designer Kimie Sako, composer Noah Thorp, and musician Kristina Forester to create The Perfect Flower. The end result was a study in the sexuality and self-sufficiency of flowers. A perfect flower is one that is equipped with both female and male reproductive structures and have the ability to self-pollinate [8].
Okeanos[edit]
Okeanos premiered in 2011. It is a an ocean sensory immersion project that began with the desire to both educate and inspire awe in the audience. Through the collaboration of dancers, cirque artists, leading marine biologists, oceanographers, filmmakers, and composers Capacitor created a multidisciplinary portrait of the ocean. The ocean provides us with food, oxygen, water, new medicine, as well as inspiration. However, the growing human population is presenting a strain on those important resources. Okeanos includes RJ Muna's video art, underwater cinematography by David Hannan, structural design by Jodi Lomask, sound composition by EO, Beats Antique, edIT, and Tipper, vocalizations by Anka Draugelates, violin by Julia Ogrydziak, and costumes by Kimie Sako & Becky Karthage. The combined effects of these artist creates an environment where the audience can fall in love with the ocean. Dr. Sylvia Earle and Dr. Tierney Thys narrate throughout the performance to offer a scientific view-point along side the beauty represented through the visual and performance aspects.
The work received an overwhelming amount of support even before the premiere in April of 2012. Prior to debuting the work Capacitor hosted TEDxSF, National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence, and the BLUMiND Summit. In the following months Speakers presented talks such as Andy Sharpless (Oceana.org), Patri Friedman(Seasteading Institute), Jenefer Palmer (OSEA), Edward T. Lu (Liquid Robotics), Casson Trenor, Amos Nachoum (Big Animal Expeditions), Chris Welsh (cofounder, Virgin Oceanic--Explorations of the deepest parts of the ocean basins), Brett Hobson (designer of state-of-the-art AUVs and ROVs from the globally acclaimed Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute MBARI), Erika Montague (expedition member, Deep Challenge - Jim Cameron's full ocean depth expedition to the Challenger Deep), Luke Beatman (Liquid Robotics engineer for the record-breaking PacX wave gliders), Sterling Zumbrunn (world renowned underwater photographer and underwater digital imagery guru, Backscatter). MC Dr. Tierney Thys (Nat Geo Explorer), Dr. Sylvia Earle, David de Rothschild (Plastiki), Jenifer Austin (Google Ocean), and Chef Barton Seaver (Cod and Country), Dr. Wallace J Nichols (BLUEMiND), Farhana Hug (browngirlsurf.com), Dr G (greensteininstitute.com), Amir Vokshoor (I.N.I. Foundation), and Sarah Kornfeld (mindandocean.org).
References[edit]
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