Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - 10:50 AM

OOS 21-9: Moving in partnership: Dancer-initiated science communication

Jodi Lomask, Capacitor Performance, Inc.

Both artists and scientists seek to make inspired and substantial work. Through my performance company, Capacitor, I have designed a novel conceptual space  - “the Capacitor Lab” - where artists and scientists exchange ideas and information about a concept that underlies my next performance piece. In 1999, I invited astronomers to advise my company on Earth's relationship to outer space. The resulting show toured 18 cities. In 2004, we invited geophysicists into the dance studio to advise us about the layers of the Earth, which resulted in a performance with long runs and helped our participating scientists see their own work in a new light. In 2006, we invited an ecologist to the Monteverde Cloud forest to advise us on the on the quiet interactions among animals and plants in the forest, from which the performance "Biome" has developed, to premiere in 2007. Our goal is for these events is to draw attention to issues of wild spaces and conservation, and demonstrate why pristine biomes are important to human understanding of life, communication, cooperation, and survival.  The effectiveness of our process is reflected primarily by the success of our performances, and by verbal and written responses of participating scientists.  I have found these processes keep me inspired to create work that evolves, rather than reproducing itself. For scientists who care about reaching people outside of their field, performers can convey their message by “shining a light” on their topic for the media. Thus, dancers and scientists are symbiotically mutualistic.