Okeanos Premiere

Okeanos is a multidisciplinary portrait of the ocean as body, environment, resource, metaphor, and force. It is a performance to inspire and educate audiences about the ocean and connect them directly to ocean conservation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7hXD8_n3GM

Okeanos features the distinctive artistic and technical components that Capacitor has become known for – inventive and articulated dance vocabulary, contemporary circus acts, abstract structures that mirror nature, poetic integration of audio/video/media forms, sculptural costumes, scientifically supported content, and conservation partnerships.

PRESHOW PROGRAMS

Thursday 5pm - April 12th TEDxSF presents Big Blue
[tickets: tedxsf.org] Andy Sharpless (Oceana.org), Seasteading Institute, Casson Trenor (Sustainable Sushi), Roz Savage (Ocean Rower), Jenefer Palmer (OSEA), Amos Nachoum (Big Animal Expeditions) & more. MC Deborah Bassett (Sea Shepherd)

Friday 6pm - April 13th Diving into Deep Sea Technology
Chris Welsh (Virgin Oceanic), Brett Hobson (MBARI), and Erika Montague (Liquid Robotics). MC Dr Tierney Thys (Nat Geo Explorer)

Saturday 6pm - April 14th Ocean Explorers
National Geographic presents Dr Sylvia Earle, David de Rothschild (Plastiki), Jenifer Austin (Google Ocean), and Barton Seaver (Cod and Country). MC Dr Tierney Thys (Nat Geo Explorer)

Sunday 6pm - April 15th BLUEMiND presents Your Mind On Blue
Dr. Wallace J Nichols (BLUEMiND), Dr.G (greensteininstitute.com), Farhana Huq (browngirlsurf.com) & more. MC Sarah Kornfeld (BLUEMiND)

Artistic director Jodi Lomask went diving in a coral restoration site in Bali and in Monterrey’s kelp forests to see two of the most vital biomes in the sea. She spent six months meeting with marine biologists and oceanographers at the California Academy of Sciences to develop a full and current understanding of ocean biology. She surfed the warm and the cold waters to feel the pulse and variation of the ocean’s flow.

This effort to understand both the science and the spirit of the ocean led her to two major conclusions. The ocean is an integral part of our lives: we derive food from it, breathe the oxygen produced in it, drink the water that cycles through it. Yet this essential resource is threatened by growing human demands. What once felt vast, endless, and overwhelmingly deep is now vulnerable to our increasingly destructive ways of living.

Fort Mason Center is co-presenting the premiere of Okeanos on April 12 – 15, 2012 in their 30,000 square ft Herbst Pavilion. The 60-minute performance will take place within a video environment constructed of two 25’ wide scrims. Capacitors’ four dancers and four circus artists perform within the projection space. Underwater footage of dancers, sea life and constructed video effects will be projected over the live performers and aerial apparatus. Vocal improvisations performed in conjunction with recordings of whale songs and interviews with scientific advisors Dr. Sylvia Earle and Dr. Tierney Thys punctuate the electronic sound score.

Ocean Solutions Café

To harness the momentum Okeanos creates, the show will be followed by an “Ocean Solutions Café.” The Café is an interactive after show reception with booths sponsored by ocean conservation groups. By partnering with ocean conservation groups, Okeanos is an alternative vehicle for environmental communications – reinvigorating conservationists and inspiring the general public to support ocean vitality through performance. The café also presents an opportunity for those on the front lines of ocean conservation to collaborate and extend their networks.

e-mail florence [at] capacitor.org for questions or if you are interested in volunteering or contributing to this event!