BO_0930

Page 26

.?A@ 612.@

?>??8=½ B><4 2>A= K Plus may be many things, but serious they are not.

7DC27 0G8;A>3 ?7>C>6A0?7H

BWPZT H^da 6a^^eT CWP]V Local dance company K Plus and the Electrolytes have arrived—you know, almost By Cassandra Landry

?

erforming with a local dance company can be like volunteering at the food shelter, performing in a third-grade recital and busking on some big city street, all at the same time. The pay is nonexistent, the only people in the audience seem to be Mom and Dad, and venues are hard to come by. At the end of the day, there better be a good, strong passion behind the dance. New dance company K Plus and the Electrolytes have the passion part down. “My whole intention with it from the very beginning has been to have it be a nonprofit organization,� group founder Kaci Tipton says as she settles into a wrought-iron chair outside Andy’s Market in Sebastopol. She has a small build but radiates a punch of energy; half of her face is hidden behind pink sunglasses and the other half is taken up by a huge smile. She rifles through her fuzzy, stuffedanimal purse and triumphantly comes up with a K Plus and the Electrolytes button. “The company is kind of a product to generate awareness and money to bring food and medicine to people around the world and in our community,� she continues. The group has been making the

26

07.29.09-08.04.09

THE BOHEMIAN

performance rounds this summer with appearances at the Harmony Festival and activism benefits all over the county. “Audiences are giving us great feedback,� Tipton says. “We have so much fun, and we just bring this buzz of energy wherever we go.� The Electrolytes evoke a feeling not unlike one might have felt while watching the San Francisco Mime Troupe during the 1960s: artistic talent wrapped up in a circuslike package with an activist f lair. “We definitely fit in our own kind of box in the dance community,� she says. “We’re more like a circus. We’re not just dancing for the sake of dancing. We want to travel around the world and perform at orphanages and just spread joy.� The dance scene in the North Bay, much like other small-town artistic centers, is constantly subject to abandonment; many talented dancers often pack up and move to L.A. or San Francisco where companies are more successful and there are monthly checks. Tipton agrees that by staying in the area, the Electrolytes are trying to do their part for the arts. “We’re kind of taking it slow for now. We can’t really blow up huge quite yet,� she adds, mentioning her busy schedule as a reason for

the restraint. Tipton is a 33-year-old nursing student at the Santa Rosa Junior College with her own healing practice, Full Spectrum Healing Arts. Though she is immersed in Western medicine, she says her interests lie more toward the Eastern practice of Ayurveda. Not unsurprisingly, this fusion of West meets East can also be found in her dance; she has spent time with a Bollywood dance troupe and several contemporary companies over the years. After a semester without dance, she decided to take matters into her own hands rather than seek out a company that would fit her schedule. She passed around f lyers, and the first rehearsal for K Plus and the Electrolytes was held in September of 2008. When asked to define the company’s style, Tipton grins and says that she has been considering how to explain it for a while. “That is the question,â€? she says. “It’s so hard to do. We need to come up with a new word for it. We have elements of every dance I’ve ever done in my life.â€? Since Tipton has danced for about 25 years, this includes a host of inf luences: Bollywood to jazz, contemporary modern to hip-hop. “I like to describe it as risquĂŠ hilarity. That

Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.