School of Theatre and Dance presents “Vote: Antidote to Apathy” dance performance

February 19, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida School of Theatre and Dance and The Florida MOD Project will present “Vote: Antidote to Apathy” Feb. 23 through March 4 at the Nadine McGuire Pavilion on the University of Florida campus.

“Vote: Antidote to Apathy” features a creative and unique style of movements brimming with energy and imagination.

The dance highlights current events such as the war in Iraq and other political issues through a dazzling display of contrasts, improvisations and symbolic dances set to music featuring the band FolkJam99 and Price Johnston.

“This will not be your ordinary performance,” said Director Kelly Drummond Cawthon, associate professor in the School of Theatre and Dance in the College of Fine Arts. “The audience will be entering a theater of action, responsibility and consequence.”

Throughout the evening, audience members will be asked to vote on what performances they will, and will not see, empowering them to create and change the activity of the evening.

The showcase is produced in Dance Studio G-06 and the Black Box Theatre, both in the Nadine McGuire Pavilion. From the start, the audience members become immediately involved when they are asked to choose a space to view the show.

The Black Box Theatre will offer a less-conventional design with no seating, while the Dance Studio will offer a more clear and pure design, with traditional sit-down seating.

A third option is to view the performance in the “Apathy Lounge,” which is in the hall between the two arenas. There, the audience members can choose to watch both shows on televisions set up in the lobby. In the “Apathy Lounge,” audience members will not be able to interact in the voting process, but can expect lobbyists to be persuading and informing them of their available choices of venues.

Inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and Gandhi, this year’s dancers and choreographers hope to spread self-awareness about choices and decisions, and the effect that doing something or nothing at all can have on the world.

“If we have one or two light bulbs go off, we’ve done our job,” Cawthon says.

The Alachua County Supervisor of Elections will be at the performances to register audience members to vote and will have the new electronic voting booths on hand for individuals to try.

Choreographers featured in the production include Christina Briggs and Edward Winslow of Incidents Physical Theatre, professors Neta Pulvemacher and Shane O’Hara, Shapiro and Smith Dance Company, the People’s Touring Project, as well as students from the University of Florida.

“Vote: Antidote to Apathy” will be produced Feb. 23-24, Feb. 27-28 and March 1-3. Weeknight and Saturday performances are at 8 p.m., and Sunday performances are at 2 p.m.

Reserved tickets for the show are $9 for students, faculty, staff and senior citizens with a valid ID, and $13 for the general public. For tickets and information, call the University Box Office at 352-392-1653 or reserve tickets online at www.ticketmaster.com.