Seeing Komansé Dance Theater’s Skid on Friday was my first time in the Ferst Center since its auditorium was renovated. It’s Sunday and my back still hasn’t fully recovered from the awful new seats. The seat-backs tilt forward somewhere around 10-15°. What animal are those even designed for? Definitely not human and definitely not someone with a lower back problem like mine. The center aisle has been done away with and replaced with two aisles separating three seating sections, which is nice since now there are actually seats in the middle of the auditorium. Gone, too, are the bright safety lights that were on the steps in that middle aisle that would get in your eye if you sat within 5 or so seats of the aisle. They’ve been replaced by bright, white lights in the sides of the seats on either side of the aisles that are directed out instead of down so that now you get to enjoy having bright lights in your peripheral vision no matter where you sit. I was in row F, which is the first terraced row and a half-step above E. I thought it was a good height and would afford me a good view of the stage even if a six-foot tall person sat in front of me. Row G is two steps above F, so if you’re really short you may want to sit there. Or you may want to see if they’ll let you stand to avoid having the seat try to push you into a poor and painful posture. I have two more things on my calendar for the Ferst this season: I’ll be taking a lumbar pillow with me to the next one and if that fails to help me then I may just be done with the venue all together. Although I’ve actually been going there more often in recent years, that’s mostly been because of favorable scheduling as the programming has become less and less interesting to me in recent seasons.
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