“se -3=

Dr. Allen--Thanks a lot, Alice, Thet certainly clears that un for me. But T see
Tileie Fovler over there with her fidgety fect, ready to break into a
tap rhythm. Let's sive her « chanee.

Tildie Fowler- tap (dance.

Applause.

Dr. Allen--That's the acme of rhythm, Tildie. Thenk you very much. But setting
back to our disucssion = I gan appreciate your fine enthusiasm, but it cer-
tainly takes a grect teal mre than enthusiasm to produce such fine Tau
Sigma shows on the campus, co%esn't it, Miss Dunkel?

Dunk] --~ Yes, Indeed it does. It takes a completely unified Group imbued with a
Single purpose. Which brines to mind some ¢ramatic moments in cutting
on dance performances. The audiences is never aware of the many anusing
and sometimes painful situations that accompany every performence back
stage. One, for instance, that I shall never forget, occurred during a
recital thet Tau Sigma gave several years azo. My brother Jne was doing
an Incian dagger dmmce in which he had to throw a dagger into the floor
and dance around it. All went well in rehearsal until the last few days
before the performance when for some unaccountable reason, the dagger
always refused to stick. Insteae@ of cutting the floor with a nice clean
thwack, it went clattering ell over the pla@e with a hollow futility that
entirely ruined the dramatic effect of the @mce. Tos mnke 4 long story
short, not only Joe but the entire company Ceveloped a nhobia about thet
dagger, And the nisht of the »erformeance as it cume time for this dence
everyone who wns not echenging for the next number was massed in the wings
focusing on the snot where the dagger wes to be thrown. The music started.
Joe took his intmductory stens - and - the - dazeer + stuck! Immediately
back stage pentemoniun reigned, as relayed from line to line and back int?
the dressing rooms were the whisvers, "It stuck"! TI esulé@ not help being
mildly anxious myself m¢ showed my relicf with the rest of them. That
show croved to be one of the best thet welinve ever done, and I am con-
vineed tint thehazardof that dreeger ruinin: the performance welded that
group inte a unity of rurrose which mae it nossible for them to surnass
themselves, This certainly is comparable to the loyalty developed by a
team working together through a season, Haven't you ever been conscirus
of these forces during your exneriences in performances, Alice?

She rbon-- es, I certainly heve. Tense moment No. 1 still remains is a nightmare.
This hanpened during a verformance in New York last year. Theatricel pro-
erams in New York have a slapdash backstage management all their own, ane
if it were not for the rroup solicerity Aeveloved Auring long rehearsal
periocs together, many numbers would never -roject aeross the footlights.
It s0 haprened that the stage hands at this particular theatre were - well
~ intoxicated that nicht. Te also happened to be doing a number which
used platforms which hed to be fitted together in one particuler way, and
only thet way. We had snent hours in rehearsals ao that we could lean,
jump and run on and over these vletforms with out looking at our feet.

The staze-was set - we had put the pletforms 2n ourselves to be sure that
they were safe and retired to the wings to wait. The music started, when
to our horror we saw one of the stage hands readjusting the platforms to
suit himself. The curtains opened and there was nothing to do but start
the cance, each sirl possessed with but one thought - wheat if I should
fall; because you know, some reonle ean fall and pick daisies, and others
just - fall.