Friday, December 6,1963 University Daily Kansan
Page 7
Dancers Relive History in Performance
EASY DOES IT—Danny Johnson applies the final touches of makeup to his wife, Ellen. Both are seniors from Jamaica, New York.
ONE, TWO, ONE TWO—The Tau Sigma cast performs the final ritual before the dance. Each member stretches and twists to loosen tense muscles.
STONE AGE—The show is on! After all the hours of preparation, the dancers begin their enactment of the evolution of the dance with a scene in a Stone Age era.
By Charles Corcoran
The history of mankind sprang to life through dance last night.
Dressed in vibrant colors and accompanied by primitive, medieval and modern rhythms, members of Tau Sigma national honorary dance fraternity traced the history of the dance form from the Stone Age to modern times.
Unencumbered by elaborate costumes, the dancers in leotards and tights, brought the historical scenes to life.
The same dance concert, which will be performed Saturday, January 11, in the University Theatre in Murphy Hall, was held in the Lawrence Central Junior High School auditorium. The audience of 100 people applauded enthusiastically to the nine scenes of dancing. At several points during the performance, the audience interrupted the dancers to clap for a particular soloist or group.
The first scene entitled "Prelude to Society" pictured prehistoric men battling one another with axes. The dancers' motions were jerky and crude. An irregular drum beat stirred them as the dancing became more frenzied. Suddenly, the drum stopped and the prehistoric men saw the futility of their fight. A cooperative society was born.
Following scenes traced man's progress and the development of
'Sweet Dreams Mirror Stress'
Bv Delos Smith
NEW YORK — (UPI) — Science's newest knowledge of dreaming is that people who have "something on their minds" when they go to bed may well be mentally wrestling with that "something" throughout their night of sleeping.
Many a sleeper upon awakening in the morning has suspected no less, because of his sense of mental fatigue. Three scientists have now backed up that suspicion with facts from experiments with men and women who spent nights in their laboratory in the interest of science.
the dance through Egypt's golden age, the years of feudal state, and the Renaissance. In each succeeding scene the dancers appeared lithe and limber as they displayed
They slept these nights with headphones on their ears and two sets of electrodes fastened to their heads. One set recorded their brain wave patterns, the other the movements of their eyes, both continuously through the eight hours usually considered a night's sleep.
LIMBERING UP—Sharon Herowitz, Overland Park freshman, loosens up for her part as queen in an Egyptian snake dance.
control and mastery of body movements.
Tracing basic patterns of ballet, four women and two men danced in a scene entitled "Pas de Six." The dancers recreated the period in French history when the aristocracy found dancing too difficult and strenuous and had hired professional performers to dance for them. Thus, the classic ballet was born.
The modern period of the dance offered a variety of forms. Folk dances stemming from the American pioneer spirit inspired a "Hoedown" scene.
Impressionism and expressionism in modern times led the dancers to five scenes in which their bodies portrayed their emotions. Bonnie Butler, Shawnee Mission sophomore, and Sharon Herowitz, Overland Park freshman, portrayed two people struggling for freedom in a scene entitled "Release." Miss Herowitz escaped from the confines of four wooden barriers into the "outer world," only to turn and see Miss Butler falling back into the bounds of confinement.
The closing dance of the concert was choreographed and directed by a 15-year-old Lawrence High School sophomore, Alex Brown. He also composed the jazz accompaniment.
According to Brown the dance was based on the so-called "Twentieth Century Jazz" of Jerome Robbins. Fourteen members of Tau Sigma danced to the tense strains of Brown's music and the concert ended—after three curtain calls.
LONNIE MACK
OAK LODGE PRESENTS
Saturday, Dec. 7.
8:30 to 12:30
COME AND DANCE TO LONNIE MACK!
15 MILES SOUTH OF LAWRENCE
HIWAY 59
as in the past . .
special price to sororities and fraternities.
Dairy Queen
offers for the 5th year a selection of select
Christmas Trees
Douglas Fir - Scotch Pine - Austrian Pine
Dairy Queen
1835 Massachusetts Lawrence