ENTERTAINMENT
The University Daily KANSAN
Page 6
October 7,1983
Mike Manley/SPECIAL TO THE KANSAN
Members of the Kansas University Dance Company perform a parody of the Nutcracker Suite ballet titled "Nutcracker Sour." The dance will be performed this weekend in the company's first performance of the semester.
Mike Manlev/SPECIAL TO THE KANSAN
Kansas University Dance Company performers dance to a composition written by Edward Mattila, professor of music, titled "Movements for Computer Dancers." The dance will be performed this weekend at the company's first performance.
Dance company program blends the arts
By PAMELA THOMPSON
Staff Reporter
Dancers dressed in brightly colored costumes move down the theatre aisles towards a stage that is covered with helium balloons. They bounce balls and dance to the buoyant sounds of the music.
The dancers are members of the Kansas University Dance Company and they will perform the dance and several others
Janet Hamburg, associate professor of dance and co-director of the dance company, said the group's opening program of the season would merge and enhance the sense of texture, change and quality in the arts.
- "Modern dance has used the modern arts throughout Hamburg. Hamburg said, 'It’s important that the arts are not reduced to the spectacle of contemporary art.'"
THE PERFORMANCE IS a departure from the traditional character of modern dance because it encourages collaboration in the performing arts, she said. The dancers have taken on the challenge to develop a programming program to represent this fusion of the contemporary arts.
The merging of these contemporary elements such as sculpture, technology, music, literature, drama and painting
In an Oct. 2 New York Times article, music critic Jack Anderson said that choreography might speed a listener's appreciation of new music, since it, in a sense, constituted an interpretation and analysis of the score.
Using the original musical score by Edward Mattila, professor of music. Hamburg will direct the circus-like piece
Hamburg said the company of 25 student and guest choreographer-dancers had been experimenting with movements "for an unstable environment" by creating different dances with physical structures both inside and outside of their natural environments. An unstable environment is one that is continually moving and changing.
"THE BALLS AND balloons were a fun idea that brings life to the music you think comes out of a machine or a computer," Karla Flotta, Lawrence gamer dancer, said.
called "Movements for Computer and Dancers," which offsets the interpretation of contemporary technology with playful props and energetic movements.
Hamburg's work with environmental choreography at KU, which involves dance movements performed in nontraditional spaces, has given her a sense of collaboration between dance and architecture, she said.
A white vinyl soft sculpture by Kansas City artist Jean Van Harlingen, which has been called by many members of the company "the big moon walk," will be the highlight of the "Inflatable Sculpture Dance."
Van Harlingen's 36-by-24-by-11-foot inflatable sculpture still proved to be a challenge to choreograph dances for, Hamburg said, because "it worked best as a dance in the public. But it was a prop. It gives a sense that new movement was just created."
THE CHANGING AIR pressure from off-stage motors causes the surface of the sculpture to vary from soft to firm, and forces the dancers to constantly modify their movements, causing them to sway. As the pillows from the sculpture add their own whistling sounds.
Allison Baker, Lawrence graduate student, said that
dancing on the trampoline-like surface was not difficult "as long as you can balance."
"I get my cues from the degree at which the sculpture is inflated." Baker said.
Because the sculpture was also "fun to bounce on," she said that the dancers were allowed to jump on the sculpture the first five minutes of every practice to get it out of their systems.
Visual art will also be the focus of the premier performance in two parts of an unfinished four-part dance called "Sunflowers" that was choreographed by dance faculty member and co-director of the program, Joan Stone.
"JOAN WAS INSPIRED by Vincent van Gogh's paintings of sunflowers which symbolize a yearning for community, as well as by those grown in Kansas," said the choreographer's Harris Stone, associate professor of architecture and urban design.
Inspired by the parody inherent in the humorous plight of the amateur small town ballet, Flott choreographed a piece called "Nutracker Sour," which was popularly received at last spring's dance concert concerts.
"The piece is a parody of a ballet production that developed into a comedy." Flott said. "The corps of dancers have the right costumes, music and lighting, but they just don't have the technique."
Other pieces performed in the hour-and-a-half program include, "Middleman's Ballad," a solo choreographed and performed by Douglas McMinimy, New York City junior, which incorporates sections of a poem by Bertolt Brecht, and a choreography by Alison Lennoir, Kansas City, Kan., guest dancer, and explores the relationship between dance movements and baroque music.
Japanese music to be performed by native artists
By the Kansan Staff
Of course, some Japanese artists have preserved this music and the University of Kansas Concert Music Series and its Department of East Asian Studies and Culture will bring three musicians to its campus for a performance tonight.
But Japan is a country with a unique history of traditional music — sensitive, melodic music that was played on instruments called the koto, the shamisen, and the shakuhachi.
Today's popular music in Japan does not differ much from the Top 40 sounds here in the United States. Everything from the rock group Toto to the pop group Kanye West blast from the radios of Japanese teen-agers.
The Kurosawa Koto Ensemble, the three-
member group, will perform at 8 p.m. at the
Kurosawa Guild Theater on Friday.
"It has become increasingly difficult to finance events, he said. "Last year we got nothing because of cutbacks, but this year the financing is a little better."
ANDREW TSUBAKI, chairman of the department of East Asian studies and culture, said that the strength of the ensemble was in the use of Japanese music and contemporary Japanese music it performed.
This is the first time in two years the department has co-sponsored a Japanese course.
The Kurosawa ensemble achieved critical acclaim for its 1980 U.S. concert tour.
A husband and wife team, Kazuo and Chikako Kurosawa, lead the ensemble with their performances on the koto. Kazuo plays a 13 and 17 string koto, and Chikako plays the 20 string koto.
A musician plucks the koto with a plectra on the thumb and two fingers on the right hand. The left hand adjusts the pitches of a string and the tuning of a bridge.
The newer forms of the koto, which have 17 and 20 strings, are unusually large and versatile.
He said that Kazuo Kurosawa was noted not only for playing the koto, but for making them as
The second principal instrument in the Kurosawa Koto Ensemble is the shamisen, which has a square base. The shamisen has three strings, long neck Chikako Kurosawa plays this and the koto.
MOVIE REVIEWS
Rating System
Beeyond the Limit
bad
True to B movie form, this film is poorly written and sloppily directed. And it is supposed to take place in Argentina. Do all of the people in Argentina really speak English?
No, folks, the B movie is not dead. It is alive and showing downtown as a real stinker titled "Beyond the Limit." It offers Michael Caine and Richard Gere. And that's all it offers.
About half-way through this one you ask yourself, "So, who cares?" about either the plot or the characters. It's a superficial story about superficial people.
There's this guy, see, this British "honorary consul" who is of no real value to anyone and winds up becoming a pawn in a political chess game.
Of course, there's this other guy — this doctor. He's half British and half Paraguayan. He just happens to become a terrorist after, of course, being killed by the other guy's wife. It's all a perfect cliche.
In one scene Michael Caine, playing the kidnapped and cuckolded pseudo-diplomat, tries to escape his captors and is shot as he runs away. He fights with arms and arches his back. It's all very dramatic.
Graham Greene has been insulted by this translation of his novel "The Honorary Consul." Adapted by Christopher Hampton, this is a cheap imitation of "Missing" that falls far short of being a movie worth releasing, or for that matter, far short of being a movie worth making.
SPARE TIME
The deadline for turning in Spare Time items is 4 p.m. Wednesday for Friday's paper and 4 p.m. Thursday for Monday's paper. All events should be open to the public.
LAWRENCE
REGION
sented at 7:30 p.m. today and tomorrow, and 3 p.
m. Sunday in the Tonganoo High School
"THE GAZERO," the fall production of the Tonganoxo Community Theatre will be pre-
THE 2ND ANNUAL Jazz Picnic of the Women's Jazz Festival will be from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. Sunday at Garrison's Hideaway in southern Kansas City, Mo., just off I-435.
AIR SUPPLY WILL, perform Tuesday night at the Starlight Theatre.
ON CAMPUS
THE KUROSAWA KOTO Ensemble from Japan will perform at the University of Kansas at 8 p.m. today in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphvh Hall.
THE THIRD WORLD reggae band will
perform at p.m. today in Hoch Auditorium.
Become a teacher by KLZH 106 and
Student Union Activities.
THE KANSAS University Dance Company will perform an inflatable sculpture dance at 8 p.m. tomorrow and 2 p.m. Sunday in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall.
THE KU FOLK Dance Club will sponsor free square dancing from 7:30 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. on the second floor drill deck of the Military Science building.
SUA WILL SPONSON a chess tournament in the Frank R. Burge Union tomorrow and SSA will host an opening round.
THE CHAMBER MUSIC Society of Lincoln Center will attend at 3:30 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Monday at the Swarthout Reception Hall.
THE NATURAL HISTORY Museum will sponsor a workshop from 9 a.m. until noon tomorrow titled "Treasures or Trash?" for people aged 8 to adult.
Chamber Music Society will perform 2 concerts in Swarthout Recital Hall
By PHIL ENGLISH Staff Reporter
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, which has been called the "musical success story of the generation," will give two performances at the University of Kansas Sunday and
The composition, which is titled "Winter Pages," has been commissioned by the society but is not often performed. The work of music is one of the seasons as they change from one to another.
The performance will feature a rare composition combining violin, cellar, clarinet, bassoon
Gervase de Pever
"THEY'RE A WONDERFUL group and they can give the audience an awful lot of entertainment and knowledge from their wide repertoire." he said.
Because the group has 14 permanent members and can tour extensively, Hoag said he thought it would return to the University next year for another performance.
Robert E. Foster, director of bands at KU, said, "Having the group perform on campus is wonderful. It enhances the whole artistic atmosphere and is a tremendous resource for the
Charles Hoag, conductor of the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, said the Lincoln Center group was one of the brightest up-and-coming young groups around.
BY BERKE BREATHED
The visit is also a learning experience for music students, he said.
"You can learn about good music from good musicians and these people are first-rate
THE SUNDAY CONCERT will feature works by Beethoven and Dvorak and Saturday's performance will feature Mendelssohn, Brahms and Ravel.
The Chamber Music Society was established in 1969 by William Schuman, former president of the Lincoln Center, to help create new excitement in chamber music performance.
In its 14-year history, the Chamber Music
Society has given more than 750 concerts. And as the official performing organization of Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, it has sold out all 35 concerts in its yearly subscription series.
Of the many members of the group, only six will perform for the society's KU concert. Charles Wadsworth is the musical director, pianist and harpsichordist. Other performers include Joan Voss and the clarinet; Loren Glickman basson; Ida Kaufiant, guest violinist and Leslie Parnas, cella-
BLOOM COUNTY
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