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University Daily Kansan, March 22, 1983
Entertainment
Dance troupe shows comedy beauty through movement
By JOHNNIE BETH FISCUS Staff Reporter
Dance can be not only beautiful and elegant, but it can also be funny and comical, as the Susan Warden Dancers will demonstrate Friday.
They will perform at 8 o.m. in Robinson Center.
Music for the show ranges from classical to jazz. The program includes a spoof called "Kowbies," "Birdland," a dance performed by three members; and "Barfles," a humorous love duel, said Susan Warden, artistic director (or producer).
the company.
Tau Sigma, KU's student dance organization, and the Kansas Arts Commission are sponsoring the performance by the Manhattan, Kan., group.
The performance will open with an elegant quartet called "Tapestry." It is choreographed to a Baroque oboe concerto, Warden said.
IN "BITTER ROOT," dancers display their dramatic abilities. It is a collaboration of words, music and dance featuring the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, evoking images of the moon, the sea and children, Ward said.
"Trio," Warden's latest work, includes a series of complex patterns and fast-paced precision group work, she said.
The first section of "Trio" features three dancers in sweeping, liquid movements. Warden said.
In the second section, three more dancers join in and pick up the pace.
Friday night's dance program will be presented informally, and each work will be preceded by a brief introduction.
WARDEN SAID she prefers to perform in the Midwest.
"The Midwestern audiences have a fresh outlook on dance; they have very few preconceptions about dance."
Besides working with the dance company, Warden also is a dance instructor at Kansas State University.
"I've always loved to travel and I was tired of school, so when I was offered the job I accepted, thinking I'd teach for two years, risking my life in the Midwest, and then escape back to the East Coast," she said.
But now she says that she is "hooked" on the Midwest and that the move was worth the risk.
"SINCE MY CHOREOGRAPHY is centered on a fairly traditional, humanistic approach to dance, my work is highly accessible for this region. Also, I am able to live a lifestyle that can encompass my broad interests and needs."
Warden said she did not like the constant pressure that sometimes was found in an East Coast environment.
*Patience is a critical element in artistic development. The Midwest gives me the setting to be patient, to wait for what is good and true in my work as a choreographer and as an educator.*
"RIGHT NOW, I find that dance as an art offers a unique outlet for my creative and physical energies. Dance requires passion, discipline, commitment and love — A gruelling life, but always satisfying," she said.
Tickets for the performance are available at the KU Dance Office for $3.50 or in room 240 of Robinson Center on the night of the performance.
The Susan Warden Dancers, shown performing their dance, "Tapestry," find the Midwest open-minded and receptive to their humanistic approach to dance.
which encompasses both modern and classical styles. The group will perform at 8 p.m. Friday in Robinson Center.
Spencer photo exhibit shows different views of Kansas
By LADONNA LONGSTREET
Staff Reporter
Two entirely different views of Kansas — from prairie grass and parades to buffalo mud and mud wrestling — await viewers of "Photographs From Kansas," a new exhibit in the Spencer Art Museum.
The exhibit, which opens at 9:00 a.m. Saturday, will feature the diverse work of nationally known photographers Terry
"I like the unification of them being Kansas photographers and coming up with such different bodies of work." Thomas Southall, curator of the museum, said.
"Evans' work is really a celebration of the virgin, untouched prairie," he said. Her photos do not portray any people.
Commonly published pictures of Kansas show fields of waving wheat or sunflowers, which are clichés, Southall said, but Evans' work goes beyond that to explore the variety of growth in unplowed land.
The photos by Evans, a former KU student now living in salina, study the prairie in different lights and seasons and
tend to use it as a backdrop.
Some of Evans' photos are from eye level; others are arial.
views. One of the air shots reveals complex, zig-zag streams as they wind together. The close-ups include a snake curled in the grass, small bunches of wild flowers and the hide of a living buffalo.
Photographing the prairie is difficult because it is so immense, Southall said. Evans' approach is almost scientific, yet artistic in portraying the details of the expanse.
In 1974, Evans participated in an exhibit called "No Mountains in the Way" at the University of Kansas, Carol Shankel, public information coordinator at the museum, said that Evans' work then featured people living on farms.
"Most of her photographs at that time were farm scenes," she said. "She has changed her emphasis considerably since
Southall said, "In contrast to Evans' virgin paiirie, Iverson has concentrated his photography on the life and festivities of rural Kansas. His photographs document quiet times and moments of great excitement and celebration."
When Iversen, a KU associate professor of design, first came to Kansas in 1974 from Rhode Island, he was impressed by unusual small town festivities, like pony-paws, Southland wine exhibitions experienced such a sense of community or togetherness, he said.
"It's a whole world going on that's not newsworthy, not dramatic," he said. "He's not trying to make the scenes more dramatic than they are."
Iversen's photographs, which are black and white, reveal the feeling around an incident, he said. It might be an insignificant moment in time, but his capturing it in still life makes it significant.
He is not criticizing or praising the people, who form the majority of his work, Soutall said. Nor is he trying to conclusively document their lives. He is recording people in a kind of fun at parades, fairs, rodeos and demolition derbies.
One print captures forever the strained moment when one rider swims himself from the back of a bucking bronco to safety behind a pick-up rider. The mens' intense faces as well as white-eyed staring horses were frozen by Iversen's camaraderie.
In another photo, a proud father escorts his daughter in a homecoming parade. The moment is not of major importance to anyone but them, but the girl's excitement shines as she tightly grasps her father's hands.
Southall estimated that more than a 1,000 people would see the show of 66 prints. He said that he hoped it would become a traveling exhibit.
You pick the Oscars
In a weaky, reckless gesture of magnanimity, the University Daily Kansan is sponsoring its first and probably last "You Pick'em: The Oscars Competition."
THE PRIZE: A pocketful of jack amounting to the ornatee's sum of $50.
ENTERING THE CONTEST: On this page in the March 25th Kanan, you will find a list of 16 Academy Award categories. Pick your favorites, one to a category. Bring the form to the Kanan newsroom, 111 Flint Hall, or mail it to "I Picked The Oscars!" University Daily Kanan, 111 Flint Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan. 6045
PARK HILL, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
DEADLINE: Noon, April Fool's Day. One entry per person, and the Kansan forms will be the only ones accepted.
ELIGIBILITY: All creatures great and small, as long as they are students, faculty, staff or administrators at the University of Kansas and are not staff members or employees. We do not daily Kansan or their families. We know who you are.
families. We know what you are
WINNING: As in the Academy Awards, there is only one winner — no ties allowed here. And guess what? The winner has to get them all right.
ANNOUNCING THE WINNER. We will announce the winner on this page in the April 15th Kansan.
Friday
SUMMER EMPLOYMENT $240 per week! Royal Prestige
is seeking students to help supplement its Summer Work Force!
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Kansas Union — Parlor A
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