monday, september 15, 2003
sex on the hill
the university daily kansan
9B
Theatre students explore gender,sex roles
Kit Leffler/Kansan
Leslie Long, left, Okmulgee, Okla., senior, and Erin Burns, Kansas City, Mo., senior, rehearse a kissing scene during theater practice on Tuesday, Sept. 9. The scene is part of the upcoming show Fefu and Her Friends, which will open at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 29.
By Viva Bolova correspondent@kansan.com Kansan correspondent
Freedom of expression that's sexy, says Leslie Bennett.
"The rest is just kind of an imitation," she said. "It's posing."
In her classes, Bennett uses a lot of exercises connecting relaxation, breathing and stretching. But the exercises have to be experienced with other people. The main goal is to increase inner awareness.
Bennett, assistant professor of theater, teaches movement classes that get students to be comfortable in their bodies. An actor can only take on a character and have no problem with that character's sexuality unless the actor is fully aware of his or her own personality, she said.
"You just have to become comfortable in your own skin enough to allow someone else to interact with you in that skin," she said.
The musical centers upon an English nightclub singer who performs at the Kit Kat Klub in Berlin.
John Staniunas, associate professor of theater, is directing this fall's performance of the sexually charged musical Cabaret.
Stanliunas said directors found exercises that allowed the brain to loosen up, so that the performers were more capable of exploring.
"Ultimately, what you want to do is you want actors to get into a place where they feel comfortable expressing deep emotions," he said.
Exercises vary, depending on what kind of loosening up the actors need to do.
A good way to become comfortable with one another is to
"You can do that with your hands, you can do that with the feet, you can do that with any number of connectors," Staniunas said.
play with each other's weight and balance each other out, he said.
He also emphasized the importance of breathing tech-
miques.
"If you can release the breath, you can release everything," he said.
niques.
Laura Leffler-McCabe, Overland Park graduate student, is directing Fefu and Her Friends, a play that explores issues of gender and sexuality.
It presents the different types
of relationships among young women.
"A lot of what students work on in acting classes is undoing what society does to them, and that can have a lot to do with sexuality as well," Leffler-McCabe said.
Edited by Neeley Spellmeier
Draw curtains to prevent unwanted voyeurism
By Megan Mckenzie correspondent@kansan.com Kansan correspondent
Parre Ahmadi was trying on clothes in the women's dressing room in Olathe when she looked up and saw a man looking down at her.
Ahmadi, Manhattan junior, was startled and ran out of the dressing room to tell her mom to call the police.
"It made me realize there are sick people out there and you don't realize this until it happens to you," she said.
Photo illustration by Zach Straus/Kansan
The man was caught by police and arrested for assaulting Ahmadi. A police officer told Ahmadi the man had been previously charged with assault.
The event happened three years ago.
Lt. Schuyler Bailey, campus
public safety officer, said
voyeurism was not a problem on campus or within the city limits. But situations have occurred in the past.
Lt. Schuyler Bailey of the KU Public Safety Office said voyeurism was not a problem on campus, but said all students should keep their doors locked and their blinds closed.
This summer, Carolyn Walter,
Overland Park junior, awoke in
her house on the 1300 block of
Ohio Street to find an unknown
man staring at her in her bedroom.
Walter questioned the man, who mumbled he was sorry and exited the room. Walter found that four of her nine roommates had met the same man in their rooms.
Walter and her roommates called the Lawrence Police Department and reported the intrusion. A police officer explained that there had been other reports made about this type of crime, Walter said.
"It made me realize there are sick people out there and you don't realize this until it happens to you."
"It didn't really faze me because I was only living there for one more week." Walter said
Parre Ahmadi Manhattan junior
Lindsey Morse, Norman, Okla., senior, remembered a police officer approaching her while she was sunbathing in Watson Park during her sophomore year.
The officer said a neighbor had called the police because he saw a man masturbating while staring at Morse. The officer advised her to leave the park.
Morse hasn't returned to the
locked, blinds drawn and windows closed.
park since.
Bailey said this type of crime didn't happen often, but advised all students to keep their doors
Edited by Jonathan Reeder
Strippers protected by rules
By Cal Creek
correspondent@kansan.com
Kansan correspondent
But she will not, no matter what the price, engage in any sexual activities with customers.
"Rain" will give customers a lap dance for $10, she'll remove her top for $20 and she'll even place her crotch in front of a customer's face for the right tip.
"If they try any thing, I clown 'em," said Rain, who asked to not be named.
As an exotic dancer at The Outhouse, 1837 N. 1500 Road, Rain has seen the occasional grabby customer in her three and a half years of employment.
From drunken businessmen to unruly truckers to sex-starved college boys, area exotic and topless dancers have to deal with inconveniences with each shift.
"A lot of people have misconceptions about what actually happens in a strip club," said "Jordan." dancer at The Outhouse. "Yes, we're naked, and yes, we dance for guys. That's it. End of story. We don't go home with guys."
Rain says, for the most part, that customers at her establishment just want to have fun. But when customers do want a more hands-on experience, the bouncers encourage them to rethink that decision.
Michael Frazier, doorman and bouncer at The Outhouse, said he would give customers two warnings if he saw customers harassing a dancer. The first warning would be polite but direct. If the needs to warn them again, he removes them.
Nick Cianciarulo is the manager at the toppless bar, All Stars, 913 N. Second St. The bar doesn't have bouncers because it doesn't have a big problems with hand-happy customers.
All Stars staff monitor the floor, and if a problem occurs, the dancers speak with management, who issue the first of three warnings. If the customer needs a third warning, they are kicked out for 30 days.
Dancers must sign a contract upon employment that requires them to obey all Lawrence laws and regulations, which prohibits them from giving customers anything extra.
Many dancers said misconceptions could be fixed with simple respect.
"Most of us have kids, husbands, boyfriends," Jordan said. "Most of us keep work at work, and home at home."
Edited by Abby Sidesinger