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/ NEWS / MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
CULTURE
It takes two to Argentine tango
BY KELLY MORGAN
kmorgan@kansan.com
The Lawrence Tango Dancers and KU Ballroom Dance Club teamed up last Saturday to put on their first Tango Boot Camp.
The free event held on the fifth floor of the KU Memorial Union promised to teach participants the basics of Argentine tango in four hours.
"I suggested it to them and then they just ran with it," said Janey Smith, an Argentine tango instructor from Kansas City, Mo. "All of the other universities around the country are doing it and they thought, OK, let's just see what happens."
The event drew around 60 participants who walked and sashedaround the room to a varied sound-track of classic tango tunes and present-day hits like "Secret" by Maroon 5.
"I love the music," said Sarah Brink, a fifth-year senior from Sioux Falls, S.D. "I think it's fun and kind of sassy."
Brigitta Wade, president of the KU Ballroom Dance Club, said learning the tango or any ballroom
dance isn't just about the music or mastering set steps. It's also about communicating with your partner. Participants were able to work on these non-verbal communication skills through a variety of exercises held in the first half of the class. One exercise had the dancers form a large circle around the room and make eye contact with someone across the way. Once eye contact was established, the two separately danced their way through the circle and into the other's spot.
"With dancing you read very subtle cues that the other person is giving you," Wade said. "The lady is a follower but it is her choice to follow, and she has to get all of her cues non-verbally from her partner as the lead." Students interested in learning how to tango can join the Lawrence Tango Dancers at the Signs of Life Bookstore at 722 Massachusetts St. Mondays from 8 to 10 p.m.
"It's just like walking," Smith said. "But you're learning how to walk as a four-legged creature versus a two-legged creature."
Edited by Kelsey Nill
ODD NEWS
Gal grabs gigantic green gully gator
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Maryellen Mara-Christian, Massachusetts, bagged a 13½-foot, 1,025-pound alligator in Lake Moultrie. She said Friday that she is an experienced hunter, but this was her first gator.
The 48-year-old former bank marketing officer from Fitchburg, Mass., was hunting Wednesday
with her husband. It took about two hours to secure the gator before they could shoot it.
The .22-caliber gun they used wasn't powerful enough to put the animal down, so Mara-Christian used a knife to sever the alligator's spinal cord.
Meat processor Steve Drummond said the gator had so much fat that only about 40 pounds was usable meat. He will stuff the animal for display.
Associated Press
PRESENTED BY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Chris Neal/KANSAN
Up, up and away
Hot air balloon pilot Steve Libel files his Airhawk balloon (right) Saturday morning at the Overland Park Balloon Festival. Libel's was one of 36 balloons that participated in the event.
INTERNATIONAL
Palestinians offered a second peace proposal
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel's former premier gave his most detailed description yet of his 2008 peace offer to the Palestinians, saying in a lecture Sunday that if the current talks are to succeed, the agreement would have to resemble the plan the Palestinians turned down two years ago.
Also Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman proposed trading sections of Israel where its Arab citizens live for West Bank Jewish settlements as part of any peace deal.
The Palestinianians deemed Ehud Olmert's offer insufficient at the time, but wanted the more hawkish premier who replaced him, Benjamin Netanyahu, to use it as a starting point for negotiations. Instead, Netanyahu has taken it off the table.
Olmert's statements in Tel Aviv were part of a rare political speech for the former prime minister, who resigned last year under a wave of corruption charges.
In his September 2008 plan, Olmert said he proposed a Palestinian state on more than 90 percent of the West Bank, with land swaps to make up for any land Israel annexed. In past interviews, he has said the Palestinians were offered close to 94 percent of
the territory.
The West Bank and Gaza were to be linked through Israeli territory, and the Palestinians were to have a capital in the Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. Jerusalem's coveted Old City, with its holy sites, one of the most intractable issues dividing the sides, was to be governed jointly by Israel, the Palestinianis, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United States, he said.
Under Olmert's offer, Israel would have recognized the suffering of Palestinian refugees who lost their homes in the fighting around Israel's creation and would have agreed to repatriate a small number — less than 20,000 — for
humanitarian reasons. The Bush administration agreed to take in 100,000 more as U.S. citizens in the framework of a peace deal, he said.
About 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in the two-year war that surrounded Israel's creation in 1948. Palestinians claim the right of return to their homes for the refugees and their descendants — at least 5 million people today
Olmert said his offer could still be a blueprint for a peace accord. "We are really on the brink on this point, at least to the extent that I know the opinions of the Palestinian leadership," Olmert said.
If Netanyahu's government succeeds in reaching an agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Olmert said he believes "you've heard its main details this evening"
Olmert said he made his offer on Sept. 13, 2008, including detailed maps showing the Palestinian state, a land link between Gaza and the West Bank, and precise arrangements in Jerusalem, including roads, tunnels and bridges to enable the sharing of the city.
In May 2009, Abbas told The Washington Post that he couldn't accept Olmert's offer because "the gaps were wide."
Olmert said Sunday, "There is no choice but to say that this agreement was not achieved when that was possible because the Palestinian side was not prepared to make the extra step that I believe we made."