University Daily Kansan
Arts/Entertainment
Thursday, February 12, 1987
7
Let's dance!
Dedication of dance company's members allows turns and leaps to appear effortless
By VALOREE ARMSTRONG
Special to the Kansan
The expanse of the worn, wooden floor is deserted, except for seven pairs of satiny, pink pointe shoes, now scuffed from use.
As the dancers begin rehearsal without music, they walk purposefully in unison with a slight swinging of their arms. The silence is complete except for the gentle whirring of a distant fan.
"Let's go back and start over," commands Linda Muir, visiting ballet instructor at the University of Kansas. "That was pretty bad."
Muir scrutinizes every movement and is quick to point out inconsistent arm swinging and a step that is off a half count.
One dancer says, "At least it wasn't me this time." All the students laugh and move back to their original positions.
Over and over, again and again,
the group rehearses a small portion
of the piece until it is perfect.
Thirty-five minutes later, music is
added and rehearsal to sporadic
notes continues.
The dancers make the most difficult movements appear effortless. The extensions, leaps and turns, which sometimes appear to defy gravity, are the result of an array of intensive training and sweat.
Dancers follow a strenuous routine that includes rehearsals and daily classes. In addition to the demands of dance, the students try to remain involved in campus activities and University classes.
These dancers are members of the University Dance Company.
They devote as much time and energy to their discipline as most basketball players. They command as much strength and stamina from their bodies as most football players.
Janet Hamburg, associate professor of dance, said that since the semi-professional company was founded in 1978, it had tried to prepare the dancers for life in a professional company outside college.
Hamburg said the dancing profession was comparable to other professions where success came through hard work.
"The serious dancers put dance above everything else." Hamburg said. "They must focus body, mind and spirit. They can't go out and eat pizza at midnight and dance well the next morning."
Hamburg said that a typical company dancer might have a two-hour dance class every weekday. Dancers also attend two two-
hour company classes on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, and two to four rehearsals at night.
Company members also take other courses to meet graduation requirements.
In addition to performing in spring and fall shows, company members attend workshops in
Kansas City, Mo., and choreograph and perform their own work in studio showings.
Alice Knetsch, Wichita sophomore, is majoring in education and has been in the company for almost two years.
Knetsch said she had managed to balance her dedication to dancing with her regular class load, but not without sacrifices.
Amy Day, Leawood junior, is caught in mid-turn during a dance routine.
"If you want to dance, you have to be a dancer all the time." Knetsch said. "You have to eat like a dancer, sleep like a dancer. You can't go out and go to parties very much. I've lost a boyfriend already because I dance all the time."
Even though she sacrifices much of her social life, Knetsch said that dancing was worth it.
"It adds to my other classes because it disciplines me." Knetsch said. "It makes me organize my time well. Last year, I took dancing with my friend and the other, and I don't think dancing took away from my other classes.
"Dancing helps me get my priorities straight. You have to decide for yourself."
Knetsch said that as the company matured, it attracted more and better trained teachers. She said the KU dance faculty influenced each dancer's development.
Hamburg described her role in the dancers' lives as that of a fine jeweler.
"It's like seeing a new gem," she said. "We do the cutting and the polishing."
Hamburg said the University Dance Company provided an excellent opportunity for aspiring dancers to prepare for a career in dance. She said performance was the goal of the company.
Michelle Brown, Lawrence senior, said that a dancer never could perform enough.
"You don't ever stop learning within a piece," Brown said. "You can always take it to a higher level. The process goes on."
The company will travel more in the future, which will give the dancers an opportunity to perform a piece about 10 or 15 times. Hamburg said.
Knetsch and Brown both said they were concerned about the company's lack of recognition at the University.
Brown said, "The problem is that people aren't into the arts here as much as they're into sports, so we don't draw as big a crow."
Artists strive to increase the availability of art education, she said.
"That's very important," Brown said. "I don't know if it will ever be dominant, but it keeps getting better."
Darcy Chang/KANSAN
Benita Ward, Kansas City, Kan., senior, works through a new move.
Members of the University Dance Company, directed by Janet Hamburg, associate professor of dance, learn a new routine during a modern dance technique class.
Darcy Chang/KANSAn
One-hour Mozart opera tries to spark children's interest
By JENNIFER FORKER
Staff writer
The stage is bare and the singers don't have their costumes yet, but on Sunday the cast of "The Magic Flute" will be dressed brilliantly and be prepared to pack three hours of opera into a one-hour show.
Michael Shaw, assistant director and associate professor of classes, said Mozart originally presented the show as a fantasy story, not an opera. This was Mozart's last work and one of his best, Shaw said.
Concerts for Young People successfully has condensed the three-hour opera, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, into three scenes.
The opera, which is adapted for
children, also offers some of Mozart's best music, he said.
Director Norman Paige said that 60 percent of the audience probably would be children, but that adults also would enjoy the performance.
The majority of Mozart's loved opera will be performed." he said.
"It will be a real, full-scale production minus the orchestra. It'd be nifty with an orchestra, but it would add another $2,000 to the cost."
"We're not playing down to the audience." Paige said. "It appeals to
Shaw expects a good turnout for the single performance of "The Magic Flute" but he said he didn't think the show could draw a large enough
audience for more performances."
"Lawrence isn't a red-hot opera town," he said.
The scenery will be simple, done mostly with lighting, but the costumes will be fantastic and elaborate. Shaw said.
"That's part of this opera," he said. "It's a fantasy, a children's fairy tale, so it takes fantastic costumes."
The story follows the theme of prince finds princess, prince saves princess, prince and princess live family ever after.
But at times the plot gets complicated.
The good queen actually is a wicked queen and the nasty Sarastro
actually is the good priest of a holy order.
The prince, Tamino, kills a dragon and gains the attention of the evil queen. But the prince doesn't actually kill the dragon. He faints. Three ladies from the queen's court kill the dragon with spears.
Papageno, who is half-man and half-bird, catches birds for the queen in return for food and water.
Joe Salem, Wichita junior, explained his role of the bird-man, Papageno, as a character the audience would identify with most.
"I'm kinda the comic relief although not all of it," he said.
The evil queen sends Prince Tamiro to rescue her daughter. Pamina.
from Sarastro. She also sends the bird-man.
The queen gives Tamino a magic flute for protection against evil and gives Papageno magic bells.
The two brave men find Pamina. Tamino and Pamina fall in love. It turns out the priest isn't so mean, but the teacher still tests a test before they can get married
In the meantime, the bird-catching bird-man, Papageno, gets lucky and finds a bird-woman, disguised as an
The flute was made four years ago for a full-scale production of "The Magic Flute" at the University of Kansas, Paige said. It was made by the Reuter Organ Co. and is tuned to the exact notes specified by Mozart.
old woman until the end of the opera.
Ultimately the opera ends with both couples happy and together. Sarastro is wise and kind and the evil queen disappears.
And all of this takes only one hour. Susan Ralston, coordinator for the show, said the purpose of Concerts for Young People was to cultivate children's interest in opera. The group shortens the operas to accommodate a child's short attention span.
The opera is showing at 2 p.m.
Sunday at Lawrence High School
Tickets may be purchased in advance at Rusty's IGA stores for $2 for children and students and $3 for adults.