Thursday, January 22, 1987
Arts / Entertainment
7
Dancers twist, turn and bounce to the beats of many drummers
By JERRI NIEBAUM
Staff writer
The Expressions Dance Club steps to the beats of many different drummers.
Jazz, modern, Indian, ballroom and tai chi (a form of the martial arts) are a few dance styles the club will experiment with this semester.
"You just experiment with different ways of expressing yourself," said Katie Stolz, club president.
Anyone interested can take class with the club from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Travels in #24 Robinson Center and experiences new ways of twisting and turning.
"No experience is necessary. Just show un." Stolz said
Linda Muir, instructor of ballet, will teach Luigi jazz technique to the club at 8 p.m. Tuesday. The class is a standardized program that began as a form of physical therapy.
Musicians, public speakers and others who want to maximize their lung power may want to take class the next week when Robin Glimore, a movement specialist from Indiana, teaches an advanced technique. This is a form of dance that focuses on alignment, centering on the head.
"The more in control you are of where your head is, the better you'll be able to do almost anything." Stolz said.
Expressions is listed as Dance 108
in the timetable and can be taken for one and a half credits, but club members do not have to enroll in the class. Membership dues are $10 a semester, and non-members can take lessons for $3 a class.
Tau Sigma, which had a 40-year history, was not only a dance club but a performing company. The University Dance Company broke away from the club and became KU's performing dance company 10 years ago when dance was established as a degree program.
The Expressions Dance Club was formed in the fall of 1985 when it changed the name of the already existing dance club, Tau Sigma.
Michelle Hefner. Topeka freshman, is joining the club for the second time this semester. She said jazz was her favorite dance style but she looked forward to doing Croatian folk dance and East Indian dance in the club this semester.
Stolz said that Expressions was funded partly by the Student Senate but that money for guest artists came from classes taught by club members.
members "who always wished they had danced."
R. O.T.C. students will waltz and polka as they did in the fall, and other interested KU students and faculty participate in ballroom dancing this semester.
Stolz said the club brought in
Mary Halverstadt, KU dance lecturer, instructs students and club members on the different types and tempos of music. The class, whose members are also members of the Expressions Dance Club, meets every Tuesday in 242 Robinson Center.
Dutch art mixes pop and politics
Rv NANCY BARRE
"Modern Dutch Posters: The First Fifty Years," an exhibition of 100 late 19th century and early 20th century posters, opened at the art museum Jan. 11 and will run until March 1.
Everything from salad oil to socialism is expressed in artistic form in the Dutch Poster exhibit at the Spencer Museum of Art.
Associate arts editor
The posters employ bold colors and geometric designs to advertise products, announce exhibitions, educate publicize political and social events.
Stephen Goddard, curator of prints at the art museum, said the posters were unique because they combine popular culture, commercial art and the development of an important artistic movement into one medium.
The posters trace important developments in modern European art, including art nouveau, impressionism and art decor, he said.
"These posters are the ancestors of a lot of our visual art," Goddard said. "But today it seems like all the artists are between fine arts and industry."
that are designed by commercial artists, the posters were often designed by artists who were more commercial success, he said.
portant poster designers of the period, rejected the decorative art that was in vogue by endowing his posters with easily definable outlines.
Unlike modern day billboards
exhibit is a bicycle advertisement designed by Johan Van Caspel in 1896. It depicts a woman on a bicycle and features a flat landscape of The Netherlands.
One of the early posters in the
Van Caspel, one of the most im-
Courtsey of Spencer Museum of Art
Delicate humor and deep drama achieve tenuous balance in play
Arts and entertainment editor
By PATRICIA EFFENY
When a man walks across a tight rope cautiously without any sudden, miscalculated movements, he creates a delicate balance.
A ballerina attempts to maintain that balance with each turn, leap or extension.
And two suburban couples fight for
it when they are forced to face the truth about aging, alienation and squandered love in Edward Albee's long-awaited drama, "A Delicate Balance."
The play opens in the living room of Agnes and Tobias, an aging, retired, upper-middle class couple.
Tobias is played by Charley old father, professor emeritus of law old
Garath Waltrip/KANSAN
Agnes, played by LaDonna Schmidt, DeSoto resident, pleads for understanding from her husband, Tobias, played by Charley Oldfather, Lawrence resident. The two are part of the Lawrence Community Theatre production of Edward Albee's play, "A Delicate Balance." The play will open at 8 p.m. Thursday.
the University of Kansas.
“It’s a remarkable play.” Old father said, “I’ve done a lot of plays during the last 10 or 11 years, but this is one that never ceases to grow on
He said every time he did the play, he understood the delicacy of relationships between characters.
"Descriptively, it 's of a small fami-
ly," he said. "You've lived together
and achieved a certain balance. It
makes you appreciate and then some
thing disruptions."
They are disrupted when their best friends of 40 years drop by unnounced and tell Agnes and Tobias that they are afraid of something.
It's a remarkable play. I've done a lot of plays during the last 10 or 11 years, but this is one that never ceases to grow on you.'
Oldfather described Tobias as a retired businessman who plays golf
—Charley Oldfather
Professor emeritus of law
LaDonna Schmidt plays Tobias 'wife', Agnes. Schmidt said that although Agnes personality was open-minded, the role helped her to quit smoking.
and goes to the country club. He doesn't have much force in the family which is run predominantly by his wife.
Smidt said the play was a deep drama and a masterpiece in sentence length.
"Agnes is always in control, not emotional," Schmidt said. "She's a good listener."
The cast members and assistant director Jane Pearce agreed that the play was confusing.
Pearce said the only way to under stand the play was to see it performed — four times.
Ballerina recounts tragic era
Arnold Weiss, professor emeritus of Spanish, plays the part of Harry. He said the best way to figure out what was going on was to listen carefully.
By PATRICIA FEENY
Arts and Entertainment Editor
At 16 she had her lips, breasts and ankles injected with silicone.
At 17 she was the darling of famed director George Balanchine's New York City Ballet Company and became the Sugar Plum Fairy.
At 28 she was one of the most famed and admired ballerinas in the country. She also was a drug addict.
in her autobiography, "Dancing On My Grave," Gelsey Kirkland candidly reveals the nightmarish details of her life in the spotlight.
Kirkland are backstage tour of the dancer's world — with all of its injuries, illnesses and addictions.
Kirkland's career began when she entered the School of American Ballet at the age of 8
Her training and talent opened doors for her at the New York City Ballet Company. Eventually, training and talent would become secondary to other obsessions and addictions that had little to do with dance.
As a teen-ager, Kirkland had her lips, breasts and ankles injected with silicone. She had her ears trimmed and her jaws realigned. She wanted a look that would set her apart from the sometimes c l o n i s h l o o k i n g dancers.
But her obsession with achieving bodily perfection went beyond cosmetic surgery. She starved herself to maintain a thin appearance. Her daily diet consisted of one apple and a tablespoon of cottage cheese.
"I was sick, Really sick," she said. "Other people seek out doctors for their illnesses and get help. I kept getting applause."
tister triumph, but personally they fell into a tempestuous, catastrophic love affair.
Kirkland left the New York City Ballet Company and Balanchine in 1974 when Mikhail Baryshnikov asked her to join him at the American Ballet Theatre.
Anorexia nervosa lead to drug addiction. One night, when her light body weight and lack of energy left her too weak to dance. Balanchine gave her what he called vitamins. She later learned they were amphetamines.
Professionally, they were an ar-
Kirkland's tragic affair with Barrysnikov and the pressures of the dance world led to her cocaine addiction.
"Cocaine was like a third person always in control," she said. "I could no more envision a future without cocaine than I could imagine throwing myself from a speeding auto. I was locked into the fast lane."
The little girl from Pennsylvania who won the hearts of critics and
fans was no longer the Sugar Plum Fairy in a child's dream, but a woman descending into a hellish nightmare.
After 10 seasons of emotional roller-coaster rides at the American Ballet Theatre, she left ballet, cocaine and applause.
Kirkland spent the next year choreographing her own recovery with husband and co-author Greg Lawrence.
"Dancing On My Grave" is a must for Kirkland fans, ballet buffs or those who just like a happy ending.