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(04/14/06 4:07am)
Hoping to ignite a passion for dance in the community, Bloomington's Windfall Dance Company's spring show centers on the history of rock 'n' roll, said co-director Laura McCain.\n"Roots of Rock" will open at 8 p.m. tonight in the John Waldron Arts Center Auditorium. Performances will continue Saturday and April 21-22, all at 8 p.m.\n"I really love the theme of this show because rock 'n' roll is such an important part of American culture," McCain said. "It shows how the different groups who immigrated to this country brought their cultures and influenced music."\nFeaturing 21 pieces of original choreography, the show begins with early American spirituals and Appalachian folk music. The second act will feature more modern-day music such as Nirvana and The Rolling Stones, according to the show's press release.\nCo-director and sophomore Rachel Beyer said the company created the show together because Windfall has no designated artistic director.\n"It's a really small organization," she said. \nWindfall hopes to attract more people to modern dance.\n"Modern dance and rock 'n' roll have a lot in common," Beyer said. "They're both rebellious art forms."\nWindfall just went through a bit of a rebellious stage of its own, trading in its space for a larger one.\n"We've been in this tiny studio on the square for many years," Beyer said. "And the rent was ridiculous."\nShe said Windfall plans to make use of its new location in an old church at 1101 N. Dunn by renting it out to other performance groups in the area. \nWindfall is affiliated with two youth companies, which will both be performing in the concert.\nMatt Wisley, the only male member of Windfall, directs one of these companies.\nHe said this show is fun because people of all ages will be familiar with the music.\n"It's so upbeat and lively," he said. "It can be a trip down memory lane."\nHe also said the audience will have a chance to get involved during intermission, when the company will play "Tutti Frutti" and encourage patrons to dance in the aisles.\n"Roots of Rock" is part of the 2005-2006 Bloomington Area Arts Council Performance Series at the Waldron. Tickets are available at the John Waldron Arts Center, cost $10 for general admission and $8 for students and senior citizens. Tickets are $6 each for groups of 10 or more. Reserve group tickets in advance by calling 334-0506 or by \nsending an e-mail to\nartd@bluemarble.net.
(04/13/06 5:31am)
Campy and reminiscent, "Mamma Mia!" sure isn't the thinking man's ... or woman's musical, though Donna Sheridan (played by Laurie Wells) bears her femininity with stark ferocity, fighting "marriage, the institution for people who belong in an institution," as she and her on-stage friends put it.\nBut what am I talking about? This isn't a musical with a plot. The thin veil of a story drapes the performers, reminding them to laugh or cry and throw out a dance move or two.\nYou've got to hand it to Benny Andersson (music and lyrics director for the show) and Catherine Johnson (playwright) for pulling a string of ABBA songs into anything cohesive.\n"You can make fun of it while you're watching it," said Robert Pendilla, who plays Pepper in the show. "It's ABBA. This isn't one of those huge musical theater pieces." \nWhat "Mamma Mia!" lacks in substance, it makes up for in spirit. It's fun, in the truest sense of the word -- belly-laughing, childhood playground fun. \nEvery three to five minutes of the show, someone breaks out into song. Occasionally, those songs are inappropriate and taken out of context, like when Sophie Sheridan, played by Carrie Manolakos, sings an ABBA love ballad to the man she believes is her father.\nBut there are moments -- glimmers -- when you forget you're watching a show with an Italian name that just happens to take place in Greece.\nWells broke out into "Mamma Mia!" clutching a doorway and sinking down to the floor. Her acting was phenomenal at times, surpassing the recycled lyrics and flimsy narrative.\nIn "The Name of the Game," her carefree image seems to slide away, leaving her vulnerability exposed to the audience for a moment.\nAnd let's not forget Manolakos, whose clear soprano skimmed easily into a disco groove and back again for more tender scenes. Her eager eyes captured the "white wedding" role perfectly.\nOne awkward song centers around a nightmare Sophie experiences the night before her wedding. Men in neon costumes invade her bedroom and shuffle her bed across the stage under lights the color of Slimer from "Ghostbusters."\nThe show's ending was disappointing. Still, what kind of breakthrough can we really expect from a musical group who philosophically sing, "Money, money, money. Must be funny, in a rich man's world?"\nThe show ended in another song and dance explosion, almost to say, "Hey, don't take us too seriously; get up on your feet and move a little." \nDespite the gimmicks, "Mamma Mia!" seemed to get its message across to the audience.\nDuring intermission, a group of four gathered behind me in the aisle, droning softly about the show in a musical foreign language. More and more friends recognized and joined them, shouting first in English and shifting back and forth to more exotic tones. I recognized a word or two -- "ABBA," "Indianapolis" -- but mostly, I heard laughter and joy seeping into their voices.\n"Is it bringing back memories?" one woman asked another, giggling and rolling off more wild, foreign tongues.\nAnd then she said, "Enjoy. Enjoy"
(04/11/06 6:15am)
Wearing a debutante gown on a dress rack, Scott Turner Schofield wheeled down the aisle at the "Tranny Roadshow."\n"When you're coming out as a debutante," he said, "you pray for a summer gala to avoid being spotted in white after labor day. Isn't that what being queer is all about?"\nUnion Board sponsored the 10-performer show from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday in the IMU Gallery.\nFabric swatches, collage cutouts and colored pencil drawings plastered the walls with slogans.\n"It isn't our fault," one paper read.\nSchofield acted out a hilarious scene involving him in a southern Alabama Walgreens wearing a visor and shirt that read "Gay Phi Gay Dirty Fratboy" while trying to buy makeup for a friend's debutante ball. On stage, he changed into a leopard dress, struggling with the zipper and high heels.\nWill O'Berry, a program coordinator at GLBT Student Support Services, said the show visited IU as part of the National Day of Silence, which is today. Volunteers wear T-shirts that say "equality is my priority" and take a vow of silence for one day to represent the quiet that closeted individuals face everyday.\n"When comments are made, there is a certain silence that is placed upon that person," he said. \nSome of the "Tranny Roadshow" performers told stories about the way people react when they come out.\nKelly Shortandqueer, a transgender male who has changed his name, performed a stand-up comedy routine about his time working at OfficeMax. \nTwo days after he started taking testosterone, a male co-worker casually mentioned that he used to find Shortandqueer attractive.\n"You don't look any different after two days of taking testosterone," Shortandqueer said.\nShortandqueer, who wore a brown T-shirt and black baggy pants, played a tape of his voice before he started taking testosterone. He recorded his voice on one tape before every injection. In a five-minute span, he played a tape that represented a year's worth of testosterone shots and octave drops.\nAnother performer talked about the anxiety he felt when coming out to his father.\n"These things can either turn out like 'I burnt some muffins' or 'I killed the babysitter,'" he said.\nThe Roadshow tries to invite local transgender people to perform with the show when it's town.\nIlan Blustein, who lives in Bloomington, used a spoken-word skit to teach the audience about gender conformity.\nBefore the show, he said he was taking a big risk by putting himself on stage and confronting his own transgender biases.\nJamez Terry is one of the people who started the Tranny Roadshow. \n"My dream was a show that would mix education with entertainment and make trans issues seem more fun and less intellectual," he said in an e-mail. \n"Our mantra has been that our trans-identities are singular facets of who we are, and the Tranny Roadshow aims to present transpeople as whole, multi-faceted people"
(04/11/06 6:13am)
Two days after arriving in New York City, 2005 IU graduate Colin Donnell auditioned for the national tour of "Mamma Mia!" Donnell said he read from a couple of scenes in the show for the part of Sky.\nIn the meantime, he was cast in an off-broadway production called "Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver," a tribute to Denver's life and music.\n"The day after they announced my other show was ending -- that Monday, I got a call from 'Mamma Mia!' asking me to come in one week," Donnell said.\nDonnell is a chorus member and the understudy for Sky in the musical's national tour, which happens to be making a stop at his alma mater.\n"Mamma Mia" will open at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the IU Auditorium and continue through April 16. Performances begin at 8 p.m., with two additional performances April 15 and 16 at 2 p.m. \n"It's really fun," Donnell said. "It's one of the first of that genre of taking pop music and putting it into a show."\nAs a chorus member, Donnell is on stage for six or seven songs, he said. The show also uses live back-up vocals that he sings backstage in vocal booths.\n"We never need the dressing rooms," he said. "We change in the booths backstage. Sometimes we hang out and sing in robes."\nA typical day for Donnell begins with sleeping in until mid-morning, he said. Then he works out and gets some food.\n"If we don't have rehearsal, I like to explore the city we're in," he said. "I just walked out of a museum on Omaha, (Neb.,) a train museum. It's an old train depot. I like to walk around."\nDonnell has toured with the ABBA-based musical for three months now.\nOther cast members come and go. Donnell said some have been touring for four years.\nRobert Pendilla plays Pepper in "Mamma Mia!" and has been on tour for 18 months.\n"Pepper is the island joke," Pendilla said. "Everyone likes to make fun of him but loves him."\nPendilla said that show is about learning to value things that are often taken for granted.\nA daughter returns home to her mother's outrageous island resort to get married and learns to value her mother, he said.\nAudiences typically love the music more than the message, Pendilla said.\n"You don't even have to pay attention to the story," he said. "You can make fun of it while you're watching it. It's ABBA."\nHe said one song seems to get more attention than the rest.\n"'Dancing Queen' -- who hasn't sung it at a karaoke bar or in your bathroom?" he said.\nDonnell said at the end of every show he is surprised to see the audience members up on their feet dancing.\n"It's really crazy," he said.\nThis will be Donnell's first musical theater performance in the IU Auditorium.\n"I can't wait," he said. "I have so many friends who are still back there."\nIU professor of stage movement and musical theater George Pinney said he remembers Donnell as an excellent musical theater student at IU who played lead roles.\n"Colin is a true artist," he said. "It will be a great thrill to see (him) on the professional stage"
(04/03/06 6:10am)
Academic-based dances sandwiched student collaborations at the African American Dance Company spring concert, "Moving the Movement: Dancing Liberation," Saturday evening at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.\nInterim Director Deadra Nelson-Mason said she based the first and last pieces of the performance on research conducted for her thesis in African diaspora studies and dance at New York University.\n"My thesis focuses on the role of dance and liberation struggles within the African diaspora," she said. "Dance and song are alternative methods of release from oppressed peoples." \nMovement I paid homage to the role art played in the Civil Rights movement.\n"When you're facing water hoses and ugly mobs and jails," Nelson-Mason said, "music and the arts and creative expression were ways they nurtured their spiritual selves."\nMovement II is about the slave era, and the idea of dance being a mode of spiritual sustenance, Nelson-Mason said.\n"Different African ethnic groups were put on slave plantations together. Dance and music allowed them to connect," she said.\nOn plantations, slaves would dance in a counter-clockwise circle, called a ring shout.\nThe piece travels forward in time, exploring social and political themes.\n"It explores the idea that social dance many times spoke political difference," Nelson-Mason said. "The body can be a tool for voicing dissent."\nThe dancers paid tribute to professional dancers Alvin Ailey and Katherine Dunham in a section about black dance and the concert stage.\nThe concert ended with a piece entitled "... For Nayel," a tribute to Nelson-Mason's 18-month-old daughter. The dancers performed in front of a video showing Nayel dancing around a studio in overalls.\nLatrice Nelson-Henry narrates the final piece, saying, "We must teach our young to remember why they dance the way that they do."\nNelson-Mason said that thought goes back to her daughter.\n"I want to make sure she values her heritage, especially in a time when I think not everyone values it."\nShe said MTV and BET do not present the truth about African diaspora artwork.\n"You see people dance a certain way, and it always comes across raunchy or crazy," she said.\nProfessor Iris Rosa, who serves as the company's full-time director, choreographed a piece titled "Reflections," set to music from the motion picture soundtrack for "Malcolm X."\nRosa also choreographed a piece called "Emi Eniyan." \nRebekah Shorter, a fifth-year senior and company member, said all the dancers put in a move that they liked, "and then Professor Rosa liked it too, so she put it together." \nStudent choreography and collaborations filled in the rest of the concert. As part of the two-credit class the 14 members of the company take, they are assigned to diverse groups of three or four students and are required to pick music, a theme and choreography.\nShorter said the dancers rehearsed long hours for this show: twice a week for more than four hours in addition to some rehearsals outside of class. \n"Too many times people say that (dancers) don't work very hard, and that's not true," she said.\nThe live musicians who emoted in the right-hand corner of the stage gave life to the well-researched choreography and practiced dancers.\nDelia Alexander played cello, percussion and sang; Joe Galvin played drums and guitar; and Samillia R. Woods and Kelli Zimmerman served as vocalists.\nSophomore Daniella Dubrow attended the concert and said she liked the narration used in Nelson-Mason's movements.\n"It made me feel like I was there, going through the entire thing," she said. "When (the dancer) was beating with the whip, we were all beaten with the whip."\nDubrow said she doesn't get to see African diaspora dance much, and she learned from the show.\n"They touched on a lot of issues -- poverty, welfare, racism. They way they touched on it was the best way to do it. I didn't know anything about slavery before," she said.
(04/03/06 6:08am)
Rows of black tights shook with laughter under the glare of lights, and the chorus of Paula Abdul's "Cold Hearted" played again and again, but Gary Wohlafka, listed in InMotion Dance Company's "Fusion" program as the lighting designer and audio technician, just couldn't seem to get it right.\nSeveral times, co-director and junior Justine Menter's blonde hair would flip up while she yelled, "Music? Music now, please," up to the sound booth.\nDespite technical glitches, the 36 members of InMotion stayed calm during Saturday night's show, surprising the audience every time they hit the beats head-on together.\nThe first piece, called "Snake," featured choreography by Menter, junior Elizabeth Tejan and co-director and senior Adrienne West.\nThe dancers tied pieces of fabric around their arms to mimic snakes. When they all moved together, the snakes shone in the light.\n"Body Language," choreographed by junior Casey Smith, and junior Natalie Labejof's "Must Be Dreaming," lit up the stage at the beginning of the show.\n"Body Language" shifted formations and stayed classically jazzy while the dancers flowed across the stage, snapping their fingers.\nSet to music by Frou Frou, "Must Be Dreaming" captured the lighthearted spirit of sleeping through modern dance class. The dancers wore white boxers and button-down shirts while they drifted like flowing white clouds on-stage. The piece ended when the dancers snuggled up to sleep in pairs on the ground.\nSequel Hip Hop Dance Company and men's a capella group Straight No Chaser broke up the show with guest performances.\nHigh-energy, fast-moving dance sequences kept the audience's attention while Sequel, a co-ed dance group, performed.\nSequel's grittier street hip-hop seemed to clash a bit with InMotion's army fatigue tough-girl piece that followed, "Bad Man," choreographed by Menter.\nMenter and West served as production coordinators for "Fusion." West said this was the best InMotion show in her four years as a member.\n"I am very proud of all the dancers," she said.\nThe show was free because the company is funded by a University grant.\nInMotion plans to work with other dance companies again in "Set It Off," 9 p.m., April 11 in Willkie Auditorium.\nInMotion, Sequel, IU Essence, the IU Breakdance Club, Kicks Dance Studio and other organizations will perform, according to InMotion's Web site, www.in-motiondanceiu.com.
(03/31/06 9:42pm)
InMotion Dance Company co-director and junior Justine Menter said style, dance experience and creativity from all over the country will fuse this Saturday evening for a great \nperformance.\n"Fusion," InMotion's annual spring show, is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the auditorium at Bloomington High School North.\n"This is no high school pom squad or dance team," Menter said. "We are a hardcore, committed, college dance company. Every single girl on our team is extremely talented and our \nchoreographers have innovative and endless ideas."\nThe show features choreography from some of the 36 InMotion team members who participate in the concert. \nMenter said InMotion is "rolling with the times."\n"Our style is sexy, emotional and captivating," she said. "You won't want to take your eyes off of any of us. And when you watch us, you will feel what we are feeling."\nCo-director and senior Adrienne West said this show will be the best InMotion show in the four years she has danced with the group. \n"What sets our show apart is the fact that we are able to put on a performance that showcases hip-hop, lyrical, modern, street jazz, jazz and musical theater," she said.\nMenter said she watched a \nrun-through of the show without costumes or makeup. \n"I got shivers watching some of the dances," she said. \nAt weekly practices, the team goes through the motions, she said. \n"Although we may be doing it full-out, it is nothing compared to the excitement and adrenaline that you feel when you're on stage with the lights on you," Menter said. "It's like everyone transforms into another person when they are up there."\nCompany member and sophomore Devon Chaiken said Menter and West have worked hard to improve the company this year.\n"Every year the show is 10 times better than the year before," she said.\nWest said Menter's marketing skills have helped build the company a positive reputation in the community.\n"It is because of (Menter's) visions that we have been able to perform at different venues which in turn has gotten our name out on campus," she said.\nStraight No Chaser and Sequel Hip Hop Dance Company will make guest appearances at the show.\n"All the girls are really pumped," Menter said. "All of our families come in for this. This is what we work for."\nChaiken said students should come see the show because "it's not boring."\n"It's mostly upbeat music, geared toward students' likings," she said.\nThe show is free to the public because InMotion is funded by a University grant, Menter said.\nDirections to the show are available on InMotion's Web site, \nwww.in-motiondanceiu.com.
(03/24/06 4:23am)
Tick. Tick. Boom.\nThe InMotion Dance Explosion Workshop 2006 will detonate in rhythm at 11 a.m. Sunday in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation room 169 and end at 4 p.m. Dancers ages 15 and older are welcome. The full workshop will cost $15, and a half-day is $10.\nThe day will begin with registration followed by a 30-minute warm-up and stretch. Jazz and a technique class make up the first half of the day. At 1:30 p.m., participants will receive a 30-minute break while those who want to sign up for the second half of the workshop register. Hip-hop and lyrical classes will finish up the dance-filled day.\nJustine Menter, co-director of InMotion, said the sessions of the first half of the day will be at an easier level than the second. For dancers with less technical experience, she said the hip-hop class that she is teaching might also be a fun challenge.\n"Our workshop is trying to mimic an actual dance convention you would go to with a dance studio, without the auditions and competition," she said. "It's just a fun time to dance all day and learn new styles and technique."\nMembers of InMotion will be teaching the four classes. Sophomore Kristin Tanzillo, who will be teaching the jazz class, said anyone interested in auditioning for the group should attend the workshop. \n"The teachers are very experienced and knowledgeable and have a lot of valuable information to offer," she said.\nTanzillo, who has been dancing since the age of 3 and works in the summers for the Universal Dance Association, said her jazz class will be at an intermediate to advanced level, combining leaps and turns with a focus on personal style.\n"(Jazz) is about taking simple moves and adding your own flair to make a dance special," she said.\nInMotion performs mainly jazz, hip-hop, lyrical and tap, according to its Web site.\nFreshman Katie Johnston will teach the technique class. \n"It will be jazz technique across the floor," Johnston said. "The level of difficulty will be good for beginners and advanced dancers because I will be offering easier variations for the harder moves to fit all of the different levels."\nDancers should come prepared to move and dressed to dance. Menter recommends sneakers for the hip-hop class and jazz shoes, socks or bare feet for the other classes.\nFood and drink will not be provided.\n"Bring a water bottle and a snack," she said. "If you're staying the whole day, you might want to bring a sack lunch."\nThe event is a fundraiser to help provide costumes, props, lighting and sound for the dance team's annual spring show, "Fusion," at 7:30 p.m. April 1 at Bloomington High School North's auditorium.\nTo help raise more money for the show, InMotion members will be selling workshop apparel at the event. Blue T-shirts with the InMotion logo on the front and the words "Dance Explosion Workshop 2006" will be available for purchase.\nFor more information, contact Menter at jmenter@indiana.edu or visit InMotion's Web site www.in-motiondanceiu.com.
(03/10/06 1:57am)
Beer brews and kazoo music will be offered at the first annual 4th and Walnut Block Party. The celebration will run from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Friday and is a fundraiser for the Bloomington Area Arts Council and WFHB, a local volunteer radio station.\nBAAC and WFHB share a workspace at the John Waldron Arts Center, also the location of the event, and hope to generate funds from the block party to pay for renovations on the building at 122 S. Walnut St. The John Waldron Arts Center is "the funkiest lil' block o' limestone in downtown Bloomington," according to the press release. \nDiana Corrigan, the development director for the BAAC, said the Waldron used to be Bloomington's city hall, but the John Waldron Arts Center was developed in 1992.\n"Close to that time, we made an agreement with community radio that they could be rent-free," she said. "They work in the old firehouse. They've always been here, and we're doing renovations again, so we thought it was a good time to get together with them and celebrate what we have." \nRyan Bruce, the manager for WFHB, said the block party is a time to renew a partnership between the two non-profit arts groups.\nThough its name suggests otherwise, the block party will occur indoors. \n"We really can't have a block party in March," Corrigan said. "It's kind of a silly reason to pretend it's spring or summer, but let's get ready."\nBeach balls and plastic flamingos will decorate the block party. Ashley Boughton, marketing and development assistant for the BAAC and a first- year master's student in arts administration, said the flamingos were actually lent by former Bloomington resident and musician John Mellencamp's neighbor.\n"Apparently, she woke one morning to find dozens of flamingos in her yard," Boughton said. "It was a prank that John and his wife had arranged."\nCorrigan said they will also be raffling off a barbecue.\nKrista Meschino, a senior who got involved with the block party through a class on event management, said she expects the atmosphere at the fundraiser to be "really summery with lots of bright colors that just make you feel happy like when you're grilling out on a summer day."\nIn the block party spirit, organizers asked adjacent businesses to participate in the festivities. Pizza donated by Bucceto's Smiling Teeth and other food items from Malibu Grill are included in the $10 ticket price. Children's tickets cost $5. \nBloomington Brewing Company, which Corrigan said is part of Lennie's, a local restaurant, pub and brewery, will offer a cash bar and serve two types of seasonal brews. Because all ages will be attending the festival, Corrigan said they will be checking identification.\nThree local music groups will perform in the John Waldron Arts Center auditorium. When the building served as city hall, the courthouse stood where the auditorium is now. Corrigan and Bruce said this block party is a celebration of Bloomington and its history. \nKid Kazooey, a singer-songwriter who plays both guitar and kazoo, will start off the festivities around 5:30 p.m.\n"We needed one more family-friendly act," Corrigan said, though she said Kid Kazooey has "very fun lyrics" that adults would also enjoy.\nAt 7 p.m., the O2R Blues Band will play, followed by The Dew Daddies, a country group featuring city council member Andy Ruff, at 8 p.m.\nBruce said all three musical groups have been heavily involved with WFHB for several years and will play for free at the block party.\nThe entire event will be broadcast live on WFHB, 98.1 FM in Bloomington. Tickets are available at the door or online at www.bloomingtonarts.info. For more information visit www.artlives.org/.
(02/28/06 12:40am)
Cody Fosdick swings a baseball bat backstage before rehearsals for the opera version of the Thornton Wilder play, "Our Town."\nFosdick, a performance diploma candidate in the Jacobs School of Music graduate program, is one of two students sharing the role of George Gibbs.\n"I know it's stupid," he said as fellow cast member and second-year \ngraduate student Liz Baldwin laughed at his admission, "but I'm supposed to be a baseball player." \nHe's also representing an internationally acclaimed opera program at the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem's newest opera.\n"Our Town" opens atw 8 p.m. Friday in the Musical Arts Center. Additional performances will be Saturday and March 3 and 4. \nRorem was commissioned by J.D. McClatchy, the show's librettist. McClatchy, the founding president of the Thornton Wilder Society, convinced Wilder's nephew, Tappan Wilder, to let him develop the 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning play into an opera.\nTappan Wilder was considering an offer to turn "Our Town" into a Broadway musical when McClatchy pitched the opera.\n"The Broadway musical has changed," McClatchy said. "It's all helicopters and falling chandeliers. The emotional force of 'Our Town' depends on intimacy, direct contact with an audience."\nDirector Vincent Liotta has chosen to preserve the modest set used in the original play to maintain this intimacy. Wooden chairs and a podium are accented by a white projector screen background, which is used to resemble a scrapbook.\nThe whole play is a scrapbook of memories, Liotta said. The electronic screen is the modern, 2006 equivalent.\nThe play uses a narrator, or Stage Manager, as a character in the play to keep the plot moving and familiarize the audience with time and space.\nChristopher Wilburn, another performance diploma candidate, is one of the students singing this role. Liotta chose to use dual casts to involve more students with the opera and to minimize wear on the voices of those involved.\nSitting in the audience chewing a protein bar, Wilburn hummed along with Eric McCluskey, the other Stage Manager. \n"I'm thinking I like what he did there — when he grabbed her arm," Wilburn said. "Maybe I'll do that."\nFor the opera, McClatchy uses supertitles to help the Stage Manager narrate the action. Supertitles are the captions displayed on a digital screen for the audience. They are traditionally used to translate a foreign-language opera into English.\n"We had to make the opera work in a way that would focus the play," Liotta said.\nMcClatchy said musical time is much slower than normal time. \n"(It's) our time," he said. "It takes three times longer to sing the sentence I'm saying now. We wanted to keep the shape and tone but make it a third as long. It's tightened, but what you lose in text, you gain in music."\nThe text is about a community's daily life seen through the eyes of a dead woman named Emily.\n"Two teenagers whose extensively happy, complacent lives are jarred by love first, and then death," McClatchy said.\nIn rehearsal at 4 p.m. on Feb. 17, teenagers and young adults slid across the stage, some dead, some alive. All wore blue jeans and other anachronisms, singing arias about love and death in 1904.\nLiotta straightened up in his seat, watching. \n"The dead are getting there faster than the chairs," he muttered under his breath, rushing up to join the funeral procession — a white-bearded man floating among the performers, peering, like a ghost, over their necks as they sang.\nThe opening night will be general admission, and the auditorium doors will open at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale at the MAC box office, through TicketMaster and online at www.music.indiana.edu/opera. General admission tickets for the Friday are $25 or $10 for students. For all other performances, tickets run from $15 to $35 or $10 to $20 for students.
(02/27/06 7:48pm)
A boy threw up on the stairs of the school bus on my fourth-grade field trip to see "Our Town" at Indianapolis Civic Theatre. I remember the teachers didn't want the rest of us walking over his pile of vomit, so they opened up the emergency exits on the bus and made us all crawl out into the streets. To this day, that is all I remember about the play.\nBut after watching the world premiere of Ned Rorem's opera, "Our Town," Friday night at the Musical Arts Center, I realized it's perfectly OK if that's all I remember. Because those little moments in our lives, "ticking clocks and shoes and socks," according to J.D. McClatchy's libretto, are the most important parts of life.\nNot many students sat in the auditorium opening night, though that seems largely fitting with the original play's themes: love, marriage, death and the general progression of small-town life -- to which most of us might seem unexplored territory.\nAs a fourth grader, I wasn't able to appreciate the little moments in protagonists George Gibbs' and Emily Webb's lives because I had never fallen in love or battled with adulthood. Now, I'm able to understand with authority their shy romance. However, in Act II, the two married, and I tuned out. Marriage is still another world for me, some speck bobbing black on the horizon; I've never been there, and I don't know the way.\nMrs. Soames, played by mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, a busybody in the play, sang imploringly to the audience, "Don't you just love a good wedding?" \nI thought, "no, not really." I will have to see this play or opera again in 20 or so years to understand that scene, or maybe I never will.\nBut that's not the point.\nMore students should be attending this opera, which will have additional performances at 8 p.m. this Friday and Saturday. Thornton Wilder's original message is still intact: Make every moment count. Rorem's score drove McClatchy's libretto straight through the heart of Grover's Corner (the fictional town of the production). \nThe orchestra was a character itself, offering up discordant chords of disapproval during the funeral scenes and breathless flutters during the plot's happier moments. The musicians played fantastically; I almost wish I could have watched while they strung bows and hummed reeds in all the right places.\nA projection screen functions as the background, flashing black and white farm houses, storm clouds and stars.\nThe real stars of this opera were the cast, filling out the script with beautiful singing and precise character development.\nVincent Liotta, "Our Town's" director, said in rehearsal he was focusing on small details about each character.\nEmily (Anna Steenerson) and George (Marc Schapman) developed a dutiful chemistry on-stage as they matured. Cody Fosnick, who plays George on alternate nights, said Liotta told him this would be one of the most difficult roles he will ever play in his life because he plays George at 13 years old, 16 years old and as an older, married man.\nSchapman did an excellent job of playing George at different ages, and Steenerson's gentle attention and soulful soprano arias made the couple believable.\nThe third act was brilliant. I cried, my boyfriend teared up and I think I heard the two men sitting behind us sniffling. I was sitting in the MAC thinking about all the things I wanted to do on this earth before I leave it: go back to Europe and stay sober most of the time, publish a pile of words with my name on top like a cherry, fall in love and stay there.\nA century after the original plot takes place, people are still rushing through each day to get to the next. \n"They never really look at each other," Emily moans when she revisits her familial life after her death. "They don't get it, do they?"\nFor ticket information on this weekend's performance of "Our Town," visit www.music.indiana.edu/publicity/opera/2005-2006season/index.html.
(02/27/06 4:16am)
His yellow Mini Cooper pulled up to the circle outside the Musical Arts Center five minutes before his scheduled reading Sunday afternoon, and poet J.D. McClatchy emerged from the passenger seat. \nMcClatchy and his companions left the car on the curb for his entire 45-minute lecture.\nMcClatchy, an English professor at Yale University, was in Bloomington for ArtsWeek and to celebrate Friday's world premiere of "Our Town," the opera for which he wrote the libretto. McClatchy said he is a poet and an opera writer but he likes writing poetry more.\n"That's what I set out to do; it's what I do best," he said. "It's what I want to be remembered by. Opera is finally the composer's creation. I prefer to write where my name comes first."\nAt the reading, he also said opera writing is about simplifying material, while poetry is about complicating simple ideas.\nOne poem he read, made up of three sonnets, was called "Cancer." \n"Let's all buckle our seat belts," he said before reading.\nThe first of the sonnets was about the progressive cell damage of cancer and the second talked about the plague in ancient Athens as a metaphor for cancer. The final sonnet told of McClatchy's grandmother's final birthday before she died of bone cancer.\nMcClatchy explained all of his metaphors before reading the poems to help the small audience understand his intentions. While reading his work, he put on a pair of gold wire-rimmed glasses; during explanations, he took them off and made eye contact with the crowd.\nThe date for the reading was printed incorrectly in the ArtsWeek brochure, which might explain why so few people showed up.\nMcClatchy played to the intimacy, commenting that the raised podium he spoke from made him feel "like a pope."\nThe second poem he read, "Mammogram," examined a male perspective on the typically female experience. McClatchy said when he got a mammogram, it was an experience he knew he had to write about.\n"It was one of those experiences that come with a little label at the bottom that says, 'write me up,'" he said.\nAfter the reading, McClatchy answered a few questions from his listeners. One man asked what his writing process is.\n"I'm not a dedicated writer," he said. "I don't have discipline. There are times you just feel a rush to write. Maybe it's something biological or chemical in the body," he said, laughing.\n"I can't even remember writing any of these," he added. \nMcClatchy said he works poems out in his head first before committing them to paper.\n"Once you get something on paper, you tend to fall in love with it, and it's harder to get rid of," he said.\nHe also said he keeps poems around for a couple of years before attempting to publish them.\n"No one's banging on your door begging for another poem," he said. "Might as well sit on them for a while."\nFor information on more ArtsWeek events, visit www.artsweek.indiana.edu.
(02/10/06 4:38am)
Alex Ellis, the actress who played Millie Dillmount in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" at the IU Auditorium, sang to herself in the mirror with aching honesty.\n"Gimme, gimme this thing called love. I want it," she said.\nThe show is about a girl who moves to New York, hoping to marry a rich man. After an introspective song-and-dance retreat, Millie realizes love will always trump money.\nMillie plans to marry her boss, Mr. Trevor Graydon (Jason Fleck), a rich man who enjoys dictating letters to paper and floor wax companies. While working to achieve this goal, she meets Jimmy (Adam Zelasko). Jimmy lives for the moment, and while his originality captures Millie's heart, she has trouble giving up on financial stability.\nWhen Millie chooses Jimmy, he conveniently confesses he is actually a multi-millionaire in disguise. Millie is delighted. \nWhile this musical fell into the romantic comedy trap of tired plot twists and gender and racial stereotypes, the cast performed with brilliant energy and successfully recreated the sexy Jazz Age.\nThe audience laughed the most for the two Chinese brothers, Bun Foo (Fang Du) and Ching Ho (Arthur Kwan), who play bumbling kidnappers working to bring their mother over from Hong Kong. Mrs. Meers (Elizabeth T. Murff) is Millie's landlord and the kidnapping mastermind.\nThe brothers' characters were portrayed as slow and ignorant to the point of discomfort. \nWhile humor at the expense of racial profiling is never acceptable, the show used a digital screen to translate the Chinese words to English. When Du and Kwan sang a reprise of the show's opening song in Chinese, the humor worked well.\nMurff shone as the show's villain, appearing to take her curtain call in black and white prisoner's stripes. \nAnother great scene came later in the first act, when Millie visits her first speakeasy. Director and choreographer Joey McKneely managed to convey just the right blend of caution and celebration with arched backs, raised hands and occasional out-of-step Charlestons.\nThe stage belonged to Ellis for the entire show.\nEllis' sincerity and long dancer's legs kept the audience enthralled. Because the show is set in the 1920s, Millie is trapped by a society where women are dependent on men. It is a little sad when Millie is happy because her boss nicknames her "John," because she is so efficient at stenography.\nDespite this, Millie grows as a character and learns to value love over money, and Ellis makes it believable.\n"We hope the audience can take away anything from the show, even if it's just a smile," she said.\nHer enthusiasm was contagious, and the rest the cast spoon fed excitement to the audience.\n"You kind of walk out snapping," said senior Betsy Hansfield, as she did.
(02/08/06 4:27am)
The fun-filled story of flappers, strong-minded young women and glitzy production numbers makes "Thoroughly Modern Millie" a true crowd-pleaser, IU Auditorium Director Doug Booher said in an e-mail.\nIn 2002, it won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The show will debut at 8 p.m. tonight and Thursday at the IU Auditorium. \n"It's your quintessential Midwestern girl, Millie Dillmount, (who) comes to Manhattan to find a new cosmopolitan life marked by the excitement and romance of the jazz age," Booher said.\nAccording to the Modern Millie tour Web site, the motto of the jazz age was to "break all the rules." The show depicts prohibition, bob-haired flappers and women in the workplace.\nAlex Ellis plays Millie in the national tour. The recent musical theater graduate from Elon University in North Carolina said she is thrilled to be a part of the show.\n"It is a very fun romantic comedy," she said in an e-mail. "The book is filled with witty jokes and great new music."\nEllis said Millie moves to New York hoping to meet a successful and financially stable businessman. \n"She meets some very fun friends along the way and runs into some dead ends," she said. \nFinally, Millie realizes that love is truly what everyone wants at the end of the day.\nBooher said the show is filled with great singing, dancing and feel-good comedy. \n"It's one of those true blue Broadway musicals," he said.\nAccording to the show's Web site, much of the dialogue in the show is based on American slang from the 1920s.\nSome examples are: "hair of the dog," meaning a shot of alcohol, "the bee's knees" for great, terrific or wonderful, "rag-a-muffin" for an unkept person and "whoopee," which means to have fun.\nEllis has plenty of whoopee on tour, she said.\nShe said she is fortunate to have such an opportunity straight out of college. During her senior year, the casting director of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" came to audition graduating students.\n"I could never do anything else in my life," she said. "I feel I am destined for (theater), so basically I'm living out my dream."\nShe added that musical theater is a tough profession. Especially for this particular show, she said, everyone must remember the final product is a group effort.\n"We work hard together," she said. "Being on the road with the schedule we have been given is a true test of inner strength, patience and a trial run to see if you're really cut out for this business."\nThe tour opened Sep. 20, 2005 and will close June 11, Ellis said.\n"I hope that the audience can see how much we love what we're doing up there," she said.\nTickets start at $17.50 for IU students and $34.50 for non-students. They are available at www.IUauditorium.com, the Auditorium box office or any Ticketmaster ticket center.
(02/07/06 4:57am)
Fingers flew amid a maze of black appendages: suit sleeves, music stands and folding chairs. Noise and motion jumbled into a mish-mash of bows poking upward, toes tapping and metal gleaming. \nJunior and bassoon major William May played contrabassoon, the largest and lowest-pitched of the double-reed wind instruments, in a student orchestra last Sunday.\nMay prepared to play, soaking his hand-carved reed in a pill bottle of water. He tries to avoid any sort of mental preparation before performing, he said.\n"I try to go into everything as cold as possible to avoid panic," he said. Nerves can cause May's right hand to shake, but if he focuses and thinks about the music, he can control the quivers.\nHe said he wants to convey the message of the music when he plays.\n"There's only so much to go by on the page," he said. "The rest is up to your imagination. You have to bring a little something into it."\nMay still remembers the bassoon poster hanging on the back wall of his elementary school classroom. He fell in love after learning about the instrument on a field trip to hear the local orchestra play Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf." \nIn junior high in Frankfort, Ky., May played first-chair clarinet. The gentle baying sound of the bassoon was absent from his band class. At the end of the year, his band director asked if any student was interested in learning to play the instrument.\n"I was too shy to talk to him about it myself, so I made my dad call him up and ask him for me," May said.\nOnce a week, May made the 50-minute drive to take private bassoon lessons in Louisville, Ky. \n"It took me forever to actually be able to get a note out of it," May said.\nRoger Soren now teaches at IU part-time and has recently taught May how to play the contrabassoon, an instrument whose sound is an octave lower than the regular bassoon.\n"(Bassoon) is that one thing that's there and gives me something to do," May said. "It's the one thing I'm really good at. It's what I'm supposed to do."\nJenny May, William's mother, said William could always sing and has perfect pitch.\n"He's a natural," she said. "He really loves it. He's so self-disciplined, always trying to be the best. We never have to tell him to practice."\nMike Agnew, William's roommate since the beginning of this semester, said he once heard William practicing at 1:30 a.m. \n"It never bothers me, though, because I don't find the bassoon annoying in any way," he said. "I think Will is very talented."\nMay said he knows he would be better if he practiced more. He tries to practice an hour a day, but isn't always able to fit it into his schedule.\nHe attends rehearsals for the Concert Orchestra six hours a week and takes a one-hour private lesson with bassoon professor Arthur Weisberg.\nWeisberg said May is among the better students he has had. \n"He is very committed to becoming a fine bassoonist and works very hard toward this goal," he said.\nIn March, May is scheduled to audition for the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. He also must prepare to compete in the International Double Reed Society competition in July at Ball State University. \nMoreover, he attends academic classes, including French and music history. \nWilliam also likes to shop, hang out with his friends, cook or eat good food and attend concerts. \n"I try to keep my taste opposite outside of (Bassoon music)," he said, noting he's a Foo Fighters fan.
(01/23/06 5:14am)
A basketball game ending minutes before and a crowd trickling in late because of traffic set the stage for the Burke Lecture Series presentation of Julien Chapuis, curator at The Cloisters of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.\nChapuis' lecture, "Handle with Care: A Curator's Work" was held in conjunction with the annual Friends of Art Benefit Dinner Saturday evening in Bloomington.\nAt the School of Fine Arts Auditorium, former professor Molly Faries introduced the man she mentored through an IU doctoral degree in art history. \n"The type of work we were doing then has become the new art histories," she said, referring to extensive research on 15th century art Chapuis and other colleagues undertook in Europe.\nChapuis began the lecture by discussing his career.\nThe day Chapuis sent in the final draft of his award-winning dissertation, "Underdrawing in Paintings of the Stefan Lochner Group," he heard about the job at The Met. He said he underwent five interviews, one of which lasted six hours, and endured a seven-month waiting period before the museum offered him the job. He remembers he found out a few days before Thanksgiving.\nChapuis said Faries' teaching prepared him most for his current career, teaching him to look at art in a focused, sustained way and make deductions based on facts.\n"I have the great privilege of looking forward to going to work every morning," Chapuis said. \nHe spoke about some of the more unusual duties of being a curator and said that before he left Bloomington, he had no idea what his line of work would involve.\nClimate control, horticultural work, building renovation and animal relations are among the euphemisms Chapuis may now list on his resumé. \n"Luckily, moths prefer newer wool to older wool," he said. "So they usually eat the restorations first and leave the original tapestries alone."\nHe also showed a slide photograph of a wild turkey he found roaming the grounds at The Cloisters one day. \nBecause of the unique gardens scattered among the galleries, The Met faces the challenge of running an open-air museum every year from April to October. During the winter months, a special glass barrier keeps out the cold and allows for a stable and humid environment, Chapuis said.\nContinuing student Angela Duckwall attended the lecture with her husband. She plans to pursue a graduate degree in museum work and appreciated Chapuis' history of The Cloisters and information about future renovations.\nThe slide that drew the most laughter from the audience showed a stained glass image of a woman whose hands were extended in dismay next to a photograph of a clunky, yellow jackhammer.\n"Heavy construction and delicate works of art do not always work well together," Chapuis said. \nBesides counseling the marriage of construction and creation, Chapuis said he also undertakes more traditional responsibilities as curator, such as acquiring objects and researching historical artists and sculpture techniques. \nJunior Julie Euber and sophomore Meg Hathaway said they loved hearing about the building and the architecture of The Cloisters. \n"I've never been to New York before," Euber said. "It was nice to know such a beautiful place even exists"
(01/20/06 4:47am)
Not many artists do their creative work lying on the floor. \nStill, members of the InMotion Dance Company lay on the floor Wednesday night, brainstorming moves to include in the dance for their upcoming audition.\nInMotion will audition dancers at 3 p.m. Sunday in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation room 169. Co-directors junior Justine Menter and senior Adrienne West said they are looking for experienced dancers to round out the team.\nThe student-run company showcases choreography by its own dancers and experiments in jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, modern, tap and street jazz, a term Menter defined as a combination of commercial hip-hop and jazz. \nPotential members should bring both jazz shoes and sneakers to the audition and be prepared to learn a warm-up, floor exercises and a short combination. West said groups of 10 will dance for Menter and other members. \nThe directors said they're looking for strong dancers as potential teammates with style and a good overall package.\nA spring semester as an InMotion team member is a busy season, Menter said. "For our spring show, we have a nine-hour dress rehearsal," she said. "It's so much fun."\nIndividual choreographers within the company also conduct auditions and rehearse various pieces on their own time.\nSomeone from the company is at the HPER almost every night working on choreography, adding style to dances or practicing harder moves, West said. \n"Yesterday, my left turns were completely off," Menter said as she studied her frame in the new mirrors recently added to the HPER. One leg of her sweatpants was rolled up to her thigh, her hair hung in a loose ponytail and her mouth leapt into a permanent smile. \nMenter and West agree InMotion provides the creative outlet they need at IU to dance, make friends and have a great time. \nAnother team member, sophomore Brooke Rabin, said she's grateful to have found InMotion.\n"I would be so unhappy if I did not get the chance to join," she said. "I feel like I am part of a team and living my passion out."\nBobbing their heads to the beat of the audition song, Menter and junior Elizabeth Tejan struck a similar position.\n"Yeah," Menter said. "We're both feeling the same thing"
(01/20/06 4:46am)
Outside the School of Fine Arts, professors in bright greens and purples smoke cigarettes and watch the students: boys in skinny pants and overpriced loafers, girls with chunky glasses and rainbows for bangs. The smoke clouds drift over their heads and dissipate into the rain and wind. \nEverything in this building is art: the witchy cackles propelling the steam puffs, the swirls in the commercial carpet and the broken-pencil scent filling the hallways.\nTen years ago, Julien Chapuis studied art history in this same building to obtain a doctoral degree. Today he is the associate curator for The Cloisters and The Department of Medieval Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.\nHe will return to Bloomington as a Burke Series lecturer to speak 5 p.m. Saturday in the Fine Arts Auditorium. His lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled "Handle with Care: A Curator's Work."\nB.J. Irvine, the director of the fine arts library, invited him to speak in conjunction with the 20th celebration of the Friends of Art Benefit Dinner at 6:30 p.m. following the lecture.\nChapuis originates from Switzerland and studied undergraduate art history at Groningen University in the Netherlands. Through his studies, he met Molly Faries, an IU art history professor, who convinced him to complete his Ph.D. in Bloomington.\nChapuis said he remembers his time at IU fondly.\n"I've never heard such good music as I did there." he said.\nChapuis plans to talk about his career at the lecture, which he said he thoroughly enjoys. He said a curator should try to make art as easily accessible as possible and therefore, wants his audience to gain insight into what a museum is and encourage them to visit one.\n"It's not as elitist as some people think it is. A lot of what I do is mediate medieval work for the general public and make them relate to it by giving them, in my labels, a few criteria that are historically truthful to the objects," he said.\nSara Mandel, the Burke lecture coordinator, said Chapuis' lecture is relevant and important to the entire community.\n"I think visual material is reflective of society, and the people who manage it decide how to represent society. A curator's job is to present works which reflect his community," she said.\nPatrick McNaughton, the Burke faculty adviser, said the lecture series typically attracts recently published scholars or those researching innovative subjects. \nTo reserve a place at the Friends of Art Benefit Dinner, contact the Friends of Art office at 855-5300.
(05/19/05 9:35pm)
Tonight, the ancient tradition of storytelling will combine with the latest technology to create a fusion of new media and technology.\nAzuka Nzegwu, a Telecommunications graduate student, and Lanlan Kuang, a graduate student in Folklore, will showcase their multimedia presentations about culture and storytelling at 6 p.m. in the Radio and Television Building in Room 245.\nThe event, titled "Bringing Stories to Life with Digital Technology," is sponsored by Masters Immersive Media Environments and the IU Department of Telecommunications. \nNzegwu, who is studying in the Masters in Immersive Meditated Environments program, created a documentary called "A Different World" to showcase the ancient stories of three different cultures: Chinese, Indian and Nigerian. \nIn creating the documentary, she photographed and interviewed three students who immigrated to America to pursue higher education: Kuang of China, Sugato Dutt of India and Patrick Okorududu of Nigeria. \nThe film, which is completely in black and white, has a trailer available online at http://mypage.iu.edu/~anzegwu/adw.htm.\nThe film examines the lives of the new immigrant, foreign student and new American and issues related to jobs, school and cultural beliefs. The three share the challenges they faced, obstacles they overcame and their overall experiences.\n"In the film, viewers can experience these stories as told by the storytellers instead of a narrator," Nzegwu said.\nNzegwu worked on the documentary as a new media project for her master's thesis. \n"The purpose of the project was to look at how the general media is changing traditional storytelling, Nzegwu said. "It makes use of text, photographs, imagery and sound to keep a balance of medias. I really wanted to give people a chance to tell their own stories."\nNzegwu recorded Kuang's research of "Liu Ye Liu," a popular Chinese folk song during the summer of 2002. \n"We're best friends here," Kuang said. "So it worked out nicely." \nKuang then filmed a music video detailing the narrative of the song, which will be shown after Nzegwu's documentary tonight. \nNzegwu and Kuang had the opportunity to travel to China together to work on the documentary, which consists of two parts. \n"It was a remarkable experience," Kuang said. "(In the documentary), I show the process of recollecting the story for the folk song, and it interviews me as I'm researching and then cuts to the music video."\nKuang said Friday's program provides an opportunity for learning and a nice break from studying. "Ethnographic film is usually only for scholarly audiences, but music video has a much wider appeal," she said. \nKuang said she hopes that students interested in other cultures and the impact of technology on spreading awareness about diversity will come to the program.\n"People interested in learning more about other cultures and the fusion and intertextuality of culture would appreciate the showing," Kuang said. "As well as people who just need a break from studying for finals."\nNzegwu stresses the importance of preserving culture and tradition in her project. \n"It's important to have storytelling in this age because it's a way to build communities and reinforce the values of the community," Nzegwu said. "Digital media is allowing anybody to tell their own stories because we no longer have to tell stories in a collective experience."\nNzegwu said new media provides a slew of outlets to disseminate stories.\n"With digital media, anyone can tell stories anywhere with the use of a computer," she said. "It is important to preserve the (tradition of storytelling) because there is so much you can learn."\nArts Editor Maura Halpern contributed to this story.\n-- Contact staff writer Stacey Laskin at slaskin@indiana.edu.
(01/14/05 2:36pm)
For the first time, two performance giants of this campus have "joined forces." \nIU's theatre and dance departments co-produced this year's faculty concert, which opened Thursday and continues at 8 p.m. today in the Ruth N. Halls Theatre. The concert culminates with a piece which reflects bringing people together -- appropriately titled "Joining Forces."\n2002 was the first year for the dance minor program in the Department of Kinesiology run by Director Liz Shea, the dance minor faculty concert was born. \nProfessor George Pinney of the Theatre Department, who had previously worked with Shea on the Independent Major Program dance performance and musical theater majors, collaborated on the concert by choreographing a piece. \nPinney said he and Shea keep in constant contact. \n"We really enhance each other's work," he said.\nHe added that theater and dance tend to go hand in hand. Both are performance programs, and students concentrating on one area tend to take classes in the other. \nBecause of all this overlap, the theater and dance departments co-produced this year's faculty concert, which opened Thursday and continues at 8 p.m. today in the Ruth N. Halls Theatre.\n"I think the collaboration came out of the fact that dance was happening in so many places here," She said. "There's strength in numbers."\nJunior Amanda Tanguay, an IMP dance performance and musical theatre major, has appeared in all three of the dance concerts.\n"The collaboration between the departments is really a neat thing," she said. "Dancers must be able to act through their faces and bodies. And actors should study dance because it is a different way to use movement to show emotion."\nThere's a natural synergy between the dance and the theatre programs, Pinney said.\nHis piece, in which Tanguay will appear this year, is titled "Running From Myself." Pinney said it tells the story through dance of a man confused by what paths to follow in life.\n"It's about how through our lives, we miss moments," Pinney said. "Because of those missed moments, we wind up going down a wrong path emotionally. We don't realize how precious some of the paths that come into our lives are."\nThe main character in the dance encountered a perfect relationship that ended badly. He stumbles onto the precarious path of bars, booze and numbing one-night stands.\n"The dance centers on a night at the bar with his wingman," Pinney said. \nWithout acting skills, the dancers' movements would seem random and out of context, he said. \nUndergraduate and graduate theater students, musical theater majors and dance performance majors all appear in his piece.\nBy including accessible themes in their choreography, professors such as Shea and Pinney said they hope to share that connection with students studying other fields.\nThe last piece of the concert, "Joining Forces," was choreographed by guest artist Debbie Knapp, a member of the University of New Mexico dance faculty. Tanguay said it is about bringing together different types of people and styles of dance to create a single piece of choreography. \n-- Contact Staff Writer Stacey Laskin at slaskin@indiana.edu.