Wednesday, March 7, 1984
Pago 10
Daily Ncbraskan
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Review by Shelley Sperry
Those of us who had imbibed the Alvin Alley expe
rience before arrived at Monday night's Kimball per
formance expecting precisely what we were served
a carnival feast of cotton candy, tart lemonade
and exotic treats. We were nourished, saved from
bloated Midwestern malnutrition. All the fun was in
the eating the sudden rush of flavors and tex
tures, the festive wrappings, the sassy postures one
i3 free to relish publicly only during such sanctioned
orgies.
The -Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is on
tour celebrating its 25th anniversary. Forming the
core of the touring repertoire are classics of 20th
century dance created by Ailey himself such as Nigh
Creatures (1975) and Revelations (19G0). Alley's
compositions and many others he chooses for the
troupe show the influence of his teachers Martha
Graham's interpretive, highly emotional style, Cha
rles Weidman's humor, and a strong sense of theat
ricality gained from many years acting, -staging and
choreographing on Broadway.
The Ailey company does not emphasize abstrac
tion in dance, though more abstract pieces by other
choreographers are included to complete each
evening's program. On Monday two elaborate Ailey
jazz and gospel pieces, Phases (1 9S0) and his Texas-Baptist-childhood-inspired
Revelations, sandwich
ed a more thought-provoking duet, Treading, by
Elisa Monte, and a more-Ailey-than-Ailey story
dance, Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (1959), by
Donald McKayle."
Phases introduced us to the Ailey vocabulary of
shape and movement which we then welcomed as a
familiar companion to new "melodies in Revelations:
triangles and steeples; palms and fingers stretching
toward heaven; quick, syncopated, angular arms
and twirling bodies in every possible combination,
both in harmony and in opposition to the music.
In both Phases and Revelations the costumes,
lights and music had an Ailey signature. Harsh reds
and violets and an insistent, often Caribbean
rhythm section under jazz saxophones and deep
; blues voices filled our empty guts immediately. The
clean white petticoats of Revelation 's baptism pro
cessional seemed calculated to purify us of all the
complex emotions steamy, tragic, tender, senti
mental which preceded it. We were freed through
simple, repetitious gospel songs begging (with con
fidence in an affirmative answer) for deliverance.
Ailey creates active audiences. We all crossed our
legs, each leaving one foot bobbin free to supple
ment the dancers' interpretations of the finale,
"Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham " which
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Ki.T.t".l Hall
Alvin Alley's Revelations was perfumed Monday in Illmball Hall. The piece elso will be featured in
tonight's pcrfomsrxe.
they repeated to our swaying and clapping accom
paniment as an encore.
Ailey is harshly criticized for his showiness, his
emphasis on entertainment and emotion rather .
than intellectualism and movement-for-move-'
ment's sake. Ailey dancers pose. Their exaggeration
of muscularity and musicality is redundant in a
form of art which consist mainly of those qualities.
Ailey movements are clinches of modern dance
worn out years ago by their creator, Martha
Graham.
There is some validity in these standard criticisms
but they overlook the major accomplishments of the
Ailey philosophy. It entertains, it teaches audiences
the. basics of modern dance, and because of its
financial success, it can exhibit the works of young
choreographers like Monte, who do not follow the
formula, but complement it beautifully.
Treading was a duet, the majority of which was
done close to the floor. The costumes and lighting
were green, shadowy, even watery. No story, no mes
sage of oppression or spiritual freedom as in Revela
tions and the chain gang saa, Rainbow 'Round My
Shoulders.
The male dancer was a pure physical expression
of strength, of flight, of a universal need for free
movement. The female was cautious, contemplative,
tempering her own freedom. They literally balanced
each other.
j-f twenty A TS4 t
'Smooih-Mlking women promoting. rwlio
Women may not be doing as well as they would
like to in the programming end of the radio industry,
but they seem to be closing in the sales department.
A spot check of Lincoln radio stations showed
several women have made it to the top of the sales
departments at their stations. And there are women
at most stations doing well as "account executives,"
a glorified title used for sales' people.
JoAnne
Young
If that is the case, you can probably expect to see
more female general managers in the industry
because general managers traditionally come up
the ranks through sales rather than programming.
Ray Farrington, general manager of KFMQ, said
women-make up two-thirds of his sales staff and his
two top billers are female.
"YouH find the good people in sales are the most
aggressive and persistent, have the desire and the
need to prove themselves and want to escalate into
management," Farrington said. "And the majority of
those people are women.
"There are a tremendous number of women going
into sales," he said. "It's more financially rewarding
and there's more growth potential."
The majority of UNL students Farrington sees are
looking at sales as a career choice, he said. But, he
admits, you don't need a college degree to sell radio
time. What that would seem to say is you don't need
a college degree to be a general manager, if those
managers are taken from the sales departments.
Of the stations I talked to, KXSS seems to have the
best attitude about women filling staff positions. I
would say they probably would get the "Best Ail
Around" award for numbers of women in program
ming and sales positions. KXSS has two women, Kay
Lake and Brandy Summer, on the air, and Rose
Harrison is the station's sales manager. t
KXSS music director Dean Lambert was enthusi
astic, if not candid, in his assessment of his station's
saleswomen.
"Guys are clumsy in sales they talk too much,"
Lambert said. "Women are smooth. They know what
to say. they seem to feel they need to prove some-
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thing. Rose is a fantastic salesperson a real
go-getter."
KSRD, in the process of becoming KZKX, has
recently hired Julie Gade, currently on the sales
staff at KLMS, as their new sales manager. Station
manager Don Cavaleri said he simply looked for the
best person available in Lincoln with an excellent
broadcasting background. Cavaleri said he is pleas
ed to get someone of Gade's caliber.
So, why aren't women making the same progress
in the programming side of the industry? The man
agers I talked to made a stab at speculation, but
basically said they didn't know why.
The publisher of "Inside Radio " Jerry Dell Colli
ano says radio managers are anti-woman in general.
"They will scream and yell, claiming it's not true,"
Del Colliano said, "but if you look at how things are
youll see that women aren't much better off in radio
than they were 10 years ago. They certainly aren't
being promoted. They're still at the entry level."
Cavaleri said he couldn't disagree with that state
ment. "Those managers have the mentality of the old
line broadcasters," Cavaleri said. "They don't feel
they can scream at women and not hurt feelings.
They have certain ideas about where a woman
should and shouldn't be."
As it appears, women have proven themselves to
be smooth-talkers in front of the advertisers, but
haven't as yet proven themselves behind the micro
phone. , ,
The full-blown changes in KSRD (KZKX) have
been delayed about a month, Cavaleri said. Legally
the station is now KZKX and you'll hear those call
letters on the hour. But essentially the station is still
the old "Super Country" KSRD.
Tne changes are coming, Cavaleri said, by March
25. Mechanical problems are to blame for the delay
he said.