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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 1978)
Wednesday, September 6, 1978 page 10 daily nebraskan arts and entertainment Burlesque show is 'good nudes' for persons at state fair ByJoeStarita Huddled backstage amidst a tangled clutter of spangled G-st rings, sparking pasties, floral gowns, roaring heat and a wheezing turntable, four entertainers scramble about, grabbing costumes, rearranging tresses, daubing sweat, getting ready for the show. Outside, a pitchman in three-piece suit and tie calmly faces a blazing sun and explains to the Sunday afternoon Nebraska State Fiar midway crowd the visual delights awaiting them inside. "We have Miss Nude Teenager, we have the only trained Jazz Matazz dancer in existence. We have Mr. Bob 'Rubberlegs' Tanenbaum," comes the pitch from beneath a sign that says VEGAS, mounted above GIRLS BURLES QUE GIRLS. " To be best Miss Nude Teenager is Dee Dee Dawn. She's 18, from Florida, has been stripping for nine months and is determined to be the best dancer in burlesque history. Dee Dee is chasing down a G-string next to Suzanne Spangler. Suzanne is the one with clear green eyes, a quick smile, muscular legs and a determination to revive the lost art of burlesque. She's 24, calls San Francisco home, has always wanted to be a Go-Go girl. Her love of dancing and jazz became matazz four years ago when she struck out for Alaska to find adventure and found it while disrobing to the sounds of Louis Armstrong. Wedged between Dee Dee and Suzanne, Bob Tanenbaum juggles directions, pep talks and one-liners he's delivered as a stand-up comic in night clubs from Hoboken, N.J. to Vallejo, Calif. He and his three dancers, a soundman and announcer work the county fairs and state fair midways of America from March to November, averaging about 10 perform ances daily. Inside the tent, it takes little to warm up the audience. About 100 spectators-three women and 97 men-squirm impatiently atop wooden benches for something to take their minds off the stifling heat. Wants skin The assembled gathering is short on appreciation of art forms, long on desire to see some skin. Sensing the restlessness, Tanenbaum brings all three dancers out as the sound system cranks up with "Hollywood" and all four performers flash through a Vaudevillian dance routine. With an encouraging roar from the crowd, Dee Dee Photo by Marie BiHmgsly North Carolina native, Rita Shumaker, will be the first of Centennial artists in residence this fall. Her works include drawings, paintings, photographs, tex tiles and soft sculptures. goes solo and discos across the stage. In 45 seconds she's down to spangled pasties, string and necklace and the shouts go up to take it off, 'Take it ALL off." Dee Dee doesn't and there's a few more stand-up lines from Tanenbaum before dancer No. 2 is ushered on stage By B. J. Huchtemann A North Carolina native is this year's first artist in resi dence in a renewed Centennial Education Program offer ing. Rita Shumaker of Charlotte, North Carolina, will be Centennial's artist in resident until Oct. 20. Shumaker has worked in visual arts for 15 years as a professional artist, artist in residence, consultant and art instructor. She has taught at the elementary, secondary and uni versity levels. She also has taught adult classes, worked with city and state art councils and museum schools in many states. Shumaker now is an art instructor at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte. "It's a matter of being a professional artist and sup porting your habit," Shumaker said. This summer, for example, she worked as a pictorial artist, painting signs 25 feet off the ground. Shumaker's work included drawings, paintings, photo graphs, textiles and soft scuptures. Her approach is thematic, and related to time and space. Her latest pro ject is color-field work, a series of paintings using broad bands of color. A showing of her work wfll open at Shel don Art Gallery in late October. Analytical psychology, myth, symbolism, intuition in dream and the creative process have been Shumaker's major areas of research during her career. These special interests will be reflected in one of Shumaker's Centennial classes. She will be teaching an art appreciation course she described as a basic aesthetics course that will combine the artist's theory, the creative process, symbol, metaphor and the works of people like Carl Jung in a study of art. Students will create their own works of art and learn about composition and theory through first-hand experience in her applied arts course. Discussions wfll be combined with this "hands on" approach to aesthetics. A workshop with prisoners at the Nebraska Penal Com plex and a workshop organized by the Lincoln Action Program also are on Shumaker's agenda during her stay in Lincoln. Shumaker is living in the Neihardt Residential Center during her residency. "It's the first time I've lived in this sort of situation, in a dorm facility, she said. "I think it's an exciting situation in a lot of ways. But I miss being able to plant petunias and bake my own bread." Registration information may be obtained from the Centennial Program office, Neihardt Residential Center, 540 N. 16th Street to another big roar that grows louder with each grind from Connie. Connie is from Iowa, has an Orphan Annie haircut and emerges in a pink-and-brown Madame Butterfly gown that is shed in favor of pasties and panties and another .r rr by Tad Kiric The State Fair is more than cows and cotton candy as these backroom peep show photos prove. Bouncing pasties (above) and a little cheek (left) highlighted the "adults only" performance. approving roar. As the beat grows harder, the grinds become sharper and the cheering louder as Connie leaves center stage in a flurry of hoots and hollers. They see .a full-scale version of Jazz Matazz next as Suzanne breaks the curtains in a Gay Nineties ensemble, complete with floppy hat, floor-length gown and ladylike strut. In six minutes, Suzanne disappears inside and the dressing room fills up with four performers in search of costumes, records and a way to beat the heat. Ambition high Everyone is smiling, critiquing the performances and suggesting ways to improve the show. Clothes come off, records come on and dreams are run up a flagpole of ambition mat lies beyond state fair midways. "I would like to be the best burlesque dancer ever," says Dee Dee, who is always smiling, always polite and always ready to do another show. "I'm a trained jazz dancer," says Suzanne, in between changes! "Stripping fulfills me. I go through withdrawals without it, but I need the dancing too. I love to design my own clothes. I love to choreograph the dances and do the lighting. Someday I'd like to be in a rock opera on Broadway. "But what we're doing now, is a lot of fun. The stripping, the dancing, Bob's comedy. It's like the old time traveling burlesque shows used to be like and we're trying to bring it back." Game show freak pines for Pardo By Pete Mason I used to be a game show freak, I admit it freely, here and now. GE College Bowl and Jeopardy were at the top of my list. If I didn't get my dairy rationing of Art Fleming or Allen Ludden 1 went into withdrawal I worked my schedules around the times of my favorite shows. The desire for good pay, better grades and a bright and prosperous future were not about to get in the way of my addiction. College Bowl and Jeopardy weren't snap shows. They asked questions like, "Multiply the number of rays in the dorsal fin of Coregonus alpenae by the atomic weight of the element helium, divide the product by the distance in nautical miles between St. John, Newfoundland and the Isle of Man, subtract the number of ceniirieters in an acre and divide by the number of words in this ques tion . And invariably someone came up with the correct amount, in less than the maxium 30 seconds! Quest ions difficult Most of the old game shows were downright hard. Their questions made the contestants think. They made them draw upon knowledge learned in an academic atmos phere. Don Pardo would intone, "Art, our next contestant is a former Rhodes Scholar, recipient of a grant from the RockefeOer Foundation, and presently working on a Continued on Page 1 1 Centennial artist program renewed ' K , v f M - - tt p w ml r w ffi I V6 k I . J
