page 8
daily nebraskan
monday, September 25, 1978
arts and entertainment
0 Street was dance floor for 'the biggest disco in town '
By B. J. Huchtemann
An old man danced with his dog.
Teenage boys played football. Some
body asked a policeman for his auto
graph. The atmosphere was almost like that
of a carnival or small town dance Sat
urday night, as about a quarter of O
Street between 13th and 14th was dusted
with sand to provide the dance floor for
"the biggest disco in town."
The disco, the last event of Lincoln
fest '78, got off to a late, slow start due to
problems with the sound system. Freddie
Bell, "The Disco Man" of Out-of-Sight
Productions, presided over the dance
"floor" from a platform flanked with
speakers at 13th and O Streets.
Poise and patter
Bell kept the audience's impatience
to a minimum with poise and patter
(... As Freddie Bell rings your chimes
with the best disco of all time . . .")
When the sound system was ready at
about 9 pjn. everybody was ready to
dance.
The crowd ranged from glitter T
shirts and leather jackets to flannel shirts
and cowboy hats to three-piece suits.
Children, elderly people, high school and
college students, the crowd was a mixed
bag.
Like the man who walked around
imitating a cricket Or the guy who kept
trying to sneak up onto the platform
with his girlfriend to dance. Or the little
old man wearing a broad -brimmed beige
hat that made him look like a grizzled
Canadian mountie.
"It's the same thing that always happens
when it's something where everybody can
come," commented a UNL student.
"That's exactly what you get -everybody."
More spectators than dancers
There seemed to be more spectators
than dancers. The dancers seemed ob
livious to anything but the movement
and the music. The music seemed geared
toward wen-known records like "Sat
urday Night Fever " 'Grease," and popular
Top-40 disco.
Freddie Bell played the music, getting
the dancers to shout, or freeze in one
position on command. 'The Disco Man"
used a tambourine, a whistle, maracas and
even shouts to punctuate the music at
various times. Occasionally Bell stood up
and did a little free-style boogie of his own.
Disco demonstration
The pace slowed and the mood shifted
when the dancing broke for a disco dance
demonstration by the Dance Emporium.
The crowd seemed restless, maybe anxious
to get back on the dance floor and try out
the steps for themselves.
When the dance floor finally opened
ip the dancers moved out with the music,
warming up for the open dance contest
that ended the evening. Moving rather
stiffly through the honeycomb of dancers
on the floor was a middle-aged man
dancing by himself.
Planetarium stretches imagination to the outer limits
By Mary Jane Winquest
Even though technical troubles hamper
ed some of the "Imagination" showings at
the Ralph Mueller Planetarium, program
coordinator Jack Dunn said the 31 -minute
audio-visual poem should not have any
more problems in its last two weeks in
Lincoln.
According to Dunn, not only has the
fuse gone out during shows, but a new
computer and a dissolve unit, controlling
the 740 slides, had to be installed.
"If the power goes off, any computer
will lose its memory," Dunn said. Once the
fuse goes out the show must be reset and
started from the beginning.
"I've done some rewiring so it is now on
two circuits," he said. "If one goes, the
other will be intact."
More than science
The show, projected on the planetarium
dome on three screens and 12 projectors,
includes Venus connotating beauty) Jupi
ter (a planet of jovility) and Neptune (a
planet of fear.)
Dunn said he wants to introduce more
interpretive shows like "Imagination" in
stead of strictly scientific star and constel
lation shows.
"We are the first planetarium of this size
to have the show," Dunn said, although it
has been shown at larger planetariums in
St. Louis, Mo. and Winnipeg, Canada.
"Imagination" producer, director and
photographer Joe Sohm plans to take the
show on a lectureseminar circuit.
Dunn said he and Sohm both like
college audiences for this type of product
ion. "I wouldn't have run "Imagination" in
the summer," he said, because the tourists
are more conventional and may not appre
ciate its unscientific standards.
Award winning film
Sohm's expertise as a photographer is
demonstrated in the vivid close-ups of
wheatfields, leaves and flowers while on
earth and superimposed images while in
outer space.
A gold medal winner in the 1977 New
York International Film Festival, "Imagin
ation" is accompanied by lsao Tomita's
computerized musical interpretation of
Gustav Hoist's 1914 composition "The
Planets".
William Shatner narrates the show and
launches the audience into a journey that is
governed by their imagination.
"We reach into our minds to travel
where our bodies cannot yet foflow,"
Shatner narrates. "We walk on the
planets."
Traveling where our bodies can't foDow
seems to be the most consistent theme of
the space odyssey.
Odyssey into imagination
But Dunn pointed out that any inter
polation is arbitrary because Sohm did not
preuuee "Imagination" to portray any
pa'tic a'.ar theme.
i ver. though the odyssey attempts to be
v .3i -is. reality creeps into the product-
r, her Shatner's voice is coupled with
his Star Trek ship, the Enterprise, as it
travels across the screens.
A music box, flanked by two women
dancers, one holding a Raggedy Ann doll,
initially seems to be the center of the
show.
Throughout the odyssey the two
dancers are alternating between space and
earth trying to reach "something". What
they are trying to reach is the imagination.
Programs will be presented through
Oct. 5. $1.50 for students and $2 for
non-students. The showings are: Wednes
day, 8:00 p.m., Thursday, 8:00 and 9:00
pjn., Friday, 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00, Satur
day and Sunday, 3:45, 7:00, 8:00 and
9:00 p.m. There will be no shows the after
noons of NU football games.
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Pfioto courtesy Chromosohm Media Divisioni Inc.
The Ralph Mueller Planetarium's current program, Imagination,'' is an odyssey of space, stars and fantasy.
University council has problems making music
By Kent Warneke
The city campus branch of the Univer
sity Program Council is facing a growing
problem in the scheduling of concerts for
students at UNL, according to the program
consultant for the UPC-City and its con
cert committee.
Gary Gilger, program consultant, said,
"I could give you a list of 30 to 40 differ
ent contingenices on whether the
university can put on a rock concert or not
on a certain date. It's not easy, but it's
not impossible."
According to Gilger, the main problem
facing the concert committee is the inac
cessibility of the University of Nebraska's
Sports Complex. The Sports Complex is
being renovated.
Administrative assistant at the Sports
Complex Paul Schneider, said, "We have a
contract for all of the work to be
completed by November 20, but until then
it wfll be unavailable for use."
Renovation a drawback
Old seats are being removed and
replaced with new plastic-backed seats.
Three thousand six hundred seats wfll
be removed and replaced on the north side
of the complex and 1 ,800 on the east and
west sides.
Sports Complex renovation is not the
only problem in concert scheduling.
One of the first steps in arranging a
concert is booking a group or solo per
former. 'We (the committee) are in contact
with several area promoters, show produc
tion companies and contemporary talent
scouts either weekly or bi-weekly," Gilger
said.
"We have to find out who's available,
if we think they are marketable in Lincoln,
their ticket prices and finally if we have a
hall available ."
City size
Lincoln's size determines what type of
music is scheduled.
"Out of Lincoln's approximate! 50,000
population, only 1.500 to 1,800 people
would pay to hear a jazz artist perform.
However, in a larger city, the attendance
would be greater just due to the fact of i
larger base population to begin with.
"The same holds true for a country
western singer like Jerry -Jeff Walker who
will have audience limitations, whereas
a group like Fleetwood Mac can play any
where and sell out."
The crux of the matter, according to
Gilger, is that certain performers will by
pass smaller cities if they feel these cities
cannot give them a large enough profit.
Also, the UPC -City's Concert Commit
tee is just now getting started.
Getting it together
Stuart Kolnicek, the newly -appointed
concert committee chairman said, "We're
just starting to get back together and it
will take some time to get people together
and go over everything."
Both Gilger and Kolnicek said they
are aiming for a date for a concert at the
Pershing Auditorium, although nothing
definite has been set.
Once the concerts begin to be sche
duled, the concert committee will handle
the overall production of each concert if
possible, including booking, buying,
promotion and profit -making.
Gilger said, "We're looking at an invest
ment of $25,000 to $35,000 for each
major show, but we can make a profit if
it is handled m the nth! a "
