thursdaynovember 1, 1979
daily nebreskcn
Orchesis fundraiser
Dancers skate, boogie for fashion
By Cheryl Kisling
Despite typical first performance troubles, the UNL
dance group, Orchesis, presented a fashion show Tuesday
at Harper-Schramm-Smith residence halls that was any
thing but typical.
Orchesis, a dance group composed of and run by stu
dents, modeled fashions by dancing and roller skating to
disco music.
The show was directed and choreographed by Pat
Williams, group vice president. He said he once did a simi
lar show at a Lincoln country club, but used more dancing
in this production.
One of the problems directing the fashion show was
only three of the 15 dancers knew how to disco dance,
Williams said.
"For most, this was the first time with this kind of
dance," he said. 'They pulled off a fantastic job for the
first time."
But Williams had other problems. Two people dropped
out because of illness and one male performer did not
come back from Florida in time for the show Tuesday
night. Williams filled in for the missing dancers.
In addition, Orchesis had limited rehearsal time. The
group meets every Wednesday night, which was the only
time they practiced the show, Williams said.. Dancers re-
hearsed about 25 hours, but not everyone could attend all
the meetings, he added.
Cathy Wheeler, president of Orchesis, said there were
"unbelievable problems" finding an area to have the
fashion show.
"Because we're amateur models, not professionals, it's
only natural that merchants aren't as excited about us as
we are," Wheeler said. "We are proving ourselves to those
who take us up on the offer." .
Businesses in the Atrium were the most cooperative
supplying fashions, Wheeler said. Four of the five mer
chants were from the Atrium.
One of the main purposes for creating the fashion show
was to raise money for Orchesis annual spring dance per
formance. "This is a real learning experience. Nothing teaches you
like performing in front of people," Wheeler said.
Orchesis might do another fashion show in the spring
and go to local high schools to introduce the group to
potential UNL students, she said. Performing is advertis
ing, she said, and the group encourages any students inter
ested in dancing to join.
"We are the only dancing group on campus that is en
tirely run by students. It's nice to able to say and do
this," Wheeler said. '
Orchesis has scheduled two more fashion shows at the
Atrium on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
M
On
Photo by Mike Sweeney
Orchesis dancer Pat Williams (right) twirls an undentified dancer in the group's disco fashion show Tuesday evening.
Harmonica riff s
founded on blues
By Michael Wiest
When it comes to white harmonica players, two
names are usually mentioned first-Paul Butterfield
and Charlie Musselwhite. The latter played at the
Zoo Bar Monday night.
Musselwhite's life story reads like a blues ballad,
and if this isn't directly responsible for some of the
' harmonica riffs he produces, it at least shows that
he knows firsthand what he sings and plays about.
Musselwhite was born in Mississippi in 1944.
When he was three years old his family moved to
Memphis, Tenn., in a dump truck, no less. There in ,
the late 1950s he learned the blues from black
veterans such as Furry Lewis and Will Shade. In
1962, at age 18, Musselwhite journeyed up Highway
51 to Chicago in search of work, not music.
By coincidence, he found himself in the south
side ghetto among legendary blues artists. Soon he
met Big Joe Williams, who talked him into dropping
the guitar for the blues harp, and after that, Little
Walter Jacobs and Shakey Walter Horton, pioneers
of the Chicago blues harp, with whom he served a
sort of apprenticeship.
It was then that the recording career of Charles
Douglas Musselwhite III began with the classic
album , Stand Back! Her Comes Charley Musselwhite
and His Blues Band.
In yearssince, Musselwhite has toured the United
States, Canada and Europe, has nearly 20 albums to
his credit, rightfully earning a reputation as a legend
on the harmonica. In the mid-1970s he overcame
drug addiction and a four-year performing slump to ,
' come back on the road and to publish a book and
an album titled The Harmonica According to
Charlie Musselwhite. t
At the Zoo Bar Monday night, he showed what it
has all been about. Staying true to his roots,
Musselwhite played good and bad-time blues, back-,
ed up by his band featuring Tom Watson on lead
guitar, Johnny Ace on bass and Walter Sliuffles on
drums. -1 , ; '
The full sound produced by this minimal band,
lacking the usually rhythm guitar, testified to the
talent of Musselwhite's musicians. Musselwhite's
harmonica playing and vocals sounded as strong and
soulful as ever. - : :
The highlight of theperfoimance was Mussel
white's slow blues instrumental number "Stranger,"
which spoke powerfully of alienation and hard
times.' This was communicated not only by the
music, but by the presence of Musselwhite, a man
who knows what it feels like.
Dance workshop
A series of workshops on folk dancing will be spon
sored by the School, of Health, Physical Education and
Recreation at UNL Friday and Saturday.
The workshops will be directed by Don Allen, assistant
director and choreographer for the Brigham Young
University International Folk Dancers.
The program, hosted by Dorothy Hughes, assistant pro
fessor of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, will
be .at Mabel Lee Hall, Room 119. Friday's session will
include square dance, contra dance and line dance. Friday
evening, the Appalachian Clog dance will be taught at
beginning and intermediate levels. . ,
'Apocalypse Now' study of human evils and instincts
By Pete Schmitz
.... Human life Is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only
when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap. A
man of the Classical Age who had to live in medieval times
would suffocate miserably fust as a savage does in the
midst of our civilization. Now there are times when a
whole generation is caught in this way between two ages,
two modes of life, with the consequence that it loses all
power to understand itself and has no standard, no
security, no simple acquiescent. Naturally, every one
does not feel this equally strongly. A nature such as -Nietzche's
had to suffer our present ills more than a
generation in advance. What he had to go through alone
and misunderstood, thousand suffer today.
Hermann Hesse from his novel Steppenwolf
The above passage, although it is not from Heart of
Darkness, the main source for Francis Ford Coppola's
ambitious effort Apocalypse Now, succinctly describes
the dilemma of the film's most intriguing character, Col.
Walter E. Kurtz. .
Kurtz is a brilliant graduate of West Point, and a recog
nized humanist as well. His career has been heavily
ladened with honors, and he has been channeled by the
top brass to one day acquire a powerful position in the
military.
But his future is ruined once he learns the supposed
secrets of human evil and carries his war methods too far. .
Then it is up to Captain Willard to terminate Kurtz's
command with extreme prejudice.
Willard's journey takes him through the river into
Cambodia and the 'bowels of the earth. It is a
nightmare which exposes the madness and cruelty of
civilized technocracy (evident at the start of the journey)
and primitive culture.
After the adventures of Willard and his four crewmates
on the P.B.R. boat, the Captain's long-awaited confronta
tion with Kurtz and what ensues afterward will strike
many as anticlimatic. Part of the reason for this surprising
lack of intensity at the end is the director's attempt to
portray what he views as the determination of humankind
to annihilate itself. But the anticlimax also is because of
the accidental blundering of Marlon Brando's interpretat
ion of Kurtz. Although Kurtz is to have no purpose in his
life by the time we see him, Brando still should have
emanated a charismatic appeal that partially was respons
ible for the awe he inspired among the natives and other
renegade soldiers..
mi C0PP0LA AND co-writers John Milius and
hnni;eiCrr ?tempt t0 d0 11 10 myth mat one
hopes will render greater understanding among audiences
about human nature. The Vietnam Wn (and this is whew
things get real touchy) i, not the subject of fffflm nS
h i me(ely a contextual backdrop for thto on ?TTie
no c oVn&brt?lnatU.re a?d actionsof people, and
lws".em ' Wntm View h "Pted from
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