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daily nebraskan
monday, february 23, 1981
n LJ
BOOH
Comic dancer to perform at Nebraska Unions
By Sue Jepsen
Television is killing the almost "religious
experience" of live performance, according
to Matthew Child, Centennial artist-in-resi-dence.
Today and Tuesday, Child will bring his
art to both Nebraska unions. Child, a
comic dancer, will perform in the East
Campus Union cafeteria at 5 pjn. today.
Tuesday he will be in the Nebraska
Union ballroom at 7:30 p.m. Both
shows are sponsored by University Program
Council and Lincoln Fine Arts Council.
"Comic dance is just what the name
implies-dance that is more comic, has
more clowning and is more personalized,"
Child said.
There are different types of mime, he
said, and his involves the use of contortion,
some simple props and acrobatics along
with dance.
Child developed his craft while touring
with the Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe, a
group he formed with some friends while
attending the University of Utah.
The troupe toured the western United
States and Europe for eight years before
the group folded in 1978. The group, ori
ginally all dancers, combined the best of
dancing, acting and comedy, Child said.
The troupe started doing the basic
white-face "literal mime," but used larger
mime movements and did song and dance
routines, he said.
The big change in the act came when
the troupe went to Europe in 1975, Child
said. They dropped the white faces, did
more characters and added simple props,
he said.
Stayed with friends
While on tour the troupe stayed in
homes of people they knew or strangers
who saw their show and offered to let
them stay the night.
"We were all hobos for sure," Child
said. The troupe made some life-long
friends that way, and even broke up one
marriage, he added.
During the first three years he was with
the troupe, Child also took classes at the
University of Utah.
"I had some of the best teachers in
institutionalized dance," he said.
Before attending Utah, Child had Vh
years of ballet. Although modern dance
and ballet are similar, Child said, one can
easily tell when a dancer has had ballet
training because of the "steel frame they
have."
"It (ballet) frees up your limbs as you
develop a strong center," he said.
Child said he traveled since he was a
child growing up "like an Army brat." His
father was an economics professor who
traveled extensively doing research for
companies and universities.
His mother met his father in France
during World War II while she toured in the
USO. Theirs was a "classic war romance,"
Child said.
While he grew up, he said his mother
taught him and his brothers and sisters tap
dancing and told them about the USO and
her family's experience in Vaudeville.
Although Child enjoys live performing
most, he said he has been teaching a lot
lately.
For the first half of this semester he has
been the artist-in-residence for the Centen
nial Education Program.
Busy residency
This is the longest and most involved
residency he has ever done, he said, along
with teaching a centennial class, he teaches
drama and self-expression to inmates at the
State Penal Complex for Southeast Com
munity College.
Through the Lincoln Action Program
he teaches clowning improvisation in the
Lincoln schools and he teaches a class for
the Malone Center in Lincoln.
Child arranges his classes and perform
ances. He said this comes from his days
with the Salt Lake Mime Troupe
when they worked without an agent.
Child said he likes to organize a year in
advance if he can. He is constantly typing
letters and mailing his resume to places
looking for work.
After he leaves the Centennial program
March 5, he hopes to go to Europe. In
August he will appear in Edinburgh, Scot
land, where for Vi weeks the "whole place
becomes a theater," he said.
Looking further ahead, Child said he
didn't know what he would be doing,
especially with the cost of traveling in
creasing. "A lot depends on modern transporta
tion. My traveling may become limited,"
he said.
Child said he may even get out of the
entertainment business because he can't
make money at what he is doing and he has
no social life.
Child said he has thought of giving up
and going back to school again, but he isn't
sure.
"I know what I'm doing is as good as
what everybody else is doing," he said.
"Besides, I like to have a good time."
11 k ft
eft M
Tickets go on sale today for the Eric
Clapton concert scheduled for Sunday
March 22 at 8 p.m. in the Bob Devaney
Sports Center.
Clapton, whose work has spanned
such groups as Cream, Blind Faith,
Derek and the Dominoes and a highly
successful solo career, is widely recog-
Photo courtesy of RSO Records
nized as one of rock music's finest gui
tarists. The Lincoln appearance is one in a
four-month, 60-cencert tour of the
United States for Clapton, who is pro
moting his latest album Another Ticket,
his first studio album in two years.
Special guest for the Eric Clapton
concert is The Fabulous Thunderbirds.
11 1
'fit
. - f-r J
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' 4? 1
Photo by Mitch Hrdlicka
Mathew Child will perform today and Tueday.
One-time Muddy Waters
member sings 'own' blues
By Pat Higgins
"My name came from the people of
Chicago's West Side," said Guitar Jr., who
just completed a weekend stint at the Zoo
Bar.
"I never knew no Guitar Sr."
Guitar Jr. is best known as a former
member of the legendary Muddy Waters
band. Waters, who will be appearing at
Kimball Recital Hall Thursday, is consider
ed one of the seminal figures of urban
blues and indirectly one of the godfathers
of rock'n'roll. (Ask the Rolling Stones who
borrowed their very name from one of his
songs.)
Waters has undergone a well-deserved
commercial and critical renaissance since
the 1977 release of Hani Again on Blue
Sky Records.
"I was with Muddy Waters back when
we were on Chess Records." Chess was also
the home of Chuck Berry and Howling
Wolf, along with many other luminaries.
"When old man Chess died, the son
took over but the company went broke,
you understand. Wit h Muddy, I tried to
play as close as possible to what he was
doing."
Guitar Jr. harbors no bitterness towards
his former cohort.
"Muddy and I get along just fine, I
called him up last Christmas."
Guitar Jr. is currently affiliated with
Alligator Records, the company almost
single-handedly responsible for releasing
any new blues music, and he is currently
touring the blues bar circuit.
"I fell in love with this bar the first
time I came in here. The people arc beauti
ful." "I knew when I left Muddy that I still
wanted to keep playing my guitar and I
wanted to do my own songs."
His style is very fluid and slices like a
razor when he cuts loose.
"It's hard when a band is first starting
out but every day things are improving,"
he said.
There is much critical debate regarding
the legitimacy of the Blues Brothers and
Guitar Jr. has some interesting observations
concerning them.
"Their success does make you stop and
think but they are doing a good thing by
keeping the blues going. I'm in the movie
playing with John Lee Hooker. The Blues
Brothers are bringing a lot of new people
to the music and I think blues is going to
come back stronger than ever," he said.
The blues audience has in recem years
been white, but there have been some
changes as of late.
"We used to go into places and not see
one black face. Now a lot more black
people are coming to see us," he said.
Guitar Jr. followed the same hallowed
path of so many othei blues greats leaving
the Deep South for Chicago.
"I was born and raised in Greewood,
Mississippi where 1 had my first group
which was gospel. I played acoustic guitar
and we would go from church to church
and play."
Some religious fundamentalists consid
ered blues to be the devil's music, but
Guitar Jr. begs to differ.
"1 don't think playing blues makes you
less religious. I first came to Chicago in
1962 and started playing with Otis Rush
and Magic Slim and then I went with
Muddy," he said.
Guitar Jr. appears to be quite content
to be fronting his own band.
"I'm doing something I can feel." he
said, "and I know that you can feel it too."