Friday, February 27, 1987
Daily Nebraskan
Page 9
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Arts
Examples of elegance
in 'dancing Gershwin '
By Charles Lieurance
Senior Reporter
The music of George Gershwin has
managed to unite more musical styles,
appeal to more generations and feel at
home in more performance mediums
than the works of any other American
composer.
Dance Preview
As a tribute to the staying power and
versatility of Gershwin's music, the
UNL theater and dance department,
under the direction of Jerry Bevington,
is presenting "dancing Gershwin," an
evening of adventurous choreography
set to Gershwin compositions.
Gershwin combined blues, jazz,
classical, opera and folk music with
the lively music of the American
Broadway stage to produce masterpie
ces that could be played and enjoyed in
the parlors of Small Town, U.S.A., as
well as in the concert halls of every
metropolitan center worldwide.
His music has been featured in
innumerable films, inspired several
long-running musicals on Broadway,
transposed into rock 'n' roll, and has
been the background for some of the
most exciting and innovative choreo
graphy lor film and stage in this century.
Because Gershwin's music moves
seamlessly from mood to mood and
style to style, one moment blue and
melancholy, the next light and playful,
it is ideal for choreography. The music
allows a choreographer to run the
gamut of physical expressiveness, from
the experimental and exotic to the
passionate and sensual; from the homey
and traditional to the ballroom opu
lence of the Jazz Age.
The dancers in "dancing Gershwin"
will be accompanied by the Nebraska
Vocal Arts Ensemble under the direc
tion of Charles "Chip" Smith. Joseph
A rodent with a mission
'B&MeF Mouse9 ffmii
By Stew Magnuson
Senior Reporter
I was tired of "Wheel of the Unfortu
nate" and Vanna White, was just to
impossibly glossy. I was tired of
"MASH".and "Barney Miller" at
6:30. 1 needed something more stimu
lating after watching Mel Mains on the
evening news. Flipping through the
cable channels 1 found what I was look
ing for Danger Mouse!
Tube Talk
Every weekday night at 6:30 on
Nickelodeon, Danger Mouse and his
trusty companion, Penfold the hams
ter, take on the evildoers of the world.
Sure, it's a cartoon, so what?
"Danger Mouse" is a British import,
one part James Bond, one part Sherlock
Holmes and one part Monty Python. It's
silly, goofy, and is loaded with enough
bad puns to keep you groaning for the
rest of the night. Yes, it is a children's
show. I'm not going to sit here and
write a bunch of junk about how
"Danger Mouse" has another adult
level. And I'm not going to pretend or
look for more sophisticated levels of
meaning. No, as far as I can see, there
just aren't any other levels there.
"Danger Mouse" is a children's cartoon
show I love and watch faithfully.
"Danger Mouse" doesn't take itself
seriously. You can have your Macho He
Mans, G.I. Joes and She-Ras. Danger
Mouse is a rodent with a mission. He
and Penfold are ready to take on the
dangerous, and not so dangerous, vil
lains threatening Earth. They patiently
await Colonel K's orders from their
secret hideout inside a London postbox.
Kraus from the UNL School of Music
will accompany on piano and percus
sion for the performance will be pro
vided by Brian Irons, a UNL music
student.
According to Bevington, the perfor
mance will concentrate on "three
examples of elegance."
The first will be colorful, syncopated
and playful. This portion of the pro
gram features 15 tunes, including "I'll
Build a Stairway to Paradise," "Three
Preludes for Piano" and "Someone to
Watch Over Me."
The costuming, sets and choreogra
phy for this part of the show will be
designed to capture the "opulence of
the Jazz Age," Bevington said.
After intermission the dancers will
return with a dazzling display of scarlet
and black, designed to evoke a mood of
flashy, sensual elegance.
The finale will be what most con
sider to be Gershwin's masterpiece,
"Rhapsody in Blue."
The music allows
a choreographer
to run the gamut
of physical
. .
To create this dance extravaganza,
the department of theater and dance
enlisted six choreographers Mari
ane Sanders, Jeanne M. Finnegan, Jef
frey Kuhl, Dorothy Hughes, Nancy
Curtis-Brestel and Bevington. The cos
tume designer is Janice Stauffer.
Performances of "dancing Gershwin"
are at 8 tonight and Saturday night,
with a matinee scheduled at 3 p.m.
Saturday afternoon. Tickets cost $6 for
students and senior citizens and $8 for
all others. The University Theatre-Dance
Box-Office is in Temple Building 109.
Once they did battle with an evil
scientist and a flock of vicious bats.
Cricket bats, that is. Once the Earth
was under 30-feet of water. The tides
had washed over London because an
alien started a rocket scrap heap on
one side of the moon, creating an off
balance magnetic pull.
"I only want one thing for my pile of
scrap," the little green alien said.
"And what's that?" Danger Mouse
asks.
"Eyebrows. I've never had any!"
Penfold loyally gives the alien his
eyebrows. The world is saved.
The animation and backgrounds of
"Danger Mouse" are great. No, it doesn't
approach the old Warner Brothers car
toons, or even "Johnny Quest"; it seems
no cartoons ever will again. But it's
much better than the computer-generated,
robotic junk that comes over
from Japan for the macho afternoon
cartoons, or should I say, the macho,
half-hour advertisements for He-Man
toys.
Who would have
thought any pro
gram could follow
Mel Mains?
"Danger Mouse" is just plain fun.
The narrator never lets you forget he's
reading from a script. Sometimes Pen
fold has to stop to rehearse his lines. A
cartoon character rehearsing his lines?
Making fun of the script is common
(and I bet you thought they made that
up on "Moonlighting").
"Danger Mouse" is the perfect 6:30
show, and who would have thought any
program could follow Mel Mains?
V
Cornerstone plays
By Greg Vest
Staff Reporter
Cornerstone, a local Christian
band, is as diverse in its music as it
is in its membership. Cornerstone is
an interdenominational group whose
membership ranges from Catholics
and Presbyterians to Mennonites.
They cover by Amy Grant,
Steve Taylor, Fetra, Michael W.
Smith and others alon with a cou
ple of originals written by bassist
Joe Gehr. The music itself ranges
from rock to ballads with some pop,
folk and country mixed in. A few
tunes in their set might even have
been written by Elvis Costello
turned Southern Baptist.
If you just heard the song titles,
such as '.'Rock Solid," "Scene of the
Crime," and "I Know Power," you
might mistake them for cr.e of the
many secular generic rock bands cf
Visit from an uninvited Vietnam vet
spices up questions, poses question
Amid the rigors of college life
cognitive gnawing during
the week, religious sedation
on the weekends It's nice well,
interesting to have an experience
that causes one's adrenalin to ooze
from one's ears.
With that in mind, I have a story to
tell. A phenomena that could only be
labeled a sign of the times.
It was a slow Friday evening. The
first after a series filled with rather
gratuitously fast-paced living ... all in
all, a "relaxing" evening at the dwelling.
A pawing hand
One of my roomates, Tom, noticed a
hand pawing at the large leaded-glass
window that stands between the foyer
and the front door. Thinking that it was
one of the warped clan that so often
saturates our house, I hopped over the
couch and quickly opened the door.
Rather than finding a friend, I found
my 6-2 frame mano-a-niano with a
6-5, wild eyed drunk.
"Got to get the kids out," he raged,
as he tried to walk through me into the
living room.
I am a pacifist. At the same time, I
don't rally care to have large, raving
Corncrstcns
music that moves the
it.
The band has been together a
year now and has been playing for
church camps and youth groups. I
attended a private show for a youth
group and was impressed by the
atmospherre that the group gener
ated. They have a great sense of
burner, even with the corny jokes.
Guitarist B-vi-i n.lixcn, Splays
freat ta!?r.t that shouldn't be
ignored just because he doe&i't
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copy Eddie Van Halen. Singer Kay
Miller has a rich voice that reminds
me of Mansa Cass in its power and
ran8. Thoir.h they could use a bit
mere practice, they have a powerful
sound that matches the music they
pby. Too many reck fcsnds alter
p-nk ar.d folk music so that the
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drunks rummaging around in our cellar
trying to "get the kids out." Thus I
made the most aggressive move I would
ever want to make. I stopped him,
midchest, with an open palm.
"There's no kids here," I replied, my
stomach in a series of panicked knots.
"Got to get the kids out," he insisted,
trying to move past me and Norris,
another roomate.
Kevin Gowan
"There's only who you see in the
room," Norris said.
"Look," he said, "my name's . . . well
... a name that doesn't mean shit. Well
... my name's Gregory."
Then one of those one-minute hand
shakes. A handshake filled, not with
placid greetings, but with confusion
and fear.
"I'm a 'Nam vet ... I was down at . . .
that . . . well ... . down at that shop ..."
he slurred.
"What. The 7-11?" I offered.
"Ya. sefun-elefen," he mumbled.
There were these kids and . . . we
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spirit and the feet
Davis played with a broken ankle.
Now that's dedication.
The group really seemed to enjoy
themselves and that carried to the
high-school audience, Some of the
students danced, others tapped their
feet and all smiled. The absence of
the usual extracurricular activities
that accompany rock concerts only
er.hs.ced the imaja Ccrr.erstcr.e
v;c.s trjirj to resent. It vt s f-n rr 1
1 kit no pressure to he anyone
except myself, a hard thing to find
at a gathering of religious indivi
duals. Cornerstone doesn't play for
profit, they ask only that their
expenses be covered. They expressed
real interest in playing on campus,
hoping to show people another side
to rock music that doesn't include
biting heads off bats and dressing
like Dovki lee Both clen.es. Pd
much rather listen to these guys
that ths crcss-ccrrjir.3 crusaders
v.ho flsc to L-jLj.I Fountain
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can't let them go over . . . they don't
need to be there," he pleaded.
"I understand that," I said, now feel
ing the tension drop, mildly, from my
midsection. Heart rate down to warp 3.
He had no weapon a reassuring sign.
Handshakes and babble
More handshakes more babble.
After about 15 minutes we convinced
him of the lack of refugees in our
basement. A strange pickup truck was
honking in front of our house. Seemed
to be the cronie of this wild-eyed vet
standing, now not so wired, in our
doorway. The driver never revealed
himself . . . little wonder why.
Greg left our foyer on one of those
"God bless you" tones adopted so fre
quently by the panhandlers on 0 Street.
A couple of points can be derived
from this cerebral ovi oad.
In this day of '80s new paranoia, he's
lucky he wasn't arrested. Many would
have freaked, beaten him over the skull
with an iron poker or a halfempty
vodka bottle. Had Norris and I been
out, leaving my four smaller room
mates, that may have been the conclu-
See COVAN on 10