Arts & Entertainment
Benitez dances her way into Kimball Hall
By Micki HaHer
Senior Editor
The Maria Benitez, Spanish Dance
Company stomped into Kimball
Recital Hall Monday night with the
traditional fire and flair of flamenco.
Not only did each member of the
company convey its passion and
emotion through dance, but also
through the elaborate costumes and
spicy music.
The first dance, “Jaleo,” began
with the music of two guitarists and a
singer. The dancers walked onto the
stage in a stiff .procession, and the
light was filtered, as if it were coming
through tree leaves in the late after
noon.
A woman wore a red dress with
Mack polka-dots, a man was com
pletely in black, another man donned
a black suit with white shirt, and a
woman dressed in black with fringe.
The women twisted and writhed;
even though the motion was fluid, the
dance was punctuated with the
rhythm. Their entire bodies undu
lated to the music.
The flamenco is distinguished by
its fancy footwork, and the use of the
hands. The dancers clap and stomp;
they twirl their hands and tap their
feet.
“Solea” is one of the oldest tradi
tions of the “deep song.” Benitez kept
the dance as fresh as its origins,
however.
She wore a white dress with black
polka-dots and a long train. The most
amazing thing was the way Benitez
maneuvered the train through the
dance. She kicked it, she lifted and
earned it, she watched it as it fol
lowed her across die floor.
Antonio Vega helped her with her
shawl. She twirled into it — the
simple act of dressing became flour
ished. She wrapped herself in it, then
walked offstage with a great deal of
pride. The audience loved iL
The highlight of the first act was
“Viva La Jota.” Based on the jota
from northern Spain, the dance was
punctuated by great mountain vital
ity.
The dancers wore gypsy cos
tumes, and used castanets to punctu
ate their performance. The two
women and man leapt into the air,
swirled around the floor, and per
formed a very happy dance.
Antonio Vega performed “Far
ruca ” Vega, a tall, thin man was
dressed entirely in black, with high
waisted pants and a blousy shirt
Accompanying him were the two
guitars and the singer. The singer’s
voice was a moan, a cross between an
Indian chant and a monk’s.
The men’s dancing lacked the flir
tatious flair of the women’s steps.
But, it was just as passionate. Vega
clapped, he stepped, he stomped. His
legs moved like rubber-bands, so fast
were his feet tapping a tattoo upon the
stage.
Benitez proved her mastery over
the traditional dance during “Ale
grias.”
Dressed in black pants with a red
vest, she danced almost in a man’s
style, but added some slinky, femi
nine touches. Benitez was sultry,
graceful, passionate. The others were
good, but she had that something
extra.
For the finale, the entire company
joined in the dance. The audience
laughed as the fat little singer began
to dance, but quickly began to respect
the man’s technique and skill.
From the most exalted to the last
musician, the Benitez dance troupe
displayed the utmost skill, and
brought flaming life to Kimball’s
performance series.
_ ■
John Bruce/Daily Nabraakan
‘Geranium Diapers’: Giggle, giggle, giggle
By Mick Dyer
| Senior Reporter
The members of Geranium
Diapers, an unconventional local
band with its roots in industrial
music, have a love hate relation
shipwith their music and audience.
They just love to be hated.
Shawn Michaud, a junior elec
trical engineering major at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
and vocalist, trombone-player and
drum-tracks programmer for Gera
nium Diapers, sums up the band's
innovative attitude towards music
best:
‘Til play just about anything I
can get a sound out of.”
For example, Michaud plays an
instrument he made from a rusty
old pipe he found in a field.
“I put my trombone mouthpiece
on it,” he said. ”We used it in a song
called ‘Cow Hell’ and it was pretty
effective.”
Michaud describes the band’s
music as having a sense of humor.
“Everything we do is kind of
funny, in a way,” he said. “Some of
our song titles, you can tell they’re
tunny, like ‘Petunia Takeover’ and
‘Thunking Emo.’"
Todd Scott, keyboardist for
Geranium Diapers, emphasizes the
spontaneous nature ot the band’s
music.
“1 don’t think we even have a
direction,” Scott said. “We’re just
looking for a reaction — good or
bad.”
The band has played together
since the first Broadside tape came
cut about a year ago.
“Mike Davis, who started the
Broadside project, came up to us
and said ‘ Do you want to do a song ’
and so I said ’All right, we’U throw
together a band,’” Michaud said.
Geranium Diapers recorded its
First song in Michaud’s basement
The members used only one micro
phone and it took them 10 minutes
to record it. And thjir marginal
concern for sound quality shows on
the First Broadside tape.
“Everybody else only got one
song and they were really short and
everybody really hated our song,
because it was really long and
noisy,” Michaud said. “It’s pretty
well generally hated.”
“I was striving for a song that
somebody would listen to once and
then want to fast forward over
every time else they came to it,”
Michaud said. “People who listen
to pop are just going to hate it.”
Since its musical debut on the
first edition of Broadside, Gera
nium Diapers have released three
tapes. Five copies of the latest tape,
“Republic Issue #5” are still avail
able at local record stores.
'We've been doing editions of
10,” Michaud said. x‘But we’ve
always sold out.”
The B-side of the latest tape is a
25-minute tangent from an obscure
region of Michaud's mind to fill
out the other 30 minites of a one
hour tape. It features a repetitive
drum pattern and a 20-second tape
loop that goes, “giggle, giggle,
giggle, swamp-rat, giggle, giggle,
k vc talked to people who have
listened to the whole B side and
said it just goes on and on forever
and never does anything,"
Michaud said. “Anybody who
would sit and listen to the B-side
has to be kind of twisted.”
y Dingman III, guitarist for
Geranium Diapers and also For
Against agreed.
“I’d rather listen to a dryer run,”
he said.
But Michaud encourages
people to listen to it anyway.
“If you can make it through the
first eight minutes there is some
thing,” he said. “I knocked off the
drum pattern and talked for a wh lie.
I do this Ron Kurtenbach imitation,
just to torment them.”
Strange as it may seem. Gera
nium Diapers has developed a
limited, underground following.
“Actually, it’s really limited,”
Michaud said. “We have some
dedicated fans who go to Project
and say, ‘Hey there’s a new Gera
nium Diapers tape’ and buy it right
away.”
But the members of the band
have no idea who it is who listens to
their music, because they’ve never
played live.
“We were supposed to play
actually once, but the show got
cancelled,” Michaud said. “What
I’d really like to do is open for the
New Brass Guns.”
'Anybody who
would sit and lis
ten to tho B-side
has got to bo kind
of twisted. ’
~ Michaud
“I think that would be really
fun,” Michaud said. “We could
scare off their whole audience
before the evening even started.”
Geranium Diapers submitted a
song for the most recent edition of
Broadside, which will be released
Friday. Michaud said the song is
not included on the 90-minute tape.
Gregg Cosgrove, who is in charge
of music for Broadside, could not
be reached to explain why.
“That comment Cosgrove made
about almost all of the songs ap
pearing on the tape, being real
songs, was definitely pointed at
us,” Michaud said. “I consider
what we're doing real songs,
whether he does or not.”
Michaud said that Geranium
Diapers still supports the purpose
of Broadside.
“We’re not trying to knock
Broadside, (it) should be sup
ported, but I think (it) should still
allow the experimental bands on
the tape,” he said.
The band has made some musi
cal progress the past year.
‘fThat first song we did for
Broadside, all we wanted to do was.
make as much noise as we could,”
Michaud said. “There’s a kK more
continuity now."
Geranium Dlapara
