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Arts & Entertainment
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‘A Moment's Notice’
Sheldon art exhibition hits the road
ny jen tuigei
Stiff Reporter
Still-lifes from the collection o
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’!
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery art
going on the road in an effort to ex
pose a better portion of the state to the
history, philosophy and aesthetic ol
that genre.
art", ~
In a travelling exhibition entitled
‘‘A Moment’s Notice,” nine Ne
braska communities will be provided
a glimpse of the definitive works of 20
artists, spanning a period in American
art from the mid-19th century to the
late-20th century. ‘‘A Moment’s No
tice” is the third in a series of annual
statewide travelling exhibitions.
According to Daphne Anderson
Deeds, curator and assistant director
of Sheldon, the travelling exhibits are
Fox trot, polka
alive‘n’kicking
for faculty club
By Emily Rosenbaum
Stiff Reporter
In an age of Dirty Dancing and
Club MTV, couples still can be found
dancing cheek-to-cheek to the
“Anniversary Waltz” and cutting a
rug to the Latin beat of the 4 ‘Faceted
Fandango.”
The Faculty Dance Club is one
group that focuses on ballroom danc
ing, including the waltz, polka, swing
and fox trot.
Members kicked off the 75 th anni
versary year of the dance club Satur
day night at the East Union with a
dinner and ballroom dancing.
The club includes faculty mem
bers from the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln, Southeast Commu
nity College, Wesleyan University,
Doane College and the Lincoln Pub
lic Schools.
Members of the club get together
for a dinner and dance ortce a month,
from September through April.
“There is an interest in ballroom
dancing,” said Carrie Varner, who
served as president of the club last
year with her husband Jerry. “It’s tun
and it’s good exercise.”
Came Varner said membership
this year is about 50 couples primar
ily between the ages of 40 and 60.
_• j #. . .
one xiiu many oi me couples in tne
club have taken dance lessons from
Southeast Community College and
dance studios in Lincoln.
‘ it’s a chance to really get close to
each other,” said A1 Lidolph, who
serves as president-elect of the club
this year with his wife, Twyla.
“Dancing was the big thing to do
in high school,” said Stan Jensen,
club treasurer and an associate pro
fessor of plant pathology at UNL.
‘ ‘I’ve always enjoyed it.
“My husband said that when he
was in high school, going to a dance
was the worst agony he could think
of,” Carrie said.
Jerry Varner, an associate profes
sor of electrical engineering at UNL,
said he and his wife have been taking
dance lessons for ten years.
“It’s one time when we’re to
gether and Jerry’s not messing with
his computer,” Carrie said.
Most of the music played by the
bands at the club’s dances is from the
1940s and 1950s, Jensen said.
The dance club had its informal
beginnings in 1914, when Dr. Winett
See DANCE on 15
meant to provide an abbreviated art
history lesson — a broad, genre survey
■ of American art’ ’ that would not oth
' erwise be as readily accessible to
t members of *hese smaller communi
: ties.
The diversity of subject matter,
• execution and medium presented in
the show - as well as the embodied
statements of the artists — combine to
create a visually interesting, intellec
tually exciting and, above ail, sensu
ally appealing representation of
changing American artistic ideas and
expression.
Included are works such as Charles
Rain’s sensual enigma “Architec
tural Still Life” dated 1978, and
Wayne Thiebaud’s texturally inter
esting “Cupcake” from 1961. Visual
illusion and trickery, abstraction and
modem comment upon the traditional
function of the still life are major
themes in many of the presentations.
The eccentric, immediate appeal
of pop art is represented in two of the
exhibit’s sensational, three-dimen
I
sional pieces — David Gilhooly’s ce
ramic “Frog Banana-Split Shaped
Sundae” and Claes Oldenburg’s
silkscreen, canvas, wood, cord and
acrylic creation “Soft Drum Set,”
dated 1983 and 1969, respectively.
While other museums may feel
content to include only lesser works in
their travelling exhibitions, Sheldon
is “circulating works of the highest
quality and importance — anything
less is going to undermine what we
are trying to accomplish here,”
Deeds said.
The first exhibition in this series
entitled “Miniature Masterworks,”
which began in August 1987, was
described by Deeds as “a diverse
group of undersized paintings which
are related by virtue of their size, but
which reveal larger issues pertinent to
the history of 20th century art.”
It was followed the next year by
“Face to Face,” an exhibition of por
traits including such works as
Marsden Hartley’s quietly powerful
“Young Worshipper of the Truth,”
and the Andy Warhol serigraph,
‘‘Jaqueline Kennedy,”
With only eight people on the ad
ministrative staff at the gallery which
produces around twenty exhibitions a
‘We feel we are
meeting the gal
lery's obligation to
the state".
The statewide
program is "a
good foundation
for our endeavors
at Sheldon and in
Lincoln."
—Deeds
' ' > '' ' o J.'
X-. -.-!' ■’ViM', O ' 1
year, Sheldon’s efforts and accom
plishments are impressive. x
The universityrs interest in the
• Al Sc haben/Daily Nebraskan
Lead singer/guitarist Kurt Neumann of the Bo Deans
BoDeans* show refreshing, danceable
By Gretchen Boehr
Senior Reporter
The Bo Deans probably were at
their best Friday night as they per
formed refreshing and danceable
tunes before a crowd of about 1,300
at the Peony Park ballroom in
Omaha.
The smooth harmony between
lead singers Sam Lianas and Kurt
Neumann and mix of acoustic and
electric guitars were refreshing
and exactly what any BoDeans fan
would expect.
54.40 opened with 45 minutes
of melodic rock ‘n’ roll. The
band’9 style borrows from R.E.M.,
especially evident from 54.40’s lat
est album, “Fight for Love.”
With its clean, yet complicated
melodies about universal aware
ness and brotherhood; this band
from Vancouver has potential.
The BoDeans played tunes
from their fist releases, “Love &
Hope & Sex & Dreams” and
“Outside Looking In.”
The band’s good-natured and
simple rhylhm was more evident
live than on vinyl, cassette or CD
— it was extremely enjoyable. The
band’s cheerful arrangements
compensate for the rather un
imaginative lyrics.
The band, from Wisconsin,
isn’t into glitzy dance moves, gui
tar tricks or machine-gun dnim
solos. The band plays its music like
it sounds - straightforward.
The BoDeans’ latest release
seems to be an attempt to come off
as more than a pop band.
‘Home” features more lyrical
content and complicated melo
dies.
The band played a fairly good
mix of old and new music Friday
night from the upbeat rhythm of
Pick Up the Pieces” to the
swinging sound of “Hand and
Hand.”
At times, the BoDeans’ music
features an upbeat version of the
blues with acoustic flair.
“She’s a Runaway,” off the
first album released in 1986
probably is one of the BoDeans’
best. A song about wife-beating, it
has lyrical content as well as spark.
Overall, Friday night was full of
great music. The sound was clean
with little distortion and the
BoDeans were at their honest best
. statewide travelling program recently
led to the appointment of Janice S.
Roberts as community programs co
> ordinator.
1 “We feel we are meeting the gal
lery’s obligation to the state,’’ Deeds
said.
She said she also considers the
statewide program “a good founda
tion for our endeavors here,” at Shel
don and in Lincoln.
“A Moment’s Notice” runs for
one-month periods in each of nine
communities, opening in North Platte
Oct. 1 and continuing to McCook,
Loup City, Grand Island, Columbus,
Beatrice, Aurora, Hastings and
Cozad. Venues selected to house the
exhibit include city halls, historical
societies, libraries and similar set
tings which Sheldon selected in the
interest of both environment and
security. Volunteers in each com
munity are trained to lead tours.
“A Moment’s Notice” is under
written by the Nebraska Art Asso
ciation.
Women perform
scenes from life
under Apartheid
Gretchen Boehr
Senior Reporter
On a stark stage, three black
women acted out scenes from their
lives in South Africa in “You Strike
the Women, You Strike the Rock,” at
Kimball Recital Hall Sunday night.
Through their actions and the
audience’s imagination, the women
create different scenes of day-to-day
existence under apartheid.
JdmMi,
i nc actresses taciaJ expressions
and exaggerated actions show humor
and a seemingly unbreakable spirit of
South African black women, who are
considered second-class citizens
beneath black men and whites under
apartheid.
And their dignity and strength was
evident as they struggled to provide
for their families.
The three characters, played by
Thobeka Maqhutyana, Nomvula
Qosha and Poppy Tsira, illegally
peddle oranges and chickens on the
streets of Capetown in order to sur
vive.
“Buy an orange, the juice will
open your eyes,” calls out a woman
holding a broken umbrella. The other
two argue about whose chickens are
better and compete for customers.
Humor flavors the performance as
the women argue with imaginary
customers and themselves, all the
while keeping a sharp eye out for
police.
Black men often worked in mines
or towns away from their families and
the women took care of the house
hold.
In one scene, the play shows a
woman waiting at a post office for
money supposedly sent by her hus
band. She waits in a long line of
women and children, but finds that
. ter husband never sent the money.
The hymns in the play are some
times joyful and other times desper
ate as the women pray to Jesus to
Protect their children while they work
In one scene the characters show
the difficult life under a demanding
white “master” who forces the
women to work, work, work.
One woman takes three days off of
work after a miscarriage and she’s
fired for not taking her job seriously.
‘You Strike” was put on by the
Vusisizwe Players in association
w£th the Market Theatre Company,
c C. ^us!s'zwe Players are three
South African women who have trav
eled throughout the world perform
ing this play.