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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1994)
Arts ©Entertainment Wednesday, September 28,1994 Page 9 No time to whine, dance instructor says By Paula Lavlgn« Senior Reporter Tacked on a cork board outside Anita Lemon’s office is a sign that reads “Don’t Complain. Don’t Ex plain. Just Do It.” Inside her office, a big “No Whining” stares from her desk. For Lemon, a visiting dance art ist, the signs serve as personal logos. “I’m one that believes the sec ond you cross the door of the stu dio, you have to leave everything else behind you,” she said. “The time you spend with the dancers is important. In 90 minutes of class, the out side problems can’t be changed, she said. Sometimes, Lemon wears her pin to class and points to it when her students start complain ing. Lemon, who has traveled exten sively in the United States and Eu rope, said she had been relocated many times while working with companies and maintaining her solo repertoire. She juggles these responsibili ties with her duties to her husband in Utah and her son in Texas. “We do a three-state comm ute,” she said. “If I whine. I could make myself crazy. I can't permit myself to worry. “I love what I do. I love working with dancers.” -She said that while she enjoyed her work with professional danc ers, she particularly loved working with young dancers, because she could teach, guide and ex pose them to new skills and ideas. Lemon said she noticed that in a university setting, dance students were studying, dancing and often working two jobs. She said in a physically demanding field such as dance, students needed help get ting through this experience. This means again — of course — no whining. While teaching, Lemon said she didn’t want her students to think she had all the answers. “I vomit out my guts and tell them everything I learned from square one,” she said. “I want them - —I r "Ti_ — I . . Gerlk Parmele/DN Anita Lemon, center, teaches a Jazz dance class on Tuesday afternoon In Mabel Lee Hall. to grow. I don’t want them to be dependent on me to where they can’t operate without me.” Lemon is teaching and choreo mester. She is teaching two jazz classes, a modem technique class and a dance composition class, and she is choreographing part of the UNL dance department’s fall con cert “In Motion.” Lemon said she considered her self a modem dancer and a modem choreographer. She choreographed and performed a new piece in Janu ary called “Postcards.” Lemon began as a ballet dancer in Houston when a modem dancer, Roberta Stokes, approached her and asked hertojoin her new company. Lemon was hesitant at first, but she soon gave in to the offer. “It was the first time I had expo sure. I was finding out about a dance form and I was learning to do it and contributing creatively to it,” she said. After her first experience with modem dance, she saw the Bella Lewitzky dance company perform and said, “That’s what I want to do. I want to study like that.” This was about the same time dancer Amy Ernst joined the Lewitzky team. Ernst is now an assistant dance professor at UNL. When Dr. Lisa Fusillo, dance de partment director, called Lemon and asked her to come to UNL, Lemon said she was thrilled to dis cover that Ernst would be there too. See LEMON on 10 ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ and ‘The Wall’ worth renting ByGenyMtz__ Staff Reporter It’s an incredibly average week for new releases; one great flick came out yesterday, and two bad ones hit the shelves today. This week’s pick of the week is NOT for the straightforward, obvious-plot line moviegoer. MThe Nightmare Before Christmas" (PO) — The brain child of Tim Burton (“Edward Scissorhands,” the upcoming “Ed Wood”) tells the tale of Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloweentown. Jack finds out about Christmasland and decides to take over by kidnapping Santa Claus. The entire movie is done in stop mot ion animation, and seeing it on the small screen doesn't take away from either the magic or music that the film provides. The very young might be a bit frightened by “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” but it still is a good film for young and old. “Surviving The Game” (R)— Blech!! This film did for action adventure flicks what the baseball strike did for the World Series. Ice-T (“New Jack City,” “Tres pass”) stars as a homeless man who is hired to be a hunting guide but ends up as the human prey for a group of ruthless hunters led by Rutger Hauer. No action, no suspense. Just a whole lot of nothing. “Bad Girls” (R) — An all-star cast (Mary Stuart Masterson, Madeleine Stowe, Andie Mac Dowell and more) with an all crap result. It is the time of the Old West. Four women are fighting for the right to own land, and they are willing to kill other people to get what they want. It could have been done better. PICK OF THE WEEK — It’s bizarre; it’s weird; it’s a trip. It’s “Pink Floyd: The Wall." Bob Geldof stars as Pink, a gui tar player who is, shall we say, psychologically disillusioned. The audience gets to see what is going through Pink’s head. We've got faceless kids falling into a meat grinder, goose-step ping hammers, and an eagle that turns into a mountain top. It’s an incredible movie, both visually and musically, but leave the NyQuil in the medicine cabi net. People Watch School to hold Burns’ work CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - Why did Ken Bums give the Uni versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill mounds of papers and miles of tape from his documen tary projects? “We asked,” said David Moltke-Hansen, director of the school’s Southern Historical Col lection. “I’m sure he also recognized that we’re a major repository for many ofthe subjects he’s pursued — notably the Civil War.” Burns gave the school the com plete working papers and footage from eight of his projects, includ ing the acclaimed Public Broad- . casting Service series “The Civil War.” Nothing from his current PBS series, “Baseball,” was in cluded. Burns donated the collection last fall, but the university didn't announce it until Tuesday. Garbo’s life inspires Nicks PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Stevie Nicks has often felt that Greta Garbo desire to be alone. On her latest album. Nicks wrote the song “Greta” just for her. “I have often thought, maybe I’ll just go paint, or maybe I’ll go and write that book that every body wants me to write about my life, or maybe I’ll just go do some thing else really creative for a while, and I have never been able to quite do that,” said Nicks, who made her name with Fleetwood Mac. “So I’ve always been fasci nated to know why. What drove her away?” The song is on the album “Street Angel.”