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.”