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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 1995)
Gestures to convey volumes By Gerry Bettz Senior Reporter The Association of Institutes for Aesthetic Education, an international association, will meet Thursday through Saturday at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Teaching aesthetics is similar to teaching subjects such as mathemat ics or science, said David Bagby, assistant coordinator for Arts Are Basic. The Arts Are Basic program of the UNL College of Fine and Per forming Arts is the conference host. “In math or science the teacher has a textbook, which offers material and elements, which the teacher and students use,” Bagby said. “We use performances as a text.” Aesthetics educators can pull ele ments out of a performance of the ater, dance or music and study those elements in the classroom, he said. “This year’s conference will ad dress the topic of global aesthetics, not just Eurocentric aesthetics.” The art of teaching aesthetics is tough to explain, Bagby said. I-— “Traditionally, art appreciation classes go to good plays or art muse ums and are told ‘this is why it’s good’ with the idea as to why you should appreciate it,” he said. Bagby said the approach of aes thetics education is this: Students will look with new eyes and partici pate with a new mind if they have already actively explored an artwork before they see it. Imagine watching a dancer’s movements and gestures, which are used to convey the performer’s mes sage, Bagby said. “A modem dance performance uses a vocabulary of gestures like we use words; they are put together to form a thought or message,” he said. Students explore by making ges tures as a class to form a class vo cabulary, Bagby said. By working with this physical vocabulary, they are challenged to change it in some way and do it again. “What happens then is that the student has a real connection to the performance,” he said, “because the person that made the performance had to make hundreds of choices in making that performance, the same way the students had to make some choices in their exercises.” Aesthetics education is both artis tic and logical, Bagby said. “We very much look at the arts as an exercise in problem-solving.” The semi-annual conference will also be a time for AIAE members to meet and exchange information on events and performances in their re spective areas, Bagby said. “Each institute’s programs has certain events for use in the schools in their area.” This conference will also feature a meeting to discuss organizational is sues and the formation of more groups like Arts Are Basic, Bagby said. Highlights of the conference in clude a performance and discussion of “Your Move,” an Arts Are Basic commissioned work that combines theater, dance and music, and a per formance by jazz and African per cussionist Kahil El’Zabar Friday. Midwest author reads work By Elizabeth Gamboa Staff Reporter Tom Averill, a Midwestern writer and jack-of-all-trades, will read one of his short stories at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln tonight. The reading will take place at 7:30 in the English lounge in Andrews Hall. This will be Averill’s first appearance in Lin coln. Averill is the writer-in-resi dence and an English professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan. He gives two or three read ings a year at universities. A regional writer, Averil 1 ’ s short stories focus on the Midwest and its people. “I’m interested in the history and local culture of the Midwest,” Averill said. “I write about it be cause it’s what I know.” Although Averill was bom in California, he has lived in the Mid west for most of his life. He earned degrees at the University of Kan sas in Lawrence and the Univer sity of Iowa in Iowa City. He tries to project an accurate image of the Midwest, he said. “I don’t have any particular image other than what it is truly,” Averill said. “I don’t act like it’s the greatest place on earth or the biggest dump on earth.” Averill said his writing had been influenced by Eudora Welty, an other regional writer, and William Stafford, a fellow Kansas writer. In college, Averill decided to become a writer because he en joyed English classes and did well in them. “I wasn’t doing anything else very well. I was supposed to be a doctor,” he said. Averill has published two col lections of short stories titled “Passes at the Moon” and “Seeing Mona Naked.” He said he pre ferred to write short stories be cause of his limited time for writ ing and because they were more intense than novels. He has written two unpublished novels and edited the book “What Kansas Means to Me: Twentieth Century Writers on the Sunflower State.” In addition to his writing ca reer, Averill has his own radio show on National Public Radio called “William Jennings Bryan Oleander.” He said the show was done from the perspective of an old man from one of his previous stories. “I had written a good character into a bad novel, so I decided to do some more writing in the voice of the character,” he said. In May, filming will begin on Averill’s screenplay, “Seeing Mona Naked.” Today, Averill will read a new short story that will be published soon in Doubletake, a Duke Uni versity magazine. Film kindles compassion for victims of urban blast By Sean McCarthy film Critic ' '— Tracing the underlying causes of the 1965 Watts riots and the 1992 Los Angeles riots may take more than 90 minutes, but director Randy Holland manages to do it with his documen tary, “The Fire This Time.” Using research and interviews conducted over more than a year, Holland’s documentary makes no mistake as where to lay blame for the anguish of unemployment, poverty and gang activity. The social and economic divisions between the members of the Los Angeles community are at the core of South Central’s problems, according to Holland. He also partially blames FBI in volvement for preventing peace among rival gangs and the shutdown of active civil rights groups of the 1960s and ’70s. Other conspiracies that Holland weaves into his investigation include how guns are readily available to anyone who wants one in South Cen tral Los Angeles. In one scene, locals point to a train that contains boxes of guns and ammunition. The moving train inexplicably halts in their area. While the train is stopped, locals collect the cargo with no resistance. Most of his powerful statements are supported by testimony from people ranging from civil rights lead ers to gang bangers. Betty Shabazz (Malcolm X’s widow), Bobby Lav ender (founder of the Bloods street gang) and actual residents of South Central are among the people Hol land interviewed. Investigating the causes of the ri ots of 1965 and 1992, Holland goes Film: ’’The Fire This Time” Director: Randy Holland Grade: B 4 Five Words: A powerful look at urban despair. back to before the 1900s for his re search. Shots of burnt buildings, houses with barbed wires and barred win dows give the watcher a sense of the helplessness felt in the area. Though Holland points out this despair, he also shows that people in the area often overcome their surroundings. This is especially evident in Holland’s piece on the 1960s radical groups. That hope was quickly destroyed by assassinations and FBI involve ment that destroyed the Black Pan ther movement, according to Hol land. As despairing as “The Fire This Time” is, the ending is uplifting. Holland shows that the peace rival gang members forged in the 1990s has made a positive impact on the community. More importantly, he stresses how crucial it is that all races work together to finally resolve the despair so accurately depicted in this documentary. “The Fire This Time” will play today through Saturday at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater in Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. A short fea ture, “Assimilation/a simulation,” directed by Windy Chien will play before “TTie Fire This Time.” - I Concert Continued from Page 12 words. And it only got better. The most touching voices of all were Sabers’ and Ray’s own. Ray lays her voice out mighty and soulful, thick, full and unstop pable. Before each number, she lowers her brows and gathers her strength like Moses’ mother just before she sent him down the Nile in a basket. Sabers answers like a ghost, trembling, spirited strong. Their voices blend and separate like smoke, pungent and sweet. And the audience takes deep gulp ing breaths. Both women sing hard. Their faces strain, and sometimes it seems their voices will break free of their bodies and level the auditorium in one delightful blow. If you listen, you see why everyone knows the words. On good days, Sabers and Ray’s lyrics put Shakespeare to shame. The show swelled into an awesome encore where Sabers and Ray took their achingly beautiful “Touch Me Fall” through a swamp of passion, keening guitars and Neil Young poetry. They’d stopped in Lincoln and invited an auditorium full of people to share their softest whisper secrets. And everyone listening Wednesday night promised not to tell. Parking Problems? Need a Place to Park? 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