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.
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