Classes lend participants chance to dance
By Liza Holtmeier
Senior Reporter
When Wayne and Rose Ann
Foster auditioned for “Familiar
Movements” at the Wagon Train
Project, all they wanted was a chance
to dance.
“We thought dance would keep us
from getting old,” Wayne said. “We
were looking for a way to get lim
bered up, and this project seemed
interesting.”
But after three weeks of rehears
ing with their new acquaintances, the
Fosters found they received more
from the experience than they had
hoped for.
“We had become a family,”
Wayne said. “We wanted to continue
to dance and we wanted to stay
together as a group.”
The Fosters and other “Familiar
Movements” dancers decided to do
so by starting “A Family Experience,”
a family-oriented movement class
taught by University of Nebraska
Lincoln dance instructor Ann Shea.
Shea teaches the public classes
Tuesdays at the Wagon Train Project,
504 S. Seventh St., from 7 p.m. to 8
p.m.
Shea said most class participants
were people who once were interest
ed in dance only as audience mem
bers.
After performing in “Familiar
Movements,” they were “bitten by the
performance bug,” she said.
“From the outset, (this class) is
out to prove that if you want to per
form, there is no reason you can’t,”
Shea explained. “Picasso once said
that every child is an artist. The chal
lenge is to keep that spirit throughout
our lives. This class provides the
opportunity for people to rediscover
their artistic bent.”
Shea uses mostly modern-based
mQvement in the class, She said this^
gives dancers a solid foundation
while allowing them to explore and
formulate their own movement.
Participants begin each class with
warm-up exercises, facing inward as
a circle. Shea said she emphasized
using the whole body in a fiill range
of motion.
After warming up, the class mem
bers participate in improvisation
exercises. Shea gives a few basic
guidelines on which the dancers car\
Classics return to theater
By Gerry Beltz
Assignment Reporter
The Huskers are cornin’ home to
battle the Red Raiders, and Bogie is
coming to the Cinema Twin to battle
the Nazis.
“Casablanca” opens Friday at the
Cinema Twin, 201 N. 13th St., for a
one-week run, the first of a possible
series of older films playing on the
big screens in Lincoln.
Jennifer Speck, manager of the
Cinema Twin, said she had been
working on the project for some time
and was thrilled to finally have every
thing come together.
“We have been getting a ton of
calls about the film, from both older
and younger people,” she said. “I’m
really excited about this happening.”
Although “Casablanca” wasn’t the
first choice, it was the easiest one to
come to an agreement on, she said.
“It was something all of us at
Douglas Theatre Co. could agree on,
and we figured if all of us can agree
on it, then the general public could
agree with it,” Speck said.
After seven days of Bogart, Speck
will open “Summer Stock,” a musical
starring Judy Garland and Gene
Kelly, Speck said.
“You can’t go wrong with Kelly
and Garland,” she said.
“Summer Stock” isn’t the most
widely known musical, but Speck
said that was partly the reason behind
Nikki Fox/DN
ANN SHEA, a UNL dance instructor, leads a group of “Familiar Movements” dancers in warm-ups at the Wagon Train Project.
base their movement, but she said the
final product belongs to the dancers.
Class participant Terrence Moore
said he learned die most about dance
through improvising.
“I enjoy extending the boundaries
of my body while exploring the
aspects of working with an ensem
ble,” Moore said. “The thing that has
become most apparent is the impor
tance of movement and touch. The
connections we establish during the
class are very interesting.”
Moore, who started dancing six
months ago, takes the class with his
daughter, Aryelle. She has danced
since she was three and participated
in “Familiar Movements” last spring.
Another parent-chiId team con
sists of Deb Roelfs and her 15-year
old son, Matt. Matt Roelfs, a Lincoln
High sophomore, joined the class
with his mom because of his interest
in dance and the hope it would help
him with football.
“It should improve my flexibility
and agility,” he said. “I also like the
expression part of it.”
Deb Roelfs said she learned more
about her own dancing by watching
her son.
“He has so much more energy
than I do, and his movements are
totally different from my own,” she
explained. “I’ve been inspired by
watching him.”
Although Deb Roelfs also takes
dance class at UNL, she said she
enjoys the Wagon Train Project class
more because it is less structured and
composed of dancers with a wide
range of abilities.
“This class offers something that
everyone should have the experience
of feeling: the openness and the free
dom of dance,” Deb Roelfs said.
In addition to the Tuesday night
class, the group is rehearsing a move
ment piece based on “Spoon River
Anthology,” by poet-author Edgar
Lee Masters. The play consists of a
group of monologues delivered by
the dead residents of Spoon River, 111.
Shea said she hopes the dancers will
perform it in a spring recital.
In the meantime, Shea wants to
concentrate on showing the class that
dance is a mind-set.
“If you feel like a dancer, you are
a dancer,” she said.
Each class session costs $5 and is
open to people of all ages and abili
ties.
choosing to run it.
“Movies like ‘Singin’ In The
Rain,’ people have seen a million
times, but for a lot of people this is
like going to a new movie,” she said.
Speck added that even if no one
else came to see “Summer Stock,” one
steady customer would be attending.
“I could sit and watch that movie
50 times,” she said.
“Casablanca” shouldn’t have any
audience problems, though, she said.
Lincoln businesses and moviego
ers have been spreading word of
“Casablanca,” and Speck said she
had been very pleased with the over
all response.
“Everyone has been very sup
portive,” she said. “We have adver
tisements up in bookstores, coffee
shops and senior centers. It’s been
very encouraging with the amount of
help they have given us.
“Everybody has been just great.”
Whether or not these retro films
continue is largely up to how well the
public takes to the movies, Speck
said.
“If we get the same attendance we
have been getting in support of the idea,
we’ll try to keep doing it,” she said.
The best way to show support,
Speck said, is for interested moviego
ers to let her know what they think.
“I love to hear from the public,
but if I don’t know what they would
want to see, I can’t follow through.”
Show times for the Cinema Twin
are available by calling 475-5969.
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