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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 1998)
Weekend in PREVIEW The following list is a brief guide to various weekend events. Please call venues for more information. CONCERTS: Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 0 St. Sunday: Shaking Tree Knickerbockers, 901 OSL Friday: Swerve, Maze Fate Saturday: 8th Wave The Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St Friday and Saturday: Lucky Peterson THEATER: Lincoln Community Playhouse, 2500 S. 56th St Friday, Saturday, Sunday: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Call for show times. Star City Dinner Theater, Eighth & Q streets. Friday, Saturday, Sunday: School house Rock All shows start at 7:30 p.m. Lied Center hr Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St Friday, Saturday and Sunday: “Tap Dogs” Call for show times. Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater, 12th and R streets. Friday, Saturday, Sunday: “Clockwatchers” Call for screen times. Wagon Train Project, 512 S. Seventh St. Saturday: Fourteen on the Floor, 7:30 p.m. GALLERIES: Gallery 9,124 S. Ninth St. Oil paintings by Wendy Jane . Bantam, through Sept 27th. Haydon Gallery, 335 N. Eighth St. Recent paintings by Tom Rierden, through Sept 27. Great Plains Art Collection, 215 Love Library, 13th and R streets. “Beyond the Horizon: Robert Sudlow and Keith Jacobshagen," through this weekend. Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 12th and R streets. “The Art of Science: Documenting the Unseen, the photographs of Harold Edgerton," through Sunday. “Contemporary California Painting: the Gribin Gift," through Sunday. Aussie-inspired troupe turns work into art By Liza Holtmeier Staff writer In Australia, if you work hard, they call you a dog. The members of the dance troupe Tap Dogs want to prove they’re worthy of the name. This weekend, ‘Tap Dogs” will perform a 90-minute show of non-stop pounding, boot-smacking tap at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. ‘Tap Dogs” consists of six men with varying degrees of dance training who take the energy and rhythm of tap into the construction site. Their show, based on the choreographer’s experience as a steelworker in Australia, capitalizes on the life of the physical laborer. The world of construction pervades the entire show - right down to the Bludstone-booted feet of the dancers. for Australian b I u e - c oil a r expression appears th weekend at the “They are the best things I’ve ever danced in, in my entire life,” Tap Dog Anthony Locascio said. “We’re able to stomp a lot harder. If we were wearing reg ular tap shoes, we’d run through a pair every two or three days. When I come off stage after a show, my boots have gashes from all the metal onstage.” The metal is part of the show’s set, which the dancers build as the performance progresses. They erect metal girders, ladders, harnesses and wood platforms. After all the physical exertion, the dancers are dog tired by the end of the show. “You have to be very physically fit to even audition for the show,” Locascio said. “We tap up and down the ladders. We have a guy who hangs upside down from a harness and taps. We are tap athletes.” In addition to its athleticism, the choreography of “Tap Dogs” consists of a variety of rolling steps and syncopations. Instead of being counted in normal eights, dance steps begin in the middle of an eight count and roll into the middle of the next Some steps are even counted in sevens. “Tap Dogs” is one of a number of shows that has risen from the tap-percussion genre to worldwide acclaim in recent years. Shows like “Bring in ‘da noise, bring in ‘da funk” and “Stomp” have garnered awards and an avid following across America. Stephanie Chase, a former Radio City Music Hall Rockette and New York dance instructor, has seen all three of these shows. “They’re a major force right now,” Chase said. “They turn people on to dance that would otherwise never go. I think choreographers are realizing that the uni versal goal is to get people into the theaters and show them what it’s about” Chase, who now owns and teaches at Lincoln’s Dancerschool, 701 P St, saw the Tap Dogs when they first opened in New York. “It was a phenomenal experience. It’s so today. The rhythms are incredible, and boots,” Chase said. BB*H*H^B l?Bf While “Tap Dogs” shares a few H BlB |B similarities with the other tap shows, JA^A ^ JA including the same producer as T'lB'jAT “Stomp,” Locascio said, it has its own A AJ AAlAl unique elements. AAA?AAAA1 i llAT Both “Stomp” and “Tap Dogs” fea- A Ai\FA 1 BB-1 Al ture a variety of percussion elements. rilft W m However, the “Stomp” performers are A A A B A M m ^ ■/ musicians and the Tap Dogs are tap ■ W /A 1A By ■ a dancers. As for “Bring in ‘da noise, r|iww A F|l AAr^AATA A A bring in ‘da funk,” its choreography A AAiB A w* A A AJ JjJA — uses a completely different style of tap. £ WB1 VT RT* RR AAf A A7 “That’s more of a hoofin’ style,” A A A A A 111 AA Tt Al^All Locascio said. “It’s more rhythmic and ^^y w the show’s story traces the progression |%! B4 W B4 BB of black history.” BJi « JJ AA Chase describes “Tap Dogs” as pure entertain- AA “The point of ‘Tap Dogs’ is to communicate raw BB ^ W • energy to the audience,” Chase said. fi'l1!? 1>TT /lyilj1 “All the tap shows that are out right now all have * * UiAiA IIj their own little thing that makes them unique,” fff /l Cl? Locascio said. “We’re all based on the same history, vUiiCrL but it’s a history that has diversified.” DANCE INSTRUCTOR The “TaD Does” history finds its roots back with Australian choreographer Dein Perry. As a youth, Perry attended a makeshift tap dance school with his friends in a steel town north of Sydney, Australia. But at 17, with no dance prospects, Perry earned his union papers and began a six-year stint as a machinist. He then moved to Sydney where he danced a few bit parts until he received his big break in the musical “42nd Street.” Perry then received a government grant to form Tap Brothers - a group con sisting of his old tap buddies. In January 1995, the group, now known as Tap Dogs, debuted at the Sydney Theatre Festival. The show won Perry two Olivier awards for choreography and has gained international attention. “Tap Dogs” garnered praise in London and New York and recently formed a national company, which tours, and one based in Las Vegas. The Lincoln show is the second engagement of the national company’s first tour. By the way, it is no coincidence that the Aussie-sawy “Tap Dogs” hasn’t hit the Outback yet. Most of the dancers grew up right here m the old U.S.A., including Locascio, who was bom in Brooklyn, N Y. But despite the rather domestic ingredients, “Tap Dogs” bursts with a distinct Australian flavor “Tap Dogs” will begin tonight at 8, Saturday at 5 and 9 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $38, $34 and $29. Student tickets are $33, $29 and $24 for the 8 and 9 p.m. shows and $33, $29 and $ 14.50 for the 5 and 2 p.m. shows. For tickets, call the Lied Box Office at (402) 472-4747. snow explores lire and times of Buffalo Bill Tonight Buffalo Bill rides again, although this time there will be consid erably fewer buffalo. Balladeer and author Bobby Bridger will perform a one-man show entitled “Pahaska” at the Prairie Peace Park, Interstate 80, exit 388 (Crete/Pleasant Dale) tonight for one performance only. “Pahaska,” which is an American Indian term for “long hair,” is the tale o^l^e.ljfp pijc} t)rp?s,o.f William f. “Buffalo Bill” *Co*dy* ^eYfoYfhfed through song and verse by Bridger. “Pahaska” makes up the third installment in Bridger’s trilogy, “A Ballad of the West.” The first two, “Seekers of the Fleece” and “Lakota,” also explore themes of life in the rugged West. A portion of tonight’s proceeds go to the Prairie Peace Park, which fea tures an educational series of exhibits on 27 acres of prairie dedicated to the pursuit of peace in the home, commu nity, state, nation and world. The show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $ 10, $8 for ^6<wiior citizens, $4 for children 12tand t uncier.* Wind ensemble opens season at 7th Street Loft Lincoln wind ensemble will pre sent the first concert of its second sea son this Saturday at the 7th Street Loft, 504 S. Seventh St. The concert, “Fourteen on the Floor,” will be conducted by Randall Snyder, composer-in-residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music. The concert includes “Serenade in E flat” by Richard Strauss, and “Dixtour” by Georges Enesco, leading lfstehfirfc frbih Ysbdrfnf* VdrtlahfidiM ' to touches of Romanian folk music. Formed last year to provide classi cal music for Lincoln residents in a non-university setting, the Third Chau Chamber Players features traditional wind ensembles in a leisurely and con versational atmosphere. Every show begins with a 30 minute social period and concludes with more time to ask questions of the musicians. Saturday’s show features refresh ments provided by the Mill and Meier’s Cork N Bottle. Admission to the 8 p.m. show is $5 for students, $ 10 Joj^dpl.ts.^^ %