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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 9, 1999)
Friday, April 9,1999 NTERTAINMENT Page 11 Weekend n Preview The following is a briefguide to weekend events. Please call venues for more information. CONCERTS: Duffy's, 1412 0 St Sunday: Plum, Picknee Duggan*s Pub, 440 S. 11th St Friday: Lost Cozz Saturday: No Halos Knickerbockers, 901 O St Friday: The Feds, Pho Saturday: Deadbolt, Black Light Sunshine, Fullblown The Royal Grove, 340 W. Cornhusker Hwy. Friday and Saturday: Rockin’ Fossils Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th Su Friday and Saturday: Baby Jason and the Spankers THEATER: Blue Barn Theatre, 614 S. 11th St., Omaha All weekend: “Simpatico” Howell Theater, Temple Building Friday: Nebraska Masquers One Act Play Festival Lied Center for Performing Arts, 12th and R streets Friday: Danny Grossman Dance Co. Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater, 12th and R streets Sunday: “The Inheritors” GALLERIES: Burkholder Project, 7l9 P St Friday and Saturday: “Collaborations,” featuring textile art and photographs by Robert Hillestad and John Nollendorfs Gallery 9,124 S. Ninth St. All weekend: Works by Nebraska Art Council 1998 Artist Fellowship winners Hay don Gallery, 335 N. Eighth St., Suite A Friday and Saturday: Abstract paintings by Lana Miller Joslyn Art Museum, 2200 Dodge St, Omaha All weekend: “Searching for Ancient Egypt” Lentz Center, Morrill Hall Room 329 Saturday: Ikebana demonstration Nebraska Union Gallery, 1400 R St Friday: MFA Thesis Exhibition I opening Noyes Art Gallery, 119 S. Ninth St Friday and Saturday: horse pins and paintings by Janna Harsch, metal sculpture by Michael Fluent, oil landscapes by Keith Lowry and blown glass by Ray Schultz Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 12th and R streets Alt Weekend: “Fletdher Bepton; New Constructivism,” “New York ’ School Installation” focus on the Festival A week-long look at highlights of the Great Plains Music and Dance Festival and Symposium Photo Courtesy of Center for Great Plains Studies THE UED CENTER for Performing Arts has commissioned an original work from the Danny Grossman Dance Company, a professional mod ern dance troupe from Toronto.The group will be performing a piece from a Nebraska choreographer. Toronto troupe graces stage with two Midwest dances By Liza Holtmeier Senior staff writer A Toronto dance troupe has become the repository for two Midwest-related dances. The Danny Grossman Dance Company will present two works related to the Great Plains region dur ing its performance at the Lied Center for Performing Arts tonight. The first work, “Chasing Bird,” was commissioned by the University of Nebraska-Lincoin Center for Great Plains Studies as a part of the Great Plains Music and Dance Festival. Organized by the center, the festi val celebrates the culture of the Great Plains through a series of perfor mances and scholarly discussions. When preparation for the festival began two years ago, the planners knew they wanted to commission a new piece, said Randall Snyder, one of the festival’s co-chairmen. For the planners, advocating new works was as important as preserving old ones. The center was able to commis sion the piece with assistance from the UNL chancellor’s office. The center chose Grossman’s company because it has a piece by a Nebraska choreographer in its reper toire. After the company was chosen, Grossman and planners discussed which Midwestern musician’s work he would use. Charlie Parker, a Kansas City, Mo., jazz musician whom Grossman had choreographed to before, seemed an obvious choice to both the plan ners and Grossman. “I always wanted to return to (his music) with a different idea,” Grossman said. In “Chasing Bird,” Grossman turned his dancers into physical embodiments of Parker’s music. Each dancer represents an instrument, such as the piano, bass and drum, and per forms dance movements indicative of the instruments’ musical phrases. ^ Pamela Grundy, a Grossman Please see TROUPE on 12 Photo Courtesy of Dee Hughes NEBRASKA CH8RE0GRAHER Charles Weidman made a name fer himself with the creation of the piece “Lynchtewe,” based on the 1919 Omaha fynehing. Weidman {left) appears here with sculptorMikhail Santoro in the modern dance piece “To Make aFoimto Give it Life.” Nebraska choreographer honored in weekend show By Liza Holtmeier Senior staff writer In 1919, a young man by the name of Charles Weidman witnessed the lynching of William Brown, a black man in Omaha. Almost 20 years later, Weidman returned to his feelings of horror over the incident when choreographing a modem dance piece. The piece, “Lynchtown,” has become Weidman’s most revived work. Tonight, the Danny Grossman Dance Company brings “Lynchtown” back to Nebraska in a perfor mance at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. Weidman will also be a topic of discussion at the Great Plains Music and Dance Symposium today. The two events offer a chance to reflect on the coatributk>nsofWeidman, aLineoln native atria pioneer in modern dance. “After Ted Shawn, fee was the first American male dancer in the 20'®1 century to achieve a stature of renown,” said Lisa Fusillo, who will participate in the panel discussion on Weidman. Charles Edward Weidman Jr. was bom in Lincoln in 1904 and began his childhood dance studies here. In 1920, he moved to Los Angeles to study at the Denishawn School with modem dance forerunners Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis. There, he focused on the western interpre tation of Asian and Latin dances and met his lifelong dance partner, Doris Humphrey. Weidman and Humphrey went on to devel op their own styles of movement, expanding on the burgeoning bud of modem (knee. “I find him rhythmically superior to the other choreographers of his era,” said Carol Mezzacappa, who has mounted several revivals of Weidman’s works. “His works are very sculpted” . j5 * • Weidman also brought a sense of humor to Please see WEIDMAN on 12