Students given ‘Last Chance to Dance’
■ Tonight’s concert will
feature a variety of pieces,
from classical ballet to jazz.
By Liza Holtmeier
Senior staff writer
Legs scissor through a tango.
Bodies fall and rise in a modem dance.
Feet rat-a-tat-tat in a tap number.
These are the sights of tonight’s
“Last Chance to Dance” concert pre
sented by the University of Nebraska
Lincoln dance program.
Started by former dance program
director Charlotte Adams, the concert
offers students one last chance to per
form before the semester’s end.
This semester’s concert varies
from classical ballet to jazz to post
modern.
One of the highlights of the con
cert is “Three To Tango.” For this
work, choreographer Sandra Halpem
combined the traditional steps of the
tango with modem dance.
“It’s not the tango as you see it in
the ballroom. It’s the tango in a theatri
cal setting,” Halpem said.
The two-part piece begins with
three women fighting over one dance
partner, whom they eventually over
whelm with their intense flirtation. In
the second part, two men compete for
one woman.
“It’s just a funny piece that tells a
story,” Halpem said.
Senior dance majors Brandy
Miller and Mandi Bailey will perform
a tap number titled “Can We Have
Some Music?” The two choreo
graphed the piece on a car drive
between Lincoln and Norfolk.
' “We were dancing it with our fin
gers on the dashboards,” Miller said.
Danced to music by the Bare
Naked Ladies, the piece is one of sev
eral numbers the two women have
worked on together.
Students from Modem HI and IV
will perform “Running to Stand Still.”
This piece was choreographed by the
students and dance faculty member
Kelly Holcombe.
Performed to the U2 song of the
same name, the work consists of dance
phrases the students had been working
on all semester.
“FORTUNEate” is a piece choreo
graphed and performed by three
women. Danced mostly in silence,
“FORTUNEate” explores the strong,
unspoken connections between
friends.
“It’s very spiritual and intimate,”
said Halpem, one of the dancers in the
piece. “We really follow each other in
the silence.”
At the end of the concert, several
dancers will perform “Someplace
Else,” a jazz piece choreographed by
guest artist C. Nicholas Johnson.
Johnson, who has set a piece on
UNL dancers before, visited campus
earlier this semester. Though Johnson
has a strong background in mime, the
dancers were interested to see his jazz
choreography.
For “Someplace Else,” Johnson
combined full, liquid movement with
music by the Dave Matthews Band to
Dance
Tlw Fads
What: last Chance To Dance”
Where: Mabel Lee Hall Rm. 304
When: 8 p.m. tonight
Cost: $3
The Skinny: Dance program presents a
dance concert of modem, jazz, ballet and
tango
create a sensual work.
The concert will also include
Holcombe’s “After Hours,” a ballet
duet called “Rialto Ripples,” a tap
number called “All That Jazz” and a
piece choreographed by the Dance
Improvisation class.
Moore brings unique voice to TV
Filmmaker puts satirical spin on politics, business
LOS ANGELES (AP)-Timidity is
at the very core of television, which
remains as inoffensive as possible to
keep as many viewers as possible. Even
when programs veer into controversy,
boundaries are carefully observed.
There’s a narrow range of political
debate, although it’s hard to tell for all
the screaming on TV talk shows.
Shows that seem racy or profane turn
out to be morality plays at heart; the
bad guys - and it’s assumed we all
agree on what’s good and bad - always
lose in the end.
Except, except ... here comes
Michael Moore, variously described as
guerrilla, maverick or rogue filmmak
er, to put a little static in the pfcture.
“The Awful Truth,” which airs at 8 p.m.
CDT Sunday on Bravo and repeats at 9
p.m. CDT Friday, is a 12-week series in
the style of Moore’s documentaries
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“Roger & Me” and “The Big One.”
As in his films, his aim is to stick it
to the big guys and give a lift to the lit
tle ones. He also wants to make us
laugh and think at the same time. That
in itself is revolutionary.
“Media exist to reinforce the status
quo, to reinforce people’s fears and
prejudices and to guarantee that citi
zens will not rock the boat,” Moore
said. “It is meant to sedate people, to
numb their minds.”
“The Awful Truth” is no dose of
Prozac; viewers risk being delighted or
offended by its naked satire.
The first episode offers a skit in
which Moore, accompanied by a band
of performers dressed as Puritans,
invade the nation’s capital to show
independent counsel Kenneth Starr
and Congress how to conduct a better
and cheaper “witch hunt”
In another segment, Moore cham
pions the cause of a man who, we are
told, will die without the pancreas
transplant his HMO refuses to cover.
Moore’s tactics include a rehearsed
funeral, casket and all, staged in front
of the company’s headquarters.
Future bits: A chorus of people who
have lost their larynxes to smoking ser
enade tobacco executives and lobby
ists; Moore attempts to give software
magnate Bill Gates a weed trimmer for
his lavish estate; Moore plays match
maker for Hillary Rodham Clinton,
figuring she’ll be available in January
2001.
Moore’s trademark baseball cap
and gleeful expression give him the
look of a kid who just smacked a ball
through the crabby neighbor’s house.
Ask him to apologize, and he’d proba
bly hand you a bat and ball. He seems
as comfortable in his subversive skin as
he is in that all-American cap. The eco
nomic recovery, for example, he dis
misses as the property of the rich.
The average schmo is “living on
five Master Cards and three Visas and
paying the minimum balance from
month to month. ... The whole recov
ery is financed on personal debt on the
backs of working people of this coun
try.”
That the system has cleared air time
for a harsh critic doesn’t surprise
Moore.
“There’s this incredible flaw in cap
italism, which says we must make as
much money as possible, no matter
what. Even if we have to put a guy on
TV who we completely disagree with
and who is opposed to everything we
stand for,” he says.
Moore is not relentlessly downbeat.
He has kind words for corporate
owned Bravo for providing a home for
him and other independent filmmak
ers. And he expects viewers to enjoy
“The Awful Truth” even more than be
enlightened by it.
If you want a sermon, you should
go to church,” he says. “If you want a
political rally, you should join a party.
First and foremost, my responsibility is
to entertain the people watching the
show and to make sure they have a
good laugh for a half-hour.
“If they can have that laugh at the
expense of people causing a lot of
havoc in their lives, like corporate
America or these politicians, great.”
The filmmaker plays a stand-up
comic in “The Awful Truth,” introduc
ing the pre-taped segments and doing
shtick for a lively Chicago theater audi
ence. He downplays his skill as a come
dian but concedes he easily handles the
hecklers.
“I love hecklers, though,” Moore
said. “I AM them.”
Jimmy Eat World
“Clarity”
Capitol Records
Grade: A
Subtle.
That’s the best way to describe
Jimmy Eat World.
At first listen, the single from
“Clarity,” “Lucky Denver Mint,”
sounds like a blend of New Order,
Buffalo Tom and the Eels, but it
grows on the ear with each listen.
The first time around, it sounds
passable. The second time around, it
starts to sound good. After a while,
it sounds incredible.
The whole album, the second
from this Phoenix quartet, follows
with the same impact.
Jimmy Eat World takes and
blends together a combination of
strong, upfront drums and soothing
vocals with poetic lyrics of fragile
beauty.
This isn’t to say they don’t rock
out, however.
Once past that initial impres
sion, “Clarity” starts to become,
well, clear. It’s an album of sharp,
poignant modem rock that draws
influences from lots of places and
wears them proudly on its sleeve.
One of the best things about
“Clarity” is the fact that it’s an
album that really means different
things to different people.
Many of the songs are like
incomplete sketches, words that
conjure a brief moment in time,
then leave you to fill out the rest
One song, “12.23.95,” reads
like a letter from one person to
another. It’s a half-complete note
that the writer couldn’t bring him
self to write much in, and it’s
backed by such soft sounds that the
listener is drawn into it.
The album also swells like the
tide, from quiet roots to near-crash
ing rock, then back to a lulling, lin
gering ending. /
“Table For Glasses,” the open
ing track, starts almost inaudibly, a
few tinny notes here and there,
before picking up.
Somewhere toward the middle
of the album, “Just Watch The ,
Fireworks” builds and lets the band
really cut loose with a solid sound
and natural, unforced rock feel. It’s
so nice to hear people for whom the
music seems to come naturally.
“Clarity” closes with “Goodbye
Sky Harbor,” which clocks in a little
over 16 minutes, a good 10 of that
with a soft almost fractal-like repe
tition of sounds. This wouldn’t
work if they weren’t as good as they
are. t
As a band, they’re very compe
tent musicians, layering the guitars,
piano and bass beneath the drums
much of the time, and letting Jim
Adkins’ voice take the foreground,
and with good reason.
There aren’t a lot of singers in
rock ’n’ roll who can whisper such
perfect harmonies as Adkins.
Perhaps the only thing that is
irritating about the record is that on
a few rare occasions, Adkins’ voice
can get lost behind Zach Lind’s
drums, and some of the more subtle
guitar inflections, a combination of
Adkins and Tom Linton, also suffer
the same fate.
When all is said and done, how
ever, this is a minor thing and this is
one of those albums that’s very hard
to stop listening to after it’s gotten
under your skin. It’s often not some
thing to sing along to, but, more
something to listen to and appreci
-CliffHicks
I_I
Collage artist a superman of montage pieces
AMEL from page 9 _
Those early works are smattered,
two-dimensional images that use ran
dom figurines and famous faces of the
time: Ronald Reagan, stroke-victim
ized baseball pitcher J.R. Richards,
Harrison Ford in “Star Wars” garb and
. plastic animals and bugs.
Kelley, whose art name is “Amel,”
said access to comics shops strength
ened him as an artist.
“It gave me so much more material
to work with,” he said.
Kelley’s newfound passion for ani
mated characters proved to be the real
awakening of a visual-art ability he
always wanted but didn’t know he pos
sessed.
He said he always wanted to be a
sketch artist or painter. Motioning with
an invisible paintbrush, Kelley gritted
his teeth and grimaced as he said: “But
I could never find that stroke.” “When
the whole comic book world came alive
for me,” he said “I really took off.”
Innumerable hours, sweaty hands
and patience have been the main ele
ments to the dedication of creating as
many as 10 3-D pieces at a time.
The purposely unnamed works are
made to be 3-D by montage layering of
three or four levels, he said.
Kelley said the collages will always
be works in progress because there will
always be something he can add.
“I look I look. I look,” he said. “I’ll
see something, a character, and I’ll
know exactly which piece and where
on that piece to place it. It’s a lot of
work, but this is what I love to do.”
Kelley came up with the name,
“Amel,” after tearing the off of a
Camel cigarette logo. He has been hid
ing them within his pieces ever since.
Unfortunately for the artist, he has
had only one real opportunity to display
his work in a show format in public.
This chance came to him while
working for Lincoln Public Schools as
a kitchen manager, a position he has
held for the last eight years. A co-work
er was attracted to Kelley’s work and
pointed him in the direction of Gayle
Andres, director of University Place
Arts Center. She gave him his first
exhibit in 1997,20 years after he start
ed his artistic development.
“He’s a pure folk artist,” Andres
said. “His work is truly something
coming from him.”
Kelley said he enjoyed the feed
back from young people after the
exhibit. Part of his job for LPS is to
help mentally-challenged students with
lunch-cleaning duties.
“Kids started sending me things in
the mail to put on the pieces,” he said.
“It was such a wonderfiil feeling.”
Kelley said he didn’t sell any pieces
at the show but didn’t care.
“I just want people to see it and be
affected by it.” he said. “I’d like to see
some of these kids take after me some
day.”
He said his last four pieces are part
of a new phase called the “next genera
tion.” The only difference, Kelley said,
is the newer images are coming off his
computer and aren’t usually animated.
He prints out the material, but still must
cut out the figures with steady-hand
precision.
Kelley said copyright issues cloud
his ability to sell many of his old pieces.
Because of this, he now uses only
untraceable images that are rarely ani
mated.
He said he wants his next wave of
more-human looking material “to be all
my own.’'
“I’ve even started to take my own
photographs just to make my work
more of a reflection who I am,” he said.
Andres confirmed the idea that
Kelley will continue to evolve.
“He can’t stop doing it,” she said.
“It’s a part of who he is now.”
Kelley’s dedication to his unusual
art form is practically tatooed on the
appendage that is most important to his
work.
A scar on the bottom of his right
hand makes a short trail down his wrist
as evidence to the two corrective surg
eries Kelley had in 1995.
“I cut and paste, cut and paste and
cut and paste,” he said.
