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■#* 5
Xiu Xiu
The Sent Down Girl
Famous actress Joan Chen makes her
debut on the other side of the camera.
A LOVE STORY and
A DRAMA OF LOST
INNOCENCE -
Sunday, November 7,1999
Mary KepfijB Ross Rfan Theater
imes: £30,4^5, 7:00, 9*J5
ickets: $4.50 students*/UNLID
$6i0 non-students
HI
Ev<
$
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Orpheus Chamber
Orchestra
with Naoko Tanaka, violin
This accomplished
orchestra performs
without a conductor—
and the result is
a breathtaking
musical experience.
Lied Center for Performing Arts
Lincoln, NE
* Tickets: 472-4747 or
1-800-432-3231
Box Office: 11 :00am-5:30pm M-F
TEN YEARS Website: www.unl.edu/bed/
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. lNcDplSKH Mid-America Arts Aiance and the Nebaska Arts Count*. Ail events are made possible by the Lied Performance
Fund iMw* has been eebbbhed in memory oiErnetF.Ued and hie parents, Em* M.wd Me lt Ljed.
Diverse troupe to perform
■ Sean Curran’s
Company uses both mod
em and Irish dances to give
its audiences variety.
ByJoshKrauter
Senior staff writer
The word “eclectic” may get
thrown around a little too much, but it
still applies perfectly to dancer and
choreographer Sean Curran.
Curran’s dancing feet have taken
him to many different venues, and he
incorporates many diverse styles,
including traditional Irish step danc
ing and modem dance, into his act.
Curran and his dance company
will perform in Lincoln tonight and
Friday night at 7:30 at the 7“* Street
Loft, 504 S. Seventh St
The company’s performance,
“Irish Dances/Local Flavor,” is com
prised of several different pieces -
some modem, some Irish.
“Symbolic Logic,” the first piece,
is influenced by East Indian pop
music. The piece is at times solemn
and stoic, incorporating silence and
slight movement. At other times, it is
joyful and exuberant, with groups of
dancers performing different routines
simultaneously.
“Local Irish” is a collaboration
with the local dance troupe Lincoln
Irish Dancers. The local dancers also
appear in “Folk Dance for the Future,”
a parody of the Riverdance phenome
non.
The Lincoln Irish Dancers
rehearsed with Curran’s troupe only
twice before the performance, but
Curran said the rehearsals went well.
Curran also will perform a solo
piece, “Flexible While Frozen.”
Curran has had his own dance
troupe for three years, but his career
has been a long and varied one.
Curran said he has been interested
0pfiec Safe
"Ride
Every Thursday, Friday and
Saturday night
11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m.
Must present NU student ID
r?W to «oe
TfH o*t TiJ^edo:
1) Call 475-RIDE.
2) Give your name, pick-up
home address.
3) Wait at pick-up location.
Be watching far your taxi!
4) Stow your NU student ID to
the taxi driver. Your NU
student ID is required!
5) Dps are appreciated!
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
E-mail NU on Wheels at:
' nuonwheels@unl.edu
or call 472-7440
Courtesy Photo
Donna Scro Gentile and Heather Waidon, two members of the Sean Curran
Company, perform in “Each of Both.” The Sean Curran Company performs
at the 7** Street Loft tonight and Friday.
66
I feel a real allegiance with my dancers who
are here. We re creating a body of work.”
SeAn Curran
dancer and choreographer
in music and dance since he was a
child.
“I was a hyperactive kid, and my
mom always had music playing,” he
said, adding that his mother would buy
him a record every time she went
shopping.
He knew he always wanted to be a
performer, and he learned Irish danc
ing growing up in an Irish neighbor
hood in Boston. He discovered mod
em dance in college, and it inspired
him.
“I was lucky,” he said. “There are
three times as many women in dance
as men, so it was easier for me to get
work.”
One place he got work was with
the legendary modern dance troupe
Bill T. Jones/ Amie Zane.
Amy Lamphere, artistic director
of the Wagon Train Project, which is
hosting the event, said Jones’ and
Zane’s dance troupe was one of the
most important and controversial
modem dance companies ever.
“Bill (Jones) is an outspoken
advocate for the arts, gay rights and
human rights in general,” she said.
“He had company members that were
300 pounds and 99 pounds, gay and
straight, black and white.”
This aesthetic influenced Curran
greatly.
Bill always said he wanted one of
everything in his troupe,” he said.
Curran is on his way to accom
plishing just that, with a mix of races,
sexual orientations, ages and dance
styles in his own small troupe.
“I want to speak with the spirit of
inclusiveness” he said.
That spirit landed him some
diverse job opportunities after he left
Jones’ troupe.
A casting director for STOMP
gave him a chance to be in the first
U.S. cast of the percussive dghoe
ensemble. Me was a full-time member
for two years and has worked with the
group off and On for the last five years.'
Curran said STOMP is a troupe for
drummers who can dance and dancers
who can drum, but he managed to
sneak in anyway.
“I’m not really a drummer, but I’m
a good faker,” he said.
Curran’s recent projects have
included overseeing the choreography
for a Broadway adaptation of James
Joyce’s “The Dead” and teaching
Elmo to dance on an episode of
“Sesame Street”
For the episode, which airs in
January, Elmo decides he wants to
Dance
Pnriw
What: Sean Curran Company
Where: 7th Street Loft, 504 S. Seventh
St.
When: 7:30 tonight and Friday night
Cost: $10/general, $5/students
The Skinny: Company delves in modem
dance and Irish revelry.
come up with his own dance. First, he
checks out a variety of dance styles
already in existence. Curran, playing
the legs of the Count of the Dance and
of the other Muppets, teaches Elmo
Irish step dancing.
Curran said it was an unusual
experience because he wasn’t able to
use his whole body.
“I had to hold onto a bar and just
move my legs,” he said.
While “Sesame Street” is certainly
entertaining, Curran said his own
work shoots for something more.
“Instead of my work being enter
taining, even though I hope it does
entertain, I would rather inspire, pro
voke, enlighten and even piss off the
audience,” he said. “I want to find out
what is the soul of our society.”
Maria Demos, a dancer m Curran s
troupe, said, “He is really making
work about our time. Some choreogra
phers are more concerned with how
the body works. Sean’s work is very
much about being a human being, who
we are as people and how we exist in
society.”
Demos has been with Curran’s
troupe for all three of its years. She
said it has been a constant learning
experience.
“He’s a very giving and supportive
choreographer,” she said. “Working
with Sean is a great experience ” *
Curran feels-the same way about
his dancers.
—‘I feel a-fdhl allegiance withiny
‘dancers who are here,” he said. “We’re
creating a body of work.”
Curran said his troupe has been on
the road a long time, but it’s pushing
his company forward. He has enjoyed
his stay in Lincoln, calling it a “charm
ing little downtown college communi
ty” with great thrift stores. Rhode
Island is the next stop, and a trip to
Cannes, France, is planned for May.
Lamphere said the Lincoln com
munity is lucky to have someone of
Curran Is caliber in town.
"He’s an Irish dancer, a ballet
dancer and a modern dancer,” she
said. “He’S® very well-skilled.... He’S a
gorgeous dancer.”