Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Sunday, October 19, 1969
amisnmiliiionepalge Twmamonl1M1m11111 THE MICHGAN DAIL Su-d-y -c-o-e-19- -9-
music"
dance
Ballet marred by the corps
Luther
By BERT STRATTON
The Luther Allison concert at
the Armory last night was dif-
frent - it was what could
safely be called "out of the or-
diary." It was also an event
that probably won't be repeated
for a long time to come. f The
concert was a financial disas-
ter.!
Indeed the concert was surreal
another one of the f r e a k
products of that highly distort-
ed environment known as Ann
Arbor. After all, it isn't every
town that simultaneously claims
the name "All-American City"
and "Gateway to the World
of Blues."
Luther Allison has a lot to
do with creating the 1 a t t e r
phrase -- in fact it was Lu-
ther that first brought black
blues to Ann Arbor when his
band played in the Union last
spring. But if Ann Arbor isn't
yet quite as bluesy as the West
Side of Chicago, there is no
doubt that a hard-core blues
community has developed here.
Last night about 100 of these
blues freaks laid out the money
to see their man - Luther Al-
lison. It was a white crowd, and
it was also a crowd that knew
the blues.
And what they got was some
very good blues -- in a very
mixed-up setting. First of all,
the Armory is just not a good
location for attracting students
(the promoter obviously thought
he could attract more blacks
from the neighborhood than he
actually did) -- what resulted
was a vast empty room with the
seemingly small audience and
the musicians huddled in one
corner. To further enhance the
mood there was ample wine for
everyone and even a few broken
windows around the building.
All in all everything was quite
"bluesy" ---- poverty (of the pro-
moters), booze, and a small
crowd -- everything except, that
for a good part of the time there
were no musicians. Luther didn't
arrive until 10:00, after every-
body had caught about an hour
and a half of the bluesy at-
mosphere and nothing else.
But Luther's band eventually
got together, and they were good
- which to Luther means good
musicianship and quite a bit of
50 extra copies of last Tues-
day's Daily (containing the
article on Paul McCartney's
death) will go on sale at the
Daily office-426 Maynard St.
--Monday morning at 9 a.m.
Allison: Blues!
By C. Q. SPRINGLER
The National Ballet of Can-
ada had the good taste to per-
form Balanchine's Four Tem-
peraments in their concert at
Hill Aud. Friday night. Un-
fortunately, a technically rag-
ged corps de ballet, with medio-
cre soloists marred the artistic
zest and skill of the dance. With
the exception of the Balanchine
number, which displayed t h a t
particular choreographer's hap-
py talent for visually stimulat-
ing movement, the dances as
well as the dancers of the Cana-
dian group failed to excite their
audience.
Balanchine's dance offered the
suggestion that the evening
might not have been so dismal
had the choreography of the
other two dances been more
challenging. For, in spite of the
sloppy technique of the danc-
ers it was nice to see how this
artist creates movement which
fascinates the viewer. Mr. Bal-
anchine knows how to over-
come the problem of individ-
ual bodies competing with each
other for attention by merging
dancer with dancer by a simple
touch of a hand or foot. He
makes you aware of line and
of the unusual and beautiful
shapes of bodies, rather than
concentrating on "pretty' feet
or 'graceful" arms. In his dance,
gesture is internalized, it be-
comes part of a total effect; it
is 'not isolated or choppy.
.. In contrast to the excitement
of Balanchine's Four Tempera-
ments was the choreography of
the other two dances, Solitaire
and The Nutcracker Suite. These
two lacked depth of perspective
(the dances were flat, posed,
static) and original use of
movement. The choreographer
of Solitaire, Kennety MacMillan,
was unable to give his work
aesthetic shape or dramatic
movement. The dance consisted
of big girls pretending to be
little ones flouncing derrieres.
curling pinkies, bobbing pig-
tails and being generally c o y ,
silly and tedious. The gesture of
draping a hand over the fore-
head might have been comic in
a less cloying number. In Soli-
taire it was over used and mean-
ingless. The extraneous use of
a prop, an oversized horn or
Renaissance trumpet also serv-
ed to emphasize tme lack of in-
teresting movement and lack of
direction of the dance. T h i s
particular horn neither fit the
modern, s o m 4 w h a t flippant
mood depicted in costume and
dance style, nor did it's size
dwarf the dancers and remind
one that they were supposed to
be children.
The Nutcracker Suite, long a
favorite of everyone, did n o t
fare much better. The enter-
tainers who perform for Clara
-- the little girl in the place
of the Sugar Plum Fairy -
were, generally, stylistically in-
consistant with the characters
they portrayed. The Oriental
dance only suggested the East
with cliche movement such as
the pushing bock of a veil and
the standard belly dancer neck
trick (both done without flair).
The Spanish Dancers were tot-
ally without fire. The Chinese
dance was energetic and reason-
able comic although it relied too
overtly for laughs on the comic
pauses between acrobatic tumb-
ling, and the Russian Dance
was acceptably full of leaps.
The Pas de Deux was marred by
the prima ballerina teetering
out of a series of pirouettes and
a rather heavy male soloist.
It might be best to say no
more and simply look forward
to the Jose Limon concert soon
to appear on the same stage and
to encourage the University
Musical Society to bring back
the Jeoffrey Ballet.
GUILD HOUSE 802 Monroe
MONDAY, Oct.20-Noon Luncheon 25c
REV. GORDON JONES, Rector, St. Andrew's:
"Does Religion Have a Future?"
(series "The Future")
TUESDAY, Oct. 21-Noon Luncheon
KEN KELLY, Editor of Argus
The Argus Lssue"
SUNDAY, Oct. 19-7 P.M.
Meeting of Student Religious Liberals
"The film is a very now one in style and technique
and in theme. It is about a guy who cops out on the
Establishment and on the affluent society, deciding
that there's more to living than work and the acqui-
sition of money. A delicious happy comedy."
-Judith Crist
HILLEL GRAD MIXER
Sunday, Oct. 19
8:30 P.M.
AT THE HOUSE
1429 Hill St.
- - ------- --- - -j - ~ -
"A funny picture.
Impudent a nd
wise.
-N.Y. Times
"Probably one of
the most immoral,
m o s t subversive
and most hilori-
ous m o v i e s you
will see this year."
-Morning
Telegraph
"Alexander spells
pleasure!"
-Playboy
--Daily--Randy Edmnds
jive. First of all he had some
new faces in his band, a guy
named Bud Hendrix (Luther
says he's Jimi Hendrix' brother)
on piano, and a new man on
trombone. Yes, it's true, Luther
has got a trombone player, and
he's not bad, however he ap-
parently has lost his alto sax
player R.C., which is. too bad,
because he was a lot more ef-
fective than any trombonist. Big
Mojo with his big smile and
equally large belly was his old
self on the bass and Bob Ritchie
was back on the drums.
Luther's jive was in its us-
ually top-notch form, he still is
a showman first and musician
second. Maybe he would like to
switch his priorities around,
but for right now he doesn't
have much choice -- he's got
one concern and that's to earn
some bread.
As of now, he and the band
aren't getting as much work as
they deserve. but things might
change for the better, because
he has an album that should be
coming out sometime next
month, and the producer says
that it is almost at good as one
of Luther's live shows.
That's going some, because
seeing Luther's act is almost
like watching the synthesis of
Jim Hendrix and James Brown-
he's one emormous energy
packet - and most importantly
he knows how to control t h a t
energy and how to explode it.
The Michigan Daily, edited and man-
aged by students at the University of
Michigan. News phone: 764-0552. Second
Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich-
igan, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues-
dlay through Sunday morning Univer-
sity year. Subscription rates: $10 by
carrier, $10 by mail.
Summer Session published Tuesday
through Saturday morning. Subscrip-
tion rates: $3.00 by carrier, $3.00 by
mail.
30 20 Woshteno w, Ph. 434-1782
Between Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor
NOW SHOWING
SHOW TIMES
Wednesdav---1-3-5-7-9
Thurs., Fri., Mon., Ts-7-9
Saturday & Sundov---.5-7.-9
"EXQUISITE DELICIOUS COMEDY!"
-Detroit News
"LIKE CHAMPAGNE BUBBLES!"
-Ann Arbor News
2 PERFORMANCES (2:30 and 8:00)!
ALEXANDER
A C r~ea v Relase inBeaul tu' Eastmancoior,
DG-
PLUS----
OCTOBER 14-26
'"
:fi;;:
."
q.. .
, ;;
f :
"Perhaps the most beautiful movie in history."-
Brendan Gill, The New orker. "Lxquisite is only the
first word that surges in my mind as an appropriate
description of this exceptional film. Its color is abso-
lutely gorgeous. The use of music and, equally elo-
quent, of silences and sounds is beyond verbal descrip-
tion. The performances are perfect- that is the only
word."-Bosley Crowther, New York Times. "May well
be the most beautif ulfilm ever made."- Newsweek.
Aleinera- ---
TAMMY GRIMES
I
BRIAN BEDFORD
1
I
I E
By NEAL GABLER
If you want your spirits up-
lifted for a few hours, there's a
French import at the F i f t h
Forum, Alexander, that will
fill the bill. It's one of those
films the reviewers call "de-
lightful", and, in this instance,
I concur. This is a splendid
piece of fluff.
Alexander is not one of those
comedies chock full of belly
laughs. Instead, it is the kind
of film that keeps you contin-
uously grinning. You don't have
to think about it; just sit back
and enjoy it.
Perhaps a case could be made
for calling Alexander a "now"
comedy, a statement on the
predicament of modern m a n.
(Right, Judith Crist?) Good-
hearted Alexander, owner of
300 acres, toils ceaselessly under
the stern hand of his beauti-
ful, but shrewish, spouse. He is
caught in the rat race, and as
much as he would like to quit
it all, she just won't let him.
Much of the film's charm lies
in ou' empathy with the hero,
trapped by the system. His grind
ends when his wife suddenly
dies, and he goes "on a vaca-
tion for life." With only a dog
for a compatriot, he fritters
away the months, obeying only
his whims. He is doing what
many of us wish we could do,
and for two hours he lives for
us, His contentment becomes
our contentment.
In addition to the sense of
exhileration, there is s o m e
lunny business. Kiki the dog,
turns in a remarkably winning
performance. Whether he is
fetching the groceries for his
happy master, or fishing, or ap-
pearing before a town hall meet-
ing, Kiki has a refreshing
spirit which outclasses the dull
professionalism of a Lassie.
Alexander is bound to make
you feel good. The idea of a
man getting away from it all is
an old one, but here it is hand-
led freshly. If you want to get
away, go see it and enjoy your-
self.
NOEL COWARD'S
With
am Glover I c 1 4(4
e Grossmann _
Bonus
Feature
Today:
"Alexander"
2:30
"Elvira"
4:00
"Alexander"
5:30
"Elvira"
7:15
"Alexander"
9:10
sometimes truth is more exciting
I1
Willic
SuzannE
6U,14W
CHIARLTON JESSICA
HESTON W'ALTER
COLORyDelule United Artists
L.
Directed by Stephen Porter
Written and directed by Bo Widerberg. With Thommy Berggren and Pia Degermark.
Winner,Best Actress, 1967 Cannes Festival.A Bo Widerberg-Europa Film Productic,
4 ? F";FTH FyOru
BONUS FEATURE MONDAY and TUESDAY
"THE TWO OF US"
"Two of Us"-7:1 5 only--"Alexander"-9:00 only
__ _
ROBERTO NIEDERER - Se-
lected Designer of the Year
by ABITARE - Hand blown
glassware from Switzerland
ORTHOGONALITY
340 Moynard/Tower Plaza
ANN ARBOR/'662-2600
BLOOD, SWEAT
and TEARS
THURSDAY, OCT. 30, 8:30 P.M.
ALL EVENTS BUILDING
Laura Nyro
Richie Havens
Sweetwater
SATURDAY, NOV. 1, 8:30 P.M.
ALL EVENTS BUILDING
~TATE*NOW*i
A4=b 2nd WEEK!
Program Information 662-6264
SHOWS AT 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 P.M. RESTRICTED!
ARLO GUTHRIE in ALICE'S RESTAURANT
EDU
PRESENTED BY
HOMECOMING '69
TICKET PRICES
$4.00, $3.00
n' nnui 7unurT nnRAtinr
I
TICKET PRICES .
$5.00, $4.00, $3.00
nt l nU TlrkurT ft'hIII~flhV
I
I
I
. . .. . z... . ,....s