PAFE TWO
TIE MICHIGAN DAILY
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 'A..196
PAFE TWO TIlE MICHIGAN DAILY SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29. 1966
DANCE
Martha Graham's Brilliant Performance
Poll Shows Williams in Lead;
Romney, Ferency on Stump
Highlighted by Revolutionary
Innovations
By JOYCE WINSLOW
Martha Graham and Dance
Company bowed to a standing
ovation in Hill Auditorium last
evening after a brilliant perform-
ance of modern dance.
The medium of modern dance
itself is new, but Graham's in-
novations have made it revolu-
tionary. Modern dance before Gra-
ham used the dimensions of lev-
el, space, time and rhythm to
create an interesting and cohesive
dance. The dancer's body was used
as 'a pliant tool to form new
shapes.
The distortion of the body it-
self, or the body in relation to
other bodies on the stage was
an 'end in itself. The choreog-'
rapher tried only to find new.
ways to pose the body in order to
achieve an interesting, startling
effect. Motion was built upon mo-
tion until a dance was formed. The
dance was an expression rather
than a message.
Graham added the message to
dance by. adding a new repertoire
of steps and movements. Her
dances portray an idea, often of
mythological origin. The move-
ments in her dances are not ends
in themselves, but means to con-
vey a recognizable emotion. For
example, a wringing of the hands
and shaking of the head are exag-
gerated and stylized into move-
ments which do not lose the orig-
inal concept of anxiety. The au-
dience recognizes the movements
as beautiful versions of familiar
gestures.
Graham does not rely on move- by Graham into a movement
ment alone to portray her ideas. which seems as though the dancer
The entire dance is unified into a was retracting from herself.
frame of music, costuming, sets, Grotesque finger positions have
makeup and lighting. Graham's been stylized by Graham. The
dances are strictly structured hand is now a unit of expression
around these elements in her in itself. The pliee, probably the
dance, and yet the feeling sur- most ungraceful of all ballet steps,
rounding them is of timelessness has been placed by Graham on
and weightlessness. One has the different levels. It is done while
impression that he has been on a lying on the floor, or done by
voyage through the cosmos: one dancer on the back of an-
Every element in Graham's other dancer.
By The Associated Press
G. Mennen Williams said Thurs-
day results of its latest political
poll show he leads Sen. Robert
P. Griffin, his GOP opponent 43
to 40 per cent with 17 per cent of
the voters undecided.
But, said Williams, "the only
poll that really counts is the one
on Nov. 8 and I am confident that
I am going to win that one,"
Williams headquarters said the
recently completed survey was
conducted by Oliver Quayle and
Co. Inc.
With 12 days of campaign left,
Williams forces expected a visit
today by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy,
(D.-N.Y.), to swing votes to the
former Michigan governor.
:Meanwhile Democratic State
Chairman Zolton Ferency today
carried his campaign into the
heart of traditionally, conservative
Republican territory yesterday to
speak at a Michigan Education
Association conference in ' Mid-
land.
Ferency attacked his opponent,
Republican Gov. George Romney,
with renewed vigor on the subject
of fiscal reform.
"While the crisis in education
is the most crucial issue we face
today," Ferency said in prepared
remarks. "the overriding issue-
because everything else depends
upon it--is fiscal reform."
"Our state faces a major finan-
cial crisis-even payless paydays-
in fiscal 1967 unless remedial steps
are taken early in the legislative
session beginning in January," the
Democratic candidate said.
"The real George Romney knows
this.
'But the public-image George
Romney wants to maintain the
fiction that the state is on a sound
fiscal footing so that he can avoid
any revelation of his plans for
tax increases until after election,
because he fears to reveal them
would jeopardize his chances for
reelection."
On the Republican side Gov.
George Romney said that unless
America insures that all of its
citizens are granted their rights
as human beings, the United
States is in for trouble.
'The have-not nations-who al-
most all happen to be colored-
it's almost identical-will be turn-
ed on us by our enemies," Romney
said, if we fail to give all Amer-
icans equal rights.
The governor reiterated themes
of the decline of personal and
family responsibility in America,
and the increasing control of the
federal government.
Speaking to students at Cousino
High School in' Warren, Romney
stressed the qualities which he
said built America-faith, educa-
tion, work and cooperation.
Romney, a lay preacher in the
Church of Later Day Saints Mor-
mon, told the students: "To think
this universe just happened is
sheerest folly."
"The Ten Commandments and
the Sermon on the Mount are just
as true today as when they were
written," he said.
dance is extreme. Some of the
least graceful movements in the
human repertoire have been styl-
ized by Graham and are now ac-
cepted by most modern dance
companies as basic for modern
dance. The contraction movement
of childbirth has been interpreted
These elements of modern move-
ments are performed in equally
modern settings. Just as the dance
movements are physical represen-
tations of ideas, so are the sets
tangible, though distorted shad-
ows of familiar objects. A gar-
den is represented by stiff, asym-
etrically arranged rubber poles.
A throne is an arc of wood. A
practice bar is a curve. Modern
design shapes descend from the'
ceiling as the dance progresses
to indicate a change in mood, and
eyes are accented to indicate emo-
tion.
JOHN
MILLER
JAZZ
QUARTET
'will play
the
theme, music
from
"BAMBI MEETS
THE
WOLFMAN.
Os part of our extensive
catering service,
ANIMAL CRACKERS
will be available
on request
i1
10
Russian, Japanese Art Forms
Contrast Western Conceptions
By R. A. PERRY
Perhaps our routine acceptance
of the truism of a "shrinking,
world" has blunted our amaze-
ment that into this small mid-
western town of Ann Arbor has
come and gone in the space of
three days examples of two totally
different cultures. The Moscow
Chamber Orchestra and the Hosho
School of Noh presented not mere-
ly another form of distraction or
another weekend's entertainment,
but pure examples of the art and
feeling' of other cultures. Each
presented an opportunity not only
to enjoy m'usic and drama but
also to re-examine by contrast our
own western artistic conceptions.
Orchestral Perfection
The Moscow Chamber Orchestra
represents perfection itself, and if
the Cleveland Orchestra has won
the appellation of "quartet," then
the Moscow group must certainly
be considered a soloist. I sat in the
front row of the Rackham Audi-
torium, three feet from the lastr
violinist, and could not once ex-
tract his playing from the en-
semble.
However, the Moscow Chamber
Orchestra exhibited not only per-
fection of ensemble but the per-
fection of a style, for Barshai's
conception of the music was ex-
quisitely refined, refined to the
point of being almost bloodless.
French Model
What the audience witnessed
was not a style rendered in a
Slavic mode but in that which the
Russians have 'always imitated
and considered as "good taste,"
the French. . Indeed, watching
those husky men playing in such
a sentimentally chaste manner
made me think of Turgenev, and
thus the candlelight performance
of Haydn's "Farewell Symphony"
emerged .iot as nostalgic, but as
appropriate to their whole stylistic
ambience.
If the Russian's approach some
what neglected the longer line of
Shubert's music, it nevertheless
was proper for Mozart;, for the
first time I heard in performance
the creation of W. J. Turner's
ideal: "Mozart's music is so pure'
that it seems often meaningless;'
it disappears like the air we
breathe on a transparent day." l
If the Moscow Chamber Or-
chestra refined the music to thet
point of canceling expressive ex-
cesses, they were,, of course, still
dealing with, western astation.
The Hosho School of Noh, which
opened the University Musical So-
ciety's Fifth Annual Dance Festi-
val, presented their unique, highly
refined art of drama. Here,
though, the problem emerged that
the expressions remaining after
the purification process stem na-
turally fronm a distinctly oriental
heritage. If in the former instance
the combination of purification
and *source allowed occasional
revelations, in the latter, Japanese
event this combination limited
viestern appreciation to little more
than curiosity.
Noh Drama
The troup from Tokyo, twelve
men in all, presented the best-
known Noh play, Sumidagawa.
This is not the place to explain
the techniques of Noh drama; let
it - suffice to say that the three
musicians, 'two drummers and a
flutist, set the. tempo for the ac-
tion and comment upon it with
drum beats and vocal calls. The
'actor-dancers speak, their parts
with stylized incantations of over-
whelming vocal variety. Action is
limited to the most subtle move-
ments which must convey the in-
effable depth of feeling beneath.
Deviations from an emotive mear.
are quite minimal, especially to
western eyes.
Although we are prepared by
modern music for the foreign,
1 !
1 1
1 1
II
1 1
p !
1 1
! !
!
1
1 1
* 1
1'
SURPRISES!:
like MARTIN BELL
AAARRGMM
CANTERBURY HOUSE
330 Maynard1St.
fri., sat., sun. 8:30p.n.
$1.25 per person
Daily Classifieds
Bring Quick Results
4
Your
"EXTREMELY CLEVER... SOMETHING IN IT FOR EVERYBODY,
INCLUDING PROFESSIONAL SAFECRACKERS!"
-New Yorker Mog.
COUJEBIA PICT UR Presents-
EASTMAN COLOR
Program
Information
NO 2-6264
Today at T,:00-3:00
5:05-7:15-9:20
I
I
Student Government
Petitioning To Run for
STUDENT GOVERNMENT COUNCIL SEATS
,w
1 rbTF
CONTINUOUS
TODAY from 1 P.M.
SEMa,HEAR! .
9'NE LOI SPWONFut$ .'.-~
I! CAS,
i
EXTRA
3ALES CONDUCTS"
I-I
I
LIMITED ENGAGEMENT STARTING. THURSDAY
"THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY"
Closes Monday, at 5 P.M.
1
I
MICHIGAN
Dial 5-6290
Held Over for
Another Amazing Week
I, '1 't'l I
.4
4,
4
Work for Student Participation
...... . .. ...ti
I
I
II
II