The Michigan Daily-Weekend etc. -March 19,1992-Page 5
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by Carina A. Bacon
You know the feeling. You walk
into the studio along with dozens of
other ballerina wannabes. You are
enrolled in Intro to Ballet 101, hop-
ing that your instructor will point to
you and say, "You have natural tal-
ent! You were meant to be a balle-
rina."
In one semester you hope to imi-
tate the poise and grace of your in-
structor: the movements she has
taken years to master. At the end of
the semester you realize that ballet
or modern dance .is not for you, so
you chalk it up to experience and
admit that at least it was a good way
to get exercise two times a week.
For the six MFA candidates, who
quite possibly were your introduc-
tory class instructors, dancing is not
just an experience. It's their future.
No Sugar Added, the MFA Thesis
Concert, which will be presented in
two parts on successive weekends,
combines the talent of three student
choreographers per weekend. Con-
ceptually, the concert is the equiva-
lent of the dissertations that master's
candidates in other fields are re-
quired to write.
Each student must choreograph
one solo and one group piece of their
choice. The process by which Anne-
Marie Acchione chose her topic be-
gan far in advance. "I started think-
ing about an idea for my thesis last
year, sometime. Family is very im-
portant to me, and I'm fortunate
enough to have my famnily as a sup-
port network."
Acchione's Italian-American an-
cestry have always been a part of
her. "My grandmother was really the
essence of that - the nucleus of that
ethnicity ... and (she showed to me)
the importance of heritage."
Concerned with the dissolving of
roots, and the pulling away from tra-
dition that occurs as people grow
older and lose contact with their pos-
terity, Acchione says, "I decided to
address that. I mean, we live in this
multi-cultural society, and your her-
itage is very important. Whether you
recognize it or not, it contributes to
who you are." Her solo piece incor-
porates various idiosyncratic move-
ments taken from family members,
which reflect some of their tradi-
tional folk and heritage.
Jessica Shinn, another performer,
feels strongly about many of the
same topics. "I originally wanted to
deal with issues of conflict between
generations and people not wanting
to deal with the fact that we get old,"
she says. Her first thought was to
combine her solo and group perfor-
mance into one general piece, but a
personal event changed her mind.
"My grandmother died in Novem-
ber," says Shinn, "and I decided to
make it (the solo) specifically about
her."
Shinn was interested in the fact
that her grandparents were both Rus-
sian, explaining, "My grandmother
and her family escaped the Russian
Revolution in 1917," Shinn wanted
to gain an awareness of her heritage,
and of the history read in books as
the history her ancestors lived
through. Her solo is inspired by the
memory of her grandmother, who
herself danced at Radio City Music
Hall in the late 1930's.
It seems unusual that heritage
plays a significant part in both
Acchione's and Shinn's works, but it
was truly accidental. "Jessica and I
had not discussed our thesis ideas at
all, and once our pieces were fin-
ished, our grandmothers were both
there in our works," says Acchione.
Unlike Shinn, Acchione has no
relatives as dance role'models. How-
ever, Acchione feels emotional sup-
port from her deceased grandmother
when struggling to go down to the
studio to endlessly rehearse. "I kind
of like to think that she's out there
with me in spirit," says Acchione.
Since Acchione is an only child,
her reasons for going into dance are
still a mystery, "My mother has ab-
solutely no idea where it came from.
She took one modern dance class in
college and absolutely hated it! I've
Talk about taking the Lord's name in vain. These days, using the word
"sex" in a single is no longer shocking enough to guarantee turned
heads, so every faux rebcl rocker has been scrambling to mention the Big
Fella. From songs like "Personal Jesus," "Jesus Christ Pose" and "Jesus
Built My Hot Rod" to bands like MC 900 Fodt Jesus, Jesus Jones, Liquid
Jesus, and Jesus Lizard, you've gotta wonder what's next. Jesus Wahlberg?
J.W.A.? "Everything I Do I Do It For Jesus"?
Anyway, in spite of this recent overkill, there are plenty of great jams
about the J-Man. Due to space considerations, though, I'm limiting myself
to songs with His name in the title (eliminating, for instance, the Residents'
brilliant God In Three Persons). Here are a few:
Consolidated, "Music That Lifts Up Our Savior Jesus Christ"/
"Josephine the Singer" - About 30 seconds of minimalist noise combined
with an ironically danceable rant against the crass exploitation of music and
religion.
The Jesus and Mary Chain, "Bo Diddley Is Jesus"- More gospel music
should have so much feedback that you can't understand the words.
King Missile, "Jesus Was Way Cool" - If Preacher Mike had a whinier
voice, a sense of humor, a few tabs of blotter acid, and maybe a lobotomy,
he still wouldn't be this funny.
The Minutemen, "Jesus and Tequila" - You forgot all about that water-
into-El Toro miracle, didn't you?
Elvis Presley, "Jesus Walked That Lonesome Valley" - Featured on The
Million Dollar Quartet album. Also, be sure to check out the classic film A
Change of Habit, in which Elvis seduces a nun.
Unknown C&W Artist, "Plastic Jesus" - "I don't care if it rains or
freezes/ As long as I got my plastic Jesus/Sittin' on the dashboard of my car/
I know that nothin' will frighten or scare me/ As long as I got my magnetic
Mary ..." Any info regarding the writer/performer of this song will be
greatly appreciated.
The Velvet Underground, "Jesus" - No snide comment for this one. A
beautiful song. Seriously.
Frank Zappa, "Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk" - Turn the other cheek?
Fuck that. This song is so merciless, it probably had a direct effect on
Tammi's decision to drop Jimbo last week. -Mark Binelli
Yet again, the dance department expresses a love for its student bodies.
Though nobody can echo the brazenness of Lather, Rinse, Repeat the
dancers in No Sugar Added promise some hair-raising movement.
often wondered if my mom would
have liked modern dance if she'd
been in one of my classes."
Acchione's own instructive style
is soft-spoken, and she is willing to
work with students until they under-
stand the steps; she will push her
students to do well, but not to the
point where dancing becomes a rou-
tine. After receiving her master's
degree from the University, Ac-
chione plans to return home to
Boston, and would like to perform
with some companies in New
England. Eventually, she would like
to teach. "My long-term goal," she
says, "is to be a professor of Dance
at a small liberal arts college."
As for the name of the thesis
concert, No Sugar Added, it was the
product of a brainstorming session
among the six candidates. "You see
all that stuff in the grocery store -
no sugar added, no fat added - and
we thought it was appropriately fit-
ting for everybody's awareness of
dietary intake," said Acchione.
"We liked how it represents
strength," continued Acchione. "No
frill. You know we're six women,
but we're strong women and we
have things to say."
NO SUGAR ADDED, PART I: MFA
THESIS CONCERT will be per-
formed March 19-21, at 8 p.m. in
Studio A of the University Dance
Building (adjacent to the CCRB).
Tickets are $5 at the door. For more
information call 763-5460.
"I am an anti-Christ," sings the Sex Pistols' own Johnny Rotten.
Has PC invaded the kitchen?
Flipping through the channels one
night last week, I came across a new
commercial for Wheat Thins. In her
singsong voice, Sandy Duncan was
extolling the virtues of these
crackers, going on and on about how
you could "enjoy the great taste
without the guilt." The commercial
ended before I could change the
channel, but her last words struck a
nerve. "Delicious is still in, isn't it?"
she asked.
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Who cares, Sandy? I don't pick
my crackers by how much guilt
they're going to give me as I eat
them. And I certainly won't let the
people at Nabisco dictate what is
"in" or "out" in my diet.
, But I realized that this commer-
cial is only one example, one symp-
tom of the plague that has swept
through the kitchens of America. I'm
talking about Culinary Correctness.
The effects of CC on the
American diet have been tremen-
dous. In the last 20 years, thousands
of foods have been branded with the
"bad for you" badge; red meat has
become an endangered species on
our dinner tables, and I'll bet most of
you can't remember the last time
you had real butter or heavy cream
maybe never, if your parents
bought into this movement when it
first began.
Even your esteemed food consul-
tant fias fallen victim to this disease.
In my column for Thanksgiving
- the last remaining bastion of
American gluttony - I published a
recipe for "Tofu Pot Pie." All in the
name of culinary diversity.
Enough, I say. Enough! It's time
for America to take back its stomach
from the Low Fat Police, who would
have us all eating oat bran and soy
milk three times a day if they had
their way.
As luck would have it, I have al-
ready found an ally in my battle. Bill
Scheller, the co-author of The Bad
for You Cookbook, has fired the
opening barrage in the backlash
against the CC movement.
The dust jacket said that the au-
thors "toured the globe and interro-
gated their grandmothers" to com-
pile more than 100 recipes - each
with more than 1,000 calories. All of
the recipes call for butter, heavy
cream, potatoes or red meat, and
many are combinations of all of
these. I would be afraid to publish
most of them here, especially the
one for Scrapple, which begins by
boiling an entire pig's head until the
meat falls off.
early seventies," he said. "Up until
then, people didn't think twice about
eating a meatball sub and sucking
down two quarts of beer before go-
ing to a peace march."
(Interesting image, huh? I'm sure
peace marches were a hell of lot
more fun in those days.)
The seventies saw a change in
.activists' eating habits, however.
They no longer wanted to eat what
"the establishment" ate, vegetarian-
ism became a political cause and
there was a prevailing sentiment to
"show solidarity with the Third
World," presumably by starving
yourself..
We can see the results of this
change all around us,'Scheller said:
restaurants that serve tiny portions of
bland and uninspiring "lite" dishes,
and the dominating presence of
"Litespeak" in anything written,
broadcast or spoken about food.
Still, I was not too eager to try his
T 'ink backtotheeariy'80s,when
a tune came out of nowhere and
landed on the charts. The song, "One
Night In Bangkok" is from the musi-
cal Chess, this weekend's UAC/
MUSKET production.
Chess is the brainchild of lyricist
Tim Rice (Evita, Jesus Christ Super-
star) and composers from the Swed-
ish rock group ABBA. The show
was a hit in London; it eventually
came to Broadway after undergoing
numerous cuts and additions and
closed quickly, despite $4 million in
advanced ticket sales. Currently, it is
being revived off-Broadway with a
score very close to the original Lon-
don production.
DirectorDavid Kirshenbaum says
the original Broadway play was cho-
sen because of the musical score. "In
the London version, the strong suc-
cession of musical pieces was present
at the expense of flushing out the
storyline," he says. The Broadway
version, he explained, is more of a
human story.
Chess is a love triangle set against
the backdrop of the 1985 World
Chess Championships. The match is
between the "spoiled brat" Ameri-
can challenger Freddie Trumper
(Robb McKindles) and Anatoly
Sergievsky (Patrick Beller), the cur-
rent Russian champion. Freddie's
assistant and sometime-lover Flo-
rence (Mary Ann Lombardi) finds
their partnership faltering, and be-
comes attracted to Anatoly. Then,
Kirshenbaum says, "the fireworks
really begin."
The love triangle becomes com-
piicatea by secret agents, journaists
and the Arbiter of the match, con-
cerned with the game appearances.
At the time it was written, the
chess game was used to symbolize the,
also points out that political games
are only part of the plot. Behind the
"Cloak and Dagger" aspect, Chess
says something about personal rela-
tionships. "It's about playing mind
games as much as playing games on
the board and as much as playing
political games," says Kirshenbaum.
When asked how the MTV gen-
eration would respond to a 3-hour
musical by ABBA, Kirshenbaum re-
fers to the music - a mix of rock,
neo-Classical, keyboard instrumen-
tals, folk music and pop - and hopes
that there's something for everyone.
Chess may not be as well-known
as past MUSKET shows (Cabaret,
Evita) but it should be as entertaining.
Ithasacast of 32-oddly enough, the
number of pieces on a chess board.
Kirshenbaum calls this cast the most
enthusiastic he has ever worked with.
The appeal of Chess lies in its
versatility. It is a love story compli-
cated by politics, yet a story of friend-
ships and personal relationships. Bill
Henry, a reviewer for Time magazine
said the musical contained "the finest
rock score ever produced for the the-
ater." There is much more to Chess
than "One Night in Bangkok."
Chess will play at the Power Cen-
ter tonight, Friday and Saturday at 8
p.m. Tickets are $7, $6. Call 763-
TKTS for more information.
-Melissa Rose Bernardo
Enough! It's time for America to take back its
stomach from the Low Fat Police...
But even if the thought of
Scrapple doesn't make your taste
buds tingle, Scheller's arguments
should give you concern.
"At first glance, it's hard to see
the connection between political
correctness and our eating habits,"
he explains. "But I think that the pu-
ritanical undercurrent in this country
has really affected how we eat and
how we think about eating."
Scheller - who describes him-
self as "kinda short and on the
stocky side" - said that the origins
of CC can be found in the liberal es-
tablishment around 1969.
"Nobody started making a lot of
noise about health foods until the
recipe for Potatoes fried in Goose
Fat (p. 28), or the Deep-Fried Sweet
Potato Balls (p. 74), even if it was
for a good cause.
(Deep-frying seems to be one of
the authors' favorite cooking tech-
niques; sometimes recipes call for
butter, sometimes lard, and occa-
sionally olive oil, but usually large
quantities of some alleged artery-
See FOOD, Page 8
Beller, Lombardi
political games played between the
United States and the Soviet Union.
The show is set in 1985; today, there
is no Soviet Union. Kirshenbaum
agrees that the show "may have lost
some of its punch politically," but
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