The Michigan Daily-Weekend etc. -April9,1992-Page 9 Dancers move to a healthy recipe - No Fat Added Jessica Cocoran's sort of thing by Alexandra Beller There were 19 of them in '88, ten in '89, and eight in '90. * Now, in the spring of 1992, there are only three re- maining graduate candidates from the original incoming class of Dance majors. Daniel Gwirtzman, Nicole Meyer and Rebecca Shubart, after four years of classes, rehearsals and performances have one final obstacle be- fore graduation - their final thesis. Joined by senior Gordon Van Amburg, who has studied with them for the past three years, the artists present their BFA con- cert this weekend, No Fat Added. Gwirtzman explains this group's longevity, "It isn't just coincidence that we're the only ones left. We all showed the same devotion. We decided to stay and we did." Having shared so many experiences and worked to- gether with such intensity has brought a shape to the concert not usually found in a thesis program. "We've grown up together. We've seen each other develop artis- tically and personally," says Shubart. Meyer, in her solo entitled, "You're Late," confronts herself and her idiosyncrasies. Essentially a comic look at her tardiness, the piece takes on a deeper tone as she deals with the frustration she feels toward herself. On another comic note, Meyer's group work, "Vain Janes" is a spoof on women's shopping rituals and the secret activities behind the dressing room curtain. Using a set, connotative video images and an original score by Steev Hise, the mixture of media arts is aimed at "having fun with this secret part of a woman's life," says Meyer Gwirtzman will be presenting "Division," a solo work juxtaposing the concepts of movement and music, *stillness and explosive kinesis. It is a highly abstracted piece dealing with the emotions of separation. His group work, "Quartet," is a series of four vi- gnettes, each dealing with a different aspect of human interrelations. Gwirtzman looks at how various commu- nities, including one stricken with an AIDS-like plague, deal with each other within the context of their envi- ronment. Shubart, who performed her solo in the November BFA, will present "Closed Quarters," a dance for five women. Set in a reflective cage designed by University graduate architect students, it deals with the idea of confinement, both physical and emotional. "Closed Quarters" will be set to a different piece of music each night, relying in part on chance and fate. Although Shubart says this "makes the dancers nervous," she also contends that it "adds to the feeling of discomfort" es- sential to the text of the dance. Gordon Van Amburg will perform a solo, "Landscape with Human Figure," choreographed by University alumna Benedette Palazzola. Performed in silence while using a series of entrances and exits, the dance offers a fragmented, abstract narrative of the landscape and its elements. His group work, a quartet, is set to a score entitled "Flannel Dreams," composed by faculty member Stephen Rush. The concert has no unifying theme; if there is a common element, Meyer says it's that they have "stripped away the artificiality, the excess." This ex- plains the title, No Fat Added. "Aside from the obvious pun," says Gwirtzman in reference to dancers fanati- cism about diet and body image, "We wanted to say that we were going to be pure, straightforward ... to peel away the surface." NO FAT ADDED will be performed in Studio A at the Dance Building, tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 general admission. For more informa- tion, call 763-5460. by Annette Petruso 4I think people find me to be a bit of a novelty sort of thing because of my age and situation sort of thing," says Jessica Cocoran, a British 21- year-old record producer. Though a young female producer might be an oddity in the male-dom- inated music biz, the list of albums and artists Cocoran has produced is impressive - an almost who's who of British pop. Her work includes new American releases by the Senseless Things (The First of Too Many) and the Mega City 4 (Sebastopol Rd.), and the more well- known breakthrough album, God Fodder by Ned's Atomic Dustbin. "She's produced all our singles as well," explains Alex Griffin, one of Ned's bassists. "We just heard about her because she worked with, like, the Darling Buds, the House of Love and the Wonderstuff. We just liked what she'd done and so we gave her a go and have done all out stuff with her. But we might be looking for somebody else, just to experiment for our next single." Because a woman in the biz is such an anomaly, and a woman in charge is a problem for many with charging testosterone, it seems Cocoran might run into problems with the bands she works with. "I'm very fortunate as in all the bands I've worked with have been really nice people," she says. "Real- ly easy to get on with. That helps a hundred percent, sort of thing. You can't possibly work with people if you don't get on with them from the start, sort of the thing. It just won't work." Griffin doesn't see much of a difference between working with a man versus a woman. "Well, we've never worked with anybody else so we wouldn't know," he says. "But yeah because she's a girl, a woman, well she's only our age ... which is good. "I don't know, we might respect her more than we would a man, not to be sexist like, but the fact that she's a woman, she could just say something and we're not going to say, 'Ah, fuck off,' because you know, I don't know, she doesn't have an attitude. Mind you, it's the same, I'm sure that there's nice blokes that do it as well." Cocoran hasn't always wanted to be a record producer. She says that she's wanted to be one "probably since I was about fourteen or fifteen ... I don't know why. I just did. I went from wanting to be an air host- ess to wanting to do this ..." She has always worked in one studio, Greenhouse Studios in North London, where she was when we talked on the phone. After she got her start, she moved through the ranks, gaining a reputation. "I started off about five or six years ago at Greenhouse Studios, here," Cocoran explains. "(I) started off basically as a tape hop and ... started engineering with a producer called Pat Collier. Just took it from there basically." 'We might respect her more than we would a man. Not to be sexist like, but the fact that she's a woman, she could just say something and we're not going to say, 'Ah, fuck off,' because you know, I don't know.' - Alex Griffin, bassist Like Cocoran, Greenhouse Studios enjoys a positive regard in the music world. She says, "It's in the city. It's quite a big studio. It's got two studios. It has quite a good reputation. We've been going about ten years. It's got a reputation of do- ing a lot of up and coming independent bands sort of thing." Cocoran's method of production isn't unique, but her output has been uniforihly uncluttered, well-con- structed energizing pop. "I do my own engineering as well, so basically working on with the deck and all that equipment," she says. "Producing basically involves, a band will come to you to produce a track and you'll put your point of view across - how you think the structure of the song should be ... It just a new ear on a band's song basi- cally." Though Cocoran has little time outside of the studio, working long hours with rare days off, she feels seeing bands live is an important part of her job. "I do go to a lot of gigs," she says. "I definitely do sort of try to make a point of seeing the band I'm doing live. You get a much better impression of how (they sound). Most bands always say, 'We want to sound like we sound live,' at least the bands I work with ..." Cocoran's future holds more of the same. She says, "I've just been doing some stuff with a band, Sensatize, and band called Bedaz- zled, producing some tracks for Be- dazzled's album. Doing an album with Sensatize. Band called the Would-be's, Nautical William, an Australian band called the Falling Joys." Beyond these bands, Cocoran wants to "continue what I'm doing definitely. No great ambitions, keep on producing bands in the same vein as what I'm doing now." No one could ask for more. Mega City 4 Sebastopol Rd. Big Life Despite Jessica Cocoran's primo producing skills, the Mega City 4's problems begin with the band's name - a poor mockery of The MC5's (our precious Detroit mothers) moniker. Beyond the packaging, the 4's music is a much worse blasphemy than their name even begins to evoke. The MC4 is an unhappy liaison between American college rock (The Replacements and R.E.M.) and British pop A la Ned's Atomic Dustbin and the Senseless Things. While Ned's and Things have an energizing rush to their guitar-based pop, the Megas have no assault nor any subtlety. Se- bastopol Rd. is filled with obvious guitar hooks and self-righteous, self- possessed lyrics that, as in the music, unsuccessfully straddle the line be- tween sing-songy and mockery. The vocalist's pimply singing style doesn't make the tunes any easier to swallow either. The touch of acoustic guitar rave ups on some of the cho- ruses, most notably "Scared of Cats," could be a saving grace, but alas it, plus a fansong about "Anne Bancroft," isn't enough. Their kiss-ass thank yous in the sleeve include the aforementioned pop leaders, even god himself Bob Mould, seal their fate as wanna-be's, but as the MC4 sing in "Ticket Collector," "If it kills me, it kills me." It did boys. - Annette Petruso The Pirates of n caseyou'veeverwondered what a pirate dressed in 1920s garb would look like, here's your big chance. TheUniversity's Gilbert and Sullivan Society will present a new take on Pirates of Penzance, a pe- rennial favorite for adults and chil- dren alike. H.M.S. Pinafore and The Mikado head the list of other works of good clean fun which that wild and crazy duo, W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan are responsible for. Eric Gibson, who co-directs with James Nissen, explains the motiva- tion behind setting it in the roaring '20s: "One of the main things for a group dedicated to aparticularcanon is repetition. The challenge of exclu- sively working with a body of fif- teen works is to keep it new and Penzance meet the roaring 120s interesting. By setting Pirates in the 1920s we hope to breathe new life into the work, capturing the bold atti- tudes and fashions of the period. "Besides, it made a great deal of sense to take advantage of our amaz- ing designers. The set designer worked for the Croswell Opera House and the costume designer is a U of M gradu- ate. Both are more than capable of exploring the creative possibilities of the period." The operetta itself tells the story of Frederic (played by University Mas- ters studentRobertMirshak). We meet Frederic, the reluctant member of the scurvy gang, on a beach in Penzance. As a boy, Frederic is mistakenly ap- prenticed to aruthless bunch of swash- bucklers whose only weakness is a sympathy for orphans. He thus grows up as an unwilling member of the notorious band. This same sense of duty compels him to leave the pi- rate ship on his 21st birthday and devote his life to the extermination of piracy as an atonement for his evil deeds. Onshore he falls in love with Mabel (played by doctoral stu- dent Lisa Romero). As one can pre- dict, his affiliation with the pirates eventually forces him to wrong his love as he leads an attack on the Mabel's father, the Major General. "I think some people are going to be surprised at the ability of the performers throughout. Even though it is a community produc- tion, all of the principals are from the School of Music as is much of the chorus. The players are wonder- ful and have great voices," says Gibson. Pirates of Penzance will run April9 -11and 16-18 at8 p.m., and April 11,12,18,19 at 2 p.m. at the Mendelssohn. Tickets are $8.50, $9.50, $10 and $11. Student seating is only $5 . Call 761-7855 for more information. - Roger Hsia "Pimply singing style" would naturally result from adolescent pastimes such as Mega City 4's jungle gym habit. This pirate, in a snazzy '20s suit, hasn't yet discovered the glory of Scope. ENTERPRISES, INC. 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