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Page 10-The Michigan Daily-Monday,April 19,1993
High energy moves 'Quintexture'
by Jody Frank
The high energy and powerful
themes in both programs of the B.F.A.
dance performance, -"Quintexture: A
Moving Experience,"wereonly a couple
of the reasons why the dances were so
successful. The choreography and tal-
i,
Quintexture: A Moving
Experience
Studio A
April10 and 15
entofthedancers themselves alsomade
bothweekend'sprogramsextraordinary.
It was very interesting to see how a
dance can fit so well to different music.
"Tilt," choreographed and performed
by Kande Culver, Wendy Light and
Jeremy Steward, was one of the two
dances thatexperimented with this varia-
tion. When danced to an excerpt from
the Quartet in F by Maurice Ravel, the
action seemed light and fun with twist-
ing movements and jumps, then be-
coming languid with movements that
wereslowerandmorehesitant. A!'hough
the music changed to Mark Stone play-
ing an African xylophone the second
weekend, the dance retained the same
tone as before, perhaps with a slight
twist to a more tribal feeling.
CaryMcWilliam was another dancer
who used a variety of music; however,
as part of the challenge in her impro-
vised dance, she was unaware of what
the music would be. In a loose-fitting
green dress, her dancing was playful.
She moved well with the music, staying
in one part of the stage at the beginning,
then flying out and using the whole
stage as the pace of the music changed.
At one point when the music changed
tone, McWilliam gave abright smile as
if she was happy about where the music
would take her - it was exciting to
watch her enjoyment of what she was
doing.
Shown on video, Lisa Clinton's ice-
skating was graceful, though the techni-
cal problems of the filming consider-
ably weakened theexperience.Although
the dim lighting might have worked at a
live performance, on the video it made
Clinton disappear into shadows. An-
other problem with the lighting was that
at times the spotlight was right behind
her, and while it showed a nice silhou-
ette if it hit her exactly in the right spot,
it rarely worked; instead, she disap-
peared again.
Clinton's choreography in the sec-
ond weekend made up for the disap-
pointment of her solo. In "The Wall,"
co-choreographed by Donna Pisani and
Wendy Light, the dancing was intense.
Beginning with a man dressed in over-
alls playing with a toy airplane, he
crashed the plane and left the stage
making way for the dancers. When he
came back he performed martial arts
moves, and while the theme of the piece
this might theoretically have worked, in
practice it was rather ineffective.
What was more effective was the
strengthandenergy in the dancing.Josef
Woodson in particular made some in-
credible jumps. Power radiated from
the dancer's bodies. At one point in the
dance, during the lines, "We don't need
no education," three very cute children
dressed in school uniforms walked
through the dancers, who at this point
were lying on the floor. Although it
added a nice touch, more interaction
with the dancers might have helped.
Clinton's other piece, "Black Magic
Woman," was striking and exciting. Her
use of ice-skating moves worked to
give a fresh quality to the dancing.
Although Sukie Collins' dancing was
good, the predominant pairing was be-
tween Woodson and Higgins, distract-
ing from Collins.
"If All The Pieces Don'tFit ..."was
a dance, choreographed by Jennifer
Minore, with a different tone: humor. In
this dance, Minore andAlexandraBeller
played off each other to offset the other.
Starting "mistakenly" one dancer
dropped the other and gave alittle "oops"
expression. Then the dance began to get
vengeful as they tried to mess each
other up. Their playful facial expres-
sions were terrific, and the bright cos-
tumes were a welcome break from the
other dances. The dance was funny all
the way through to the end; in the bow,
one knocked the other over.
"Nightfall," choreographed by
Wendy Light, was another dance that fit
in the category of high energy, strong
movements. Beginning in dark light-
ing, thedancersheldtheirpalmsupwith
gnarledhands.As thepowerofDionysos
grew over them, the lighting turned red
and the dancing became more frantic-
the dancers seemed possessed. At one
point the dancers ran around in a circle
with their arms out in back of them,
seeming truly crazy. The blue light sig-
nifiedmorning and sobriety as the dance
came to a sudden stop.
Culver's "Behold" wasanotherpow-
erfuldance that combineddancing, pho-
tographs, text and drawing. It was suc-
cessful in showing the anguish of being
caughtin aconstant self-evaluating pro-
cess. The paper on which they drew the
way they saw their bodies also seemed
to represent mirrors. At the end, even
after they tore the paper down and
seemed to be free of the spell, they ran
back to where the paper had been -
almost as if they were addicted to being
self-discriminatory. It was anever-end-
ing struggle to be free of the mirror's
reflection.
"Rosario's Barrio" satirizes Christopher Columbus, Little Red Riding Hood, and Alice in Wonderland.
Barrio'satirizes'clean v.
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by Jason Carroll
It's hard to imagine that a children's television show
aimed toward Hispanic children could survive, when thou-
sands of youths flock around the television set every after-
noon to watch a purple dinosaur named Barney, spew out
sanitized versions of life in America.
"Rosario's Barrio," the latest offering from El Teatro de
la Esperanza explored the world of children's television,
Rosario's Barrio
Michigan Theater
April 16, 1993
and depicted what might happen if a Latina woman was
allowed to run her own show. Throughout the performance,
we saw segments of the pilot episode that was sold to the
Fox network.
Rosario (Silviana Wood) opened her program in a spicy
game show style. She danced around to Latin music while
marquis lights flashed on the set. She told her viewers,
"Today, boys and girls, we will show you how to get your
parents a green card."
After viewing this segment, the producer decided that
Rosario had come on too strong, so they did a second take.
This time Rosario entered the cheap, shabby set (which
looked amazingly similar to the one in Mr. Rogers' Neigh-
borhood),took offhershoes, removed hershawl and put on
her apron, like a female version of Mr. Rogers.
By now, we knew that this wasn't going to be like any
kids show we've ever seen. Here are a few examples of the
type of humor that followed. After a quick demo on the
preparation of pork tripe soup, which happens to be made
from the inside of a pig's stomach, Rosario introduced her
first guest, "Speaking of pigs, look who's here -it's Pedro
Ramirez from the INS."When the workers on the set heard
this, they freaked out because they thought that the immi-
gration office was actually raiding the studio. Rosario
concluded this segment by instructing her audience, "You
too can work for the INS. It takes a special person to betray
their own people."
The show proceeded into segments satirizing Christo-
pher Columbus, Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonder-
land and the L.A. Riots. Rosario played a news reporter in
the riot scene, who told the viewers, "They've just an-
nouncedthe Rodney King verdictandthepeoplein Rosario's
Barrio aren't very happy."
"Rosario's Barrio" was filled with many political jokes.
They ripped on everyone from Ted Kennedy to Zoe Baird.
Sometimes when a play uses too much political satire it can
become offending,but"Barrio"never did, becauseitpoked
fun at numerous sides of each issue, much like "In Living
Colour."
The lighting in the show was a bit gratuitous. At times,
it would shift from a dim scene to an intensely bright one in
a split second, but it worked because it added another comic
aspect to the environment, much like the flimsy set.
The actors in "Barrio" displayed varying degrees of
talent. The performance was fast-paced, and in each seg-
ment an actor had to play a different character.
Lola(LisaCortez Walden)was hilarious as themelodra-
matic, back-stabbing stage actress who would do anything
to get famous. Her youthful acting style was displayed
wonderfully when she portrayed Little Red (Commie)
Hood. She mugged for the camera and skipped around the
stage just like any little girl would.
Nobody'sacting could compare to Wood's. HerRosario
was sweet and charming, while at the same time saucy and
risque. She taught children the dangers of war and the
dangers of the immigration service. You couldn't help
loving her as she tried desperately to get a show on the air
that reflected the cultural and historical importance of the
Hispanic community.
Unfortunately, FOX reneged on its offerand theproduc-
ers of "Rosario's Barrio" were forced to take an offer from
the local PBS affiliate. I doubt Rosario will fit in well with
Barney and Big Bird, but she sure will make things a little
more interesting.
NOWCOI FFE
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