I 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. '... , ,, , ^ , .; ; * a, n .~ ;' ^i i : , ,. "I seemed to be the only one : in the license renewal line : who wasn't getting hostile. The guy behind me was cusinq his cowboy boots when I realized my Birkenstocks were beautiful- It must be the way they : cradle your feet because : I really didn't mind waiting for my new driver's license. I even smiled for the photo." Milano'" ' BirkcenstokJ The original comfort shoe. l 209 N. Fourth Ave. 663-1644 - Open Monday thru Saturday 10 -6 repair service - : 1993 Birkenst