8 -The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 5, 2001
ARTS
'Hallelujah' creates
dance in experience
One sidezero readies
for earned success
By Charity Atchison
Daily Arts Writer
"Hallelujah! In Praise of Paradise
Lost and Found" isn't going to be your
normal Saturday night Power Center
dance performance. Some of the per-
formers are professional dancers from
Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, which
itself contains dancers from ages 20 to
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Liz
Lerman
Power Center
Tomorrow at 8 p.m.
70; others are stu-
dents from the
Winans Academy
of Performing
Arts in Detroit,
Marygrove Col-
lege, the Univer-
sity of Michigan
dance department
and the Hannon
House. The pro-
ject is also unique
because it is the
culmination of a
year and a half's
work in the
Greenly said, "Aspects of the movement
travel - it might be 30 seconds of
material. Each time, people learning
material helps us develop and change it
and make it work for this piece."
The community partners are chosen
after talking with the presenter, in this
case the University Musical Society.
Winans Academy and Hannon House
were adopted because the troupe
worked with Professor Joyce Meier,
who was collaborating with these
schools. Last year, LLDE dancers
joined University students plus the chil-
dren and elders they worked with at
Winans and Hannon houses in dance
classes.
The idea of "Paradise Lost and
Found" came from LLDE's experience
of working with the Rudy Hawkins
Singers. Choir director Rudy Hawkins'
godmother was a chorus girl in the
Detroit neighborhood of Paradise Valley.
Greenly said Lerman began researching
this neighborhood and inquiring about
people who would be interested in
working with the project. Lerman also
looked to Milton's "Paradise Lost" for
the structure of the piece.
The dancers range in age from 11 to
80, that being Rudy Hawkins' godmoth-
er, Beatrice Buck. "I think that the rea-
son we include people of all different
ages is that people with a wide variety
of backgrounds can lend their own
information to the project. It's about
experience," said Greenly. In all, rough-
ly four generations will contribute in
Tomorrow's performance.
By Sonya Sutherland
Daily Arts Writer
Eourtesy or UMS
The Liz Lerman Dance Exchage dance divinely for their Ann Arbor performance.
. e
i
i - i
Detroit and Ann Arbor areas.
"Hallelujah! In Praise of Paradise
Lost and Found" is the Detroit portion
of Lerman's national project, "Hallelu-
jah! In Praise of." Each community
where LLDE takes residence develops
its own sense of praise. And every com-
munity provides a different history and
experience that allows for the develop-
ment of the project.
Phrases of choreography appear
across the nation in different forms,
performed differently by the dancers
everywhere. LLDE dancer Margot
On the Michigan end of the project,
dancers from the U-M dance depart-
ment auditioned to take part in the per-
formance. Also, Professor Meier's
classes worked with students from the
Winans Academy on their writing skills.
Meier's students were also able to par-
ticipate in classroom dancing with
LLDE dancers and were encouraged to
look at details of their lives and begin to
incorporate movement.
"Hallelujah!" is a project entirely out
of the ordinary in the dance world. Resi-
dencies normally last three days and are
spent in tech rehearsals. The long stay in
the area and the many visits of the
dancers have given them a chance to
feel part of the community, giving them
a second home and the opportunity to
develop long term relationships.
For those who have never witnessed a
dance performance, Greenly said,
"Everybody walking in the door will see
piece from their own eyes and experi-
ence. It is important to trust your own
instincts in that way. Whatever you get
is what you get. Trust that and value
your own journey through the piece."
The tragedy of September 11 has had
a profound effect on the direction of the
show. "From day one the piece has been
influenced by our experience; the audi-
ence will walk in affected by this past
month as well," Greenly said. "Paradise
lost and found is a godsend of a theme.
How do we feel as a culture? We've lost
paradise, what do we remember? How
do we appreciate our paradises, and how
will we work towards captivating a
sense of paradise again?" Tomorrow
night, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
will help us answer that question.
Ready to rock the house? Well
Onesidezero was at it full force Sun-
day night,
bringing the
a ruckus to
Detroit with 311
Onesidezero for one hardcore
show.
State Theatre Hailing from
September30, 2001 southern Cali-
fornia, this clas-
sic hard rock
quintet proved
to be the up and
coming force
that so many
critics have
already labeled them as. Set to tour
with Incubus this fall, Onesidezero
translated their emotional intensity
into a 45-minute emotionally pum-
meling set.
Opening with "Neverending" and
playing through their new album
This Room is Getting Smaller, the
very talented Onesidezero soon per-
formed the task so many opening
bands fail at - getting the crowd
livened up. From the first song all
the way through the last, the crowd
was loving every minute, moshing
and jumping in that sing of rock 'n
roll acceptance.
Onesidezero's unique yet potent
sound is thanks to the fact that "this
band is all about music. We all love
musicand we love playing music,"
said drummer Rob Basile.
As for furthering their music
careers, the goal is "Don't die
because we've gotten more than we
set out to do, if we asked for any-
thing else we'd be pompous pricks,"
said Basile. It's not very often a
band without a video receives such
an overwhelming media response,
but the kids dig their noise and are
desperate to get in on the action.
Lead singer Jasan Radford had a
hard time keeping his pantsfrom
getting ripped off.
Keeping with the band's theme of
"positive energy of life itself with
all the ups and downs facing life ard
living it," according to guitarist
Levon Sultanian; Onesidezero is
definitely riding the wave and relat-
ing to audiences. Dishing out their
new single "New World Order" as
well as -"Soak," "Neverending" and
"Eight," Onesidezero demonstrated
that they are more than a force to be
reckoned with, they have a musical
gift which translates to a sound
everyone can relate to.
For the hard-hitting, hardworking
band, it is more than just going up
and putting on a killer show. "We
love having fun with the kids," said
Radford, "and that's what it is
about."
Second City ventures to A2
By Jenny Jeltes
Daily Arts Writer
"Mayor-go-Round," the theme of
Detroit Second City's new performance,
will be coming to Ann Arbor to please
audiences yet again with its witty and
oftentimes hilarious
depictions of current
social and political
r
issues. The travel-
ing group has
worked on this
Mayor-Go- particular theme
Round for the past couple
The Ark months and it will
highlight such
Tonight at 7:30 p.m. issues as the may-
oral race and
Detroit's 300th
anniversary. These
events, however,
aim to do more
than simply get the
audience laughing.
Kiff Vandenheuvel, an actor from Sec-
ond City, said, "Our job is to try to find a
way to make politics and our point more
universal. But at the same time, if we go
for the universal truth, that's where the
satire lies, and that's where people can
relate to what we do."
Although Second City is similar to
other improvisational shows, such as
"Whose Line is it Anyway?," this type of
theater is founded on something com-
pletely different. The biggest difference is
that the scenes are already written, yet
created and constructed from improvisa-
tion done in rehearsal. Both the director
and the actors work together to write the
script. This technique makes Second City
very unique and sets it apart from other
types of theater.
Being a part of Second City requires
one to know everything from the third
president of the United States to religion
to popular music. The group covers every-
thing, and almost anything can come up
in improv during rehearsal, therefore it is
essential that each actor is very savvy.
"It's an honor to be a part of Second City
simply because of the tradition. So many
greats have come out of Second City,"
said Antoine McKay, who has been acting
for Second City since 1997.
The cast consists of only six people
who all have a background in other types
of theater. Cheri Johnson, who has been a
part of Second City for two years, enjoys
the freedom that this type of theater pro-
vides. "I like the Second City because it's
the one type of theater where you can do
anything you want and you don't have to
worry about demographics. This type of
theater is pretty rare and it's an honor to
have the opportunity to do it for a couple
years."
Many of the actors have other appear-
ances as well. Vandenheuvel, for example,
has been on commercials for Buick and
Hungry Howie's, among many others.
Many talented actors have come from
Second City or have performed with them
at some time. Robin Williams performed
a show with the Second City troupe in
JsdN k11h tt T ati
Onesidezero rocks the State Theatre.
Disjointed plot
leaves bad comedy
for Stern, 'Danny'
0
Coourtesy of Second city
Second City cast gets crazy.
Santa Monica, Calif., but he didn't grasp
the rules of improvisation at first. After
being approached by Ryan Stiles
("Whose Line is it Anyway?"), who was a
member of the cast, Williams realized he
needed to change his approach. After
learning the "rules," the second act ended
up being even funnier than the first.
Second City is eager to perform in Ann
Arbor and audiences have a lot to look
forward to. McKay comments that in
past shows, he's found Ann Arbor
"smarter than a lot of the audiences
we've had. They got a lot of the jokes
that sometimes go over people's heads."
By Melissa Gollob
Daily Arts Writer
Throughout the week, numerous pro-'
grams have debuted but only a few
stand alone for various reasons. Their
Danny
CBS
witty dialogue,
one-liners and
unforgettable
characters put
them at the top.
"Danny" is not
one of these
shows.
Daniel Stern
("Home Alone")
plays Danny, a
middle-aged
father of two sep-
arated from his
wife, who runs a
rec. center for
Tonight at
8:30 p.m.
,r
girls, Danny is always on the run. He
even finds time to avoid a budget-seek-
ing attorney and fill in for an injured
player in his son's pick-up game of bas-
ketball.
Within the half-hour, Danny deals
with his son growing up and his
inevitable aging. The writers of the
show cannot seem to decide whether
they want to focus on Danny's personal
life or his life inside the rec. center. The
constant switching makes for a dis-
jointed plot and slows down the action
and consequently the humor. The one
promising scene was the ballet class
where instead of teaching the reluctant
girls dance, he demonstrates the beauty
of tackling, punting and blocking in
football.
In the end, the plot ties together
rather innovatively with the plot draw-
ing a parallel between Danny and the
old Native American wood whittler.
His son gives him a piece of wood and
his daughter a stone. Danny's father
brings both gifts together by purchas-
ing a carving knife. Thus he becomes
the old man by the side of the road. He
may not be as wise as the old whittler
but at least in his children's minds, he
is getting there. "Danny" probably
won't get anywhere in its current state.
The rest of the cast floats in and out
of the comedy at will with only tiny
interactions with Danny. His most
meaningful dialogue occurs with him-
self during a couple diatribes that pro-
fess his exasperation toward people in
general. The only potential for "Danny"
lies in the writer's hands. If they can
turn the focus away from his family
and into the everyday running of the
community center, the show would be
more enjoyable and clever.
V" t I. youth around the city. The show begins
on the morning of Danny's birthday. He
Worse yet, you don't know complains about the fuss made over
him but seems to enjoy it in the end.
what lse t do-On his way to work, he gawks at an old
Native American man sitting by the
side of the road carving a piece of
wood. Danny's in awe of how in control
and astute the man appears.
He spends the rest of the day work-
ing at his center taking care of the
an answer. many crises that erupt. From the janitor
singing the karaoke song "Let's Get it
Career Pla nning Specialists On" to him in the hallway to impromp-
tu teaching of ballet to four-year-old
Berlitz International.,
the world leader in language instruction, is holding
a Prospective Instructor Orientation at our Language
Center in Birmingham on Wednesday, October 10
at 11 a.m. or 6:30 p.m.
Interested language instructors should
have native fluency and a BA/B3S.
Please respond by fax to 248-642-9341,
attention: Deborah Schultz
I
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A series of messages challenging
popular thought with Biblical truth
and scientific evidences.
Dr. Orlando Buria Presents the facts!
1
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