The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 - 5A
The art of
appreciative silence
ne of the most thrilling hear them, they clap either by
live performances I've force of habit, familiar with the
seen passed with total rhythm of live performance or
silence from the audience. No from an impulse to appreciate
one applauded after the songs, no that overrides logic. Look into
one whistled appreciatively after it yourself this Sunday, when
each virtuosic solo, the hall didn't the Met broadcasts its current
resound with "whoos" when the production to our own Michigan
performers filed out. The audi- Theater.
ence's restraint itself was almost Some performers play with an
audible in the silence between audience's impulse to applaud,
pieces. using the fact that it's
When, as part of the often a knee-jerk reaction,
voiceless audience, I whether perfunctory or
rose from my seat to genuine, to make a point.
leave, I was carried In his Saturday night
toward the door by the performance at the Power
music that still swelled Center, poet and perfor-
- an organ player ush- mance artist Sekou Sun-
ered us out with the diata repeatedly turned
huge, complex sounds ABIGAIL B. the audience's palpable
of his instrument. COLODNER approval on its head.
Though the tension In a production that
was still palpable, shared smiles involved poetry, singers, a band
began to diffuse the intensity of and a video projection of a dancer,
the performance, when he fin- Sundiata offered an investigation
ished his piece with a flourish of post-Sept. 11 America. Sundiata
- and the silent audience erupted cleverly used our eagerness for
in noise. pathos to reveal the irony of our
The flow of bodies out the sympathies. When exposed, we
door paused as waves of applause were at first meek, then eager for
echoed through the cathedral. more. A tactful and intelligent cri-
Generally speaking, it's cus- tique, after all, is what we'd asked
tomary not to applaud perfor- for. We became willing to applaud
mances in religious spaces. A our own foolishness.
great deal of art, including today's Spontaneous applause - for
most frequently performed pieces a street performer, for instance,
- Handel's Messiah, Brahms's Ein who after all will play whether we
deutsches Requiem - were created "like" it or not - can feel miracu-
in a sacred context. Some were lous and wonderfully uniting.
well-received, some not. The reli- Is it because people offer it up
gious space in which they're pre- voluntarily that they stop in their
sented doesn't excuse them from
criticism altogether, but it can
exempt them from the immediate, To clap or not:
voiced opinion of its audience.
Maybe one of the reasons the the psychology of
audience doesn't voice its approv-
al is that the creation of art in applause
religious service can be a kind of
duty, something that's done for its
intrinsic value rather than for any
public reward. tracks as though they'd paid for a
The New York Times reported seat and applaud?
that people clap, illogically, dur- Perhaps this was why the
ing one of the newest develop- audience at St. Thomas Cathe-
ments in performed art; this dral turned from their paths to
winter, the Metropolitan Opera applaud the lone organist. We
House in New York City began really clapped for the boys' choir,
broadcasting its staged produc- now out of sight, in appreciation
tions to movie theaters across the of their own restraint - in not
globe. asking us to applaud.
Audiences watch live and
rebroadcasted performances - Colodner is minoring in
of operas and clap at the usual appreciative applause. E-mail
moments. As no performer will her at abigabor@umich.edu.
Building awareness
through music
Actress Salma Hayek and Academy President Sid Ganis announce the best picture nominations yesterday. What is missing from this picture?
'Dreamgirls' snubopens race
By JEFFREY BLOOMER
ManagingEditor
With one scandalous exception,
the announcement of the Acad-
emy Award nominations yesterday
morning went down more or less as
expected: A 5 a.m. press conference
in Beverly Hills, surely more cer-
emonious than it needed to be, and
a crowd of reporters checking off
one industry-peddled nominee after
another.
There were, of course, the wel-
come surprises. Paul Greengrass's
nod forbest director is anuncommon
show of faith for a film ("United 93")
released too early and shunned by
most of the nation. The best actress
race, which includes Helen Mirren,
Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet, Penel-
ope Cruz and Judi Dench, is finally
the strongest of the acting races
(though it was decided about three
months ago). Even Mark Wahlberg's
peripheral supporting role in "The
Departed" was recognized.
Most of the omissions were either
expected (Sacha Baron Cohen is no
Johnny Depp, and the Oscars are
no Golden Globes) or marginal (the
screenplay for "Stranger Than Fic-
tion" never really capitalized on its
ideas anyway), but there was one
snub that pulverized the others.
Standing before a brightly lit stage
and five large monitors, the radiant
actress Salma Hayek and Academy
President Sid Ganis read off the best
picture nominees. When they were
finished, she had not read the title
"Dreamgirls," and no one budged.
Clearly there was some mistake.
But there wasn't. Never mind its
eight nominations: "Dreamgirls" is no
longer in the running for best picture,
a shocking end to a ubiquitous awards
campaign that launched way back
in May at Cannes. Its eight nomina-
tions Were the most of any movie this
year, giving it the distinction of being
the only film in recent history to have
earned the most nominations but not
one for best picture. (To be sure, its
winning tally is partially inflated by its
three nods for best song alone; "Babel,"
the second most-nominated movie, was
close behind with seven.)
Up until yesterday considered the
front runner for the top award, the omis-
sion of "Dreamgirls" is likely either a
manifestation of the worst backlash in
years or the belief of many members
that the film was a shoo-in no matter
their vote. That the Academy's majority
is made up of white males surely didn't
work in its favor, either. The film's
absence is not really a surprise because
the movie is so well-regarded - it has
been received mildly for a film of such
enormous anticipation - but because
its snub totally blind-sided expecta-
tions. There was talk that "Little Miss
Sunshine" may not have had as tight a
grasp on its nomination as some had
speculated, but no one saw this coming.
Beyond the repercussions the snub
may have on how Academy members
vote in the future, it also has the more
immediate one of leaving the year's
best picture race wide open. "Babel"
has its detractors, but its admirers
have been much more vocal, and it
took the top award for drama at the
Golden Globes. Oh, and it co-stars
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. But with
its likene
and them
an unlike
surprise a
You aL
Sunshine.
ducers Gi
distinctio
Academy
years. Th
liked whi
porters o
that it has
Wha
the
isn
radar and
But as
"The Qu:
- whict
ss to "Crash" in both form easy anymore - I would watch "Let-
iatic undercurrent, it seems ters From Iwo Jima," director Clint
ly choice to follow that film's Eastwood's newest masterpiece of
ward last year. mood and restraint (his third in as
so can't count out "Little Miss many years). Yes, it's almost entirely in
"which recently took the Pro- Japanese, and two months ago it wasn't
uild of America's top award, a even going to be released this year. But
n that has matched up with the it is in many ways the textbook choice:
's best picture 11 of the past 17 a famous backdrop, a quintessentially
e film is so universally well- American filmmaker at the top of his
en even the most ardent sup- game, scenes of stunning emotional
f "Babel" will cede its flaws power (the suicide sequence alone put
the potential to go under the the-rest of the nominees to shame). This
isthe makeup of a classic best picture.
Of course, considering that a day ago
t happens when its nomination was considered a long
shot, it's anyone's game. (In fact, in its
front runner . cover of the nominations, The Associ-
't nominated? ated Press mentioned every film but
"Iwo Jima" as a possible contender.)
Isn't this/sn? I hope so, because this
race is about nothing if not blind specu-
come out on top. lation, and there's still a month to go.
suming "The Departed" and The 79th Annual Academy Awards,
een" are purely prestige nods hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, is set to air
h suddenly doesn't seem so Feb. 25 on ABC.
i
By ANDREW SARGUS KLEIN
ManagingArtsEditor
Over the course of the past half
decade, Sudan has witnessed the
deaths of
400,000 civil- Save
ians as well as Darfur Tour
the displace- .
ment of 2.5 Tonght at8p.m.
million more. At The Blind Pig
The media $6, $9 if under 21
switches back
and forth, calling it either a crisis
or a genocide. Call it what you will,
what's happening in Darfur, Sudan
has no parallel since the Rwandan
genocide of 1994. While Iraq and
the Middle East hold our attention,
the horror continues on the oppo-
site shores of the Red Sea.
But momentum is building. More
and more activist groups are form-
ing, and at the University, the group
Students Taking Action Now: Dar-
fur is in full swing, raising aware-
ness through the universal media of
art and music.
About a year ago, I covered a
STAND-sponsored art exhibit at
the Michigan Union that displayed
art made by children in Darfur.
Walking through each picture was
an exercise in restrained rage, a
withstanding of cathartic hope-
lessness. Humanitarian crises are
thrown into sharper, heartbreaking
relief when the subject is a helpless
child. STAND's message was loud
and clear: End this ongoing atroc-
ity. Now.
"Our hope is that if enough peo-
ple voice their outrage over what is
happening in Sudan, the interna-
tional community will be compelled
to act," LSA senior and co-president
of the University's STAND chapter
Maggie Glass said in an e-mail.
STAND is a national organiza-
tion sponsored by the Genocide
Intervention network with indi-
vidual university chapters. They
are constantly recruiting and host
some type of event every few weeks,
including fundraisers, guest speak-
ers and art exhibits. But how do
events such as these play into the
bigger picture?