2B - Thursday, December 9, 2010

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

2B - Thursday, December 9, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom ~

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Judging A Book
By Its Cover
Why read a single page when the cover
tells the whole story?

SINGLE REVIEW

The first single released from
Adele's anticipated 21 starts just
the way it should, with the young
British sing-
er-songwriter
showcasing her
best asset: that Ade
soulful voice over
light, rhythmic "Rolingin
guitar strum- the Deep"
ming. Before
the power of her pipes is allowed
to sink in, a steady bass drum
interrupts, keeping the song from
settling into a folksy ballad and set-
ting up a steady foundation for the
Motown vibe that pervades the rest
of "Rolling in the Deep."
When combined with a rhythmic
piano and '60s girl-group backup

vocals of "You're gonna wish you,
never had met me / Tears are gonna
fall, rolling in the deep," that bass
drum is a solid accompaniment
for Adele's strong, inspired vocals.
"Rolling in the Deep" breaks down
the heavy instrumentals for brief
moments of Adele singing "Turned
my sorrow into treasured gold /
You pay me back in kind and reap
just what you sow," showing more
of her savory vocals.
"Rolling in the Deep" success-
fully and seamlessly crosses genres
by moving from folk to blues to soul
and back again - a testament to
Adele's talent. If this is any indica-
tion of what we'll get from 21, we'll
be in for a treat on Jan. 24.
-CAROLYNKLARECKI

"The Walking Dead" is one of the
most inconsistent shows on televi-
sion. The writers deliver a mixed
masterpiece of
horror, drama _
and social com-
mentary one The Walking
week, and return
a week later Dead
with far-fetched, ,TS-19"
phoned-in crap. AMC
Example: Last
week, our merry
band of survivors reached the CDC
and its lonesurvivingscientist(Noah
Emmerich, "Pride and Glory"). How
would the writers develop this?
Would real progress be made toward
a zombie cure? Would the scientist
kidnap them all and experiment on
them? Would zombies find their way

into the facility and eat everybody?
The possibilities were endless.
What we got was unimaginative
drivel. Our characters enjoy the hot
water and the powdered eggs and the
booze (why does the CDC havebooze
again?). The kids play board games.
The drunken love triangle chan-
nels "Days of Our Lives." And then
(spoiler warning) we find out thatthe
entire facility is conveniently about
to self-destruct the day after our sur-
vivors arrive. A few minutes of shoe-
horned environmental commentary
about the foolishness of fossil fuels,
another few minutes about whether
life in the time of zombies is worth
living and then BOOM. Our survi-
vors ride off into the sunset, hoping
for some better scripts next season.
-DAVID TAO

EPISODE REVIEW

Born with the ability to only look
backward, Miss Purple Headband
has lived her life a little differently
from her peers. She puts on her
hideous, floral-patterned flocks
backward. She drives backward.
She reads and writes backward.
Needless to say, this "backward"
mindset has caused some hard-
ships in Miss Headband's life.
Inspired by her physical anom-
aly, Miss Headband also developed
a reflective, introverted mindset.
"Rescue," the exciting novel that
takes place entirely in Miss Head-
band's stream of consciousness
while she sits pensively in her ugly
yellow car, follows this troubled
woman's interweaving thoughts
as she ponders her life thus far, her
romantic entanglements (or lack
thereof) and whether she should
buy a new car that isn't so god-

URTESY OLHI ITLE, soRWN AND COMPANY
damn hideous.
Of course, Miss Headband
comes to some very shocking and
emotional conclusions which she
shares to herself, alone. In her car.
In the middle of nowhere. Miss
Headband is saved, ironically, by
her own perceived defect - her
ability to onlylookbackward saves
her so that she can move forward.
The touching story of Miss
Headband is brought to avid read-
ers by Anita Shreve, who wants to
make sure her byline can be seen
from Mars. This is Shreve's second
novel, following "A Change in Alti-
tude," which imagined the person-
al reverie of a grumpy plane taking
off into the sky and, in the process,
reaching a life-changing conclu-
sion that gave our winged friend a
positive outlook on life.
-LEAHBURGIN

TRAILER REVIEW

Oh Mel, does the state of your
public image really depend on a
stuffed beaver? Featuring two-
time Academy
Award Winners
(as the title cards
so proudly adver- The Beaver
tise) Jodie Foster .m
("The Brave One") Summit.
and Mel Gibson
("Edge of Darkness"), "The Beaver"
is Foster's latest, greatest directorial
effort, a long-awaited 16 years after
her last, "Home for the Holidays."
And no, it's not a porno movie.
Picture this: Gibson plays the
sad-sack protagonist, hated by his
wife and kids for his angry and
abusive ways. Sound familiar? His
remedy comes in the form of a rag-
gedy beaver puppet. Said beaver

becomes fodder for therapeutic ven-
triloquism in a strange Irish accent.
Flash forward a few trailer seconds,
and the bucktoothed friend man-
ages to make its way into the work-
place, on a sweaty run and even into
the shower.
"The Beaver" is probably sup-
posed to be some beautifully elegiac
tale of redemption about a man try-
ing to communicate better with his
family. The screenplay landed on the
2008 Black List and was lauded as
one of the best unproduced scripts
of its time, so the movie might actu-
ally end up becoming a hit. But the
world just can't handle Gibson as he
heaves and hoes with the heavy lift-
ing of a big deal actor. It's just hits
too close to life.
-JENNIFER XU

Seven seniors a-choreographing

4

T
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)epartment of during their time at the University
- with the poise and grace of, well,
ice BFA students dancers.
Some have already caught a
hit the stage glimpse of the seniors' talent in
the first BFA concert, which took
By ERIN STEELE place on Nov. 18-20. Called "How
DailyArts Writer Things Stand," the show featured
works by Derek Crescenti, Logan
seven seniors in the Uni- McClendon, Francesca Nieves and
's dance department are Allegra Romita. On Dec. 9-11, Tara
to take the world by storm, Sheena, Emily Wanserski and Sadie
ere's noth- Yarrington will display their chore-
ybody can ography in a second concert, called
stop them. E-mails, "E-mails, Females and Coattails."
produc- Females and The seniors held an audition dur-
showcase n ing the first week of classes to select
vYork City their casts - a refreshing change
auditioning Dec. 9-11 of pace for dancers accustomed
ice compa- at8 p.m, to auditioning themselves. Each
round the choreographer looked for differ-
to pursu- Betty Pease ent qualities in his or her dancers,
opportuni- Studio Theatre whether technical virtuosity or a
teaching, $$ strong personality.
and sing- "For me, I created a piece using
e members of this unusually dancers that were all individuals,
nit class have tackled every that all had something special, that
Ige that has come their way all had a group dynamic as well as

an individual dynamic," Crescenti
explained. "It was really exciting
to see (the choreography) on their
bodies because they have such
technical prowess, so everything I
wanted looked really cool on them."
Yarrington decided to go in a
slightly different direction, cast-
ing males who had never formally
danced before - one of whom
she found dancing on the Diag -
alongside females from the Dance
Department.
"All of my dancers are complete-
ly different from each other. I have
dancers who are every size," she
said. "I wanted every kind of body
type and every kind of dancer that
I could get and see how they moved
together."
For most of the seniors, the most
challenging part of the audition
process was casting a limited num-
ber of dancers. Romita felt that the
audition was the perfect way to get
to know the department's freshmen
and was very impressed with the
underclassmen in general.
"These aren't just dancers,
they're brilliant dancers - they're
people who got into the University
of Michigan," she said. "They're
smart people, and to see them
apply that is so great. They're not
just mindlessly dancing for us, but
they're thoughtful in their move-
ment."
Armed with talented casts for
their group pieces, the seniors
embarked on their creative jour-
neys and had to cope with dif-
ferent challenges along the way.
Some of the larger difficulties for
them, whether they had to do with
choreography or emotional ties
to the piece, were faced in their
solos, which they choreographed
on themselves. Each senior was
required to choreograph one group

4

The seniors held auditions for their dances during the first week of school.

1r6tLmsi, :nto
4~do
4bot
Noth Ing
A comedy by William Shakespeare
Directed by John Neville-Andrews
Dept. of Theatre & Drama
Dec. 9 at 7:30 PM * Dec. 10 & 11 at 8 PM
Dec. 12 at 2 PM * Power Center
Reserved seating $24 & $18 * Students $10 w/ID
League Ticket Office * 734-764-2538 * music.umich.edu

piece and one solo for the group
concert.
"I especially found (the solo)
challenging," McClendon said. "I
just had to be honest with myself.
It's really easy for me to come up
with movement for my cast to learn.
It kind of keeps me on my p's and q's
because I can't waste these people's
time, so I have to have something
for them to do. With myself, there
isn't that added pressure of some-
one else's time."
Titled "Minus One," McClen-
don's solo dance addresses his
relationship with his brother, who
recently joined the Navy.
In order to get an outside per-
spective, each choreographer chose
a faculty adviser who attended
rehearsals for both pieces and gave
advice along the way.
Sheena's adviser, Dance Lecturer

Amy West, helped her open up to
unexpected possibilities that often
arise in the creative process.
"I think the best advice she gave
me was to trust myself and have
the understanding that my danc-
ers knew the commitment they
were making when they agreed to
do my work," Sheena said. "I have a
tendency to - in my choreographic
process - to just want to get to an
objective, and it's hard to see pos-
sibilities along the way, so she was
trying to encourage me to be open
to changes and adapting. I didn't
have to be so perfect withmyvision;
I could play around with things."
In addition to the help of their
advisers, the students also received
feedback from the entire depart-
ment at a works-in-progress
showing a few weeks before the
performance. The anticipation of

COURTESY OF BRIAN ROSEN
having to present their work to
their peers and mentors adds what
McClendon and Romita call a "good
pressure" that keeps their creative
momentumgoing.
"At the works-in-progress show-
ing, watching other people watch
your choreography is so nerve-
wracking," Romita explained. "It
actually reveals a lot of things in
your dance and in your music that
you don't notice when you're so
involved in it, but then when you're
removed and you're watching other
people watch it ... I'm kind of glad
that we're in the show and I don't
have to sit in the audience, because
I think if I had to sit in the audi-
ence and be with the other people
watching my piece, I'd freak out."
Romita isn't alone in her appre-
hension about displaying her work
See DANCE, Page 4B

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