Page 8-Wednesday, June 9, 1982-The Michigan Daily
Smorgasbord of eastern dances
By Ellen Rieser
F OR THOSE a little tired of dances
like the Freak and the Hustle, last
Saturday's perormance by Troupe
Ta'Amullat, Ann Arbor's nationally
noted Danse Orentale company,
featured dances from the Middle East,
India, and Turkey.
Although Troupe Ta'Amullat was
joined by members of Dobro Dosle, an
international folk dance company for
the Turkish dances, and by two guest
artists, the evening really belonged to
Troupe Ta'Amullat which did the lion's
share of the dancing.
Saturday's performance was listed'
as the ninth in the series of annual
"Rites of Spring" performances by
Troupe Ta'Amullat; however, the per-
formance deserved a special note for it
marked the company's great progress
over the past six years in evolving from
an amateur group used to performing
short programs at festivals to a com-
pany that is capable of sustaining a
polished two-hour performance on an
indoor stage.
The program, entitled "Visions from
the Nargileh," consisted of over twenty
dances ties together with a brief but
ingenious conceit of a plot. A traveller
(William Canwell), recently returned
from many exotic lands, smokes his
water pipe (the nargileh) and reviews
the sights of his wanderings.
The opium in the pipe on Saturday
evening must have been of excellent
quality indeed for the visions conjured
up were both beautiful and mysterious.
For those members of the audience
who might have thought that they were
set to see an evening of what is presen-
ted in America in cheapened form as
"belly dancing," "Visions from the
Nargileh" was an eyeopener.
The performance was a smorgasbord
of expertly performed dances of
radically different styles with costumes
ranging from the familiar revealing
skirts and veils to puffy pantaloons ac-
companied by blouses and modest head
scarves.
Particularly interesting were "The
Dance of the Horses," a dance for six
women which made use of pawing
steps, "The Cane Dance," which
featured three women swinging
shepherd's crooks in lively fashion, and
"The Ritual Flame Dance," in which
six women delicately maneuvered
twelve small oil lamps held in the
palms of their hands.
In terms of originals works (original
choreography using Danse Orientale
and folk dance forms), "The Seven
Levels of Astarte," choreography by
Troupe Ta'Amullat's Cynthia Adams,
stood out for the eerie quality created
by its static poses, concealing
costumes, and an unusual original
score.
The dances ranged from solos to line
dances, to male exhibition dances,
competition dances, and large scale
dance dramas such as "The Seven
Levels of Astarte." Some dances were
enticing; others, especially the Turkish
dances performed by the female mem-
bers of Dobro Dosle, were surprisingly
demure.
Some of the dancers made their own
music with finger cymbals; others con-
tented themselves with the live sitar
accompanyist and taped music. Some
music sounded like old folk songs.
Other music sounded as if it came from
the Egyptian top 40 of 1982. Each dance
was unique.
One thing that did stand out, and
given cultural strictures, this is hardly
sur prising,was the lack of dances for
both men and women. With the excep-
tion of Cepikli, a couples dance spiritly
performed by Dobro Dosle, "Visions
from the Nargileh" had no other mixed
dances.
A problem endemic to the program
was a lack of stage presence smong
several of the dancers. While some
dancers looked as if they were enjoying
themselves and conveyed that same
sense of enthusiasm to the audience,
others danced to even the wildest
Arabian music with expressionless
faces. Dancers. who stood for both
technique and presence among the
stony-faced masses were Deborah Er-
win, Sharon Gordan, Nancy Goings,
and Mary Weed.
The two guest artists were also
splendid although in the case of Lala
Hakim, a professional dancer and noted
authority on Danse Orientale, her part
of the program went on quite a bit too
long. By the middle of her first dance,
Hakim had the whole audience clapping
ebulliently along. However, after her
third lengthy solo, Hakim's charm had
begun to pale considerably.
Despite competition from Lala
Hakim, it was guest artist Malini
Srirama, a professional classical In-
Clockwise from upper left: Nancy Weed, and Cynthia Adams from Troupe
Ta'Amullat, Ann Arbor's noted Danse Orientale company.
dian dancer from Madras, who stole the
shoe by performing a single dance. The
Koochupudi style dance involved
balancing a brass jar on her head while
dancing along the rim of, and moving
her feet, a large brass plate.
Srirama was so graceful as to make
the audience watch her dancing and ac-
cept the carefully balanced jar on top of
her head as merely an odd part of her
costume.
While there were minor performance
glitches (a bad sound system and
pacing problems) and one error in ar-
tistic judgment (a solo by a masked
woman that looked inspired more by
Martha Graham than is did Danse
Orientale), Troupe Ta'Amullat's per-
formance was overall quite strong.
However it is an unfortunate fact of
life that sometimes otherwise good and
enjoyable dance performances can be
ruined by the audience. Such was the
case for Saturday's performance. At
least fifteen members of the audience
See MIDDLE, Page 9
4
Luke Skywalker wants your quarters
4
LOS ANGELES (AP)- Two major
movie studios say they have created
their own video game companies, and a
third studio has joined forces with Atari
Inc.-marketer of the home TV version
of Pac-Man-to cash in on the video
game boom.
Los Angeles-based 20th Century-Fox
Film Corp. said Monday it has created
Fox Video Games Inc., while Univer-
sity City-based MCA Inc.-parent of
Universal Pictures-has created MCA
Video Games Inc.
Lucasfilm Ltd., producer of such box-
office smashes as Star Wars and
Raiders of the Lost Ark, entered into an
agreement with Atari to develop new
video games, the San Francisco
Chronicle said today.
Spokesman for all three film com-
panies said their video games will be
connected to their hit movies.
"The strong advertising and publicity
with movies can be combined in sup-
port with the games," said Frank
O'Connell, president of the new Fox
Video Games.
He said consumers can expect to see
such video games as "9-to-5," because
that 1981 film about office workers
taking revenge on their boss has the
kind of story that "lets the imagination
go and has good visuals in the life of the
secretary that lends itself to a game."
MCA said Universal movies such as
King Kong and Jaws are game
possibilities "because they are so much
a part of the public consciousness."
Sources said the Lucasfilm-Atari
products will combine video graphic
technology with video gameboard con-
cepts currently in vogue, relying
heavily on pictorial material of the kind
found in film special effects.
The partnership marks the first time
a movie studio and a video game and
home computer company teamed up
the multibillion dollar industries.
"Most of the games now are of the
shoot-'em-down type," a Lucasfilm
spokesman said. "We will try to work
on getting the player more involved
with the games. The video game in-
dustry is much like the film in-
dustry-it's who can create the most in-
teresting story to entertain people."
The video games are expected to be
released early next year, the
spokesmen said.
Americans spent an estimated $9
billion on video game machines last
year.
I
I
... Raiders of the electronic arcades