The Michigan Daily - Thursday, June 2, 1983 Page 9 Orientale troupe presents 'Rites' By Ellen Rieser SATURDAY EVENING, June 4th, Huron High School's auditorium will be taken over by the sights and sounds of live Arabian drummers, women clinking finger cymbals, flashing swords, and exotic chants. The occasion will be the annual performan- ce presented by Troupe Ta'Amullat, one of the nation's foremost Danse Orientale troupes. The performance will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Rites of Spring, an annual festival of perfor- mances and workshops sponsored by the Ann Arbor-based company. A collage of the best dances staged and choreographed by Troupe Ta'Amullat over the past decade will be presented along with the premieres of three solo dances. Three nationally noted ethnic dance guest artists will- also be joining troupe in performance to present favorite dances from their own repertoires. Troupe Ta'Amullat ("Reflections") was formally organized in 1976 in Ann Arbor. The 15-20 members of the com- pany perform all forms of Danse Orien- tale as well as folk styles of dance from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. Troupe Ta'Amullat is dedicated to keeping Danse Orientale a living art form. To this end, each year the com- pany presents a large repertoire of dances in various styles. More impor- tant, members of the company also choreograph original dances using the Danse Orientale vocabulary of steps. The troupe maintains active national and local performance schedules. Troupe Ta'Amullat recently performed in Chicago, Toledo, and Lima and at several Michigan folk festivals. In the local area, they were the hit of last week's Detroit Arab World Festival on Hart Plaza. However, Troupe Ta'Amullat saves its best efforts for its home audience. The annual Rites of Spring performan- ce, with its premieres of original works and the appearances of guest artists, is considered by the company to be its major theatrical presentation for the year. For this year's Rites of Spring, the troupe will present dances from Moroc- co, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Yemen, North Africa, and Egypt. Cynthia Adams, the company's historian and a dancer with the troupe, described "Oulid Nail," one of the most interesting dances that Troupe Ta'Amullat will present. "A range of mountains in Algeria separates civilization from the desert. Women from this area go into town and dance for their dowery money. They don't dance again until they have daughters to teach. It was French Foreign Legion men who saw, these women with their phenomenal control over involuntary stomach muscles and named the dancers 'belly dancers.' This is where the name comes from. These women would dance naked for a price... In public, however, they usually wear everything they own and all their jewels - every coin and every bauble," said Adams. As performed by Troupe Ta'Amullat, "Oulid Nail" wil be a dance drama with mime elements. Adams will dance the role of an older woman who acts as the presenter of two girls (danced by long- time company members Nancy Goings and Mary Weed). During the course of the dance drama, Adams will perform a sword dance with real swords. At a recent rehearsal at Artworlds, Troupe Ta'Amullat's home studio, Adams could be seen enthusiastically wielding her flashing weapons as other dancers carefully watched from the sidelines. Rehearsing since February with the company and at home for the upcoming performance, Adams has survived some early "close encounters" to master this dance convincingly. "Achouch," a Moroccan Berber dan- ce with choreography by Nancy Goings, will also be presented on the program. Inspired by traditional line dances in marrakesh when she was there a few years ago, Goings has created a line dance composed basically of one step. "Its beauty and its intricacy come from its geometric patterbis... Eight people are strung out in a pinwheel. It needs a large stage!" said Adams. Patricia Cranmer will also do a solo in the Pharonic style with a pair of small lit lamps. This style of dance was developed at the turn of the century by Ruth St. Denis to represent formal an- cient Egyptian dancing. The dances presented by the guest ar- tists are to be announced. However, the illustrious backgrounds of the three should guarantee some show stopping numbers. One of the guest artists, Ibrahim Farrah, is a Danse Orientale specialist -who has performed at Car- negie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Ken- nedy Center, and the Riverside Church Dance Festival. Phaedra, the second guest artist, is a principal dancer with Farrah's Near Eastern Dance Group. Aside from frequent performances across the United States and abroad, Phaedra teaches Danse Orientale at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Malini Srirama, the third guest ar- tist, is a locally-based dancer from Madras who teaches classical Indian dance. At last year's Rites of Spring, Srirama was the hit of the show with her exciting "balancing" dance in- volving a brass jar and a tray. Her con- tribution to this year's performance promises to be equally as beautiful and interesting. Some very funny business. PARAMOUNT PICTURES PRESENTS AN AARON RUSSO PRODUCTION -A LANDIS/FOLSEY FILM DAN AYKROYD - EDDIE MURPHY-"TRADING PLACES"- RALPH BELLAMY- DON AMECHE DENHOLM ELLIOTT AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS -EXECUTIVE PRODUCER GEORGE FOLSEY, JR. WRITTEN BY TIMOTHY HARRIS & HERSCHEL WEINGROD.- PRODUCED BY AARON RUSSO RESTRICTED DIRECTED BY JOHN LANDIS A PARAMOUNT PICTURE". S AtsPrING CopyrightdJ 1MCMLXXXIt BytParamountP ur.Coaon Starts Friday, June 10th at a Theatre Near You.