ARTS The Michigan Daily *Three dancers and Thursday, March 21, 1991 their theses Page 5 by Elizabeth Lenhard "Hi, boys and girls!" "Hi, Mickey!" "Do you know what time of year this is, boys and girls?" "It's thesis time!" "Right!" You probably know several peo- ple who are running all over campus with dryer sheets on their pants, say- ing, "Don't talk to me, I'm working on my (honors, BFA, MFA) thesis." That kind of frantic desperation does not, however, characterize the prepa- ration for the MFA Thesis concert at the School of Dance this weekend. The relaxed manner of professional teamwork and tight knit friendship that pervades the small school's stu- dent body should contribute to the quality of the concert, which is choreographed and danced by three MFA students. Anita Cheng, one of the choreog- raphers, says that creativity and pro- ductivity is a necessity in the Mas- ter's program. "(The professors) en- courage us to explore our own ideas," Cheng says. The availability of rent-free performance space, fel- low students who are willing to col- laborate and perform, and, of course, funding, gives University Dance stu- dents an open forum in which to ex- periment and thrive. This freedom is then reflected in the individuality that each dancer shows in her work. In a rehearsal, Benedette Palazzola ran through her abstract piece, "Schoenberg Solo," with an inten- tional limpid grace and unhurried simplicity. Her movements were a reflection of everyday actions, with a twist - a knee lift with an inverted ankle, or collapsing at the waist while leaving one stiff arm straight up in the air. With the color blue as the only dominant interpretive de- vice, Palazzola will enact the music with her physicality. In contrast, Cheng's solo, enti- tied "Prelude to Vertigo," will dis- play a turmoil of emotion. Cheng made resourceful use of the Univer- sity's resources and collaborated freely with music student Dan Messe, who composed Cheng's pi- ano accompaniment. Cheng says that if she could take something with her when she leaves the University, she would take her dancers, because "they're generous and brave." She collaborated freely with her dancers in the creation of the complex "Vertigo," as well as "Homefront," which integrates tech- nical devices, namely a video juxta- posed with two dancers and three live cellists. The video's flashing images of the Persian Gulf war and CNN, coupled with haunting music (composed by Robin Cox) and a chaotically athletic partnership be- tween two dancers, represents Cheng's thoughts on the war's ubiq- uitous presence in our lives via news coverage. While Cheng makes use of origi- nal compositions in her accompani- ment, the musical expression will also cover jazz from the '30s, in Barbara Hobyak's "The Attic," along with the classics. In her use of Liszt and Mozart, Palazzola demonstrates once again the innovation which has been spawned from the concert's cre- ative outlet. The dancer says that she often choreographs in silence, set- ting her dances to music later. In choreographing two works for an ensemble to the classical music, she is covering exciting new ground. For the dancers, this final concert represents the culmination of two years of fun and friendship, com- bined with excellent preparation for independent careers in modern dance. THE MFA THESIS CONCERT will be performed in the Dance School's Studio A Theater (1310 N. Univer- sity Court) tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5, available at the door. Not your typical Tiger Beat pinup boys, Blues Traveler (which includes former-wrestling great Andre the Giant, center) brings their TriBeCa/East Village groove to the Midwest. Blues travels by word of mouth by Andrew J. Cahn * Musical says 'life is a Cabaret old chum' by Beth Colquitt "The lifestyle of Germany in 1930 was this heady, 'live for the day,' drink-be merry-have sex atti- tude," says director David Kirshen- baum about Cabaret. "The whole irony is that at this point in the Third Reich, there was very little awareness of what was going on in terms of the politics and the gov- ernment." Out of the 20 musical numbers in the stage musical Cabaret, only five of them were retained for the film, which rocketed a young Liza Minelli to stardom. This in itself should remind theater-goers not to expect the same show when they seat themselves in the Power Center this weekend and wait for UAC/MUSKET's production to be- gin. When Cabaret opened on Broad- way in 1966, it ran for nearly three years, making Joel Grey a legend for his performance as the eerie and enigmatic Emcee of the notorious Kit Kat Klub. Cabaret is based on a series of stories written by an Amer- ican traveller in Berlin named Christopher Isherwood. His memoirs depict the Berlin Isherwood encoun- tered in 1929 on the eve of the com- ing of the Third Reich. One of his stories described nightclub performer Sally Bowles, an expatriate Englishwoman who was destined to be the subject of the 1951 play and the 1955 film I Am a Camera, as well as the main character of the 1966 musical Cabaret, which was recently revived and updated with limited success in 1987. MUSKET has decided to return in style and form to the 1966 produc- tion, retaining only a few items from the revival version. "It is al- most completely different from the film version," said producer Maria Dell'Isola. In Kirshenbaum's opin- ion, "There has never been a film so radically different from the original stage production;" as good as the movie is, he says, he likes the show better. The costume and technical de- signers are trying to remain in '30s Germany with period costumes and the set of the Kit Kat Klub. The cast is large, unlike the film and the original show, in an effort to convey the number of people that were af- fected by the sort of thing that was happening in and out of the Kit Kat Klub. To combat the difficulty of making the Power Center seem in- timate, the first several rows have been knocked out and covered with a thrust stage, bringing the cabaret performers and the cabaret audience right to the real audience, as if they were actually in a cabaret. The production is reminiscent of Brecht's Threepenny Opera, not in actual form, but in flavor. The char- acters aren't frivolous, but complex and realistic. They have their little flaws and foibles instead of being story-book romantic characters. It's a very adult musical. MUSKET's show is divided into the original three acts and retains the original large quantity of musical numbers. "The show is full of big, splashy musical numbers which comment on the dramatic dialogue in the scene before," says Kirshen- baum. The Kander and Ebb title song, "Life is a Cabaret," sung bit- terly by Sally at the end of the show, probably best describes the philosophy that author Joe Masteroff was trying to convey. Sally and the other pleasure-seekers don't realize the danger of their debaucheries. CABARET will be performed tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Power Center. Tickets are $5.50 in advance, available at the Michigan Union ticket office and all TicketMaster locations, and $6.50 at the door. If Blues Traveler wanted a theme song for their first real, in-depth na- tional tour, it could be "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad." In between Colorado and Nebraska, their caravan has been reduced from three vehicles to one shaky van, carrying the band and all its equipment along. Drum- mer Brendan Hill certainly did not anticipate this, but as he says, "When you are doing 45 cities in 60 days, something is bound to go wrong. Fortunately we only had to miss one gig." Hopefully, there will be nothing to hamper their perfor- mances this weekend. A few years ago, Blues Traveler was playing strictly clubs and parties around the New York area, but within the last year, their cult fol- lowing has been growing quite rapidly. This is not due to any heavy publicity by the recording industry, but rather through the publicity they have sent out on their own through associates and fans. Hill says they have definitely been helped by "word of mouth" advertising, and it has not been until recently that the industry has "caught on." Their album, after eight months of release, has finally landed on Billboard's pop chart. When I told Hill that it was somewhere between Carly Simon and 2 Live Crew,: he said, "Oh, thank you," the same way that Alvie Singer reacted when Annie told him that he was what "Grammy Hall would call him a real Jew." Although they are a four-piece band, with members ranging in age from 21 to 24, they often allow other musicians to play on stage with them. In a show at New York's Wetlands this past January, the group was augmented at different points of the show by men playing sax and flute. During one of their numbers, a fan came on stage to per- form tricks, like lighting a match while one end was buried in a fin- gernail. They do this to "make peo- ple feel more a part of the show," and it also adds to the spontaneity. The saxophonist they use, Hill says, "is a music teacher at the 14ew School (in Manhattan) who taught us much about improvisation," and they definitely apply what they have learned in their shows. One of the See BLUES, Page 8 Nina Lelchuk puts Liberace to shame by Nick Hoffman Audiences at the Rackham Lecture Hall will witness a dynamic display of virtuosity this Sunday eyening. Nina Lelchuk, a world-renowned Russian-born pianist, will bring her considerable talents to bear upon some of the most beautiful, expressive and difficult pieces ever composed for the piano. Lelchuk, a piano instructor in the School of Music, said it wasn't her idea to hold the recital. "I'm playing for my students," she said. "They kept asking me to play, so I am." The program for Lelchuk's recital is unusual. Although it includes mainstream composers such as K Frederick Chopin and Maurice Ravel, it also features works by two Russian composers, Medtner and Li- adov, who are relatively obscure in this country. "It's good music that deserves to be played," said Lelchuk. Romantic literary themes and an air of drama will permeate the pro- gram's tone. The era of Chopin will segue into the dramaticism which typifies Ravel. Lelchuk will play Gaspard de la Nuit by Maurice Ravel, a piece based on three poems by Aloysius Bertrand. The work begins with a far-away twinkling of notes, which represents Ondine, a cruel water sprite. The work will go on to tell a picturesque story saturated with dark tonal shades which create a bleakly sinister atmosphere. It is one of most difficult and imaginative piano works Ravel composed. The pianist will then move on to sweet simplicity with two pieces by Fryderyk Chopin. The first of these pieces is the Nocturne no. 2 in D- flat major, which is one of Chopin's most popular works. Chopin's nocturnes were greatly influenced by the Irish composer John Field, and the texture of this piece is reminiscent of his compositions. It has a flowing, drifting style that por- trays the kind of serenity found on a Sunday afternoon. The notes will sweep up into a glorious climax, then subside with a sigh. Chopin's Ballade no. 4 in F minor is a quiet piece of subdued thoughtfulness. Chopin creates intri- cate textures of sound that are intri- cately woven together to form a fab- ric of impressive beauty. The piece moves along slowly, but it speeds up at the end, creating a frantic spray See LIBERACE, Page 8. ANN ARbOR THEATERS 1 & 2.5TH AVE. AT LIBERTY 761.9700 Mr. & Mrs. Cyrano De " : Bridge Bergerac (PG) ree 4 z.Popcorn PRESENT THIS COUPON WITH PURCHASED TICKET THRU 3/28/9 1 1 ,t 'a '" 9 'r, t , . e , t om .