The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, December 1, 2017 — 5

COURTESY OF GROOVE

Groove to rock the masses 
at Michigan Theater show

You’re 
walking 
out 
of 

Mason Hall as you make your 
way toward Hatcher. You hear 
rattles and rhythms pounding 
from the heart of the Diag. 
These rattles and 
rhythms express 
a 
cohesive 

unity — a unity 
of 
drumming, 

cheering 
and 

meticulous 
beats. 
No, 
it’s 

not the Michigan 
Drum Line, and 
no, 
you’re 
not 

making it up in 
your head. It’s 
the 
eccentric 

musical 
group 

rocking out on 
trash cans and a 
step ladder: It’s Groove, and 
it’s the sound you’ve been 
waiting to hear all semester.

A 
night 
filled 
with 

alternative methods of music 
and 
entertainment, 
Groove 

will be taking over Michigan 
Theater tomorrow for their 
concert “Drumpalooza.”

More 
than 
a 
group 
of 

creative 
minds, 
Groove 
is 

designed to bring new talent 
to the campus’s music scene. 
They believe their personality 
is built on extremes, ranging 
from simple and accessible to 
complex and striking.

The best way to describe 

the work of the 32 Groovers 
would to be a mix of The 
Blue Man Group and Stomp, 
however, the group sets out to 
make an independent name for 
themselves.

“Groove pushes the limit 

of what people consider to 
be music and instruments ... 
Any of the groups we compare 
ourselves to are going in 
different directions than us,” 
said College of Engineering 
sophomore 
and 
Groove’s 

Music 
Director 
Bryan 

Schildcrout.

Although drumming is their 

core, the group seeks to find 
talent outside of percussion. 
Whether it be dancing or 
playing the trumpet, Groove is 
all about seeing “what unique 
quality you can bring to us.”

Groove 
still 
celebrates 

their 
focus 
in 
percussion, 

meanwhile forming a mosaic 
of 
unique 
and 
talented 

students. But that doesn’t stop 

the group from recruiting 
drummers.“There 
are 

members in our group who 
have never touched a drum 
before,” Schildcrout said. So 
as hard-working and music-
sharing Groovers do, they 
teach their new members how 
to drum.

Before Groove, College of 

Engineering 
freshman 
and 

new 
Groover 

Ryan 
“Bruce” 

Mersol-Barg 
only 
played 
a 

solo 
drum 
set. 

But 
joining 

a 
group 
with 

coordination and 
trust, 
Mersol-

Barg 
learned 

what it means to 
give and take and 
to become aware 
of all the features 
that 
happen 

during a performance.

“There 
are 
a 
lot 
of 

things you have to learn … 
Learning to play with other 
percussionists is challenging 
in some regards. It’s definitely 
something different, and some 
of the songs can get complex. 
You have to trust people to be 
on time and make sure that 
you’re with them. It’s all very 
coordinated … it’s fun, but 
it’s a challenge,” Mersol-Barg 
said.

Additionally, 
with 
so 

many 
ideas, 
skills 
and 

talents, Groove has to find 
organization through all the 
craze.

“The best part of Groove is 

the creativity,” said LSA senior 
and Groove President Hannah 
Buck. “But the hardest part 
is harnessing that creativity.” 
This harnessing translates to 
ensuring that members come 
to scheduled rehearsals and 
giving deadlines for newly 
written music pieces. 

A 
myriad 
of 
artistry, 

Groovers 
build 
their 
own 

sets, share their expertise 
and write their own songs and 
choreography –– they’re also 
known to be “innovators.”

“You are not just a player 

in this grand scheme you’re 
joining,” 
Mersol-Barg 
said. 

“You’re in it. And you’re in 
every part of it.” The same 
could be said for the audience’s 
attention, soaking in all the 
talent the group puts forth.

Creative, 
explosive 
and 

most definitely engaging, the 
audience can relate to the 

performance because of their 
relatability and accessibility. 
I walked into their rehearsal 
space to see shopping carts, 
pots, pans, buckets and trash 
cans –– these everyday objects 
are used as the foundation to 
produce power-house, raging 
beats. And that’s what makes 
Groove’s sound so special.

“People would expect to 

come to our show and just see 
just 10 trashcans, but that’s 
not at all what our shows are,” 
Buck said. “Groove is more 
than drumming on trash cans 
and more than drumming.” 
Their past shows’ lineups have 
included wild piano pieces, 
improv, 
dance 
numbers, 

blacklight 
shows, 
funny 

skits and overall incredible 
instrumentation.

Regardless 
of 
what 

instrument or ordinary object 
Groove is rockin’ out with, 
through their willingness to 
spread musical talent and to 
use of all kinds of materials, 
they prove to their viewers 
that anyone can make music 
and anyone can be a performer.

“Groove takes down the 

barrier 
between 
audience 

and performer,” Schildcrout 
said. “I think our music is 
something that people see and 
say ‘We could be doing that.’”

Filled with heart-pounding 

beats and intricate musical 
scores, 
Groovers 
continue 

to be risk-taking, passionate 
and fluorescent performers; 
and most importantly, they’re 
a tight-knit group of friends 
who yearn to share their love 
for art.

ERIKA SHEVCHEK

Daily Community Culture Editor

Groove 
presents 

“Drumpalooza”

Michigan Theater

Saturday, 

December 2nd @ 

7:30 p.m.

$5 students, $8 

adults 

TED

Transnational mystery 
center of new Allende book

Acclaimed 
Chilean-

American 
author 
Isabel 

Allende is known for her 
sprawling, multigenerational 
and multinational narratives, 
and 
her 
new 

novel 
“In 
the 

Midst of Winter” 
is no exception. 
Allende’s 
classic 
blend 

of cultures and 
personalities, 
best 
known 
in 

South American 
epic “The House of the Spirits” 
and 
California 
saga 
“The 

Japanese Lover,” is at full force 
in her newest work. But this 
novel, published in Spanish 
earlier this year and premeired 
in English on October 31, 
adds an unexpected “murder 
mystery” twist to her familiar 
style.

Allende’s latest story spans 

decades and global borders, 
but it begins closer to home, 
in 
present-day 
Brooklyn 

during a snowstorm. Richard, 
an 
American 
professor 
at 

NYU, and Lucia, his Chilean 
tenant, shiver through the 
storm in an old brownstone 
until Richard ventures out 
and gets in a car crash. Drama 
ensues with the other car’s 
driver, 
young 
Guatemalan 

immigrant Evelyn, and the 
three characters are thrown 
together in a wintry adventure 
that 
has 
it 
all: 
romance, 

murder and intrigue.

If it all sounds like a little 

much, don’t worry — Allende is 
famous for her melodramatic 
plots, but she brings such 
humanity to her characters 
that you’ll be swept along for 
the ride. All that melodrama, 
particularly 
the 
murder 

mystery that quickly takes 
center stage in the three New 
Yorkers’ lives, serves as a 
device to throw these unlikely 
companions 
together 
and 

drive the plot forward. All the 
excitement makes for a page-
turner, 
but 
Allende 
deftly 

juggles the novel’s larger-
than-life 
events, 
capturing 

their gravity without slipping 
into schmaltz. This should 
come as no surprise to her 
many fans, who are familiar 
with the measured melodrama 
of Allende’s novels. In her 
own 
life, 
the 
author 
has 

experienced 
far-ranging 

global 
travel, 
untimely 

deaths, political uprisings and 
exile — who better to write 
melodrama?

More than anything, it’s the 

human insight and empathy 
Allende imbues her characters 
with that grounds the story. 
The book’s title comes from 

a famous Albert 
Camus 
quote, 

cited 
as 
an 

epigraph 
at 

the start of the 
novel: 
“In 
the 

midst of winter, 
I finally found 
there was within 
me an invincible 

summer.” Allende uses the 
quote as a simple double 
entendre, evoking both the 
story’s 
snowy 
setting 
and 

the inner strength of her 
characters, who bloom over 

the course of the narrative.

While she only chose to 

feature the beginning of the 
Camus quote in her epigraph, 
the 
French 
philosopher 

actually continued his winter 
metaphor, “For it says that no 
matter how hard the world 
pushes against me, within me, 
there’s 
something 
stronger 

–– something better, pushing 
right back.” This invocation 
of 
personal 
resilience 

certainly applies to Allende’s 
characters, who are pummeled 
by tempests far more serious 
than the winter storm that sets 
the story into motion. Evelyn, 
Richard and Lucia tell their life 
stories to one another during 
the novel’s long winter nights, 
and the narrative ricochets 
between the three characters’ 
pasts and present. All have 
faced tragedies that go beyond 

life’s ordinary challenges, and 
many of these experiences give 
a face to global and historical 
issues, from domestic violence 
to Chile’s brutal dictatorship, 
Central American gangs to 
U.S. migration.

At first glance, some of 

the narrative seems ripped 
straight from the headlines, 
but 
Allende 
brings 
real 

compassion 
and 
humanity 

to 
her 
characters. 
Rather 

than 
reducing 
Evelyn, 
in 

particular, 
to 
a 
powerless 

victim or “illegal” migrant, 
as many Central Americans 
are 
portrayed 
in 
popular 

depictions, 
the 
novelist 

chooses 
to 
highlight 
her 

remarkable grit in the face of 
overwhelming adversity.

While the novel contains 

considerable 
violence 
and 

suffering, it remains full of joy 
for life. This celebratory spirit 
is enhanced, not diminished, 
by the character’s suffering: a 
bout with breast cancer results 
in a newfound appreciation 
for life’s daily pleasures, and 
long-term 
loneliness 
gives 

way to a rewarding late-in-life 
romance.

This joy is often enhanced 

by 
faith 
in 
something 

beyond 
each 
character’s 

pain and crises. Allende is 
unconcerned with the type 
of faith, preferring to show 
the diversity and richness of 
global belief systems, from 
Afro-Brazilian 
Candomblé 

to 
Chilean 
Catholicism 
to 

indigenous 
Guatemalan 

syncretism.

“In the Midst of Winter” 

shows Allende at the top of her 
form, applying her brilliant, 
sensory prose to a whirlwind of 
destinations in the Americas, 
from 
the 
gray 
streets 
of 

Santiago to a small indigenous 
village in Guatemala, a New 
York City snowstorm to bright, 
boisterous Rio de Janeiro. 
In 
the 
novel’s 
colorful, 

interwoven 
tales, 
Allende’s 

most 
salient 
message 
can 

be 
found 
largely 
between 

the lines: a condemnation of 
modern-day isolationism and 
xenophobia in her adopted 
home, 
the 
United 
States. 

Allende expertly weaves these 
seemingly disparate narratives 
together, showing our riotous, 
divided hemisphere for what 
it really is, a place connected 
by so much love, blood and 
history that no one country 
can ever really isolate itself.

MERIN MCDIVITT

Daily Arts Writer

“In the Midst of 

Winter”

Isabelle Allende

October 31

Atria Books

SHOW PREVIEW
BOOK REVIEW

Filled with heart-
pounding beats 

and intricate 
musical scores, 

Groovers continue 
to be risk-taking, 
passionate and 

fluorescent 
performers

Allende’s latest 

story spans 
decades and 

global borders, but 
it begins closer to 
home, in present-

day Brooklyn

 HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BRITNEY SPEARS’ 

SEMINAL CLASSIC “TOXIC”?

A fan? We’d love to hear from you. Want to elaborate on your feelings? Email 

arts@michigandaily.com for an application in return!

