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Show dancers do fheir thing in workshop - . ' o Mil mil.U.I.. -.JPJII . .. . ------.. t -., u . ,. ... - ...,X. , '---- ' ,) :':; ,, J?' . fey 7 v Y ( ao I v . f BY JANE COTTRELL Staff Writer Dancers doing their thing this is the attraction of the Choreographers' Workshop, Work-shop, sponsored by the Department of Ballet and Modern Dance. Initiated last spring, the workshop provides pro-vides an opportunity for students and professionals pro-fessionals alike to see their works on stage. Members of the University choreography classes, members of the resident company, Ballet West, and other interested parties audition their creations before a panel of judges and the top-ranking efforts appear in the Choreographers' Workshop, according accord-ing to dance professor Susan Isreal. The value of the workshop has many facets. One ' of the purposes of the project, pro-ject, according to graduate choreography student Valerie Huston, is to give students, especially lowerclassmen, more opportunity opportun-ity to perform. Sophomore Nancy Taverna attests to the workshop's merit on this count: "The main value is in the chance to perform, but just working with people is good experience." Christopher Fair, member of Ballet West, offers "Esprit de Danse" as a step toward his Master's degree. He uses fellow company com-pany members to demonstrate his choreo-1 choreo-1 graphic prowess, whereas Fair himself is customarily the instrument of someone else's talent. The variety resulting from this student-professional student-professional effort is delightful. In the fall quarter workshop held Nov. 22-23 choreographies choreo-graphies ranged from Mary Lynn Shupe's straight-forward classicism to Dorothy Donelly's novel combination of dance and poetry, in which the traditionally silent dancers dan-cers actually speak. Perhaps this latter effort and others like it herald a new vista in a previously silent performing art. The natural compatibility of dance and oral expression has heretofore hereto-fore manifested itself in folk dance and other rustic forms, but the highly stylized stage art of ballet has excluded speech by the dancers. Now we see a new development, develop-ment, as members of the University community com-munity combine speech and dance. Between the conventionalism of Miss Shupe and the forward-reaching of Miss Donnelly, a whole spectrum of choreographic choreo-graphic concoction is displayed in the workshop. work-shop. Emily Miller's "Stepchildren" features feat-ures dancers mostly of larger-than-the-average-dancer proportions (I mean, some of those girls look about like I look in tights and a leotard.) This casting device combines with a rather dejected choreography choreo-graphy to produce a true "essence of stepchild." Another phenomenon of choreographic experiment is "Switehed-On Bach." Valerie Huston and Vicki Ramey conceived this Dancers audition their creations before a panel of judges tTl best efforts appear in the Choreographers' Workshop. The workshop gives ghidont. a chance to perform and professionals a chance to do choreography. work together, but separately that is, each worked independently, basing their movements on mathematically determined floor patterns. The result, surprisingly enough, en-ough, is not thorough-going confusion, but a charming piece of well, clockwork, made light and airy by the humorous antics of a would-be prima ballerina. Traditional humor is the medium of Bene Arnold, who uses the music of Khat- chaturian for a joke on Marjorie Hance, a clever young lady who finds herself with more young men on her hands 'than she bargained for. Tremendous humor is also evidenced in some delightful mime sketches. Jan Hover, Jackie Tueller, Lynn Bi ice and a dancer mysteriously called "JP" put an audience in stitches with their skillful parodies of human hypocrisies and inconsistencies. |