: 6The Daily Tar HeelFriday, October 3, 1986
Learning meditation by motion
By KATHY PETERS
Features Editor
At 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, China
and Union Room 208 do not seem
thousands of miles apart.
About 30 students balance in
fighter's stances, facing a bright
yellow wall-hanging with the yin and
the yang sewn on it. They move
slowly, rhythmically, while the
instructor gives commands. A worn-
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' forth with her as she creates different
"forms" to the commands. Beside
her, a guy in camouflage pants stares
ahead with a look of concentration.
" The group is UNC's Tai Chi
Chuan club and they are learning
that losing is a triumph.
uIn Tai Chi, you have to lose a
' thousand, thousand times before you
' can win," says graduate student
Michael Freed berg, who has played
' Tai Chi for two years.
Tai Chi, the most-practiced mar
tial arts form in China, emphasizes
gentleness over force, according to
instructor Jay Dunbar. Unlike other
martial arts such as karate and Tae
' Kwan Do, this ancient Kung Fu
form focuses on the internal.
Dunbar calls Tai Chi "moving
meditation." Its goal is the cultiva-
tion of internal energy and external
sensitivity.
Dunbar says Tai Chi takes longer
to perfect than any other martial arts
form. "It works on parts of the body
people haven't been used to moving."
Students go through a series of
Lab Theatre puts on 'Dark' thriller
By BETH MEEKINS
Staff Writer
The intimate Lab Theatre in
Graham Memorial Hall's base
ment has been transformed into
a Greenwich Village apartment
for the Lab Theatre's production
of "Wait Until Dark." Directed
by junior Doug Wagner, the
production opens Sunday and
runs through Tuesday.
The story revolves around Susy
Hendrix, a blind woman, and
Sam, her photographer husband.
Sam is used as a pigeon to bring
a doll stuffed with heroin into
New York City. The doll disap
pears, and three conmen attempt
to retrieve it.
"Wait Until Dark," written by
Frederic Knott ("Dial 'M' for
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."forms," or different body move
ment patterns. Each form has its own
significance.
To warm up, the beginning class
goes through the "four treasures," a
series of four different forms which
make up an analogy. First, the class
"wets the stone." Then they "grind
the ink." Next, they "prepare the
paper." Last, they "dip the brush."
The whole analogy symbolizes the
preparation the body makes to open
itself up to new experiences.
It takes from 10 minutes to an
hour to complete a form, Dunbar
says. He emphasizes relaxation,
smoothness and maintaining a center
of movement. Tai Chi islow, but
it is not like dance, Dunbar says.
"It's like a lot of things, but it's
not like dance. Tai Chi is trying to
get at the heart of the movement and
make it large."
"It's very, very hard at first
because you're trying to make your
body do things it isn't used to doing,"
says Jane Grudier, a member of the
beginning class.
Students are taught to take any
force and be able to consider it as
its opposite. A strong force, set
against a yielding one, will eventually
overbalance itself, Dunbar says.
Because it teaches yielding, Tai
Chi is a good self-defense strategy
for women. "The bigger person
doesn't have the advantage. In Tai
Chi, the person who can yield better
has the advantage," Dunbar says.
Murder"), is unlike many plays
in the suspense genre, according
to Wagner. "It is one of only a
few pieces of suspense drama that
doesn't rely upon a detective
acting as a machine in the play,"
he said.
Freshman Virginia Mewborne
said she was blindfolded for the
first two weeks of rehearsal in
preparation for portraying the
blind Susy. "I got so many cuts
and bruises because I fell down
the steps so many times," she said.
"It was scary, really scary, but it
taught me a lot about what it is
like to be blind."
Convincingly portraying a
blind person is difficult, but
Mewborne is not the only cast
member who is challenged by her
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Also, Tai Chi teaches spontaneity,
an adaptive quality Dunbar thinks
would be useful in self-defense
situations.
Anyone can do Tai Chi, Dunbar
says. "You don't need big muscles
or strong bones." Instead, Tai Chi
revolves around Ch'i, the life-force.
This internal power has the same
potential in each person, regardless
of his physical size, Dunbar says.
Dunbar began UNC's organiza
tion four years ago, with a total of
six students. Now he has three classes
and 50 students.
He credits the growth of his
program to an increased interest in
physical fitness. He says many
people are interested in the physical
aspect, but are even more enticed by
the mental aspect and the philosophy
connected with Tai Chi. -
Because Tai Chi is based on
Chinese philosophy, it carries a
stigma with it, some students say.
Freedberg says people often asso
ciate the art form with some strange
mysticism and men in white beards.
In fact, both Dunbar and Grudier
became involved in the martial art
because of the philosophy behind it.
"It's a monument of a view of life
that is refreshing from a Western
point of view."
It is non-competitive in nature and
emphasizes harmony and gentleness,
qualities not highly ingrained in
American thought, according to
Dunbar.
role. Freshman Maria Earman
portrays Gloria, a nine-year-old
child. "It is easier to play a
character who is older than you
than one who is younger than
you," she said. "It is easier to work
up.
"The show has a really strong
cast," said freshman Tim
Karcher, who plays the conman
Harry Roat Jr. "It is the first Lab
show to go up (this semester), and
we've done a lot in a very short
period of time."
Wait Until Dark will be per
formed by the Lab Tfieatre Sun
day and Monday at 4 and 8 p.m.
and Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the Lab
Theatre in Graham Memorial
Hall.
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Instructor Jay
Today, the Tai Chi Chuan club
is co-hosting a master who has spent
over 20 years working toward this
harmony. Master Jou Tsung Hwa,
74, started taking Tai Chi in Taiwan
as therapy for heart and stomach
problems. Twenty years ago, he
moved to the United States, bringing
with him a dream to teach Tai Chi
to Americans.
'Stars at Noon' fails
Denis Johnson's third novel, "The
Stars at Noon," relates the apathetic
story of an American prostitute in
Managua, Nicaragua in 1984. What
could have been a fantastic espion
age novel winds up being marooned
in a joke of a plot, lost in really bad
writing.
Johnson is, obviously, male. His
main character is supposed to be
female, but Johnson neglects to add
any feminine characteristics or
feelings. She is too hard-nosed,
bitchy and conniving, and totally
unconvincing as a woman.
Johnson, also, annoyingly forgot
to name a single character in the
book. The hooker doesn't have a
name, her main lover is just "the
Englishman," and the spies that
follow them are the "man from OIJ"
and the American. The prostitute
cannot even remember the name of
her motel ("La Whatsis"). The
constant, surface descriptions are
frustrating.
Why is this American prostitute,
in Managua pretending to be a
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Dunbar shows a student some forms in Tai Chi
The master started a Tai Chi farm
in New York. Since then, the number
of Tai Chi players in America has
grown steadily, Dunbar says.
Master Jou will give a free lecture
and video presentation at 3 p.m. in
209 Manning. He will also head a
Tai Chi workshop for beginners at
7 p.m. in 07 Fetzer Gymnasium. The
workshop costs $10.
Colly Elhccf
Books
journalist? Just who is this wanted,
married Englishman? Why do they
cuss and drink so much? Why does
Johnson keep reminding us that it's
1984, the "real 1984"?
Finally, what is really going on in
Nicaragua?
Managua is full of different sides:
Contras, Sandinistas, CIA, Euro
peans and Russians. It is impossible
to tell who's who. Money is the only
thing that talks sensibly in the midst
of what the Nicaraguans call "their
war."
Johnson's writing rambles too
much to be enjoyed. His analogies
are often rather odd: a cab door is
Eclipse
lazy, luxurious life in the emperor's
court, were executed after failing to
fulfill their duties. Hsi and Ho, the
legend claims, may have been drunk
while they were attempting to predict
a solar eclipse.
For modern astronomers, how
ever, a solar eclipse is a rare oppor-
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Freedberg and Grudier say Tai
Chi has heightened their powers of
concentration and helped their
studies.
But Dunbar emphasizes both
aspects of Tai Chi. He says Tai Chi
is uniquely physical. "It's not mind
over body, but mind and body,
because the body is a tool and the
mind is a tool."
to sparkle
"croaking like a mating elephant,"
insects are "like bullets whining," and
the U.S. gunships are "like big
lightbulbs in the nighttime."
"The Stars at Noon" meanders
hopelessly through hot (both in
temperature and politics) South
America without emotion. The
characters are flat and uninvolved,
and the story keeps the reader dully
in his seat, not transporting him to
the jungles of Nicaragua as it should.
The reader is constantly reminded
that this is a boring, fiction novel
that does not live up to the exciting
potential that J ' son missed.
Unless you crave another view of
the Nicaraguan war (and Doones
bury did that well enough), don't
bother with "The Stars at Noon."
This story of a hooker just isn't worth
it.
from page 1
tunity to gain new insights about the
sun.
Davis, who has led several expe
ditions to observe total solar eclipses,
said more knowledge uncovers even
more questions. "The quest goes on,"
he said.
Today's partial eclipse is caused
by the moon, passing directly
between the sun and earth, only
covering part of the sun.
What appears to be a partial
eclipse from this location, appears
as a total eclipse in other parts of
the world. The total eclipse can be
seen in the North Atlantic. Chapel
Hill will have a 52 percent eclipse.
Christiansen said the sun's bright
ness will not show much apparent
difference, although "it will be
impressive to take a pinhole viewer
and see the sun indeed blocked."
The safest and simplest way to see
the eclipse and avoid eye damage
from invisible infrared rays is to
construct a pinhole viewer.
To make a pinhole viewer, stand
with your back to the sun. Take two
sheets of cardboard or paper and
poke a hole in one sheet. Hold the
sheet with the hole in the sunlight
while allowing light to pass through
the hole onto the second sheet.
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