November 19,1997
8
Campus Features
Dance into adventure with MDT
URAUSHKIN
Guest WiiKr
The Meredith Dance concert
of the year opeaed Thursday, Nov. 13.
Entitled Dance Works '97, the pro
gram included a variety of pieces, rang
ing from David Beadle’s rolling im-
provisaiiona] choreography to the pre
cise, tbeairicai choreography of NC
State’s Robin Taylor,
Visiting dancers
from Hollins College
and NC State Univer
sity shared the stage
with Meredith's own.
Hollins College per
formed “Their Silence
is Silver, Their Speech
is Gold,” choreo
graphed by Nathan
Trice. Lightning,
words, and music
helped separate the
piece into sections. Por
traying women’s
struggle as the “second
sex.” the dance began
in the past and brouglit
us to the end of tlie
dance. In troductory text
set the piece at the be
ginning of women’s
existence, and by the
end of the dance, the
music had evolved into
a techno beat of current dance clubs.
The dancers wore costumes iliat repre
sented our foremothen’ plain long
dresses and starched shirts.
The movement in “Their Si
lence...” clearly showed the activities
and emotions in women’s lives. Al
though most of the movement was
suggestive and not full-fledged panto
mime, we could see chores done, ciga
rettes smoked, and p^n felt. Many
choices in the fuece expressed agita
tion, including a movement motif of
frantic hand vibration; at one point, the
entire stage seemed to blur with frus
tration. This voy active dance also
spoke volumes in simple gestures like
one dancer covering the mouth of an
other^ Such gestures illustrated an im
portant theme in the piece; women’s
relationships with each other, a simul
taneous source of strength and victim
mentality. Eventually, the women did
move together in a dance of rebellion.
They lashed out, they fell, they got
back up. Many audience members
mentioned the haunting solo singing
MDT perfonned 'Indra's Web' at Dance Worths '97. The dance was
choreographed by David Beadb. Photo hty Steve Wilson
in tliis piece as their favorite part. The
singer seemed to be crying...Iike many
in tlie audience. Trice’s impressively
original choreography allowed for a
fresli look into a subject that is some
times cliche.
Our other visitors, from NC State,
performed a very different but also
successful piece. Tlie dance consisted
of two excerpts from a larger work
entitled “Dedication.” The second ex
cerpt, “Dishwashing,” resembled a
Chaplin comedy sketch. The action
revolved around many props of water
basins, wash cloths, and chairs. Going
so far as to stand barefoot in the water
basins audcontinue to dance, thedanc-
ers remained straight faced, but the
audience did not!
Meredith College's own dancers
held their own. One of the evening’s
highlights was “SomethingOtha* Than
the Night,” an entertaining piece cho
reographed by our guest aitist, Peter
DiMuro. The piece played with the
elements of frlm noire detective mys
teries. Likecharactas from “Dragnet”
and “Randy Stone,” the
dancers played shady
suspects, sexy night
temptresses, andciime-
solvers. Interspersed
with text, the piece in
corporated suspense
through unfinished sen
tences, dramatic pauses,
and mood music. Com
plete with flashlights
and quirky body con
tortions, the dance was
exciting while also in
corporating some
deeper themes like
“nothing is a perfect
match” and yin- yang
relationshipof light and
dark, tru^ mystery.
After six very dif
ferent stories, the
even ingconcluded with
a piece performed by
all the dancers, “Blind
Dates and Dance Hall
Stones." Directed by David Beadle,
the piece was impnsvised in two sec
tions: the first showed dancers with
their eyes closed randomly placed in
pairs (blind dates), the second turned
the stage into a dance ball and reached
afrenziedpitch,everyone trading pan*
ners and desperately searching for a
good time. Slowly, the dancers and the
audience were brought back to a calm
as, one by one, each dancer was wea
rily passed down a line of bodies until
everyone bad staggered home.
For the most part, the pieces that
made up Dance Works were acces
sible and enjoyable, so that no matter
what style the audience preferred, th^e
was something there for you.
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TORY HOKE
Feotuw Uto
Now, I’ve had a thing for Bill
Murray ever since Ckosibusiers. He
was everything I wanted to be: smug,
funny, and the voice of reason to a
room full of Twiiikie-talking yahoos.
Even now, he’s the envy of the male
Ghostbusiers graduates, the rest of
which have crumbled to massive
middle-aged weight gain and stinky
Honey, IShrunkandMySiepmolherls
careerdecisions. (Kudos to Annie Potts
and Sigourney
Weaver forcrushing
the boys with suc
cess.) Murray’s
movie choices have
kept him in the pub
lic consciousness
but out of the public
eye; to piany, he is
always Peter
Venkman, occasionally putting us on
as a Scroogeor bumbling Bob. We Uke
him belter as the smart guy, and mak
ing him afool—however successful—
grates on our image of him. Murray’s
typecast'mg is tl)e central problem of
The Mm Who Knew Too Ullle, which
is, all told, not a bad flick.
Murray seems to have free rein as
a Des Moines Blockbuster employee
who takes off on his birthday to pay a
surprise visit to his brother in England,
who is hosting a dinner presentation
for wealthy clients and immediately
gets rid of his brother in au interactive
play. Murray gets the wrong call to
kick off his dramatic venture and is
launched into a spy plot, mysteriously
getting everything right while myste
riously never catching on that he's not
in a play. Murray has so much fun with
his role that it’s hard not to enjoy it
with him. When we meet him, he’s
holding up a line in an airport, which
would be fiercely unfunny if he weren’t
such a nice guy about it When be tries
10 wake up a dead guy he thinks is just
acting, it’s creepy and vile and really
funny. When, for lack of a beUer place
to put his pistol, he shoves it down the
back of his pants, it’s funny—some
thing we would do if we thought it was
a fake.
Thisis themainbodyof7boL(f/ie’s
humor—notknee-slapping, butfunny.
The knee-slappers are here, though,
and include Peter Gallagher, as
Murray’s hot hot hot brother, rauting
against the English police, and the
climactic dance sequence which gets a
Movie
Review
little freshness from Murray’s ap
proach. Joanne Wballey, as a call-girl
with a blackmail scheme whose in
volvement with the spy stuff is un
clear, is absolutely on target. The dis
gusted and disappointed look on her
face when Murray prepares to make a
“Qfpical man” demand on her helps us
believe she thinks he’s asleaze-o until,
when bis non-sleazy demand is actu
ally made, her ex[x«ssion indicates it
was what she expected. The very best
achievement here is that Murray
doesn't realize he’s
reallyin danger at the
end and has to rely on
himself to pull
through—the magic
feather cliche.
Murrayisatotalgoon
through the closing
credits, wherehegets
to do a weird bit of
apparent improv which dieentire movie
could have stood to be more lUce.
Gallagher, the unconscious guy
from While You Were Sleeping and
SkyMastersonfromBroadway’sGuyj
ond DoUs, IS a riot, and it’s a credit to
Murraytbatbecanholdhisownagainst.
Gallagher’s spectacular face.
Gallagher’shoirmakes the model from
the “You have die right” Pantene ads
look like Marv Albert, and its level of
muss directly correlates to his level of
distress. He’s more than just a pretty
face, and yet less a Hollywood star
than... yuk... EUian Hawke. SoCal is so
unfair.
Outside of Murray and Gallagber,
the rest of the cast is unfomlliar to
American eyes, aud there is something
to be said for actors you don’t know.
For example, watching The English
Paiient, I had a hard time getting past
Ralph Fiennes’ Nazi past from
Schindler’s Ust.Too Uiile'i actors
benefit enormously from getting to
|Hove thw character to the audience
without the handicap of a history.
As a pseudo-spy movie, The Man
Who Knew Too Ulile has a nationalist
edge that not all the Bond flicks to
gether gave England, arguing that a
handful of plotting Cold War-veteran-
gaijin are no match for one oblivious
American shmoe. Too Uiile succeeds
because the dumb luck and misunder
standings are so well-written, and be
cause we believe the guy who acciden
tally convinced us he was Peter
Venkman could accidentally convince
everybody else he was a superspy.