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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1981)
A humanitarian dance Wallflower Order moves for a change Generating great receptions, packed houses and rave reviews from the Village Voice to the Kansas City Times, the nationally-acclaimed dance troupe the Wallflower Order has been touring together for five years throughout the country. But Eugene is home And, the Wallflower Order is coming home for a few days: Tonight, Friday and Sunday the Order will be joining the Latin American musical group, Grupo Raiz, to perform a benefit tour for humanitarian aid to El Salvador and Chile at the Community Center for the Performfng Arts (Eighth Avenue and Lincoln Street). The Order embarks on two to three major tours a year and performs at numerous local benefits in Eugene. Recently the group has danced ben efits for White Bird and the Nestle's boycott in Eugene. The Wallflower Order is a women's collective dance troupe which caters to predominantly women's audiences. Strongly linked to various women’s groups in the community, the dances it performs relate to the character of each member's experiences as a woman. Members include Krissy Keefer, Lynn Neely, Pamela Gray, Nina Fichter, and Suchi Branfman, and as a women’s collective dance group, the Wallflower Order uses no director. Rather, each member puts an equal amount of en ergy into the composition and execu tion of the dances. Continuing this individualistic mode, the members are also all involved in various political study groups in Eugene. While the dance of the Wallflower Order reflects a study in politics — particularly class differences, anti-im perialist, solidarity and liberation strug gles, the group has become increas ingly connected with politics and prob lems of other groups not specifically tied to the Women’s Movement. "Art is political work,” producer of the WOW Hall performance Coleen Gragen says “The group is committed to people developing their talents who would not necessarily be recognized by the tradi tional dance scene,” she adds. Wanting to disassociate themselves from the “traditional dance scene,” the group members met at the university dance department and formed the Eugene Dance Collective; the Wallflower Order followed. The collective and Grupo Raiz come to the CCPA after sell-out per formances in Santa Cruz and the Bay Area. They will continue the benfit tour up through Corvallis, Portland, Olympia and Seattle. Along with Grupo Raiz, the Order performed three dances on the down town mall at the April 18th demonstra tion against United States intervention in El Salvador. Along with the dance, both groups encouraged the crowd to sing along with them "Nicaragua is Free, El Salvador soon to be." Krissy Keffer, a dancer with the col lective, feels the April 18th demonstra tion was a well organized, exciting and wonderful experience. "We are involved in this because it is part of what is happening in a big way in the world We want to raise the people’s conscious to the point that they will get involved, write their congressmen, do something — guns, ‘economic aid’ and other intervention has to stop in Latin America,” Keffer says. The troupe has dealt with the no iuke and anti-draft movements, Ira lian-American Friendship Committee, Solidarity with the Black Movement, and freedom for the peoples of Latin America in its dance. THE PHAROAH SANDERS GROUP IN CONCERT with special guest CAM NEWTON Friday April 24 8:00 p.m. EMU Ballroom S4.50/U of O Students $5.50/General Public AN ALL STAR JAZZ GROUP Pharoah Sanders-Sax Idris Muhammad-Drums John Hicks-Piano Walter Booker-Horns A benefit for the U of O Survival Center For more information 485-1411 or 485-1451 TICKET OUTLETS: Everybody's, EMU Main Desk, Real to Reel Recording (1135) and Mr, Mike’s Records Gragen says that as other groups in the country are doing, the Wallflower Order is becoming increasingly con nected to the problems of other people, which are larger than one specific group. Incorporated in the tour is a dance to a Holly Near song entitled “Au Una Mujer,” which portrays women politcal prisoners in Chile. Also performed in the benefit tour is a dance which stems from the book “Torture and Re sistance,’’ written by Ashraf Deghani, a woman guerrila fighter in Iran. Another dance, entitled "Z Ballet for Z People," depicts a waitress in a rest aurant involved in the class struggles of the aristocratic and lower classes; while still another composition employs colorful costumes and depicts the plight of the near-extinct flamingos in Chile. Grupo Raiz is part of the Latin Amer ican Song Movement that draws on the traditional music of the Andes, the Nueva Cancion from Chile, Caribbean percussion and touches of North American jazz. The Wallflower Order met Grupo Raiz at the People’s In auguration Demonstration benefit for El Salvador held in Eugene last January. This tour is the first time the Wallflower Order has worked with another group. “Both groups are united in this ben efit tour because they are strongly committed to the victory of the El Salvadorian people and are willing to spend two months of time and energy to benefit the cause," Gragen said. The funds generated from the tour will be used partly for humanitarian aid to El Salvador, and partly for the purchase of traditional cultural musical instruments in Chile. (The Chilean government forbids these traditional musical instruments because, histor ically, Chilean people have used music as a political art to organize). Gragen says that she cannot stress enough the importance pf the political cause attatched to this tour. “The Latin American peoples should possess the right of freedom unhampered by in human intervention from foreign powers,” she says. “El Salvador will win.” Keefer says the Wallflower Order is committed to supporting progressive political groups anywhere, particularly victims of U S. intervention. “We want to keep a momentum going in this country to stop initiating war,” she says. “We will keep working and working until the situation clears, and intervention ceases.” The performances, which will run two to three hours each night, promise to be an excellent union of North Amer ican and Latin American culture. The five musicians in Grupo Raiz all play a wide variety of traditional Latin American instruments including charangos, zamponas, congas, and five varieties of indigenous flutes. And the Wallflower Order performs with a wholistic blend of various dance forms including ballet, modern, and jazz with gymnastics, martial arts, sign language, theater, singing, and comedy. Tickets are available at Zoo Zoo’s Restaurant, The Book and Tea, and Better Days Clothing Store. Curtain time is 8 p.m. Childcare is available, and the CCPA is wheelchair accessible. Tickets will be available at the door at 6:30 p.m. on the day of the shows. For more information call 484-7456 or 343-9130. Story by Sheri Scully Photos provided by the Wallflower Order BILL EMU CULTURAL FORUM PRESENTS: raw May 15th McArthur Court Tlcke,s A UNIVERSITY OF OREGON EVENT EMU Main Desk, campus, load Hall Hi Fi, downtown mat, Bremen Town Records, valley river Everybody s Records, Eugene, corvallis. albany. phone orders. visa, mastercard 686-4363; mail orders: EMU Main Desk. U.O.. Eugene, Or 97403 Ticket Prices: 9.50.8 50.750, SlOOofl tor students
