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BREAKFAST • LUNCH • DINNER
Dance interprets body’s beauty
■ Performers explore
issues surrounding the
female body through
choreography and costume
By Yael Menahem
Oregon Daily Emerald
Women and their bodies.
The topic can be a complicated
one, but the VanUmmersen Dance
Company interprets the move
ments of a woman’s body in a full
evening dance performance fit
tingly called “Body.” The show is
Friday at the Soreng Theater in the
Hult Center.
This dance “addresses body is- ,
sues and how one experiences liv
ing in their own body, feels in
their own body and being public
with your own body,” said
Pamela Geber, a University dance
professor and performer in the
show.
Margo VanUmmersen, the
show’s choreographer and con
tributing performer, brought this
post-modern dance performance
to life.
She received the McKenzie Riv
er Gathering Foundation’s Lilia
Jewel Award in recognition of the
unique perspective women bring
to the arts through this collection
of dances.
The opening number is also
HULT
FOR THE
PERFO
Silva Concert Hall
February 19,2000
at 8:00pm
TICKETS:
541-682-5000
www.hultcenter.org
Catharine Kendall Emerald
Laura Nash rehearses for “Body,” Friday’s dance performance at the Huh Center.
called “Body,” with the dancers in
skimpy black outfits and showing
the body as “a spectacle and body
as a thing,” VanUmmersen said.
“Each soloist draws from that to
a really more sensuous and interi
or essence,” she added.
Geber described her solo dance,
“Nipples,” as abstract, not literal.
The performance encompasses
“the ideas of luxuriousness, round
ness, voluptuousness,” she said.
For the piece, textile artist Mari
lyn Robert created a dress made
out of organza silk fabric that
bounces and adds another ele
ment to the piece.
“The dress is practically chore
ographed itself,” VanUmmersen
pointed out.
Another unusual number, titled
“Plumb Lines,” finds the dancers
hanging from hammocks made
from silk, also created by Robert.
The dancers fly and swing
through midair.
“That piece is very primal, sen
suous and [has] sort of womb-like
images,” VanUmmersen said.
Another dance number, “Tem
ple,” takes an “abstract view of
your body as your house, your
temple and your place of wor
ship,” Geber explained.
VanUmmersen said she choreo
graphed Friday’s performance
pieces because she wanted to
bring various dancers in the com
munity together, and she is in
trigued by the title’s theme.
“I’m fascinated with the human
body,” VanUmmersen said. “As
dancers and people, on one side,
we find so much glory, promise
and fulfillment from our bodies.
“On the other hand, so much
conflicts surround body: shame,
illness and sickness where bodies
betray us. I was just fascinated by
that contradiction and I wanted to
explore that in a theatrical way.”
“Body” begins at 7:30 p.m. Fri
day. Call the Hult Center, 682
5000, for tickets and information.
008412
Chinese New Year
Pestival 2000
(formerlij China Niejlt)
■ Sunday, Jon. 30, 2000
■ 5-7pm: Dinner <S> Exhibitions in the
Skylight Lounge
■ 7:30: Shorn in the EMU Ballroom
■ Rdults and Ehildren: $7 admission
■ Ehildren under 3: FREE
■ Tickets Rvoiloble at EMU Ticket Office
For More Information
Chinese Student Rssociation
Telephone: 541-346-4322
e-moil: cso@glodstone.uoregon.edu