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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2004)
Dance troupe mixes ballet, modern dance for diversity The ballet-based company Dance Theatre of Harlem will perform three works at the Hult Center on Feb. 4 By Natasha Chilingerian Pulse Reporter Dance Theatre of Harlem's ballet company will perform a "crowd-pleas ing," classical ballet-based program Feb. 4 at the Hult Center for the Per forming Arts. The New York-based company, which tours globally, stresses the importance of education and mul ticulturalism through its performances, classes and lectures. Company manager Liz Magnuson said the company's dance style fuses several forms of ballet. "We can do any kind of ballet we want — African ballet, jazz ballet — but we are based in classical ballet," she said. The 45-member company will pres ent three works in their performance: "South African Suite," "Return," and "Dougla" (pronounced "doog-la"). Company dancer Preston Dugger said the first number was inspired by a past company trip to South Africa. "('South African Suite') is kind of abstract," Dugger said. "You have to let your imagination run free and pretend you're in an environment like South Africa." He described "Return" as a "hit piece" that mixes contemporary ballet and social dance to the tunes of James Brown and Aretha Franklin. Company dancer Melissa Morrissey added that the number is an audience favorite "Its fun and upbeat," she sad. "It mixes ballet and street moves; it's kind of a funky ballet." "Dougla" tells the story of a pre-wed ding ceremony between two spouses of Caribbean and African descent. Dugger said he saw "Dougla" before becoming a company member, and the perform ance convinced him to join Dance The atre of Harlem. "The piece is so powerful," Dugger said. "Especially live, because we have Courtesy Dance Theatre of Harlem brings its program to the Hult Center on Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. live damns." Dance Theatre of Harlem founder and artistic director Arthur Mitchell started the dance institution in 1969 as a service to Harlem children as a reac tion to Martin Luther King Jr.'s death. Today, the institution includes the bal let company, a school of dance for stu dents at community through profes sional levels and a secondary company called Dancing Through Barriers. In ad dition to performing, Dandng lhrough Barriers has a strong focus on providing workshops, demonstrations and class es for schools and communities around the world. Dugger participated in Dancing Through Baniers before joining the bal let company. He said the experience was "humbling" because dancers were responsible for all technical aspects of performing, such as costumes and sets. He said members in the ballet compa ny focus solely on their dancing. "I learned a different aspect about how the company works and oper ates (in Dancing Through Barriers)," he said. Company dancers were attracted to the institution for a variety of personal reasons. The focus on the works of renowned choreographer George Bal anchine appealed to Morrissey, and Dugger admired the dance theater's cul tural diversity. "I love to be well-rounded and feel different cultures," Dugger said. "There are so many colors and cultures here." The Hult Center for the Performing Arts is located at the intersection of 7th Avenue and Willamette Street. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are available at the UO Ticket Office, and prices range from $20-$44. The dancers will lead a pre show discussion at 7 p.m. in Studio 1 of the Hult Center. The ballet company will lead a free discussion about the Dance Theatre of Harlem on Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. at the Eugene Public Library, locat ed at 100 W. 10th Ave. Contact the Pulse reporter at natashachilingerian@dailyemerald.com. Web site serves as forum for sharing artistic projects Ever since I discovered Napster dur ing my freshman year, I've been em bracing the digital age with open arms. Thanks to computers, I'm able to dis cover a new band every day, and my CD collection has doubled for the price of only three or four discs. Really, it's my bank account that has been embracing the digital age. Like most people, I can't afford to spend $16.99 on a CD that only has three good tracks. It makes sense to bum a friend's copy of an al bum or download a couple of songs off the Internet. Nonetheless, I do miss the packag ing. I miss the physical unwrapping of a new CD, opening the inside cover for the first time and reading the lyrics while listening to the music. The CD cover has creative merit all by itself, and I'm sad to see this art form die out. However, this digitization of art also has created new forms. The Internet is one obvious example, serving as a fo rum for sharing ideas and connecting artists. An excellent example of this trend is Miranda July's Web site, "Learn ing to Love You More" July is a Portland-based artist who has been creating interesting and chal lenging multimedia works for about 10 years. She makes movies and spo ken word/performance albums. In 1995, July started Joanie 4 Jackie, a distribution system to help independ ent women filmmakers network with each other. A little more than a year ago, she created another artist network of sorts with the Web site "Learning to Love You More." The site, which is a collaboration St Helen Schumacher Notes from the underground with artist Harrell Fletcher, posts as signments and invites visitors to com plete them. The results are then post ed with other submissions from around the world. Some examples of assignments in dude: record your own guided medita tion, take a picture of strangers holding hands, hang a wind chime on a tree in a parking lot draw a constellation from someone's freckles and make a docu mentary video about a small child. Assignment No. 27 is to take a pic ture of the sun. Just a picture of the sun, nothing extra or fancy. More than 50 people have submitted pictures. With every submission, there is also a chance it will be selected for gallery and muse um exhibitions. Sun pictures submitted by the deadline were featured in an exhibit called "Baja to Vancouver: The West Coast in Contemporary Art" at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego. Selected submissions from an other assignment are scheduled to be featured in the Whitney Biennial in New York this March. I think my favorite assignment is the one that asks people to design a flier describing a typical day in their life and then make 100 copies of it to post around town. Some of the fliers are in black and white, others in col or. Some have photos and drawings. Others are simply text. It's fascinating to see the different ways the assign ments manifest themselves. Despite the strict instructions of the assign ments, each participant produces a unique result. Unlike most Web sites, "Learning to Love You More" actually inspires people to back away from their com puters and be creative. I'm in love with the idea that I can collaborate with other people whom I'll never meet to create a piece of art. The Web site prods people to forget about expectations of what the final product should be and create for the joy of the process. July and Fletcher's Web site can be found at http://www.leamingtolovey oumore.com. Contact the Pulse columnist at helenschumacher@dailyemerald.com. Her opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. 2 0% off 1 ! visit now open for 1745 W. 18th Ave. appointment 18th 8. 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