University of Maryland College Park - Terrapin / Reveille Yearbook (College Park, MD)

Page 16 text:

by Ann Keller 1....2....3.... pull up in the torso . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . that ' s better now SHARP! No. . .No. . .No. . .let ' s try again. . . Dance. The outer expression of an inner life set to music. Modem dance . . . freer than ballet, but equally disciplined . . . more introspective than jazz ... A war baby, born with the century in the rebellion of a few against the tyranny of traditional dance forms that no longer throbbed with the rhythm of contemporary America . . . wafting its youth along the currents of free-flowing breezes, exulting in its liberation from the claustrophobia of rigid form, indulging too much, perhaps, in self-expression, mysticism .... running, as all youth, too swiftly for control. .... Waking from the revel of just being . . . turning inward, seeking the why and the how . . . experimenting freely, but critically, with body movement, with assymetry, with the arcs of space between an impetus, fall, and recovery, with the most organic of all beats, the pulsation of blood through its courses concerned now not with self, but with those common rhythms that link all selves. . . . Duncan, St. Denis, Shawn, Weidman, Humphrey, Gra- ham . . . each catching the pulse and quickening it toward maturity . . . The studio: here you are in competition only with the dancer you hope to become . . . where no half- way measures are tolerated .... where the body is trained with rigour so that one day, it may dance with freedom . . . October-summit conference . . . Guess what? We have to get started on the concert . . . Huh? It ' s only October! The con- cert isn ' t til April . . . And just how long do you think it takes to conceive, cast, choreograph, rehearse, stage, cos- tume, and Hght a show ... a week? . . . Who ' s doing dances? Has anyone gotten started? . .-. Well, several have ideas . . . perhaps they ' d better get moving! November-rehearsal . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . that ' s better . . . now, again . . . No, the step is right but the feeling isn ' t there. I want more tension, more power . . . Hell, we ' ve been re- hearsing for two hours . . . I ' m dead! What do you want? Blood? . . . Nope. Just more sweat . . . December-summit conference . . . Are the dances for the con- cert done yet? . . . WHAT ...?...? photographed by Ken Firestone