University of Wisconsin Eau Claire - Periscope Yearbook (Eau Claire, WI)

Page 29 text:

Ailey Dancers, Drama In Step With the Times T 1 he light flashed on the audience gasped as the line of black girl dressed in slinky red gowns blonde wigs paraded provocatively around the stage. The rest of the evening was sheer wonder delight as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre thrilled the enthusiastic audience with a trio of modern dances done to blues, spiritual and jazz music. The dances are all expressive, vibrant, dramatic. “Quintet” was performed by the girls only, blended pure ecstacy with tortured contortions to express the joys woes of womanhood. “Masekela language” Revelations included the male members of the cast, explored rhythms American Negro religious music. The total show was an experience, an experience in rhythm, in movement. in living. The Dance Theatre i a repertory company which ha been electrifying audiences around the world since its birth in New York City in 1958.

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Dede Pitre , solo. The Rand rooking on the music they live. Preservation Hall Triumphed in Eau Claire The hallelujah feeling permeated nearly die entire audience as the evening ended with a joyful snake dance around the Arena to “As the Saints Go Marching In. By far the most exciting concert on the campus in recent-years, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band was greeted with standing ovations at the end at intermission. The performance opened with “Dede” “Billie Pierce slowly walking on. They began with a gritty Delta blues dial dripped with the pungency of a morning mist on the Mississippi. They quickly changed the mood by charging into n bounce roll Dixieland blues as the remaining musicians walked on ploying. Dede, at 65, conveyed a wizened, yet elfin personality, , as one student put it. ... seemed to get younger after each song. The excitement generated by the band made the evening one of pure, unadulterated, good-time, honky-tonk fun.

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Jam Session Had Finalis is. Talent, Stripj Sat Rrrnthnl. Murk Fordrk, Jrnnilrr Hardy, I hop lhr.tr grnprfruil don't fall out. 1969 Homecoming, ‘Dam River Falls’ 29 r ■ r-’rr utth ruhridualiti