Pilobolus: Taking Modern Dance Theater Offstage and Into the Office

Erin Bannen
Marketing Intern

A few weeks ago my friends harassed me into taking a modern dance class. It is there that I learn how truly horrible I am at picking up dance combinations. I'm the bouncy girl in the back of the studio who just wants to break out of the routine and start twirling. Little did I know, this impulse is part of the genesis of modern dance.

The way my teacher explained it, some plucky dancers came along and said "WE'RE SICK OF BALLET." Their solution? To focus on how the body moves naturally. Instead of moving like a swan, move like a you. It's about losing inhibitions, taking risks, and becoming aware and connected with you in your own skin.

Pilobolus has taken this revolutionary spirit of modern dance to a wholly different place. They define themselves not as a modern dance company, but as a "modern performance company." They don't do dance, they do "dance theater." Part of this distinction seems to be semantic; this way they can do modern dance but not be judged solely by what have become the tenants of modern dance. But there is something deeper in this re-naming; it is something that has to do with the idea that dance and movement come from within.

The Pilobolus Institute was created as a way to bring dance to non-dancers as a way to help them become aware of their bodies, and how they interact with other people. Pilobolus defines the goal of the institute here:

"The Institute is a series of educational programs that apply that process for greater good, helping groups of any kind work better together and achieve greater common goals. Institute programs are designed to explore the necessary conditions for this success, and use the art of collaborative choreography as a model for creative thinking in any field. Through this process we begin to understand more generally the way groups can organize themselves to do things more efficiently and well."

Some of their recent projects? "Workshops at Avon Corporation,  Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, and a program at the Babcock School at Wake Forest University."Professional dancers are walking into corporate offices and convincing people that there is something worth learning about the way they move. If I attended one of these workshops, I feel like I'd be the bouncy employee in the back who just wants to break out of the routine and start twirling. Thing is, I think they'd go for that.

Humorology in the Theater!

by Jim O'Connell
Public Relations
UW Humorology, Inc.

When co-creator of the hit TV show Modern Family, Steve Levitan, attended UW-Madison, he honed his unique talent through participating in Humorology, the Madison Greek community's annual charitable musical theater performance. By helping write, direct and perform in an original comedy musical to benefit charity, he joined thousands of UW students who have done the same. This April 26-28 in the Theater, over 300 devoted participants, making up six casts, will continue the tradition by entertaining Madison with three nights of high-strung vocals, pop-culture jokes and cheesy romance.

Humorology, known casually as 'Humo', is a show that is built from the ground up by members of the UW Greek community who craft the show, build the sets, compile the costumes and raise money throughout the course of a busy school year. After teams put in more than six hours a week, the quality of each show is comparable to an off-broadway production, allowing the cast members to form a special bond (some so special they result in marriage).

All profits from the shows themselves, along with donations, help out One Heartland, a charity for children with HIV/AIDS that was founded by former Badger Niel Willenson. Each cast is driven by the desire to raise money for the charity, but also competes with the other shows for a year's worth of bragging rights. The first part of the 2009 championship show is below.

The 2012 show, themed 'Something Magical,' (April 26-28) will provide a little something for everyone. Riddled with jokes about current trends and well-known melodies, all six mini-productions use recognizable characters to teach some valuable life lessons. While particular laughable lines might go over a youngster's head, the familiar faces and heartwarming stories will coax smiles out of everyone.

Check Humorology out on Vimeo, where we've featured shows from the past few years, along with informational videos about the organization. Also, browse the website, where you can purchase tickets to the shows and make a charitable donation!

Revolutionary, Athletic, Witty: Check Out These Pilobolus Videos

by Elana Siegel
Marketing and Communications Intern

Pilobolus Dance Theater likes to think outside the box. The dance theater, which was founded in 1971, uses the human body to create inventive, athletic, witty, and revolutionary dance performance. Its performance in the Wisconsin Union Theater will be as revolutionary as ever and will, in fact, include one piece with female upper body nudity. Please keep this in mind when you buy your tickets.

I've put together a couple of their videos to show you what I mean.

Take a look, for example, at their recent collaboration on a music video for the band Ok Go (who also created the treadmill video). Pilobolus and Ok Go were both nominated for a Grammy for the video.

Check out also this showcase of their shadow dance style.

This is two Pilobolus dancers performing at a TED Talk. Many of their performances interact with scientific ideas. This piece explores the intersection of biology and dance.

Finally, you can see their witty side here in a video of them on Conan O'Brien's Late Night. Wait until the end to see their version of Conan.

More than just seeing it in videos, you can come see Pilobolus' revolutionary dance style live at the Union Theater on Saturday, April 14. Tickets and more information here.

Keeping Student Tickets Affordable

by Heather Good
Assistant Director for Development & Outreach

We've had an exciting run of sold-out shows this spring! Gaelic Storm (February 17), Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (March 1) and Gabriel Iglesias (March 3) all brought capacity crowds to the theater. Sara Bareilles's concert sold-out in 24 hours, mostly to UW-Madison students.

Makings sure that UW Madison students have access to high demand shows is an important priority at the theater. We are very committed to keeping student tickets at an affordable price, and the Theater Program Endowment is an essential tool in helping us keep that promise. The endowment subsidizes the difference between a low-cost student priced ticket and the Union Member/UW Madison Faculty and Staff price ticket.

For these three sold-out shows, we sold 1554 student tickets!

The Theater Program Endowment grows each year because many dedicated Theater Season patrons make a voluntary contribution with their season ticket order. This is a very appreciated boost that is critical to meeting our mission to make everything we do accessible and affordable for students. To make a contribution to the Theater Program Endowment, click here.

Sara Bareilles - Sold Out

by Elana Siegel
Marketing and Communications Intern

The Sara Bareilles concert on April 21 at the theater is sold out. A few tickets may be released on the day of show. Please call the box office at (608) 265-ARTS (2787) or check out our Facebook page on the 21st of April for more information.

There are still tickets available for many of our upcoming shows, including Sierra Maestra on March 23, Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 on April 12, and Pilobolus Dance Theater on April 14. However, we are working hard to have them sell-out too. We recommend that you buy your tickets ASAP.

For more information about those shows as well as any of our other upcoming season events, please visit our website.

The Legendary Kutis: Fela and Seun

Alexis Brown

Marketing Intern

Few have lived lives as illustrious as Fela Kuti. As the Herald Sun put it, “Imagine Che Guevara and Bob Marley rolled into one person and you get a sense of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti.”  To say the least, his life was marked by enormous musical success and political turmoil, the likes of which I frankly think might give both Che and Bob a run for their money.

He began his life in a Nigerian middle class family, but after eschewing medical school to study music at Trinity College of Music, he embarked on what would begin an entirely new genre of music. In 1967, he moved to Ghana, where he formed the band the Nigeria ’70 and first began calling his music “Afrobeat.” In Ghana, Fela discovered the Black Panther movement. 

The band played in LA for a bit (before being kicked out for not having work visas), then moved back to Nigeria, and the themes of their songs shifted from love to politics—and here’s where Fela’s trouble with the Nigerian government started. He formed a commune, the Kalakuta Republic, and from there began recording politically charged anthems. These included “Zombie,” which greatly criticized the Nigerian military. He also engaged in polygamy, and went as far as to declare his commune separate from the rest of Nigeria. His album, also entitled Zombie, became a smash hit, which infuriated the government and set off a vicious attack against the Kalakuta commune. One thousand soldiers attacked the commune, and Fela was beaten to within an inch of his life—while his elderly mother was fatally thrown from a window.

Has your jaw dropped yet? Mine certainly did. And somehow, it gets crazier. Fela sent his mother’s coffin to the General’s home residence, and violent riots broke out when Fela next performed “Zombie.”  After the concert  riots, Fela was banned from performing in Ghana, and most his band soon abandoned him after rumors that he was using the proceeds to finance a bid to be president. The rumors may have been true, because Fela announced his desire for candidacy in 1979 (after starting his own political party), though his candidacy was eventually refused.

In the 80s, Fela renamed his band Egypt 80, and they continued to release music and made a successful tour in the US. In 1984, Muhammadu Buhari's government, of which Kuti was a vocal opponent, jailed him on a charge of currency smuggling, a charge that Amnesty International would soon claim was politically motivated. His cause was taken up by several human rights groups, and after 20 months, he was finally released. After this, and continuing into the 1990s, Fela’s output of music sadly began to slow, though his mark on the Nigerian and world music scene was now indelible. In 1997, he died of an AIDS-related disease.

This is where Fela Kuti’s story ends, and the story of his son Seun begins. Seun, the youngest son of the legendary musician, also demonstrated an enormous talent for music, and when he was 14, he chose to pursue this path over soccer, in which he was equally talented. Members of the original Egypt 80, many of whom were harassed and arrested along with him, now play with Seun. As politically active as his father (if less polygamous), Seun has been hailed by Sandra Izadore in The Atlantic as “Nigeria’s only hope.”

Seun is now travelling all over the globe, continuing his father’s legacy of political activism and superb Afrobeat music with many musicians and dancers on stage. And finally, audiences all over the world are hearing some of their favorite songs performed—after Fela recorded a song, he refused to play it again, and so for many fans, this will be their first live experience of their favorites. On April 12 at 8 pm, the legend continues at the Wisconsin Union Theater, and the performance promises to be an unforgettable one.

Join us for the Theater Gala!

by John Sinclair
Alumni Relations Director
Memorial Union

Save the Date!

For 73 years, the Wisconsin Union Theater has been home to thousands of performers, students and guests, and countless memories. As a cherished Union friend, we invite you to join us on May 31, 2012, for a festive celebration as we prepare for the historic, two-year renovation of the beloved Union Theater. Here are a few reasons you should plan to attend:

• Enjoy an evening of great food, drink, and conversation with others who love the Union Theater.
• Share memories and raise a toast to the next seven decades of Theater magic.
• Enjoy a special program featuring local performers paying homage to this iconic place.
• Tour the space and learn more about the renovation project.

To receive a formal invitation, please register here. 

Pro Arte Quartet Set To Premiere William Bolcom's Piano Quintet No. 2

Brian Hinrichs
Project Assistant, Pro Arte Centennial

Composer William Bolcom

On Saturday, March 24th at 8pm, the Pro Arte Quartet and pianist Christopher Taylor will take the stage at the Union Theater to premiere William Bolcom's Piano Quintet No. 2. The piece is one of five commissioned to mark the Pro Arte's Centennial, and if the excitement surrounding the first two premieres in the fall is any measure, the Union is sure to be buzzing, especially with Mr. Bolcom himself in the theater. As the big night approaches, we thought an introduction to the composer and his music was in order.

William Bolcom is a Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer known for balancing "contemporary classical and popular elements deftly" in his music, according to Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times. Over the years, Bolcom's winning ability to blend different styles has been noted by countless critics, with Allan Kozzin writing in The New York Times that "he has an extraordinary facility for weaving the harmonic accents of blues and jazz into more formal and complex structures," while the Rocky Mountain Times proclaims that he "fearlessly juggles musical styles."

One clear example of this can be heard in the fourth movement of his Violin Sonata No. 2, which opens with a jazzy, Latin-tinged theme before unpredictably spinning into more aggressive, atonal tangents:



So what can audiences expect at the premiere of Piano Quintet No. 2? Sandy Tabachnick reports in The Isthmus that the piece will be "starkly different" from other Bolcom works, especially the piano rags he is famous for. In the same article, the composer says that "There is a tragic mood to the piece which I find I'm doing a lot these days in my writing." What exactly this means, audiences will have to wait to find out - that's part of the fun of a world premiere!

Concert Details

The Pro Arte Quartet (Top)
Christopher Taylor (Left)
Samuel Rhodes (Right)

The Pro Arte Quartet with Christopher Taylor (piano) and Samuel Rhodes (viola)
Saturday, March 24, 2012 at 8pm
FREE ADMISSION

Program:

Webern - Langsamer Satz, M 78 (1905)
Milhaud - Quartet No. 7 (1925)
Bolcom - Piano Quintet No. 2 (2011) [WORLD PREMIERE], with Christopher Taylor, piano
Mozart - String Quintet in G minor (1787), with Samuel Rhodes, viola

Additional Events:

3pm: "Concert Music Today: A State of the Union Address" by Anthony Tommasini, classical music critic for The New York Times

7pm: A Conversation with Anthony Tommasini and William Bolcom

Post-Concert: Dessert Reception in the Main Lounge

So Much More to Egypt than Disney Princes

Erin Bannen
Marketing Intern

When I think of Egypt, my first thought is Prince of Egypt. It's a Disney film with great illustrations and incredible music, but it has an embarrassingly inaccurate depiction of what ancient Egypt was actually like. When protests surged across Egypt in 2011, I realized that I knew very little about a country with such a rich history, riotous present, and fascinating future. So I am going to see Clint and Sue Denn's Travel Adventure Film, Egypt's Treasures and Cruising the Nile.

The ceiling of the Mosque

The Denns travel to the Muhammad Ali Mosque, which is on such a high hill in Cairo that it is the first sign of the city that you see no matter what direction you are coming from. The builders used so much alabaster that its nickname is the Alabaster Mosque. From it, you get a clear view of the Pyramids of Giza. It is worth noting that the mosque was designed by Greek architect Yussuf Bushnaq; as a symbol for a city of more than 16 million, the mosque is also a symbol of the country's diversity.

Street vendors at Khan el Khalili

The film then moves into the Khan el Khalili Bazaar, where there are street vendors and shops selling everything from Arabic coffee to chandeliers. The market was the site of two terrorist attacks, one in 2005 and one in 2009, but it remains a testament to Egyptian culture and, with Al-Azhar University only a few blocks away, Egyptian scholarship.

and these are just the first two sites. See? There is so much to learn! I cannot wait to see the rest.

I Bet You'll Dance

by Elana Siegel
Communications and Marketing Intern

One of the most fun parts of my study abroad experience in Lima, Peru was the dancing. Every night of the week, people were out dancing - at salsa clubs, at discotecas, in parks. Although many of the younger audiences would dance to American pop music, the best dancing nights were always in salsa clubs with live music. The music in these clubs was infecteous - when you heard it, you couldn't help but start to sway the hips, moving the torso back and forth with the beat. Soon, even the most reluctant of dancers would be out of the floor stepping the night away in dance.

I thought that I had left that type of music and dance in Peru, but I'm excited to say that for one night, it's coming here to Madison, when Sierra Maestra plays for a dance party in the Great Hall on March 23rd at 8pm.

Sierra Maestra, also known as the Guardians of Son music, are the premier band in the style of Cuban son. Despie the 2500 miles and eight countries separating Lima and Havana, when I listen to the son music of Sierra Maestra, I'm reminded of the live salsa bands in Lima: the bands are tight, with a rhythm that both propels the dancing forward and lays a relaxed and easy groove. The horns cut over top with sharp line while trumpets scream way above the staff. And most of all, it's impossible not to dance to the music.

I dare you to try. Here's a live performance of Sierra Maestra at launch of their 2010 CD "Sonando Ya."

So, did you dance? A little bit of sway in the office chair? A little bounce on the couch?

This music does that to you. Rather than just moving at your computer, you can have a night of full-on dancing with Sierra Maestra in the Great Hall on Friday, March 23 at 8pm. It's true that the event is taking place here in Madison, and not abroad, but the feeling of dancing the night away is just the same. Can't wait to see you there!