FOCUS
Entertainment supplement
to The Battalion
Thursday, July 9, 1981
REO Speedwagon will appear at the 1981
Texxas World Music Festival in Houston.
Group members are, 1-r, Alan Gratzer,
Bruce Hall, Kevin Cronin, Gary Richrath
and Neal Doughty. The festival also fea
tures a Rock Supermarket.
’81 music festival
moved to Houston
Bellydancing
is exercise
By Kathy O'Connell
Battalion Staff
Shake, rattle and roll.
Sounds like the lyrics of a 50's
rock 'n' roll tune, doesn't it?
Actually, those three words
describe the movements of a
woman who belly dances as a
hobby.
Jan Koska, a full-time tech
nician in Agricultural Analy
tical Services at Texas A&M
University, has been belly
dancing for about four years.
After completing three
levels of belly dance classes at
the Community Education
Center, Koska and two
friends were asked to dance at
a local nursing home.
As it often happens in
movies, the manager of Back-
stage restaurant was at the
performance and asked the
women if they would perform
at the restaurant. They
agreed, and a dancing career
was bom.
Well, not exactly, because
Koska prefers to dance as a
hobby and for exercise.
Like most people interested
in a hobby, Koska has done a
little research on the history of
belly dance. "We prepared
some talks (to include in the
performance) for Backstage,"
she said.
"Most of the dancing
started in the Middle East,"
she said. "And there are diffe
rent types. There's Turkish,
which has a little different
rhythm, and Greek."
She said the dance she
learned is called classical,
which means it's Middle East
ern in origin. "There are a lot
of slow movements with the
veils," she said. This slow
dance is quite different from
the American version that has
been "jazzed up." The Amer
ican version is called Cabaret
style, she said.
Koska said belly dancing
was introduced in the United
States at the first New York
World's Fair by a woman
named Little Egypt.
"It sort of caught on after
that," she said. "You can see a
lot of the early dancing in the
old movies." What Little
Egypt performed, she said,
wasn't much dance, but was
more for its "sexual aspect".
In describing the classical
belly dance, Koska said she
prefers to use the word sen-
Continued on page 4
By Bemie Fette
Battalion Staff
The Texxas World Music Fes
tival, which had its beginnings
in the Dallas Cotton Bowl and
soon became the largest single
day music event in history, will
be held in the Houston Astro
dome on July 18.
Although the Houston facil
ity seats only 55,000 and the Cot
ton Bowl holds about 80,000,
there is an advantage to holding
the concert indoors. In the three
years the event was in the Cot
ton Bowl, many persons suf
fered from heat exhaustion
when temperatures on the sta
dium floor sometimes topped
120 degrees.
The two-day event will in
clude the Texxas Jam on the 18th
and the Rock 'n' Roll Supermar
ket on the 17th and 18th.
Headlining the Texxas Jam at
3 p.m. July 18 will be the five-
member rock band REO Speed-
wagon.
REO's latest album, "High In
fidelity," is currently enjoying
its 17th week at the number one
position on the charts.
Also performing at the event
will be Heart, Foghat, Blue Oys
ter Cult, and The Rockets.
The Rock'n' Roll Supermarket
features an extensive display of
stereo equipment, automobiles
and motorcycles, a T-shirt mar
ket claimed to be the largest in
the world, a beer garden, live
bands, movies and a roller rink.
Another attraction of the Rock
'n' Roll Supermarket is a special
showing of drawings done by
the late John Lennon in 1969.
Locally, ticket sales for the
event have topped 350 and Pete
Nelson, manager of Hastings
Books and Records, said he
would receive an additional
allotment of tickets this week.
"I'd say the interest in the
show was very high," he said.
"People were looking for tickets
before we ever had them."
Nelson said he believes the
higher interest in the show this
year is because of the show's in
door location in Houston.
Heart, 1-r, Howard Leese, Steve Fossen,
Nancy Wilson, Michael Derosier and
Ann Wilson, will be at the 1981 Texxas
World Music Festival in Houston, July
18. Also appearing are Foghat, the Rock
ets and Blue Oyster Cult.