Thursday, January 9, 1984/The Battalion/Page 9
A&M dance company looking for talented Aggies
By CATHERINE CAMP
BELL
Reporter
Ignoring their groans,
bailee Company choreogra-
her Lynn Berry scrutinizes 24
* uate btard-clad bodies stretching
heir muscles during a vigorous
rarin-up before Wednesday
ght’s two-hour dance practice.
“Hey, do you know Hit-
jjer?” a weary voice gasps at
lerry, as arched bodies quiver,
loulders hug the floor, pel-
Jses thrust up and hands clasp
inkles in the torturous “fanny
tmks" held for a 10-seconds
ount.
“Do you want to be danc-
irs.'' Berry asks calmly, “or do
[ouwant to be fat and sloppy?”
"Fat and sloppy!” the voice
houls back. Everyone giggles,
-ewis
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The Texas A&M Dance
lompany is as professional a
lance troupe as a troupe of un-
iaid dancers can be. Berry said.
Che campus-based company is
modern and jazz dance troupe
But unlike its competitor, the
)ance Arts Society, it’s not a
litb.
The company holds audi-
ions to find Aggies with supe-
ior dancing abilitv. T he com-
iany is designed for those
lancers who want to work hard
nd perform for exhibitions,
lerry said.
The studio appears to lx-
afinitely filled with dancers as
efleclions bounce off two op-
losing mirrored walls. I he
oom seems littered with hu-
nan abstract art—contorted
indies resembling Andy War-
ml-styled patio furniture.
Berry, 30, works her darte
rs hard to build up a reper-
aire of modern and jazz dances
hal she and some of the com-
iany members have choreo-
Taphed. Berry said she wants
he company to be ready for
hort-notice performances.
Berry said she hopes the
Iwo-semester-old company will
me day serve as a catalyst for
leveloping a new physical edu-
ation degree with an emphasis
mdance.
When Berry assembled the
ompany last April, it was a 17-
nember all-woman dance
roupe. But the September au-
litions brought in 76 to try for
even positions, expanding the
ompany to 20 women and four
nen.
With practice nearly over,
lerry breaks away early to air
photo by MIKE DA VIS
Lynn Berry, choreographer for the A&M
Dance Company practices Wednesday.
swer questions. The petite,
freckle-faced woman asks one
of her more advanced dancers
to lead the others through the
rest of the dance routine.
Berry heads toward the
back of the studio and flops
onto a metal chair. She begins
tucking stray strands of red hair
back up into the loose bun at
the nape of her neck. Her
glowing angular face lacks any
trace of make-up.
“Modern dance is some
thing you can pick up,” Berry
says. “You can do well in mod
ern dance if you’re willing to
put time into it.
“You’ve got to have the
time to put into dance practice,
which means you’ve got to be
doing well in school. You’ve got
to be dedicated and willing to
cut out something in your life if
you want to dance, even if it’s
your social life.
“I don’t want it to be your
school work because that’s what
you’re here for. It’s a matter of
getting organized—you may
even have to start studying on
the weekends.”
Most of Berry’s dancers
have between six and 18 years of
experience in ballet, jazz or
modern dance. A few have only
had drill team experience, a
thought that makes Berry shud
der.
Being captain of a drill
team is not an asset, Berry says.
“Some have never had
strong technical dance training
and drill-team makes them
think they can really dance,”
she says. “It becomes obvious
that they haven’t had the train
ing when they try modern
dance.
“It’s not that there’s any
thing really wrong with drill-
team, it’s just not real creative.”
One of the company’s
leading dancers, Carrie McEl-
roy, says she doesn’t mind Ber
ry’s teasing her about being
Miss Drill-Team Texas of 1980.
McElroy, a former instruc
tor and now vice president of
the Dance Arts Society, says the
company gives her a chance to
perform in what she believes is
a professional sense.
“I don’t feel like I’m a stu
dent pretending to be a
dancer,” McElroy says. “When
you walk into the dance room
and you start dancing, you
don’t think about school; you’re
in another world.
“Dance is a form of exer
cise as well as an art. It’s a form
Q f Rental therapy because it
takeS your mind off of school.”
The company plans to put
on a spring show but has post
poned the performance indefi
nitely unl *l it has funds to rent
Rud J er Theater for the perfor-
man^e. Berry says she’s opti-
mistr*- l ^ e s h ow w iN draw a large
crowd because of “the growing
int e |-est in dance at Texas
A&lJ”
The company’s first show
was in the Memorial Stu-
dent Pouter lounge during Ca
sino Night ’83, an activity spon
sored each spring by the
Resid ence Hall Association.
g e ,. r y says that after the first
danc^ number, seating was vir
tually impossible to find.
perry says she plans for
the company to tour the College
Static 11 junior high and high
scho<d s lo introduce modern
danc^ to younger audiences.
When it seemed the com
pany was destined to be all fe
male, Berry says she panicked.
Male dancers are necessary, she
says if d ie company tours the
scho’tf 1 district.
‘‘Modern dance is such a
strong dance form,” Berry says.
“You do push-ups and sit-ups,
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that with guys in it—if they do
real strong dancing—the kids
won’t think dancing is sissy.”
Berry says she likes experi
menting with new concepts in
dance. She has been known to
spend days of practice just tea
ching her dancers to personify
objects such as “rolling around
like a grain of sand on the
ocean’s floor.” This, she says,
shows the dancers various ways
to move and develop new steps
for their own choreography.
Choreographing a dance is
not as easy as it looks, Berry
says.
“It’s the most disciplined
thing in the world to have lo sit
down with a piece of music and
decide what idea you want to
get across to an audience,”
Berry says.
HAPPY FOUNDERS
DAY
Pi Eta Chapter
OF
TAU KAPPA EPSILOK
4 years at Texas A&M
LOVE THE TKE LITTLE SISTERS
Democrat Jack Ogg is key target
n antitrust trial against his company
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HOUSTON — Sen. Jack
)gg, D-Houston, was a key tar-
jet Wednesday in trial of a $ 106
nillion federal antitrust suit
igainst Ogg, Browning-Penis
nduslries of Houston and a
Hate health official.
Houston-based Conserva
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BF1, Ogg, Jack Carmichael of
file’Texas Department of
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BF1 Vice President Norman
deyers conspired to block CM I
Jans for a Katy waste dump.
Since BFI and CM I are
mpetitors in the waste dispo-
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Carmichael and Meyers
inspired to limit competition
k violation of federal antitrust
I
A federal grand jury re-
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rons, but CMI’s civil suit
<ent to trial in federal court
luesday.
BFI, Ogg, Carmichael and
foyers deny wrongdoing.
Lawyers for CMI charge
1F1 paid Ogg, a Houston Dem-
mi, $25,000 for help and are
suggesting the money paid Ogg
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In opening arguments
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hearing on the ill-fated CMI
landfill proposal in August
1979 was “corrupted by means
of bribery, gifts, influence and
false representations.”
Jamail charged BFI vio
lated antitrust laws “in an at
tempt to monopolize the gar
bage business in Harris
County.”
In July 1978, Jamail
charged in his argument to the
Jury that Ogg and three other
men won a state permit to oper
ate the Whispering Pines land
fill at Little York Road and
Mesa Drive in northwest Hous-
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