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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 2015)
NEWS The Battalion I 2.27.15 3 A "Perpetual Motion" performer rehearses for the program's Friday opening. Annual program to include 1999 Bonfire Collapse tribute By Taylor Siskind The Texas A&M dance program will present its annual concert, “Perpetual Motion,” beginning Friday night. The showcase will feature five fac ulty choreographers, choreography by guest artists Elizabeth Ahaern and Andy Vaca, a student-choreographed piece by Kathy Quigley and Texas State University’s Dance Company. Quigley, a senior kinesiology and mathematics double major, hopes to unite Aggies through her piece “2:42 A.M.” in honor of Bonfire Memorial. “It really stuck out as a very impor tant tradition for me, and I wanted to represent it in dance form,” Quigley said. “And I feel like a lot of Aggies that come to the show are going to under stand that dance a little bit more than non-Aggies. I think they’ll appreciate what it’s trying to represent.” “2:42 A.M.,” along with “Fallen” — a solo performance featuring Lau ren Dowdy and choreographed by fac ulty member Carisa Armstrong — will go on to represent Texas A&M at the American College Dance Association South-Central Regional Conference over spring break at Texas Tech Uni versity. The Texas A&M dance program will try something new by incorporating so cial media in the lobby and show with the use of the hashtag #tamudance and a photo booth. “There’s so many people that don’t really know we exist. They don’t know we’re really back here, so we invite all of our friends and family,” Annie Forman, kinesiology junior, said. “The people who come and do know about it can spread it to their friends and get more of the Texas A&M community con nected.” Along with social media, this year’s concert will be the first year to expe rience a performance exchange with Texas State. This exchange evolved from Texas State’s assistant professor Ana Baer Carrillo’s time as a guest artist within the program last year. Christine Bergeron, dance programs director, said Baer wanted to expose her students, and students at A&M, to the different ways dance is approached at various Texas colleges. Based off her time teaching here, guest artist Elizabeth Ahearn, an associ ate professor at Goucher College, said A&M’s approach to dance emphasizes the connection between the body as an instrument, and the anatomy that makes the body function. “The department seems to have an interest in that connection to their anatomy and the instruments that they were,” Ahearn said. In “Perpetual Motion,” Ahearn’s piece, “Landscapes for Figures,” with music by Zoe Keating and Melissa Full er, revolves around the unique charac teristics of particular landscapes such as a mountainous landscape, a coastal land scape and a polar region. No matter the dancer’s background, Bergeron said every student who takes the stage at “Perpetual Motion” will share a similar sentiment. “We are people that will constantly be in motion,” Bergeron said. Perpetual Motion will show Friday through Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The performance will take place in the Physical Education and Activity Pro grams Building in Room 207. Lunar New Year shifts venues Lion dancers perform at a past Lunar New Year Celebration. PROVIDED Jack Hanna, who will be on campus Saturday, is a zookeeper and media personality. By Mason Morgan Since its inception in 2008, Texas A&M’s Confucius Insti tute has seen strong growth and its Lunar New Year event is no differ ent. For the first tune, the event will be held off-campus in downtown Bryan. While it had previously been hosted by Sbisa Dining Hall, the event has outgrown its former home and is now poised to take over 26th Street. Amanda Johnson, an administra tive assistant and event planner for the institute, said the focus this year is on community involvement. “For the past few years, mem bers of several businesses downtown had casually mentioned moving the event there, but the conversation was typically held too late to plan for the upcoming event,” Johnson said. “Immediately following the 2014 celebration, we met with Bry an representatives to begin planning the 2015 event.” Johnson also anticipates the event will spark a greater interest in the Bryan area for any Aggies who have yet to embrace it. “Our hope is that the people who live in and around College Station, but who have never visited Down town Bryan, can experience the great atmosphere it provides and be come regular guests,” Johnson said But the move has caused a few problems for its volunteers. “Many of our past volunteers were international students who didn’t have vehicles.” Johnson said. “Since the event was on campus, it was very easy for them to travel. It just takes a little more planning and carpooling, but we feel very fortu nate that so many students and com munity members have offered their time to ensure a successful event.” Gowa Borzigin, a prominent fig ure in the Chinese community and former emcee for the Chinese New Year event hosted in San Antonio, explained the significance of the Year of the Goat. “The Y ear of the Goat is believed to bring peace, harmony, love and resolutions,” Borzigin said. “It also symbolizes wealth and prosperity. In ancient China, only the rich could domesticate goats and sheep so they could enjoy bountiful meat dishes, use sheep skins and fur clothing.” Borzigin said the celebration is association with a mythical being called Nian. “Nian is a monster who eats children and livestock if not fed,” Borzigin said. “People found out that Nian was afraid of sticky rice, the color red and firecrackers. So the superstitious people began to pre pare lots of food, wear red, decorate their doorways with red banners and light firecrackers to scare away the evil spirit while also bringing good luck to the new year.” But Borzigin said the ancient tra ditions have become more modern over time. “The celebration is becoming more and more commercialized and modernized these days,” Borzigin said. “In fact, the biggest Chinese New Year’s celebration outside of China takes place in the United States. Many people, businesses and families take advantage of the event to celebrate and renew business net works, friendships and families. It is a tradition that keeps on giving and adding new meanings every year.” Trung Nguyen, a lion dancer for Lee’s Golden Dragon performing Saturday, said lion dancing has also modernized since its ancient begin nings. “Traditionally, there were more powerful movements from the lion to scare away evil spirits. They would do very forceful movements” Nguyen said. “I would say now, the lion is more cute and playful and fun, interacting with the crowd, so it has changed in that aspect.” The high-octane dance isn’t without its consequence, however. “This past week we suffered an injury,” Nguyen said. “We’ve never had anything real serious, no broken bones or anything, but we have fallen and been strained here and there.” The lion dances will take place at 2 and 3 p.m., with an encore perfor mance at 4:30 p.m. For a more comprehensive list of events and times, check out the Confucius Institute website. HANNA CONTINUED THE BATTALION: What can people expect to see at your event? What will be on stage with you? HANNA: It's a lot of fun for everybody, educating in a way that's serious but also fun and it's worked pretty good for 40-something years. I'm not a celebrity, I’m not a star, none of that stuff — I'm a person that lives on a farm, a person that believes because I've seen what all of us do in the real world. As far as animals go, I'll be showing clips from my television shows, interviews, some bits from 700 shows over 30 years. I'll be showing clips from my travel from around the world, so you'll see my trip to see the mountain gorillas, for example, in Rwanda. There's about 700 in the world left. I'll be showing wild animals. I will be showing clips of young baby animals in rehab centers around the world, whether the mother died or was poached or whatever, and them being taken back to the wild. I'll show my blooper video, which all young people love. I'll be showing clips from David Letterman, over 100 shows from the Letterman Show, I'll be showing clips from when y'all weren't even born yet of the Letterman Show. THE BATTALION: Initially, you became a zookeeper, later gaining the title of director of the Columbus Zoo, then going further by appearing on multiple live TV shows and developing your own. How have your opinions regarding conservation changed over the years? HANNA: My views have changed in that I'm a more positive person. I used to be a person that looked at the negative part of conservation. Animals dying, animals going extinct, this animal, that animal, it's all you hear, you know? News stays negative, "The whole world is coming to an end." Yes, we have problems in the world today, negativity drives news. My speech is positive, I speak about issues with rhinos and other animals that cause concern, but I'm not going to sit up there and tell everybody, "Guess what?The rhino is going to go extinct in five years!" What would happen? Nothing. But I am gonna tell you what you can do to help. Yes, my views of conservation change because conservation efforts have changed. There is good and bad. You try to come up with something that gives hope. My views have changed that way, to view conservation in a positive way, not a negative way. THE BATTALION: Was there a particular person or experience that inspired you to further endorse wildlife conservation? If not, how did your passion for conservation develop? HANNA: The passion has always been there. As a little boy on a farm I fed animals, and I cleaned cages when I was 16, so I've always been driven by love of animals but I took it to the next level. So 1 worked hard when I was younger, and it took a lot of work. "Marlin Perkins Wild Kingdom," which you're way too young to have ever heard of. It was a show I used to watch on TV. And by the way I never wanted to be on TV, ever. Now, you have most people go out and seek TV, I never did. But now I have "Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures," "Jack Hanna's Into The Wild," and "Jack Hanna's Wild Countdown," which is the combination of Animal Adventures and Into the Wild. THE BATTALION: Interaction with live animals plays a large role in your show. Has there ever been any unexpected hilarity that ensued? HANNA: We used to be able to bring people up, but we can't do that now legally. But we'll bring a camera on stage to show you the animals, we also hope to show you a baby kangaroo on stage inside the mom, you've never seen that before. And if we get lucky we can do that this time, it's very rare. Several things have happened, animals will go to the bathroom on my head, sometimes when we fly birds over the audience it might lay on your head or something. Sculpture honors OPAS’ 40 years By Katie Fuller MSG OPAS will reveal on Sunday a sculptural trib ute to its 40th anniversary that has been two years in the making and is meant to capture the program’s arts-centered essence. Anne Black, associate director of the MSC, said the sculpture, ADAGIO, was commissioned by donors and begun two years ago, in OPAS 40th year. The program is now in its 42nd season. The sculptor, Larry Schueckler, Class of 1975, said each part of the sculpture tells a story of movement. “That was a very important theme in the sculpture,” Schueckler said. “There will be stories that will be per sonalized if you look at it. It is not just the sculpture of a figure, there is a progression of events, there is a story that unfolds and each person will see it differently.” The name is a representation of the movement within the static sculpture, Black said. ADAGIO means “slow movement” in music. Even the sculpture itself was slowly and uniquely made, Schueckler said. He used tools that were enlarged six times the size of a regular work tools, and even took a rib from a cow to carve pieces of the sculpture. “There is such a wide range of things on stage at OPAS, it is the same we wanted for the sculpture — that everyone could get something out of it,” Schueckler said. OPAS brings performing arts to the students of Texas A&M, Black said, and they want the sculpture to rep resent that. “To have this beautiful sculpture outside of the Rud der facility, which houses a lot of art events, I think it is wonderful to signal that there are arts happening there,” Black said. Allison Bradshaw — THE BATTALION Statue will be unveiled Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Schueckler said the sculpture will require a math- and-science-centered campus like Texas A&M to think a little differently. “Quite often we think in terms of, ‘What does this do for my career and the financial return?’ But there is more to life than just that, and I don’t mean recreation and enjoyment,” Schueckler said. “Watching a ballet, it is all movement to tell a story, you are required to pay atten tion to learn and use different senses other than analyti cal, you are required to look at things in different ways. The unveiling will be at 5:30 p.m. in the Rudder Complex Plaza.