April 12, 2016

The Indiana Daily Student Magazine | Volume 10, Issue 4 | Spring 2016

How we

create

Inside Cover

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VOLUME 10, ISSUE 4 | TABLE OF CONTENTS | SPRING 2016

Color

Social

Body

Create

Inside this INside

EDITOR’S NOTE We are told college is meant to be a transformative process, that the years here should be spent creating memories and our life’s passions.

IU seems gigantic at first glance. Thousands of students come from around the world to learn here, and finding a common link to bond a diverse student body and faculty seems impossible. But in my three years as a student, I’ve discovered the uniting factor: a drive to create.

Hoosiers transform passions into plans, and those plans into actions. In this issue, you’ll learn about a few of these journeys, like Bloomington’s own cardboard book creators and the legacy of a late dance instructor.

For me, the journey was creating this magazine with the help of my incredible staff of writers, designers and photographers. It’s been an honor serving as Inside’s editor this semester.

Thank you for reading Inside this year. And never stop creating.

THE GIRLS IN THE BOAT It starts with a single stroke | Page 16

DEPARTMENTS

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FEATURES

Solutions to help hungry students

SO METHI N G O UT O F N O THI N G

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Improv, the hour-long trust exercise.

Tips for starting a dorm-friendly farm

4 IT TA K ES T WO

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10 T H E LEN S O F T IME

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Singing sisters Lily and Madeleine are just getting started.

S EW IN G P O ET RY

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Hoosier Games members got game.

B EH IN D T H E MA S K

R EA DY, P LAY ER O N E?

GET GROWI N G

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Reviving a dancer’s legacy

LO N G LIV E T H E DA N C ER

FI LL HO O SI ERS UP

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Photography portraits 30 years in the making

Get to know the Bloomington book makers

An inside look at cosplay costume construction

Learn about alumni inventions

HOOSIER ENTREPRENEUR

April 12, 2016 Vol. 10, Issue 4 inside.idsnews.com Inside magazine, the newest enterprise of the Office of Student Media, Indiana University at Bloomington, is published twice an academic semester: October and November, and February and April. Inside magazine operates as a self-supporting enterprise within the broader scope of the Indiana Daily Student.

Inside magazine operates as a designated public forum, and reader comments and contribution are welcome. Normally, the Inside magazine editor will be responsible for final content decisions, with the IDS editor-in-chief involved in rare instances.

All editorial and advertising content is subject to our policies, rates, and procedures. Readers are entitled to a single copy of this magazine. The taking of multiple copies of this publication may constitute as theft of property and is subject to prosecution.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Alexis Daily Haley Ward WEB EDITOR Brianna Susnak PHOTO EDITOR Nicole Krasean COPY EDITOR Jamie Zega EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Liz Meuser DESIGN ASSISTANTS Kayleigh Dance, Gabrielle McLemore, Lauren McNeeley, Mia Torres and Alex Ritter ART DIRECTOR

Indiana Daily Student EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Mary Katherine Wildeman MANAGING EDITORS Alison Graham and Kathrine Schulze MANAGING EDITOR OF PRESENTATION

Anna Hyzy MANAGING EDITOR OF ONLINE

Scott Tenefrancia

ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Roger Hartwell MARKETING MANAGERS

Ashley VanArsdale IU STUDENT MEDIA DIRECTOR

Ron Johnson NEWSROOM 812-855-0760 BUSINESS OFFICE 812-855-0763 FAX 812-855-8009

C OV E R P H OTO A N D P H OTO S B Y H A L E Y WA R D INSIDE.IDSNEWS.COM • INSIDE MAGAZINE 1

FILL HOOSIERS UP Three ways IU can combat student hunger

By Arriel Vinson

His stomach had been empty for too long. The student walked into the Crimson Cupboard, a student food pantry at Indiana University’s Campus View Apartments, to see an assortment of neatly stacked foods. The student filled out a quick form and left with bags of groceries and an expression of relief.

Though Erika Wheeler, the donations coordinator for the Crimson Cupboard, witnesses this heartbreaking situation often, she said there is still a negative stigma surrounding the idea of needing food.

“There’s no reason to be ashamed about being hungry,” Wheeler said. “If students are in a situation where they can’t afford or access that food, all we want to do is help.”

One in seven people in Indiana struggle with hunger, according to Feeding America. Unfortunately, this statistic includes college students. Although you can’t readily see hunger at IU, it is a condition for many students without extra money. Since opening, 50 students have visited the Crimson Cupboard.

Sally Jones, director of the Student Advocates Office (SAO), said lack of access to stable housing and food are serious threats to continuing in school.

“Even if it’s only one percent of the (university) population, that should never be a reason why you

can’t go to school,” Jones said.

Although IU offers options like the Crimson Cupboard and emergency financial assistance, Jones said more can be done to curb student hunger. Here are some programs successfully implemented at other universities.

1. Meal Point Donations Many colleges, like Berkeley University and Barnard College, created a program for students to donate unused meal points. Hungry students can apply for these meal points to use for the remainder of the semester. Jones said this program would take a lot of bookkeeping, but it is possible at IU.

2. Food Stamp Assistance James Dubick, organizer of the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness, said some universities, such as the University of New Mexico, offer services to help students apply for food stamps. Counselors and volunteers in certain departments could aid students in applying and understanding the program. Because the SAO

partners with many departments on campus such as Residential Programs and Services (RPS) and the financial aid office, this could possibly be implemented at IU. Jones said the Crimson Cupboard could partner with a food sustainability group on campus, but would have to get a food handler’s license issued by the State of Indiana to bring this program to IU. She said a larger, permanent space with more refrigerator space would be needed.

3. Redistributing Leftover Food from Dining Halls Many dining halls on IU’s campus dispose of large amounts of food. Dubick suggests instead of throwing food in the trash, it could be distributed to students in need. Colleges such as University of Maryland donate the food to local shelters, according to the Food Recovery Network. Jones said the pantry could also address this as a possible service, but would have to partner with RPS to make it happen.

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GET GROWING Make your own microfarm

By Nick Barancyk She almost hears them dying in the next room, desiccated leaves crumbling into soil.

“I’ve killed a lot of plants,” IU graduate student Ellie Symes confesses. “It’s hard to find time when you’re a student.”

But Symes still wants her organics because she says they taste better.

Indiana organic farmer Jonas Carpenter agrees, likening his homegrown veggies to “the food of kings and queens.”

And they’re not alone. Fifty-three percent of 18- to 29-year-olds actively search for organic brands at the grocer, a 2014 Gallup poll reports. But if you’re like Symes, the extra markup cost just won’t fly on a college budget. So, why not grow them yourself? To account for the space limitations of college dorms, microgrower David Rose offers a panoptic solution for the overloaded student, and you can fit about 2,500 of them in a shoebox.

So take a break from break this summer and start your mini farm to reap these three macro benefits.

1. Cheap Tricks If you’re lucky enough to have natural lighting at home this summer, a microgarden kit will set you back a whopping $10.

“You could make a tray from a recycled lettuce box if you wanted to,” Carpenter says.

For the lighting impaired, tack on another $18 for a 40-watt compact fluorescent lightbulb and socket.

Finally, add another $10 for a pound of broccoli, arugula or a cornucopia of other seeds, and you’re set for a half-year of growing in a 10-by-20 inch tray.

“Eating low quality food is a bad investment,” Carpenter says.

2. Fast Nutrition Microgreens such as radishes contain up to 40 times the amount of nutrients as their mature counterparts, a recent study by the American Chemical Society found. Using a nutrient-to-square-foot ratio,

acres of food could be growing in your little box.

“A college student couldn’t grow anything more nutritious in their little dorm room,” Rose says.

Microgreens boast a paltry two-week harvest cycle, according to Carpenter and Rose. So they offer a small loss for students shackled by midterms and finals.

“Some weeks can just be crazy,” Symes says.

3. Green Vanity Is there be a better way to impress your parents than with a homegrown meal? Give your space some green eye candy and start tallying compliments.

“It’s really a rewarding experience,” IU homegrower Jake Ivers says.

For Rose, the reward itself is waking daily to a 70-degree room bristling with plants.

“My office is a greenhouse, and that to me is pretty fulfilling,” he says.

P H OTO S B Y H A L E Y WA R D

See where your bus is in real time

bt.doublemap.com INSIDE.IDSNEWS.COM • INSIDE MAGAZINE 3

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it takes two

How pop-folk duo Lily & Madeleine took their Bloomington music career abroad

By Brianna Susnak

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our years ago, Bloomington-based music producer Paul Mahern came across a video on YouTube of Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz singing a First Aid Kit song together. The sisters were 15 and 17 at the time, respectively, and growing up in Indianapolis.

“I watched (the video) about four or five times in a row before I realized that’s what I was doing,” says Mahern. “It was pretty hypnotizing.”

Three albums and multiple tours later, the folk-pop duo known as Lily and Madeleine are winning hearts and capturing international attention with their sweet harmonies and story-like songwriting. However, making the transition from high school to national headlines hasn’t been easy. *** “It was kind of difficult at first,” Lily said, reflecting on her humble Midwest beginnings from a tour stop in Boston. The sisters are on the road, promoting the release of their latest album, “Keep It Together.” “(We were) trying to transition from a fun, around the house hobby to something professional,” she said. “It had always been a normal part of our lives.

We took piano lessons when we were younger, and our mom used to sing around the house all the time. It was just how we grew up. And then we started writing and performing three or four years ago.”

Madeleine, who was born in Bloomington and attended IU in 2013 before leaving to focus on music, attested to the pressure of breaking into the industry.

“Getting started, it was very confusing, because Lily and I were just making music as a hobby,” she said. “And then, you know, we met Paul through a family friend and he was like, ‘Why don’t you guys try writing your own music and we could record that,’ and Lily and I thought it would be a fun challenge. But we were also scared because we’d never done it before.”

At the time, both sisters were unsure about how realistic a career in music would be.

“I was like, yeah this guy wants us to write songs, but everybody’s trying to be a star these days and everybody’s trying to get discovered so I wasn’t sure if it was going to go anywhere,” Lily said. “It was really Paul who suggested that we try it professionally and try writing our own stuff.”

Lily Jurkiewicz plays the guitar while Madeleine Jurkiewicz plays the piano during a performance on Feb. 28 at Lanlocked Music. The sister duo, who are from Indianapolis, write their own songs and released their third album, “Keep It Together,” on Feb. 26.

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Lily & Madeleine records sit on a shelf on Landlocked Music. The sister duo recorded their albums with producer Paul Mahern of Mahern Audio in Bloomington.

Luckily, the sisters didn’t let their nerves keep them from taking a chance. At dinner with Lily and Madeleine’s parents, Mahern expressed how confident he was in the girls’ talent and their shot at having careers as musicians.

“I brought them into my studio, cut demos and formed a relationship that’s been going on ever since,” Mahern said.

“We really owe the beginning of our career to him,” Lily said. *** In February, Lily and Madeleine released their third studio album, “Keep It Together.”

However, the process of creating the album was different than anything they did before—all the way down to the songwriting. In the past, the sisters would write together from the beginning, but this time, they began individually.

“With this album we wrote (the songs) entirely separately and then came together to edit them and make them cohesive as an album,” Madeleine said. “I think that made the album a lot more interesting and dynamic.”

Like many young writers, Lily and Madeleine’s songwriting reflects their experiences—from finding love, facing heartbreak and everything in between. Their

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“We love playing in New York lyrics are full of references to life City and Los Angeles because in the Midwest, including tracks they’re so big and such music like “Chicago” and “Westfield.” capitals,” Madeleine said. “But The latter is a reference to playing smaller shows in clubs in Westfield Boulevard in downtown the Midwest is really nice because Indianapolis, the sisters said. people are so genuine, and they’ll “You can tell the different come up to us after shows and tell (writing) styles between me and us how much they enjoy the music.

Lily, but the record is still very So, touring and getting to meet cohesive,” Madeleine said. people are wonderful pros about Lily and Madeleine are on tour this industry and this job that through May to promote their new we have.” album via a slew of shows across As the duo’s fame continues to the United States. Despite playing grow, so do their dreams. for big crowds coast to coast, the “We’re experience hoping to make hasn’t been “We’ve always recorded across the as glamorous in Bloomington. All of our itpond (again) as one might musician friends, band in early May,” expect. and Paul live there, so Madeleine said, “Touring reflecting on is really fun, I think I want to keep the duo’s first but recently it recording there because European tour was stressful it just makes sense.” a year and a because we half ago. “We had to drive – Lily Jurkiewicz just want to 16 hours and get the record fit everything out as much in the van, and as possible and see where we can it was just a really crazy process take it.” because we’re still trying to save Despite the international hype as much money as possible,” surrounding Lily and Madeleine, Madeleine said. and the plans for another In the end, they both agree the European tour, the sisters remain opportunity to travel is worth the loyal to their Midwestern—and occasional stress.

specifically Bloomington—roots.

“We’ve always recorded in Bloomington,” Lily said. “All of our musician friends, band and Paul live there, so I think I want to keep recording there because it just makes sense.”

First their producer and now doubling as their manager, Mahern has witnessed the sisters’ rise to success firsthand.

“Watching them develop from the place where they didn’t really know anything about the business, to where they are now where they’ve been doing this for three years. … It’s been really great to witness that,” he said.

For two high school students who once considered music a hobby, the story of Lily and Madeleine remains unwritten.

“We’re open to anything and everything,” Lily said when asked about the duo’s plans for the future.

With their maturity and success comes a newfound sense of independence.

“On this new record, they were in charge in a way that they’ve never been before,” Mahern said.

“I’m extremely proud not only of what they’ve accomplished but what they’re going to accomplish in the future.”

HOOSIER ENTREPRENEUR?

By Melanie Metzman

1. Drizzle Imagine getting paid to text, turn off your alarm and surf the web. This is the concept behind current IU students Ben Mizes and Vinayak Vendantam and alum Deepak Baranikana’s Android app, Drizzle. Users are paid “drops” by watching advertisements, which can be redeemed for gift cards.

“It started as the simple idea that you get paid to turn off your alarm when you wake up in the morning,” Vendantam said.

The company plans to launch an iPhone version of the app in the next few months, Baranikana said.

2. Coatchex Pacqué opened Coatchex to provide a service that wasn’t being met for college students going to the bars in Bloomington.

“I was going to Kilroy’s on Kirkwood and Sports,” Pacqué said. “That constant problem was that you froze in line and didn’t wear your coat, or you had to hide it somewhere.”

Now with Coatchex, students can use their

smartphones to check their coats in Bloomington at Kilroy’s on Kirkwood, Kilroy’s Dunnkirk and Kilroy’s Sports Bar. Since graduating, Pacqué was featured on Shark Tank in 2011, in which he turned down Mark Cuban’s $200,000 offer for a 33 percent stake in the company.

3. CollegeFashionista CollegeFashionista began as a personal blog in 2009 during founder Amy Levin’s senior year at IU. Now, the company is at more than 500 schools with 1,500 student contributors every semester.

CollegeFashionista stemmed from a need that wasn’t being met, Levin said.

“I felt like no one was focusing on college students when it came to fashion and really elevating them,” Levin said.

Through CollegeFashionista, students anywhere can now connect online and see street style fashion, beauty and décor trends at any campus across the country.

NEED

For Derek Pacqué, there were two options for a night out at the bars in Bloomington: don’t wear a coat and freeze, or bring the coat and hide it at the bar.

Pacqué always went with the latter until one day his coat was stolen.

This was the inspiration for Coatchex, the coat checking business Pacqué started as a student at IU. Sixty-six percent of millennials want to start their own business, according to a Bentley University study.

Kelley School of Business entrepreneurship professor Wes Pennington said he believes this stems from their desire to change the status quo.

“They have a product or service that they wish existed, but doesn’t, or it’s not specifically catered to them,” Pennington said.

For millennials interested in entrepreneurship, Pacqué said it’s hard work, but it’s incredibly fulfilling.

“You may have this vision for 10 years down the road, but don’t be scared to take that first step,” Pacqué said.

Here are three businesses serving college students you didn’t know were started by millennial Hoosiers:

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www.optometry.iu.edu INSIDE.IDSNEWS.COM • INSIDE MAGAZINE 7

BEHIND THE MASK

By Lauren Sa S Saxe xe e

Junior Elana Fiorini poses in front of Sample Gates in “The Legend of Zelda” Sheik costume she created herself for cosplay competitions. Fiorini said her dream job would be to work as a costume designer on a movie set.

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ehind every costume, character Starting with the bottom layer of and fantasy world is the mind chainmail, Fiorini knew she probably that creates it. Or, in this case, couldn’t make a full shirt of it for two recreates it. IU junior and fashion reasons: the time it would eat up and the design major Elana Fiorini pulls us into the difficulties she would face wearing it with all world of fantasy and fiction, forming real life of the other pieces of the garment. replicas through cosplay.

Utilizing a sweater found on the racks at Elana was always the kid in the Goodwill, she turned the piece inside out neighborhood who prepped for Halloween and used the back for an interlocked look early, anticipating the holiday with elaborate and an interesting texture. After sewing costume ideas floating around in her head. this on to an Under Armour shirt, she She would dress up the stuffed animals in added leggings to the bottom half of her her room. And every time she performed costume and moved on to one of her bigger in a church or school production, it meant challenges: the armor. another opportunity to tackle a new Aiming for a slim-fitting costume with character and create a new disguise. layers, the designer had to devise a plan “The core of cosplay is people becoming to make the armor structured, yet still a character from a movie, game, comic breathable. To portray a ninja-like character book, TV show or book from the media and constantly on the move, Fiorini needed to recreating that character as exactly as they find a material that wasn’t too constricting. can in real life,” she said.

Using her resources wisely, she picked up When she arrived at IU, Fiorini realized craft foam at Hobby Lobby and a selection her passion for dressing up and creating of fabrics. costumes might be more universal than “I covered it in different kinds of fabrics she thought. that matched the color and texture of her “I didn’t really know what cosplay was,” armor,” Fiorini said of the craft foam used. she said. “I just knew that I liked making “I used three different fabrics. She has costumes. I don’t know what first exposed pieces of armor on her calf, two different me to the world of cosplay, but I figured out pieces on both of her arms and two pieces that other people did it too.” on the thigh area.”

Originally a student Bias tape was used “A lot of it is trial and error. in the Jacobs School of to finish the edges What might work for one Music, the switch from of the covered foam costume, may not work for music to clothing and pieces. Unable to use a costume design proved sewing machine on the another just because of the to be the right one when material, Fiorini did all way it all fits together. The she won first place in the of the stitching of the process of planning your cosplay contest at last fall’s approach … I think that’s fabric by hand.

BloomingCon. She arrived really fun.”

“At Indy PopCon, as a beloved character I won second runner— Elana Fiorini from the video game up in the amateur realm, Sheik. The fearless, division, and I think a double-identitied heroine from “The Legend lot of what people were excited about was of Zelda” and the “Super Smash Bros.” all of the hand-embroidery and handwork,” games turned out to be one of Fiorini’s she said. more laborious endeavors, with the overall Fiorini’s toolbox for finishing touches construction spanning a timeline of about included a fine-tip pen, fabric paint, 3D two years. paint and acrylic paint. To top off the look, Beginning with the initial research stages, the Sheik impersonator wrapped bandages Fiorini spent her free time dreaming about all around herself and added a wig, a fake and looking up images of the character mask, pointy ears and even red contacts. online. She studied each detail, getting a feel “A lot of it is trial and error,” Fiorini said. for the character and how she might dress, “What might work for one costume, may not act and move. work for another just because of the way it “I didn’t know a lot about the techniques all fits together. The process of planning your out there, so I sort of just made my own,” approach … I think that’s really fun.”

Fiorini said. “I kind of didn’t know what I With multiple superhero movies coming was getting into.” out each year and fantasy shows popping up An additional challenge, Fiorini said, is more and more on television, the media has the difference between an animated character made the genre seem more approachable to and one from a live-action movie. the general public. As the world of cosplay “You know it’s possible to make that gains traction, she explained people are more costume, because someone made it,” she open to the idea, without fear of judgment. said of live-action film characters. “It’s more “It’s cool to be a nerd now,” she said. manageable because you have pictures of the “‘The Geek Movement’ is coming into the real life costume and you can say hey, that culture’s perspective.” looks like leather. I’ll use leather for that.”

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Kym, Pigeon Hil, 1988

The lens of time

By Alexis Daily

P

hotographer and retired IU professor Jeffrey Wolin doesn’t remember the first photograph he took, but he remembers the camera: a Kodak Brownie Starmite he bought with his saved allowance money.

Since then, Wolin has photographed multiple portrait series, including those of Holocaust survivors and Vietnam War veterans, all with the theme of change over time. One of these projects began in Bloomington 30 years ago.

Crestmont Public Housing, a part of Pigeon Hill, is a mere two miles from Sample Gates, yet students rarely venture to the housing development. However, the murder of Ellen Marks, an English graduate student at IU, in 1986 and what Wolin did to follow united the two communities.

A former police photographer between his undergraduate and graduate years, Wolin was immediately intrigued when he heard about the murder.

“Curiosity brought me to Crestmont,” Wolin said.

Fears about his safety on his first visit prompted him to ask a student to accompany him. However, he quickly realized the

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precaution was unnecessary.

He walked down the streets of the housing development with his camera and asked to take photos of everyone he encountered. He became Crestmont’s “Picture Man,” photographing new babies, proms, weddings and other momentous events in the area, always returning the following week to give prints of his photographs to their subjects.

“I was free pictures, and I was good,” he said.

Wolin started going to the housing development more frequently, taking photos and talking to residents. The residents shared life stories filled with violence, drug abuse and the hardships of living in poverty, and Wolin took diligent notes. These stories now overlay the original photographs.

“The stories became equally important as the photographs themselves,” he said.

After a few years, Wolin began working on other projects, like his portraits of Vietnam War veterans.

The Pigeon Hill portraits remained in storage until 2010, when Wolin read about the murder of one of the children in his photographs, Crystal Grubb. He returned

Kym, Woodland Apartments, 2011 “The scars on my stomach represent a lot of battles. I might look the same as I did in the earlier picture but I feel old as dirt. I believe I was a strong person when I was younger but with Gary, my ex, I was weak. I stayed in an abusive relationship. He kept saying, ‘You can’t survive without me,’ and I started believing it. When you gave me this picture I looked at it a long time. I saw that the scars represented sadness, weakness. At the same time I saw my strength returning slowly but surely. That was when I started sticking up for myself. After 10 years I left him and got my own apartment. I don’t know why I didn’t leave sooner.”

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to Pigeon Hill and spoke to Grubb’s parents, and, in hearing stories about her, began to wonder about the rest of the residents he photographed.

Wolin started volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club’s summer photography classes. After each class, he walked down the streets of Pigeon Hill with boxes of the photographs from the 1980s, asking residents to look inside to identify the portraits’ subjects.

Eventually, Wolin made a connection to one of his original subjects. For the next three years, he located, interviewed and photographed more than 100 of his original subjects from nearly 25 years prior. Some remained in the area and others left Pigeon Hill, finding ways to transcend their hardships and live more comfortable lives.

Wolin photographed them all. Once again, he was “Picture Man.” “Photography has a strong connection to moments in time,” he said. “It’s a way of describing the world.”

Wolin wanted the portraits from the 1980s and 2010s to emphasize the subject as the focal point while also showing the environment and personal characteristics. He also asked subjects to reflect on the former version of themselves captured in the earlier photographs, overlaying the new photographs with these musings.

“Pigeon Hill, and really all of my projects, are a merging of the past and present,” he said. “My photographs are picking up a thread in someone’s life and seeing where it leads.”

Wolin completed “Pigeon Hill: Then and Now” in 2013. The project debuted at La Galerie Le Bleu du Ciel in Lyon, France, in November 2013 and will be published in early 2017.

Carl with his Father, Pigeon Hill, 1990 “I was only 2 or 3 then. My dad was an alcoholic—drank two cases of beer and a fifth of whiskey a night, not including the drugs. But I always had what I needed before he got what he wanted.

We’ve had our ups and downs, our fights, our arguments, but he’s always had my back.

Through my drug days, he had my back.”

Carl with his Son, Pigeon Hill, 2014 “It’s hard to believe that I have my own son now. I worship the ground this baby’s on—he’s all I can think about. It’s crazy how life changed from then to now—the different cars, clothes. I’m speechless!

He’s turned me around. I was just hustling to make a living before, but now I’m out trying to make an honest living and provide for my son.”

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INSIDE.IDSNEWS.COM • INSIDE MAGAZINE 11

Long Live the Dancer

By Maia Rabenold

LEFT Violette Verdy (left) reaches for Melissa Hayden while dancing to “Serenade,” choreographed by George Balanchine, for the New York City Ballet in 1960.

RIGHT Junior Imani Sailers reaches for junior Raffaella Stroik as junior Colin Ellis holds Sailers while dancing to “Serenade” during rehearsals for the Spring Ballet at the Musical Arts Center. Sailers was cast as the Russian dance soloist, which Verdy danced 56 years ago. “It’s so true that, to our department, (Verdy) was our Sugarplum,” Sailers said. “She gave so much of herself and was really invested in us. Especially during this coaching process, we miss her, because it’s a whole Balanchine program.”

PAGE 12 Violette Verdy dances to “Raymonda Variations,” choreographed by George Balanchine, for the New York City Ballet in 1960. PAGE 13 Senior Allison Perhach dances to “Raymonda Variations” during rehearsals for the Spring Ballet at the Musical Arts Center.

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nside a house in the neighborhood of Saint Remy in south Bloomington, everything is as Violette Verdy left it.

Her bottle of hand lotion and sticky notes are by the computer, LaCroix and Fresca are in the fridge and her white cat, Tashi, sits in his box by the window.

Verdy, who died Feb. 8 at 82, also left behind a legacy of performing and teaching ballet that will be remembered throughout the world. At IU, where she taught for more than 20 years at the end of her life, her coaching was sorely missed in preparation for the Spring Ballet.

“She had this energy that made us feel so welcome,” Imani Sailers, junior at IU and dancer in the Spring Ballet, said.

Sailers danced the role of the Russian dance soloist in “Serenade,” the same role Verdy danced 56 years earlier. All four of the pieces in the Spring Ballet, including “Elegie,” “Raymonda Variations” and “Tarantella” were choreographed

by George Balanchine, who co-

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founded the New York City Ballet (NYCB) in 1948.

Ten years after the birth of NYCB, Balanchine plucked Verdy from the American Ballet Theatre to be one of his principal dancers.

Balanchine choreographed several pieces for Verdy during her time in his troupe, and they remained lifelong friends.

The Spring Ballet program was picked by the ballet department the previous year, but has become a fitting tribute to Verdy, ballet department chair Michael Vernon said. She danced in all of the original pieces except “Elegie.” Her coaching of the dancers through ballets she performed as they were first choreographed by Balanchine himself would have been invaluable.

“I was hoping she would be able to be involved in it,” Vernon said. “She loved these ballets and she knew the style. She was just very present, even when she wasn’t present.”

Balanchine choreographed “Serenade” in 1935 and “Elegie” in

1982, and, in the following decades, the dances have changed naturally with the dancers that perform them. Art mimics fashion, Vernon said, and in New York City, fashion changes quickly.

Vernon wanted to keep the Spring Ballet choreography as close to the original as possible, unchanged by more recent dancers’ interpretations. With Verdy gone, Vernon brought in Melinda Roy, another former NYCB dancer who had worked personally with Balanchine, to coach for the Spring Ballet.

Roy’s NYCB career just barely missed Verdy’s, starting in 1978 after Verdy retired in 1975. However, their lives as ballerinas were intertwined. Verdy, working as a scout for the NYCB, discovered Roy and her older sister in Lafayette, Louisiana, and gave them both scholarships to the School of American Ballet in New York. Both sisters went on to become NYCB soloists.

Roy came back to Bloomington

last year to guest teach at IU and was able to meet Verdy again.

“She took us out of a podunk little studio and gave us our opportunity,” Roy said. “It was so amazing to reconnect with her after all these years. She was such a beautiful spirit.”

Roy filled Verdy’s shoes, coaching the dancers through the all-Balanchine program. Like Verdy and Sailers, Roy also danced the role of the Russian dance soloist in “Serenade.” Also like Verdy, Roy has danced in all of the pieces except “Elegie.”

Ballet departments like IU’s and companies worldwide can’t keep hiring dancers who worked with the original composers forever. Throughout her life, Verdy compiled her ballet archive, a priceless resource standing as an example for the world of dance.

Records of travels and correspondence, teaching materials and notes, photographs and negatives, slides, posters and other promotional material from

P H OTO S B Y H A L E Y WA R D A N D C O U RT E S Y O F V I O L E T T E V E R DY A R C H I V E

P H OTO C O U RT E S Y O F T H E B A L L E T D E PA RT M E N T

Distinguished Professor of Ballet Violette Verdy smiles during a class. Verdy, who taught at IU for over 20 years, died Feb. 8 at 82 years old.

performances, film and costumes vie for space throughout every room in Verdy’s home and completely fill her garage.

Even before Robin Allen started working as Verdy’s assisant in 2008, she and other helpers took on the huge task of categorizing Verdy’s extensive ballet archive. Now all of the treasures are meticulously organized and labeled alphabetically box by box and shelf by shelf, with a computerized database allowing the user to search a phrase and find

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the exact location of the item within seconds. The database has more than 10,000 entries. “(The database) is like the Bible for us for her collection,” Allen said. “There’s so much to look at, so much to connect with the world and what was happening at that time. It’s a very rich resource.”

Allen said she hopes Violette’s collection will serve as an example for others to catalogue and preserve dance history. Unlike music, the art of dance has not yet developed

OPEN

its fields of theory and technique, but Allen said she thinks it is only a matter of time.

Violette’s collection will go to stay at Harvard’s Theatre Collection at its Houghton Library, joining 50 boxes of her archive she sent before moving from New York to Indiana.

The library houses 115 boxes of George Balanchine’s archive as well. A Harvard representative already came to review the materials remaining at her home in Bloomington. Allen said they were interested in all of it, but balked at the costumes.

The costumes, unrestored since their creation as early as the 1950s, are still in great condition. Each small embroidered rose on her “Sleeping Beauty” tutu made in 1953 by her mother is still in place and each feather on her “Swan Lake” tutu is attached. A closet in Violette’s home, when opened, reveals a cloud of pastel French organza silk, tulle and rhinestones.

If Harvard declines to take the costumes, Allen said she will start looking for a home for them from the top down, starting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the NYCB archive or the Smithsonian.

“They’ve really cultivated this slice of history at Harvard,” Allen said. “They see it as a very important transition of ballet

the DOOR TO MORE *

blooming in America.”

While collecting material for her archive, Verdy was a dedicated teacher and dancer. Through her 80s, she would do her floor barre exercises every night before teaching, Allen said. In leg warmers and knit booties, she would sit on a mat in the living room and prepare her muscles for the next day after an active lifetime full of injuries and physical therapy.

“She was one of those people who just could never catch up with herself,” Allen said. “She always had too much to do and never enough time.”

Because of Verdy, Allen and others’ efforts to preserve her archive, even after the last IU ballet students to work with Verdy graduate, her style and musicality will inspire generations of dancers to come. When Balanchine originals are performed in the future, choreographers and dancers alike can look to footage of first performances, often including in the credits Violette Verdy.

“You can still feel her energy in the studios when we’re rehearsing,” Sailers said. “We’re going to try and live up to the Violette Verdy name and do her proud. We know she’s looking at us and watching, saying, ‘Are her feet pointed? Is she turned out?’”

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The girls in the boat The IU women’s rowing team strives for NCAA glory, one stroke at a time.

Members of the IU women’s rowing team warm up with group stretches before getting out on the water during their 6 a.m. practice on a Wednesday at Lake Lemon. “If I show up to practice everyday and give 100 percent, I know that I’ve done everything I can to help my team succeed,” junior Taylor Ruden said.

By Liz Meuser

It’s 6 a.m. The sun won’t be up for another hour. Instead the glow of a full moon illuminates the sky, it’s reflection glimmering on the waters of Lake Lemon.

The eerie chirp of unseen birds intermingles with a chorus of the opening and closing of car doors.

For the women of the IU rowing team this is routine: another day, another practice.

Inside the boathouse, the shiny hulls of the racing shells glint under florescent lights. A faint smell of new paint and plaster lingers in the lofty space.

Team members begin to file in, spandex, Adidas athletic sandals and Gatorade water bottles aplenty.

Some girls finish braiding their ponytails as others put on extra warm layers. One by one they step out into the darkness, carrying paddles and equipment down to the port.

Nearby a board displays the lineups for the morning’s practice, the pace: “as fast as you can.”

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The IU women’s rowing team was recently ranked 12th in a USA Rowing preseason poll by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association.

The team has slowly been improving and gaining national recognition amongst their elite competitors after placing 11th overall in the country for the second consecutive season at the NCAA Division I Rowing Championship last May. “We’ve had some really good success the past two years,” Head Coach Steve Peterson said.

Coach Peterson is optimistic about the team’s prospects as they enter spring training for their upcoming season, but makes it clear there is still work to be done.

For the 68 women on the team, sights are set high on winning a national championship.

Senior rower Rebecca Brougher spells national champions over and over in her head as she’s rowing convinced that if she keeps saying it, it will happen.

Whether it’s during a

2,000-meter race or just a trial piece in practice, her inner monologue remains steadfast.

National champions. National champions. National champions.

“It’s also a reminder for why I’m doing this,” Brougher said. *** The bright yellow hull cuts through the still waters to the steady thump of the oar handles, the blades slicing the surface.

Inside the boat the rowers move in unison, pushing off back and forth in rhythm with their paddles.

After months of winter training inside, clocking countless miles on the indoor rowing “erg” machines, being able to get back on the water brings new energy to the team.

The girls train on the water at least two hours every day, testing new lineups and maximizing speed and consistency in preparation for upcoming races.

At the helm of the boats are coxswains like junior Taylor Ruden, responsible for steering, executing strategic race plans and voicing encouragement to the rowers.

Coxswains serve as the rowers’ friend sometimes and as a coach and nurturing mother role other times Ruden explained.

“It’s wearing a lot of different hats,” she said. “You have to be hard on them a little bit, you have to push them to their next level.”

Ruden, like most coxswains, develops strong relationships with all of her rowers, knowing personal motivators for each.

“For the majority of the girls on varsity I can tell you one thing about them that gets them going or one thing that they absolutely hate,” she said.

As for junior rower Emily Barber, such a motivational phrase came from graduated coxswain Karly Kikkert.

“She would always say ‘you are better, you are faster, you are stronger,’” Barber said.

Although there are eight crews in total—five varsity and three novice—and multiple boats, all of the women are incredibly close, an impressive feat for a team this large. The intense spring training

P H OTO S B Y H A L E Y WA R D

“At the end of the day I am going to do everything I can to make sure the other people in my boat have the best experience and best races,� – senior Rebecca Brougher hours and practice within lineups leads to the creation of a deep bond between boatmates.

Brougher compares the team dynamic to that of a relationship with a sibling: one is very protective of one’s boatmates and would never let anything happen to them, but still holds high expectations. “At the end of the day I am going to do everything I can to make sure the other people in my boat have the best experience and best races,� she said.

All agree the greatest motivation is the team itself. “Hearing them put everything they have into it makes you want to

give it your all too,� said Barber of listening to her teammates while in the boat.

Brougher found the best representation was a quote from the biography “The Boys in the Boat� by Daniel James Brown, the story of the University of Washington men’s crew that represented the U.S. at the 1936 Olympics: “The ability to disregard his own ambitions, to throw his ego over the gunnels to leave it swirling in the wig of his shell and to pull not just for himself, not just for glory but for the other boys in the boat.� “Whatever you’re going through doesn’t matter,� Brougher said. “You need to go harder for them.You owe it to them because they’re doing it for you.�

Peterson pointed out this year’s team does not have any natural leaders, but instead everyone plays a leadership role in their own way. This breadth of talent and dedication to the team as a whole fosters the team’s ultimate success. “It’s not about having one superstar and a bunch of role players,� he said. “Everybody is doing everything for the benefit of the team.�

It is for this reason respect is essential to the overall team relationship. As Peterson noted,

IU coach Steve Peterson yells instructions into a megaphone during practice on a Wednesay morning at Lake Lemon. The team was preparing for a scrimmage against University of Michigan and Michigan State University.

every person has to believe every other teammate is doing all they can do to be their best.

For the boat to go as fast as possible, the eight rowers and coxswain need to think and move as one.

For Peterson, a former collegiate and Olympic rower himself, the greatest moment is watching when a crew is

completely in sync: with the boat moving fast, skimming across the water as smooth as glass, the crew clipping along. “As a rower, that’s what you’re always searching for,� Peterson said. “From the outside, where I’m sitting in the coach’s launch, watching them it looks like it could go on forever. It looks effortless.�

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TOP Cristian Medina, co-founder of Cardboard House Press, sews pages together to bind a book on a Thursday evening at La Casa Latino Cultural Center. The group uses recycled materials like cardboard to make the books. LEFT The book cover of “China Pop,” featuring poems by Domingo de Ramos, sits on a table. The group plans to make 150 copies of the book, with 50 being made in Ithaca, New York and 50 in Phoenix. RIGHT IU alumna Annie Dufficy folds pages before the group binds the pages together. The books are sold locally at Boxcar Books on Sixth Street.

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P H OTO S B Y H A L E Y WA R D

Sewing Poetry Volunteers transform recycled materials into bilingual books

By Natalie Rowthorn

C

ristian Medina wanted to show the world his house.

Or rather, he wanted to show the world his house of cardboard books. Medina, a geologist at the Indiana Geological Survey, co-founded Cardboard House Press, a publishing house dedicated to creating poetry books from recycled materials.

He quoted German poet Bertolt Brecht: “I resemble the one who carried around with him the brick to show the world what his house was like.”

Instead of bricks, he prefers cardboard to build his house of books.

The idea behind Cardboard House Press is to promote Latin American and Spanish literature by making it available to Spanish and English readers in Bloomington.

“We want to engage the community,” Medina said. “Our motivation was to disseminate and to publish Latin American and Spanish poets.”

These art-books, as they are so-named, are created from recycled cardboard dug from recycling bins, marbled paper, stenciling and handsewn binding.

All of the books created are bilingual with the Spanish version of a poem on the left page and English on the right. Volunteers assemble the art-books entirely by hand in weekly workshops at the La Casa Latino Cultural Center. The final product can be found on the shelves at Boxcar Books for sale.

“This is a way of bringing the poetry that I’ve read from South America that is so rich, so diverse and vast and to show it to people who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to do that,” Medina said.

The idea behind Cardboard House Press originated from Cartonera, a publishing movement that began in Argentina in 2003. After an economic crisis in 2001, there was an increase in cartoneros, people who make a living from collecting and selling recovered materials to recycling plants.

Cartonera books are made from recycled cardboard purchased from the cartoneros at higher prices than what would normally be offered by recycling plants. The cardboard covers were painted by hand, and the books were sold in the streets in order to increase access to works of literature otherwise unknown to the public.

Since then, the movement has extended throughout South America and has even crossed oceans, touching Europe and the United States.

“The idea was to promote and distribute and make books that everyone can have for low prices,” Medina said.

He, along with Paul Guillén, Maggie Messerschmidt and Giancarlo Huapaya, came up with an idea to start their own project embodying this Cartonera movement in Bloomington. In 2014, they began a small

workshop for children at the Monroe County Public Library.

During this seven-week series, children grasped paintbrushes and pens, painting their own art and writing their own poetry. The workshop concluded with a poetry reading and an exhibition of the children’s work at the Showers Building in downtown Bloomington.

“At the time, we were not sure if we were going to continue with that, but we had so much approval and encouragement from people saying, ‘This is fantastic,’” he said. “So we decided to follow up with that and turn this idea into a more serious, if you will, project.”

And from that project, Cardboard House Press was created.

The publishing house adopted its name from Peruvian writer Martín Adán’s book, “La Casa de Cartón,” or “The Cardboard House.”

Every book they stitch together is unique, Medina said.

Behind each book, there is an artist who paints the inside covers, a translator who reworks the poems into English, an editor who oversees the translations and a volunteer who puts it all together.

But Medina said he and fellow editors must be meticulous when it comes to these translations to ensure the text represents the original poem accurately.

“When someone translates a poem we believe that you are somehow creating a new poem,” Medina said. “There will be as many translations as translators.”

While the number of volunteers at Cardboard House varies per semester, it maintains a core group of regulars who participate every week.

Lilian Burgos, who works at the IU Physical Plant, did not think there was a Spanish community in Bloomington until she discovered a notice about the workshops in an email from La Casa.

“I came and decided to see what it was all about,” she said.

Now, Burgos said she loves spending time working with fellow volunteers to create the art-books.

IU sophomore Brandon Diego, a computer science major, attended the group’s first poetry reading. He said he enjoys the workshops and likes working with his hands.

The beauty of it all, Medina said, is volunteers become part of a larger community, forging friendships through literature, culture and cardboard.

And together, they intertwine Latin American and Spanish poetry with art by creating these cardboard books and sharing them with Spanish and English speakers alike.

“Between languages and cultures, there shouldn’t be boundaries,” he said. “And that is one of the premises we use. We bring cultures and art together by providing translations.”

INSIDE.IDSNEWS.COM • INSIDE MAGAZINE 21

READY,

PLAYER ONE?

HOOSIER GAMES STUDENTS DESIGN AND DEVELOP THEIR OWN VIDEO GAMES.

By Hannah Rea

Katabasis developed by Ian Ford

Developed by Sarah Lally

Developed by Taylor Hocutt and Raymond Stump

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S C R E E N S H OT S C O U RT E S Y O F M A X L A N C A S T E R

TOP Graduate student Chris Ingerson presents his two year gaming project Text Quest at the weekly Hoosier Games meeting in the Radio/TV building. ABOVE Sophomore game design major Josh Smith introduces Run-a-Ton with his team of developers and programmers.

Katabasis developed by Ian Ford

E

very Wednesday night, students gather into Studio 5 in the Radio/ TV Building. They move the chairs into circles, pull out their laptops and make video games.

Eventually. The process usually takes two to four semesters.

These students are members of Hoosier Games, “an independent group of student developers,” according to its website.

“Anyone who is interested is welcome to join,” President Max Lancaster said. “There’s a role for everyone.You learn from the veterans, and then the novices become the veterans.”

The process they follow is pretty methodical, Lancaster said.

The first step they take to create a video game is pitch night: you share your ideas with the group, and settle on a core concept. Students are assigned to teams and work out timelines of major milestones in the game.

The second step is the “intense design phase,” Lancaster said.

During this step, students create the minimum viable product, or the bare minimum product that could be released to the public.

The third step concerns “fleshing out the other stuff,” such as in-game collectibles and enemies, Lancaster said.

It’s normal for this process to take a while.

“Every time you add a new feature, there’s bugs,” he said.

Sometimes, a project dies.

Lancaster said that can be good, offering a new start for programmers to clear their minds and pursue other ideas.

Next, students “ship” a game.

This involves final polishing of content and getting the game to its audience.

There’s always something more developers could do, Lancaster said, but they must recognize when to call it a day and release it to the public.

“A game is never done, you just ship it,” he said.

A senior in marketing, Lancaster uses these skills to help mold Hoosier Games to the needs of its members.

“We’re shifting our focus to be more marketing-oriented,” he said.

The club develops ways to teach its members how to market and pitch their games to possible investors, be it through word of mouth or Kickstarter campaigns.

There are always outside factors: students graduate, programmers back off, teams lose interest in a project.

“We really wanna get the games done as quickly as possible,” Lancaster said.

The few faculty members with backgrounds in the video game industry help Hoosier Games where they can.

Edward Castronova, professor of telecommunications, laughingly called himself the “spiritual father” of the club.

P H OTO S B Y A N D R E W W I L L I A M S

“I was the one for many years who kind of got it going,” he said.

“It was really shaky at the start.”

The club had little to no budget, and oftentimes club expenses came out of his own pocket, Castronova said.

That’s changed in the past few years, though, with the explosion in population of the club. It’s gone from around 30 members to this year’s membership of 70.

“The launch of the official game design program had a lot to do with it,” Castronova said. “We might just be in the take-off phase.”

Word of mouth helped growth, and press from the game design major draws interest from students and the community.

Castronova tried for years to get the University to allocate more funds for game design side. The students are the loudest voices in favor.

“Look what the students are doing by themselves” Castronova said. “That’s the best argument a professor can make.”

Only three regular faculty members teach skills students interested in designing video games need to learn.

“What I would like to do is hire people to teach that stuff so students don’t have to teach themselves,” Castronova said.

And with the growing notoriety of IU’s game design major, that might just be a possibility. Attitudes about Indiana’s role in producing video games is slowly but surely

changing, according to Lancaster.

“The Midwest used to be a place where people thought games went to die,” Lancaster said. “We have a lot more exposure just because of the game design major.”

Hoosier Games currently has a few projects in the work, Lancaster said. Those close to release include Katabasis, about a boy overcoming depression through the five stages of grief, and Hellpaws.

In Hellpaws, you play as Sordello, a cat who flies through hell in a journey to reclaim his nine lives. He fights enemies by firing flaming hairballs.

“There’s a lot of dark and whimsical humor in the game,” Angela Lograsso, head developer and producer of Hellpaws, said.

Lograsso said the design began as a prototype for a class, and grew with feedback.

July 2016 is the expected release date, as the creators are making last-minute changes and polishes to the game.

Because Hoosier Games is separate from coursework, deadlines are often pushed back to accommodate other things that come up in the lives of programmers and designers, Lancaster said.

But that’s what the club is meant to do.

“Hoosier Games is a safe place to experiment,” he said. “At the end of the day, this is portfolio work.”

INSIDE.IDSNEWS.COM • INSIDE MAGAZINE 23

SOMETHING OUT OF

NOTHING

By Maggie Eickhoff

E

very Thursday, we create a world out of essentially nothing. All we need is a one-word suggestion.

Then, we’re off.

The word is “dingy.”

I decide I’m at home watching television in the basement. I sit on a chair center stage and look wilted. I pretend to blow my nose. I breathe only through my mouth to emulate the voice of a congested 10-year-old.

“I hate having to stay home and watch ‘Madeline’,” I announce to my scene partner, who enters after me.

Now it’s his turn. Who is he to me, this sick kid sniffling in a basement?

He makes a choice. He decides he’s my good friend. He’s upset I can’t play.

I make a choice. His name is Blue Lagoon, and he’s imaginary.

Throughout the show we cut back to see Blue Lagoon and me travel through stages in my

P H OTO B Y A N D R E W W I L L I A M S

character’s life. Our audience follows the pair, laughing at the antics that can be expected from going through one’s life with only an imaginary friend by their side.

Eventually, my character goes off to college and lets her imaginary friend go. The audience whimpers an “aww” as I tell Blue Lagoon the end of our friendship has come.

We share a final embrace, and then he dissolves. It’s heartbreaking, and everyone in the room feels it.

None of us could have predicted the story of Blue Lagoon. It was a something made out of a nothing.

At the beginning of our shows each week, we inform the audience about the temporary nature of improv comedy.

Everything they’re about to see—the whole show, all of the improvised scenes—is created and only exists in this space. They will see it now for the first time ever and then never again.

The same goes for us. At the beginning of the hour, we don’t know where we are going. It’s our job to find the funny in the show as it happens. When we explore a world built by our scene work, we can find the oddities and heighten them together.

However, this requires a great deal of trust in each other as people and players. On stage, you have to be open to every twist, choice and progression.You have to say yes and rely on your scene partners to back you up.

The trust I feel with my improv group is among one of the most magical things I’ve felt. We found it through drills and exercises in practice, playing together in shows and by loving and caring about each other full-time.

But an improv show is an intimate journey for everyone involved—audience included.

They supply the suggestions that are the marbles in the Rube Goldberg device. The word

“sneeze” shoots down a tube and hits the first domino, an inaugural scene in the nurse’s office.

That domino hits the next, and we’re at the zoo. And the next and the next and the next.

Then, we can peek in on the world we make together.

After the show, everyone in the room is made closer by the experience of seeing something born, grow and eventually end. It’s a special, ephemeral thing.

Performing taught me trust, openness, confidence and honesty.

I learned to live life the way I exist in scenes: taking each moment as it comes and reacting with emotional truth.

Improv comedy is one of the only collaborative art forms I have ever encountered that can do that.

I am forever grateful for the experiences I have had making somethings out of nothings, and for the people who have helped me make them.

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