Friday, September 30, 2016
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Timing their steps
Music, dance collaboration makes “As Time Goes By” appear effortless VICTOR GROSSLING | IDS
The IU Ballet Department performs a dress rehearsal for the fall show, “As Time Goes By.” The show runs Friday and Saturday.
By Maia Rabenold mrabenol@indiana.edu | @maialyra
The culmination of a month of almost daily six-hour-long practices for IU ballet dancers will open tonight. The fall ballet, “As Time Goes By,” is a collection of three pieces — the father of American ballet George Balanchine’s “Divertimento No. 15,” the world premiere of Sasha Janes’ “Saudade” and Indiana-born choreographer Twyla Tharp’s “As Time Goes By.” “They all represent a very distinctive style, but the dance and the music always communicate with each other very well,” said Tal Samuels, conductor of the accompanying orchestra. “The variety of the program is the thing that keeps everything together.” Balanchine’s classical choreography combines intimate pas de deux, or duets, with moments in which more than 15 dancers are on the stage at the same time. All of his choreography reflects his attunement to the way movement should be
City to take in Syrian refugees in 2017 By Lyndsay Jones jonesly@indiana.edu | @lyndsayjonesy
The State Department confirmed Tuesday that Bloomington will begin resettling Syrian refugees in March 2017. Exodus Refugee Immigration, an Indianapolis nonprofit focused on assisting refugees and immigrants throughout the state, filed a lawsuit against Gov. Mike Pence and the Secretary of Family and Social Services Administration in Nov. 2015 after Pence attempted to prevent federal funding from going toward Syrian resettlement. “You cannot withhold federal money on the basis of discrimination,” Executive Director Cole Varga said. “That’s basically what they told him.” The state filed an appeal but lost in appeals court. “This means that we can use federal grant money to help resettle Syrians,” Varga said. Exodus had typically used the SEE REFUGEES, PAGE 6
paired with music, Samuels said. Conducting the orchestra while also watching every movement of the dancers requires a lot of effort, Samuels said, but it makes the show run so smoothly it appears to the audience as if it is running itself. “You have these two very different languages, music and dance, which work in completely different dimensions,” Samuels said. “You have as a conductor a very big responsibility to try and sync them together.” The dancers practice with only recordings of the music or sometimes with a single live pianist during most of the preparation for the performance. During dress rehearsals the last week before the show opens, the dancers practice onstage at the Musical Arts Center with Samuels’ live orchestra for the first time. “You never know what’s going to happen onstage, especially when you’re working with a couple of different casts,” Samuels said. “Their bodies are different, so that
means they’re going to be moving differently. You as the conductor have to be able to adjust immediately to everything that’s going on onstage.” For the two-hour program, all of the dancers must build extreme stamina, senior ballerina Alexandra Hutchinson said. Many of them cross-train to keep up with the physical demands, because ballet is just as much a sport as it is an art, she said. All of their hard work goes into creating the appearance of perfection, Hutchinson said. In her solo in “Divertimento No. 15,” she focuses on being confident and elegant, even if she makes a small mistake. When performing, all of the dancers have to think about the rhythm of the music, their musicality, their placement onstage, the choreography and any corrections, while still maintaining a smile. “There’s the illusion that everything is easy and carefree, but it’s the opposite,” she said. “You’re thinking about a million different things at one time, but I think that’s what makes it so beautiful.”
“You never know what’s going to happen onstage, especially when you’re working with a couple of different casts. Their bodies are different, so that means they’re going to be moving differently. You as the conductor have to be able to adjust immediately to everything that’s going on onstage.” Tal Samuels, conductor of the accompanyign orchestra
College Republicans compete in phone banking By Lydia Gerike lgerike@umail.iu.edu | @lydi_yeah
Fueled by brownies, trail mix and rivalry, College Republicans at IU took to the phones Thursday night to make the most campaign calls in a competition against Purdue University’s College Republicans. Campaign calling, known as phone banking in the political world, is a tool used to ask voters who they plan to support in an upcoming election. College Republicans at IU made 1,471 calls, beating Purdue University’s College Republicans’ total of 839. “We’re happy to keep the competition and tradition alive against Purdue,” said Brian Gamache, chairman of College Republicans at IU. “It’s great that we have such a motivated group of students. We look forward to next year’s competition.” The first phone banking competition was in 2014. Purdue won that year because IU’s servers went down. The College Republicans at IU made calls on behalf of Indiana 9th District Congressional candidate Trey Hollingsworth, and Purdue called for its Republican Congressional candidate, Todd Rokita. In addition to the Congressional races, voters were also asked about their preferences in the senatorial and presidential races. Hollingsworth’s team provided the IU student organization with an office, and Hollingsworth’s wife even made snacks, Gamache said.
LYDIA GERIKE | IDS
Sophomore Justin Sexton (right) and Kyle Cheverko, members of College Republicans at IU, make phone calls on behalf of Trey Hollingsworth. This was a part of a competition against the College Republicans of Purdue.
Freshman Sai Shastry said he was excited to bring a political angle to the traditional university rivalry. “The rivalry’s intense, no matter what the activity is between Indiana and Purdue,” Shastry said. Shastry became involved in politics in his home state of Illinois and said he felt it was important to continue at IU. He said it wasn’t difficult to for him to start campaigning in Indiana instead. At first, he was only familiar with Republican senate candidate Todd
Young, but through that campaign, he learned more about the whole ticket, he said. “The transition was easy because ideologically, both state have the same ideas about conservatives,” Shastry said. Although the College Republicans make phone calls multiple times a week, College Republicans external vice chair Nicole Keesling said the rivalry element helps keep phone banking interesting. “There’s a sense of more urgency
than usual,” Keesling said. Keesling said the rivalry element helped the group work together. Usually, the campaigners compete individually to see who can make the most calls, but Thursday they had to pool their efforts to try and beat Purdue. Phone banking also helps make citizens aware of the upcoming election and reminds them to vote, Keesling said. “It’s all about being an informed voter,” Keesling said.