Thursday, March 24, 2016

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WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Higher hopes in store for IU

THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2016

IDS INDIANA DAILY STUDENT | IDSNEWS.COM

A legacy of dance

By Teddy Bailey eebailey@indiana.edu | @TheTeddyBailey

HALEY WARD | IDS

Danielle Cesanek performs “Tarantella” during rehearsals for the spring ballet “Four Faces of Balanchine” on Wednesday at the Musical Arts Center.

Spring Ballet to pay tribute to former coach Violette Verdy with program featuring choreography by George Balanchine By Maia Rabenold mrabenol@indiana.edu | @maialyra

When IU Opera and Ballet Theater picked the program for the Spring Ballet “Four Faces of Balanchine,” they had no idea that Friday and Saturday’s performances would carry such meaning for the dancers and faculty alike. The four pieces in the program were choreographed by George Balanchine, cofounder of the New York City Ballet. Violette Verdy, who taught and coached IU ballet for the last 20 years, danced under Balanchine for nearly the same amount of time from 1958 until her stage retirement in 1975. She and Balanchine remained lifelong friends. Junior Imani Sailers, who dances the role of Russian soloist in “Serenade,” said the program has become a tribute to Verdy, who died Feb. 8. “You definitely see her in the steps,” Sailers said. “You can feel her energy

in the studios when we’re rehearsing.” Verdy danced the same role as Sailers in 1960 for the NYCB. Sailers said Verdy always told the dancers that in ballet, their legs were the horse and their tops were the rider. No matter how hard the steps were, they had to present it like it was easy. For the role of Russian soloist, it’s difficult to make it look easy, Sailers said. As in all of Balanchine’s choreography, intricate footwork has to look light and effortless, all while maintaining slow and elegant arm movements. “She wanted us to be able to speak and emote using our whole bodies,” Sailers said. “I learned how to be a more mature dancer working with her.” Another of Verdy’s former students, Allison Perhatch, is also dancing a role Verdy performed. In the Spring Ballet, Perhatch will be dancing the lead soloist in “Raymonda Variations,” which Verdy danced in 1969 for the NYCB. Verdy’s knowledge and

love of the pieces to be performed would have been invaluable, ballet department chair Michael Vernon said. In New York, dance changes quickly with fashion, and each performance of the same ballet will be different because of dancers’ individual styles. Vernon said they want to keep each piece as true to the original choreography as possible to preserve the style. Balanchine pioneered the genre of neoclassical plotless ballets. Each piece has a pas de deux, or male and female lead pair, at its core. Balanchine believed that when a man and woman are onstage, the ballet is no longer abstract. “He takes classical variations and modernizes them with really interesting steps and intricate, tiny details,” Vernon said. “Elegie,” for example, is an unusual ballet, Vernon said. The dancers have their hair down, out of the classic ballerina bun, and are barefoot and in long sheer dresses.

SPRING BALLET Tickets $15-28 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Musical Arts Center “Tarantella” has only two dancers onstage, each with a tambourine they must play on beat with the music using different parts of their body. Vernon said that even though these ballets were choreographed as much as 80 years ago, they haven’t aged at all because of their musicality. In order to remain true to Balanchine’s original vision, many of the dancers investigate their roles deeply. Sailers said she has found videos of Verdy dancing during her research. She wanted to make sure she was looking at the greats. “She gave so much of herself and was really invested in us,” Sailers said. “Especially during this coaching process, we miss her.” SEE PAGE 6 FOR ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

IU’s season ended somewhat expectably to top-seed Notre Dame (33-1) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday. The game was much closer than anticipated. The Hoosiers were within two points midway through the third quarter against a team many predict to face No. 1 Connecticut for the national championship. Nonetheless, IU played its final game of what was a turnaround for IU Coach Teri Moren in her second season. The Hoosiers struggled in her first year, battling to a 15-16 (5-15) mark. The program appeared to be in possible turmoil after four players, including starting point guard Larryn Brooks, transferred immediately following the season. That turmoil never materialized. Sophomore guard Tyra Buss and sophomore forward Amanda Cahill, along with an intermittent supporting cast, paced IU to its first unbeaten home season and the second NCAA Tournament win in school history. “This is what we want to do year in and year out,” Moren said. “This is something that we want to have happen at the end of every Big Ten season, where we’re waiting on Monday night for the selection show waiting to see our seed. You’ve got to get a taste of it first before you know what it’s all about.” The Hoosiers will now turn to the future, which is expected to include every player from this season besides senior forward Lyndsay Leikem and sophomore guard Jess Walter. Leikem will be graduating early to pursue a career at the FBI in Washington, D.C. And Walter announced her decision to transfer Tuesday evening. That means Moren will return the core of a team that helped her win the Big Ten’s Coach of the Year award. Buss, a first-team All-Big Ten selection, and Cahill, a second-team pick, will have another summer to improve together. Buss finished her first season playing point guard at the collegiate level. After bringing the ball up during high school, the 5-foot-8 guard played beside Brooks as a freshman. This season, Moren handed Buss the reigns. It worked — Buss averaged 18.8 SEE BASKETBALL, PAGE 6

Abuse of study drugs increases along with academic pressures When sophomore Josh Margolis sits down to study for a test, he said he sometimes can’t get his thoughts under control. They race through his brain. He can’t keep track of what he’s trying to focus on. He often takes a dose of Ritalin. Sometimes, his friends ask him to share it. “The first time it happened was towards the end of my freshman year, near finals,” Margolis said. “It’s mostly my friends, and they’ve always asked for some before tests since they found out I had a prescription.” Margolis has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and said taking Ritalin as it was prescribed to him is sometimes the only way he can focus. But he said he doesn’t think his friends know that

it’s not going to work the same way for them. As midterms, finals and other big tests approach, IUPD detective David Hannum said he starts noticing more cases of students misusing stimulants prescribed to treat ADHD. Adderall, another ADHD drug, is the most misused prescription drug on Indiana college campuses, with 7.2 percent of students reporting misuse, according to the 2015 Indiana College Substance Use Survey. “I can sit down in the Wright dining hall and hear people next to me talking about it out in the open,” Hannum said. “You can easily buy Adderall any day of the week.” Misuse of ADHD drugs has been at a high level for years, Hannum said. And unlike alcohol or marijuana, the pills’ small size and SEE STIMULANTS, PAGE 6

YULIN YU | IDS

COLORFUL CULTURES Amarnani Khushboo, left, participates in Holifest, an Indian celebration when colored powders are thrown, on Wednesday evening at the Collins Living-Learning Center’s courtyard.

“ONE OF THE BEST FAMILY MUSICALS EVER PENNED” –Chicago Tribune

APRIL 5 & 6

E & CO TUR M L U

G ARTS ,C TIN A R

gardnese@indiana.edu | @sarahhhgardner

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By Sarah Gardner

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

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IUAUDITORIUM.COM

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