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MONDAY
JANUARY 23, 2012 MONDAY High 67, Low 45 TUESDAY High 64, Low 50
VOLUME 96 ISSUE 50 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
SPENCER J EGGERS / The Daily Campus
Meadows dancers perform in a number from the annual Sharp Show titled “Vignette.” The show opened with a modern piece choreographed against Vivaldi’s classical tones and progressed with student choreographed works.
Spring dance show stays ‘sharp’ NATALIE YEZBICK Contributing Writer nyezbick@smu.edu Dancers crawled, leapt and flew through the air at “Vignette,” the 2012 Sharp Show at the Meadows School of the Arts. The annual Sharp Show features works created by seniors in SMU’s dance department. Six seniors had two months to prepare diverse choreography that ranged from modern to classical ballet to jazz. They had only one week to set the lighting and come up with costumes.
“[The seniors] all work together amazingly,” freshman Monica Hernandez said. “They split up tasks like organizing rehearsals, contacting lighting designers and crew members, and creating the programs and posters evenly among themselves so nobody had too much on their hands.” Many would see this small time frame as an obstacle, but this year’s seniors and graduating juniors rose to the challenge and put on a fabulous show. In the first piece, “L’Estro Armonico,” the audience was transported to the era of
Bournonville. The dancers flung into the future with a modern spin to Vivaldi’s music, and then jolted back into the past as the piece progressed. Not only did John Mingle choreograph the piece, but he also shined in it with his brilliant technique. His double attitude turn into a sustained arabesque was mesmerizing. The dancers’ taxed breaths were audible by the end of the piece, a sure sign that making a dance look effortless and having a dance be effortless are two very different things. Audibly adorned with fainted
“beeps” the show’s next piece. “I See You,” was much different. Albert Drake choreographed this solo for Emily Perry who was dressed in white lace that covered every part of her body, excluding her legs. The audience, first perplexed by a single dancer flitting about the stage and coming to rest in a red chair in the corner, soon realized that the pulsing lights and the simplicity of the piece made it that much more powerful. Senior Chelsea Handley said, “It was one of the more moving pieces.”
Philanthropy
“Is That All That There Is?” by Claire Cuny began not with dance but with a short monologue by a mysterious actor in a black top hat. He added a bit of humor to an otherwise serious mood by popping onto the stage to tell the audience not to clap between the individual movements of the piece. The first movement, complete with a live performance from cellist Michael Van Der Sloot, showed a relationship between two dancers that was sensual but too sterile to be sexy. “I feel like the relationship
between the dancers and the music is intensified when the music is being created right alongside the dancers,” Hernandez said. The next piece, a sort of modern pas de deux between Ariel Monticure and Dexter Green, had moments of intense quiet and slow movement that was deeply contrasted by periods of intense chaos and fast footwork. For the third act, choreographer Cuny restaged a dance earlier seen in this fall’s Brown Bag show, “A Love for Three Oranges.” The
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PIR ACY
Law professor weighs in on SOPA SUMMER DASHE / The Daily Campus
Summer Dashe’s trip to Rwanda included a visit to the students’ classroom at the non-profit college they attend.
Student spends winter break in Africa TASHIKA VARMA Assignments Desk Editor tvarma@smu.edu While most students spend their winter break catching up on sleep, skiing and spending time with family and friends, SMU journalism major Summer Dashe decided to visit Rwanda alone. While Dashe’s parents were supportive of the trip, other family members and friends questioned her choice. “I appreciated the concern for my well-being, but this was not something I was getting talked out of nor something I didn’t take completely seriously,” Dashe said. Dashe began her journey on Jan. 2. In Africa, Dashe did not go by “Summer,” but rather “Mzungu,” a nickname given to her on her first day. It essentially
means, “white person.” Her journey’s purpose was to film for a nonprofit organization. The Akilah Institute for Women in Kigali is a nonprofit college that prepares women for careers in hospitality. Many of these students lost parents in the genocide that wiped out nearly one million people in 1994. “As I watched them interact and learn from behind the lens of my camera, I was amazed at the attitude there,” Dashe said. “These girls are my age. They have suffered such loss and come from extreme poverty. Despite all the factors against them, they were the kindest women I had ever met. They took me in and became my friends.” Dashe interviewed many girls who attended the college. Grace, a 23-year-old Akilah student, lives
with her cousin in a small home nestled between many others on a hillside. The community shared a small hole in the ground for a bathroom and running water is found at a faucet outside. “This sweet girl I had only known for two weeks expressed qualities only the very best of friends share,” Dashe said. “I promised her I would be back some day.” Dashe also met people with amazing miracle stories. Allen, a 21-year-old in her third year at Akilah, grew up with her aunt. She spent her life believing that her mother was dead, but Allen wanted the truth. She returned to Uganda to search for her mother. Using a local radio station she sent a message out asking if anyone knew her mother. The next day
they were reunited. Dashe spent the next two weeks getting to know the girls at the college and before she knew it, it was time to go home. Dashe returned to Dallas with excitement and a new perspective on life. “I had navigated a foreign country by myself and succeeded. I had met people who found happiness in so little. It was only two weeks. As cliché as it sounds those two weeks had changed my whole world.” Original accounts provided by Summer Dashe.
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SARAH KRAMER Editor-in-Chief skramer@smu.edu Technology companies and consumers have been lobbying against online piracy for weeks. However, it wasn’t brought to the majority of American’s attention until Wikipedia announced its 24-hour blackout on Jan. 18, just days before SOPA and PIPA were set to be debated in Senate. Thousands of websites joined Wikipedia during that 24-hour period, including Google, to protest the bill. With more than 10 million people filling out online petitions according to Fight for the Future, several members of Congress publicly withdrew their support for the bill. Because of the success of the largest online protest, lawmakers are now trying to find an alternative to stopping online piracy. Expert in intellectual property Xuan-Thao Nguyen, who is also a professor in SMU’s Dedman School of Law, believes that this is a battle
between old and new media. “At the bottom of it, it’s about libel,” Nguyen said. “You saw it before in the music industry. Now, you see it in a different kind of content such as movies and TV shows.” The solution for music was iTunes, which was purely technological according to Nguyen. The solution for movies and TV shows, however, will need to be a legal and technological combination. “Copyright on the Internet has expanded enormously,” she said. “But, digital content has no borders.” With the digital world gaining traction and more people online, depriving people access to online content is daunting. “Too many people say this [SOPA and PIPA] is a big surprise, but I think it’s merely that people are realizing that the old world and new world are so interconnected,” Nguyen said. “You can’t live a day without
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