Tango Buenos Aires Performs Sultry, Sexy Dance at Lied Center

The Tango. Born in Argentina with African and Spanish influences, this dance form has been fashionable in cabarets and decried for its overt sexiness. Tango Buenos Aires, composed of orchestra and dancers, performs a series of tango compositions with historic accuracy and a tarty sauciness that explains the enduring popularity of the art of the dance. The company performs at 8 p.m. March 26 in the Lied Center for Performing Arts as part of the Lied season.

Argentinian composer and tango director Osvaldo Requena has created a program of music indigenous to Argentina, where he is one of the country's most-celebrated musicians.

The Company Tango Buenos Aires was founded in the mid-1980s by Requena to perform at the Jazmines festival at the Buenos Aires cabaret Michelangelo. It met with tremendous and immediate success and has toured ever since, bringing this unique dance form to international audiences.

The tango has African and Spanish antecedents with a strong element of the "milonga," songs of the Argentine gauchos (cowboys). It was fashionable in dance halls and cabarets, where it developed a less-than-savory reputation because of its venue and because the choreography required the couple to hold each other very closely.

Once accompanied by piano, it's now more likely to be accompanied by the bandoneon, a concertina-like instrument.

No one is quite sure of the tango's true history. Its name is possibly a corruption of the word tambor, meaning drum. And while it probably was born in the 1850s as the "habanera" dance of Cuba, its popularity spread to Argentina as sailors and merchants moved goods along the rivers and port cities. Enter the milonga dance and, again, a melding of styles occurred.

Early tangos were danced solely by men as a symbol of virility and courage, then by two female dancers playing up the feline rhythms of the dance, and finally by a male-female couple. This is no doubt when the dance truly acquired its romantic and sexy reputation.

Tango Buenos Aires traces the history of the tango from about 1905 to the present. The orchestra and a company of dancers and singers demonstrate the many styles of tango, from solo singer with two dancers to the full company choreographed to orchestra.

Pre-performance talks are part of the Lied Center's ongoing education programming. The talks begin in the Lied's Steinhart Room 55 minutes and 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Tickets for the performance are $29, $25 and $21. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students and youth 18 and younger with proper identification can purchase tickets for half-price.

Call the Lied Box Office at 472-4747 or toll free, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser (below) in Gods and Monsters, opening March 18 at the Mary Riepma Ross Theater.

Academy Award Nominated Film

Gods and Monsters Invade Ross Theater

Nominated for three Academy Awards - Ian McKellen for Best Actor, Lynn Redgrave for Best Supporting Actress, and Best (Adapted) Screenplay - Gods and Monsters is a speculative account of the last days of one of the most original and distinctive directors of Hollywood's golden age. Gods and Monsters, a drama with touches of the same brand of dark comedy that James Whale himself brought to his most famous films - including The Bride of Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, and The Invisible Man - is opening at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater on March 18.

"Based on Christopher Bram's novel Father of Frankenstein, (Bill) Condon's film imagines Whale (Ian McKellen) in rapidly deteriorating health, dabbling in painting (as did the real Whale) when not slipping in and out of memories, many of them World War I monstrosities. (Whale did time in a German POW camp.) The ailing director is cared for in his plush Los Angeles home by a stern housekeeper (Lynn Redgrave), while his lush Pacific landscape is tended to by a handsome, shirtless - and heterosexual gardener (Brendan Fraser) who catches Whale's fancy and is invited into his home. And it's in the innocent yet loaded relationship between the old man, whose every inner monster visits at twilight, and the young man, encouraged to think about his own interior demons for the first time, that Gods and Monsters achieves its exquisite tension - deepening beautifully from a Death in Venice setup to an imaginative meditation, on art and life, of uncommon sensitivity," writes Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly.

Gods and Monsters is showing March 18 through 21 and March 25 through 27. Screenings are at 7 and 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays; at 1, 3, 7 and 9 p.m. on Saturdays; and at 3. 5, 7 and 9 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $6; $5 for students; and $4 for members of the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater, seniors, and children.

Multimedia 'Drummer's Fantasy '99'

Danny Gottlieb Showcases High-Tech Percussion Artistry

"Drummer's Fantasy '99" is a live multimedia percussion performance that exposes Danny Gottlieb as a world-acclaimed drummer and percussion artist. Gottlieb will present this year's version of the "work in progress" at 8 p.m. March 27 in the Johnny Carson Theater as part of the Lied Center for Performing Arts' season.

Gottlieb, who earned much of his fame as the original drummer for the Pat Metheny Group, uses acoustic drums and other percussion instruments melded with a video presentation and computer-generated graphics, photos and video clips. A full drum set, cymbals, African and Brazilian drums, electronic samples and computerized drum pads are among the instruments Gottlieb uses during the 90-minute concert. At times, he will accompany video images in a pre-choreographed manner; other times he will improvise to create the video images and sounds. He triggers video and audio images from electronic drum pads, creating a unique performance art in which a story is told in real time.

He will he joined in this performance by special guest percussionist Elizabeth Radock.

Gottlieb calls this presentation a "work in progress" because he updates it as new technology software and instruments become available. In the rapidly changing world of computer-grapics, the technology changes nearly as fast as Gottlieb can break a drumstick. No two performances are identical.

Gottlieb spent six years with the Metheny Group and has played with other musicians such as John McLaughlin, the Blues Brothers Band, Sting, Manhattan Transfer, Booker T and the MGs, Stan Getz, Mike Stern, the Gil Evans Orchestra and others. A student of Joe Morello for more than 20 years, he has a music degree from the University of Miami. Gottlieb has performed on more than 300 recordings and averages more than 150 concert appearances annually.

This performance is part of the Lied Center's Discovery! series which bring young, cutting edge talent or original works together in a series that explores and celebrates the freshest creative ideas and newest performers.

Tickets for the performance are $20. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students and youth 18 and younger with proper identification can purchase tickets for half-price.

Call the Lied Box Office at 472-4747 or toll free. (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

Award-Winning Poet Albert Goldbarth To Read at UNL

Poet Albert Goldbarth will be reading from his work at 7 p.m. March 11 in the Georgian Room of the Nebraska Union.

Goldbarth, author of nine collections of poetry and numerous chapbooks, received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Heaven and Earth in 1992. He has also been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and the Texas Institute of Arts and Letters Voertman Award. His most recent collection, Troubled Lovers In History: A Sequence of Poems, has just been published by Ohio State University Press. He is a Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Wichita State University.

Goldbarth is one of the most original voices in contemporary poetry. He subjects range from his Chicago upbringing and his old-world Jewish ancestry to comic strip superheroes to the vicissitudes of modern love. His style encompasses the brief lyric and longer narratives that display both his wide-ranging knowledge and his irreverent wit. Critic Ben Downing has called Goldbarth, "The Wizard of Wichita" and "a one-man movement, an -ism unto himself." Joyce Carol Oates says he is "a dazzling virtuoso who can break your heart."

Goldbarth's reading is sponsored by the University of Nebraska English Department's Creative Writing Program and the Judaic Studies Program. A reception and book signing will follow the reading. For further information contact Grace Bauer at 472-0993 or the UNL Department of English.

Crumb Musical Celebration March 25

Help celebrate the music of George Crumb on March 25 when Steven Bruns, a noted Crumb scholar from the University of Colorado at Boulder, will be heard on Nebraska Public Radio. Bruns is working on a definitive book analyzing the works of this important contemporary composer. Bruns will be heard on the Nebraska Public Radio Network from 10 a.m. to noon, when he will share some of Crumb's music with the audience, as well as an interview with the composer. At 2 p.m. in Room 110 of Westbrook Music Building, Bruns will deliver a lecture, "The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Analysis, the Creative Process, and George Crumb's 'Apparition.'"

At 8 p.m. in Kimball Recital Hall, "Apparition" will be performed by Julie Simson, mezzo-soprano, and Tanye Gille, piano, both on the faculty of the University of Colorado at Boulder. In addition, Mark Clinton and Nicole Narboni, duo-pianists at the NU School of Music, will perform Crumb's "Celestial Mechanics." Both works feature many interesting and non-traditional sonic effects from the grand piano. Both the lecture and the concert are free and open to the public.

Fishing Featured on Outdoor Nebraska Live Call-In Special

A live-call-in special on the subjects of fishing, fisheries management and aquatic renovations will be featured on Outdoor Nebraska. The outdoor news magazine series airs at 7:30 p.m. March 25 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network and repeats at 8 a.m. March 27. The program is also broadcast on EduCable* at 2:30 p.m. March 28.

Tune in to learn or call in questions about the completed renovation of Cottonmill Lake at Kearney and fishing opportunities at Walnut Creek Lake near Papillion, Verdon Lake in southeast Nebraska and Hitchcock Park in Omaha. Guests will include representatives from the Fisheries Division of Game and Parks and from law enforcement.

Grassroots Nebraska Founder to Appear on Roger Welsch &

Hear about how hard it is to start a newspaper when Kim Smith, publisher and editor of Grassroots Nebraska, appears on Roger Welsch & at 8:30 p.m. March 26 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network. Roger Welsch & is seen on EduCable at 4 p.m. March 28.

"Starting any new business is risky," Welsch says. "Starting a newspaper about arts and culture is downright dangerous. But thank goodness there are some people willing to take such risk - or at least one. Kim Smith is publisher and editor of Grassroots Nebraska, a regional arts and literary journal and a new publication that caught my attention and admiration from its first issue. I hope you'll join us this week to find out why he started the paper and how it's been received thus far."

Two ETV Programs Examine Nebraska's Wartime Role

World War II's impact on Nebraskans at home and abroad is examined in a pair of programs, The War Comes to Nebraska and All Hell Can't Stop Us! airing March 16, on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network.

The War Comes to Nebraska, starting at 7 p.m. describes the all-out effort of Nebraskans on the home front to win the war. Nebraskans scrounged for scrap metal, saved cooking fat and grew victory gardens in addition to working in ammunition plants, aircraft factories and the North Platte Canteen. Nebraska also supported 24 prisoner of war camps and 11 military bases.

All Hell Can't Stop Us!, airing at 9:15 p.m., follows the exploits of Nebraska's 134th National Guard Infantry Regiment in Europe. The regiment played an important role in capturing the pivotal crossroads in St. Lo, France.

Husker Gymnastics Broadcast on EduCable and Nebraska ETV

The power and excitement of collegiate gymnastics competition is captured as NU vs. Penn St. Gymnastics March 14 on Educable

Led by All-Americans Marshall Nelson, Jim Koziol and Derek Leiter, the Francis Allen-coached Cornhuskers will compete against the No. 1-ranked Nittany Lions of Penn State in the live two-hour telecast. Sportscaster Bill Doleman and Nell Palmer, a former All-American gymnast from Nebraska, will cover the action from the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln. The competition will be repeated at 10:30 a.m. March 21 on the Nebraska ETV Network.