Tower Dancers Concert, extended cut

(photos by Chuck Grimmett/Collegian)

Modern Dance in Markel

The Tower Dancers Spring Concert runs tomorrow night through Sunday afternoon. The Collegian got to preview the seven-piece performance last night. Here's what we saw.


One of the concert's group was a mathematically-inspired number by Lecturer in Theatre Holly Hobbs. Hobbs said the concept of "strange loops" inspired the choreography. Hobbs said a strange loop describes the phenomenon of seemingly contradicting things are resolved, or you end up where you started. Her piece explored lots of shapes and group patterns, and ended in a figure eight loop, representing the idea of infinity.

Another number choreographed by Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Corinne Imberski featured a trio of dancers. Here sophomore Marianna Ernst and senior Carly Gilmore perform in "Emergence."


Imberski's "Pier: What is Left Behind" feature liquid movements and a set of ropes hanging from the ceiling and a pier downstage. Sophomore Emma Curtis, second from right, said the troupe was pleased to discover the theme before Imberski told them.



The last piece of the night was a six-movement dance set to J.S. Bach's cello concerto. The numbers featured the troupe in solos (like Gilmore above), trio, quartet, and ensemble.


Lecturer in Music David Peshlakai played the piece at the foot of the stage. Sometimes the coordination between the dancer's movements and the cello's music seemed to imply a conversation between the two.


Bright colors and angular shapes dominated the stage, with the angular, modern movements contrasting with the baroque music. Imberski wrote in the program notes that the piece helped show the connection of the old and the new: "Choreographers of today should represent our current place in history, but are always following in the footsteps of what came before—we are yet another step in the necessary evolution of dance."

The Tower Dancers will perform Friday and Saturday night at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. in Markel Auditorium.

To read the review go here.

Sartorialist director's cut

Sibling Sartorialist

(Photos by Marieke van der Vaart/Collegian)

Junior Seth Strickland and his sister, freshman Hannah, from Brunswick Maine, said it wasn't until recently that they discovered their style. Freelancers Rachel Hofer and Robert Ramsey found out greatest fashion faux pas and tips for style. Here's what they said.



Hannah said her style past, termed "homeschool chic," included horrors like flowered leggings. Now, she said her fashion icon is singer-actress Zooey Deschanel.


Both siblings said living in Maine affects their style. Boots become more important. Also layers.

Hannah: "You have to get used to the fact that you can't always dress well."
Seth: "You have to learn to flirt with Mother Nature."

Seth said his style icon is Audrey Hepburn. Style essentials?

"A good pair of jeans and a good sweater and a really solid pair of shoes."

Spring Break Fashion

From runway to boardwalk

Junior Maxine D'Amico gives readers a sneak peek into this season of resort and spring wear.

With only one day left until spring break, palm trees, sunshine and surf may all be captivating your thoughts away from the much less alluring pages of textbooks. Rest assured, because you are not alone as an exploration of nature’s vibrant beauty is exactly what designers across the globe continue to unveil in their Resort Collections and Spring looks.

Even flipping through the pages of W, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, reveals colors found only under the Caribbean Sea. The Spring 2011 looks of Alberta Ferreti’s line Philosophy, has looked to the splendor and silks of the orient with the rich and detailed designs. As the Michigan college student anticipates taking off their Uggs for summer, simply trade in your boots for some of their sandals, reminiscent of the Tuscan sun and Mediterranean.

Ferreti's spring collection

The lines of this season are clean and strong yet at the same time create the allusion that with just the softest of sea breezes they would gently flow in the wind. The variety in each designer's look book is seen in the spreads in Vogue described as “The Must-Have Looks, from Punk to Polish, Romantic to Rebel.” Beginning with the September Issue of Vogue, Fashion Designers continue to return to classic styles such as menswear for women that began with the House of Chanel for their inspirations. They are, however, translating these styles into creations that are bold and modern

So as you pack your bag for Paradise, here are a few tips to build your resort wardrobe. Glamour magazine is calling “coral” the color of the season. Even Calvin Klein, known for neutrals, is accenting his collection with coral. It is a great representation of the bright colors to select from. Add a splash of any of these colors and it is sure to be a success.

A splash of coral in Calvin Klein's 2011 collection.

Just in case it may get chilly at 65 degrees, look for 60’s influence in A-line coats as designers pull form the classics of the past. Accessories are a must this season, from playful tights, to dangerously high heels. An exotic tote and a daring hat, are the perfect final touch to your beach look as your bury your toes in the warm sand.

KATE SPADE boardwalk blocked straw hat

Dress to Impress Clutch - Lily Pulitzer

Bird's Eye View of the Orchestra Concert

The Hillsdale Symphony Orchestra from above. Winners of the student concerto competition performed for the last time today in Markel Auditorium.

Sophomore Josh Taccolini played George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F Major.

(photos by Marieke van der Vaart)

Q&A with Mary Foster Conklin

(photos by Chuck Grimmett/Collegian)

Arts editor Marieke van der Vaart sat down with jazz and cabaret singer Mary Foster Conklin last week to discuss her singing, musical journey, and experience living in New York City. Here's what she had to say.

Marieke van der Vaart: What was your singing background?

Mary Foster Conklin: I came from a rock and folk background and loved singing Gregorian chants and early music and stuff like that. When I got to college I was a theater major and sang with a punk band – I had purple hair back when it meant something.

MV: What do you love about the Great American Songbook?

MC: With musicians, standards are a common language — a reference point where we can make music. “You know ‘All of Me’? What key dyou do it in?" And boom ... They really encapsulate everything that’s good in the American voice. It almost sounds old-fashioned: our pep, our optimism, our arrogance, but that is what we are.

MV: What’s the shelf life for these standards?

MC: I would think of those standards like Shakespearean sonnets — perfectly constructed, timeless, universal. Those songs sit well with everyone. Every period has their own music, their own time, but to dismiss the standards as old-fashioned or hokey and out of step, I just don’t agree. They are a fabulous reference point.

And as you get older these songs resonate deeper with every year of experience.

MV: New York seems to have influenced your music a lot — how has the city changed since you first moved there?

MC: I lived in the East Village when it was really crappy. We call it the “Bad Old Days.” It was when there was still cheap housing in Manhattan and artists could really live cheaply and make art. It was a really wonderful time to live in New York and create.

[Now] it’s not the only place to create but it’s such a dramatic town. Also, it’s such an uncomfortable place to survive. You have to really want to live there. There are too few venues and too many musicians. I’m just a little scrappy girl from New Jersey — I seem to thrive with all of that discomfort. It’s nuts, I don’t know if it’s normal.

MV: How did 9/11 affect the jazz and musical world of New York?

MC: We may hate each other heartily, but we have to take the subway together every morning. It’s a forced tolerance and we protect our own. We don’t like outsiders coming in, hurting anybody in our neighborhood because that’s all New York really is, a collection of little towns and neighborhoods.

You get this feeling in the last couple of years that people really need to be sung to and they didn’t really care doesn’t really matter if it was standards, rock and roll, folk, German, as long as it was good.

MV: Is it true that you perform with a group on fire-escapes in New York?

MC: [Laughing] It was one of the trippier performance opportunities. [The apartment owner] was served by a cease and desist by her landlord. Another theatre contacted us last summer and said, ‘We have a fire escape.’

It has it’s own life. It’s not really legal because you’re not allowed to have things out on the fire escape — we have to come and go like Batman but that’s part of the fun. It’s tremendously hip. We did a Bastille Day production and Elizabeth said “O my God, we’ve got to get a French singer.” And I’m like, “No we don’t. We’ll all wear berets and smoke and we’ll bring in my friend who plays the accordion and that’ll be our French and it was a real hit.”

MV: That’s crazy!

MC: Well, it’s New York. To be part of something that spontaneous and creative: every singer that we invited up to perform with us came off the fire escape looking like they’d done crack [more laughter].

[Bonus: On her bright red Doc Martin shoes — "You can take the girl out of punk, but you can't take the punk out of the girl!"] To read more about Mary Foster Conklin, visit her website here.

Stay tuned for profiles of the student concerto competition winners!

Family Duo — the Brothers Flint

Sophomore Cory Flint directs a group of students performing the score he and his brother, cellist Toby, composed.
(photos by Chuck Grimmett/Collegian)

Sophomores Cory and Toby Flint, composed the 35 minute original score to last week's "King Stag." Opinions editor Betsy Woodruff took us into the orchestra pit to hear their music.

Cory directs "Smeraldina's Theme":

Although the brothers from Omaha, Neb. are both sophomores, Woodruff said that Toby is more than a year younger than Cory. One year Toby decided to do eighth grade in the summer, he said.



Both play cello in the Hillsdale College orchestra and compose music together, including a score for an iPhone application they created last year.

"Gavotte"

To read more about the brothers and their work on "King Stag" go here for Woodruff's article. To hear more original music, visit their Myspace here.

DIY Puppets

(photos by Sally Nelson/Collegian)

For last week's production of "King Stag," senior Kirsty Sadler constructed more than two dozen puppets. Some of these puppets were the size of a small car. Sadler said she studied the animals she was duplicating to understand how their joints affected their movement. Copy Editor Patrick Timmis found out what a step-by-step process of creation looked like for one of Sadler's bird puppets.

1. Sadler sewed a small cucumber-shaped pillow and painted it red.

2. She laid out the feathers — which had been individually trimmed for balance and symmetry — in the wing pattern.


3. She sewed the feathers into small white wings made from cloth and pillow stuffing.

She attached the wings to the cucumber body.

5. Sadler attached a feather tail and connected the finished bird to a fishing pole with fishing wire. The bird can be manipulated to flap its wings.


Sadler's birds soared from fishing lines above audience members as well as through the set and one heron even jaunted across the stage on its spindly legs. To read Timmis' article about the puppets go here. To read a review of the play itself, go here.

Oscar Review

The Oscars Need Fun
by junior Matt Noble and sophomore Jason Kelly

For the past month, talk of the Oscars has laden the airwaves. Drones of national news syndicates repeatedly provide us with the “newest” developments regarding the Academy Awards. However, apathy sets in following weeks of speculation, rumors, and predictions.

If the NFL waited a month between conference championships and the Superbowl, the buildup of the season would lose momentum, and indifference would set in. The point being, when a single event is hyped and dragged out for nearly 8 weeks, it loses some of its anticipation.

Additionally, the Academy fails year after year to produce an entertaining event. Three hours of ads, bowties, and bad jokes leaves an audience wanting… something… anything.

Dear Academy, cut the time between nominations and awards to two weeks, the ceremony to an hour, and keep the dialogue less stuttered than The King’s Speech.