Friday evening found the Michigan Theater packed with an audience of all ages. “The Triplets of Belleville” equally captivates those who are seeing it for the first time and those who grew up watching it. This internationally acclaimed film continues to delight its viewers.
(I will not be reviewing the movie itself or providing a plot description. For more information on the actual film check out it’s Wikipedia page.)
Before the Show
The unique animation that characterizes the movie was at times, figuratively and literally, overpowered by the fantastic 8-piece orchestra. It was led by Benoit Charest, performing his original hot jazz score which he composed for the film over a decade ago. Having seen the film before, I was aware during the performance that the music was at times a lot louder than it was in that particular moment in the movie, but it only served to enhance the experience. Unsurprisingly, having the music live added an increased depth to the entire movie, as the music plays a vital part in the storytelling.
I was so amused to watching the musicians play: they were just having so much fun! At one point, during the scene where the now “has-been” triplets revive their famous “Belleville Rendez-vous” song, Charest and two of his musicians not only played the score but also performed the choreographed movement along with the triplets, their onscreen counterparts. This unique interaction between film and live performace was used again during a musical concert the triplets, and now the grandmother, performed in a restaurant. In the film they rustled newspaper, made noise with a vacuum cleaner, played the spokes of a bicycle, and plucked at grates of refrigerator shelves. While the orchestra did not bring a refrigerator on stage, they made use of an assortment of other percussion instruments with Benoit Charest on the newspaper. They swayed, stamped, clapped, and snapped as their classic jazz filled the Michigan Theater.
Rudely, large amounts of the audience started leaving during the credits, as many do after a movie screening (I think my parents are the odd ones out who made their kids sit through all agonizingly slow non-action packed minutes of the credits). So they missed the real finale. The music for the credits featured a reprise of “Belleville Rendez-vous”, the most famous song from the show, and the musicians let loose and ended their show with a powerful bang!
The artwork for 2016’s Juried Art Competition has been on display outside of Beanster’s at the Michigan League since the beginning of this month. Tomorrow, the exhibit begins. It’s from 3-5pm at the Hussey Room of the League. Refreshments will be served!
The winner of the competition as a whole as well as the recipient of the Student Choice Award will be announced.
I’m super excited to review this event because I have a photo print in the competition. Feel free to stop by tomorrow and check out all the other awesome works of art!
The Michigan Theater is a building whose beauty rivals even that of Hill Auditorium. This was my second time visiting the theater and my first time sitting on the balcony, which is a whole new experience. The setting itself was astounding, but that was nothing compared to the dance competition.
The event started around 7pm. Nova Nassa was the first team to compete. Their theme was “Finding Nima,” a spin off of the movie, Finding Nemo. They kicked the night off with a high energy performance, the highlight, in my opinion, being when one of the team members did a back flip from the wings onto the stage. The stunt was perfectly timed, with strobe lights beginning the second his feet touched the ground. The team executed many synchronized lifts, creating depth within their members with some dancing on their knees.
The second team to take the stage was UIUC Fizaa. Their theme was “Knockout” and it was about a girl who started boxing in order to better control her anger. Their costumes were very well-coordinated with said theme, everyone dressed in reds or pinks. At one point, there was an amazing mass lift in which every female team member onstage was lifted from the legs and spun around in a graceful, synchronized maneuver. This team used lighting well, and during the final fight scene, their dance was made even more dramatic by the dark light sequence.
The third team, Broad Street Baadshahz, an all male fusion team from Philadelphia, danced for “The Pursuit of Happiness.” They began under a colorful backdrop, with an upbeat dance number. The mood, however, soon turned, illustrating that the pursuit of happiness isn’t always an easy journey. Later, they used colored saaps to illustrate solving rubix cubes, which was pretty cool. Their team was set apart from the others because they had a live singer in the front of the stage.
BSB
After BSB, UNC Chalkaa started their performance. Their story was that a group of people got caught in a Super Mario Bros game, ending with the main couple getting engaged. This team used lights onstage as opposed to just those on the ceiling, creating a more interactive performance in which the audience was further subjected to more dramatic parts of the dance. There was an instance in which the male lead “died,” but was soon revived by the classic 1-up green mushroom dancing across the stage.
There was an intermission, and then the board members were introduced.
Board Members
The fifth team to dance was Temple Agni. They were an all female group also from Philadelphia. Their story consisted of a president coerced into sending her troops to war because her daughter was kidnapped. The daughter was later murdered, and the president revealed the moral of the story: all lives are important. She did not send her troops to war for that reason. The dance itself was invigorating, showing the daughter’s metaphorical revival through dancing.
After Temple Agni, OSU Genesis took the stage. They are an all male fusion team. They reenacted the story of Peter Pan. They had a very cool promo video, with very poetic narration. This team also used onstage lights and they told the tale behind Captain Hook’s hatred for Peter Pan. They used shadows against the far wall to create a more dramatic setting. At the conclusion of the dance, their story seemed unresolved. It ended with Hook taking Pan’s hand, almost an eye for an eye sort of theme.
OSU Genesis
The Slu Shakti team went next. Their theme was a spin off of the movie, Brave. They used lights on the brim of the stage (pictured below) and Roman themed columns and torches that had lights placed into them for effect. Their costume colors also corresponded for most of the light sequences, their main colors blue and green. This team also used shadows against the far wall (also pictured below) and discussed the necessity of breaking old traditions to create new ones.
Slu ShaktiSlu Shakti
The final team in this competition was Rutgers S.A.P.A. They told the story of the struggles of a transgender student, using the popular movie, Inside Out, as their theme. They even used light colors to illustrate which mood was being used (ex. green lights meant Disgust was telling her story).
After that, the main coordinators of the event came onstage and discussed their purpose for the event: to raise awareness for human trafficking. They promoted endslaverynow.org, which is an awesome place for people around the world to get involved in solving this global issue.
The exhibition act, Furteelay Shokeen, appeared onstage next. They are Detroit’s premier all-male bhangra team. They were incredibly popular and used fire and a live drummer to pump up the crowd.
Exhibition act
OSU Genesis won the best mix award and they placed second in the overall competition. The best male lead was given to Captain Hook from Genesis, as well. UIUC won third place with Slu Shakti taking first.
The student who introduced Angela Flournoy started by reading some of her tweets. Not just random tweets, but a particular set where Flournoy had attempted to describe a group of teenagers in a store. Her suggestions included such quips as “a selfie of teenagers,” “a snapchat of teenagers,” “a whatever of teenagers,” and many more. But the point of these descriptions was not to create some witticism or remark about the age of vain and vapid teenage wasteland we are living in–in fact, the goal was quite the opposite. Flournoy sought to find a term to describe the teenagers that was reflective but not judgmental. She wanted a way to capture what they are without a condemnation or negative connotation. This idea of truth without judgement is present throughout her work.
When Angela Flournoy took the stand, she talked for a few minutes about why she chose Detroit as the setting for her novel. According to her, Detroit is a rare kind of place: a city where everything is changing and falling apart, where the home you grew up in or the store you used to visit is simply not there anymore. And unlike other areas, this isn’t because something replaced it, something new and shiny, something to tender the loss of the old–no, now there is nothing but weeds and cement. Detroit is unique because it is place of vacating and decay where nothing grows anymore. For Flournoy, this particularly interested her as a place of change. For most of us, when things change, they don’t really change completely, there are always elements of the old remaining. When we walk of the old neighborhood changing, we might mean that a new group of people moved in and the old moved out, but we rarely mean that the neighborhood just isn’t there anymore. As Flournoy said, the demographics might change but the physical reality hardly does. And this was the idea that she wanted to explore in her book, The Turner House: how do we cope with memories when there are no physical landmarks.
She read from only one section, a chapter titled “Motor City, Friday Night.” This chapter involved Lelah, the youngest of the Turner family and also currently homeless, visiting a casino she frequents. Lelah has a gambling addiction (part of the reason she’s homeless) and spends part of the night watching a woman win at a roulette table. When the woman wins, she gives Lelah a chip before exiting the casino herself and with this chip, Lelah goes over to her own roulette table and with the skills and knowledge she’s picked up during her addiction, she transforms that $20 dollar chip to $300. She considers walking away and enjoying herself in a hotel room for a week, and she almost manages to, but addiction is a beast not easily beat, and she thinks of what she could do with just a little bit more money, another week off the streets and–she loses most her money in a quick spiral down.
The reading was short, as that was the only section she read. From the beginning of the introduction to the end of Flournoy’s reading, the whole thing was over in half an hour. I didn’t find the reading or perhaps the prose itself particularly engaging, but I thought that Flournoy’s ideas on memory and physical reality had great potential and if The Turner House spends time pondering these things, it might be a really spectacular book. Angela Flounroy will be back on campus for the Voices of the Middle West literary festival on March 12th, so if you’re interested in seeing her speak, check it out.
A2 Dhoom is a Bollywood America Bid Point Competition. The winner gets 8 points, 2nd place earns 7 points, 3rd place earns 6 points, and etc. The points count towards going to Bollywood America. There will be 8 teams from around the country participating in tomorrow’s competition! It’s the biggest national Bollywood fusion competition and the teams that get to go are the best of the best. Sarah Izor, Sushanth Boda, and Meghana Karmarkar will be judging the event.
Get your tickets soon at the Posting Wall in Mason Hall before 2pm, or online here. Also, be sure to watch A2 Dhoom’s promo video and check out the Michigan Mazaa’s website for the official lineup of the event.
Doors open tomorrow night at 6:30pm, with the dances beginning around 7. Hope to see you there!
Thursday night, February 19th, Carrie Smith came back to campus and read from her novel, Silent City. She is a 1979 graduate of the University of Michigan and the Residential College. Her mentor from her student days, Warren, introduced her. It was actually in a writing tutorial with him that she produced a story that would not only win her a third Hopwood award but also become her first novel. This novel, called Forget Harry, was published 15 years ago.
Now, it’s 2016 and her latest book has just been published. It promises to be a truly thrilling mystery. She showed the small audience gathered in the Benzinger Lounge Thursday evening the cover for the sequel. Her publisher had just sent to her the picture that afternoon. Smith turned in the second novel to her publisher earlier in the week and expects the sequel’s release to happen next winter. Following introductions and this small talk on her future work, Smith then read the first chapter from Silent City.
Cover (Photo from Amazon.com)
The first chapter is full of wit, mystery, deep reflection, humor and intrigue. We meet our main character, Detective Claire Codella returning to the NYPD after ten months of intensive chemotherapy. Smith actually started writing this work while her partner was undergoing a similar chemo treatment to her main character. Claire Codella is described vividly and as a survivor. In addition to meeting Codella and her fellow officers, the first chapter contains the scene of the crime: a dead principal. And so the mystery begins. Interwoven through the plot setup is a glimpse at Codella’s backstory which proves to be just as mysterious as the death of the local educator. Tied into his death is an apparent reflection on the flaws in our current education system that was an element of social commentary I didn’t expect. I was pleasantly surprised.
Carrie Smith is a re-emerging writer, whose first mystery novel is sure to amaze audiences. Pick up her book at Aunt Agatha’s in Ann Arbor, various other local bookstores, and on Amazon. I know I will!
Rudely, large amounts of the audience started leaving during the credits, as many do after a movie screening (I think my parents are the odd ones out who made their kids sit through all agonizingly slow non-action packed minutes of the credits). So they missed the real finale. The music for the credits featured a reprise of “Belleville Rendez-vous”, the most famous song from the show, and the musicians let loose and ended their show with a powerful bang!
