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Monday, January 30, 2012 Issue 13

T H E

E D I T O R I A L L Y

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I N D E P E N D E N T

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PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://utdailybeacon.com

Vol. 119 S T U D E N T

N E W S P A P E R

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U N I V E R S I T Y

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T E N N E S S E E

Ballet brings laughter to stage UT-Martin alumJustin Joo Staff Writer The moment the announcer told the patrons that flash photography was forbidden because the flashing lights might remind the ladies of the Bolshevik gunfire, the audience knew they weren’t in for an ordinary ballet. Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is a ballet performance unlike any other. The troupe (nicknamed the Trocks) consists entirely of men playing both the male and female roles. The Trocks take on some of ballet’s most classic and challenging pieces to create a show that is both parody and art. Students and non-students alike attended the ballet Thursday evening at the Clarence Brown Theatre. The University of Tennessee’s Cultural Attractions Committee sponsored the event. “We voted to bring it because we thought it sounded really interesting,” Sarah Houston, senior in English and vice chair of the Cultural Attractions Committee, said. “We thought it would reach a wide range with the college community and the Knoxville community at large.” The show began with Act II of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.” The scene opened like any other performance of the classic ballet with the villain Rothbart spinning and leaping through the air. However, the majestic dance soon devolved into Rothbart running in circles until finally pausing to catch his breath, while Tchaikovsky’s score played

on with the audience laughing in accompaniment. The first act of the show continued in that fashion: a mixture of fantastic and unbelievable dancing mixed with intentional blunders and goofs for humor.

Sometimes dancers would be out of place and have to rush across the stage to get in formation. Dancers acknowledged the crowd and demanded a louder applause. A Trock would be on the stage for a solo performance, when suddenly, another Trock would jump his cue and come out too soon, only to quickly run backstage. After a brief intermission, the Trocks

returned for their second act with “Patterns in Space,” which they describe as a “post modern dance movement essay … with choreography after Merce Cunningham.” This time, the humor lay mostly in a mock, live musical performance. While three Trocks danced around the stage, two others “played” music using such instruments as ripped paper bags, bubble wrap, xylophones and kazoos. While humor was still present in the second act, the focus began to shift to the technical prowess of the Trocks. There were fewer instances of dancers intentionally falling down and more cases of difficult kicks and pirouettes. By the conclusion of the third act, each of the Trocks had a moment of solo performance. While no longer making jokes about the rigid constraint in ballet performance, each of the Trocks took a moment to perform spectacularly across the center stage, weaving and spinning while the rest of the cast performed equally well in the background. But not wanting to end the show on too serious of a note, the Trocks took a bow and then gave one last gag. With a disco ball floating in the air, the Trocks performed a final dance number to the big band song “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Benny Goodman. The audience laughed and applauded throughout the entire show, giving the Trocks a standing ovation at the finale. “I thought it was wonderful,” Jessica Hill, sophomore in theater, said. “I (liked) that it was a performance. There wasn’t just dancing.”

nus joins educational committee Wesley Mills Staff Writer It was around 8:50 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 22. Group 45 of the Pep Group gathered together to meet as school was about to start. It was the first day of class. It was the first day of Greg Frye’s journey. “I got the position!” Frye said. From the 17,000-person town of Dyersburg, Tenn., Greg Frye had arrived. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) offered Greg Frye the chance to be on its committee, and, without hesitation, he accepted. Frye did not need to say anything as he walked back into the room of 15 or so friends who were assuming the probable; his smile told the story. “I was just grinning from earto-ear,” he said. “My face was just exploding with sunshine.” But Frye is not your traditional committee member. He did not go on luxurious vacations as a child, drive a Cadillac or have daily room service. In fact, he rode tractors on a dairy

farm, milking cows and grinding feed all through high school. Between school and farming duties, that doesn’t leave much room for free time. However, when Frye could, he would harness his inner musician and before long he became good enough that he wanted to travel cross-country doing independent work. “I started traveling and playing music at age 15,” he said. “I went touring as an independent musician after 18 and played shows with the likes of Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.” Throughout high school and after high school, the aspiration of college would continually linger in Frye’s mind. “I always hoped to do other things,” Frye said. “I always wanted to go to college and law school, but I did do the traditional farm thing.” In 2008, the decision came. Frye was going to attend UTMartin. “I told my family that I was going to focus all my time on being a student,” he said. “I wanted to make a good go of this.” See FRYE on Page 3

Memphis police devise new plan to combat gang crimes, violence The Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Reinforcements may be on the way for Memphis police officers on the front lines in the fight against gang violence. Local, state and federal law enforcement and prosecutors are teaming to create a multijurisdictional gang task force, according to The Commercial Appeal. The effort comes amid a recent string of violent crimes by teen and adult gang members. An official announcement about the united effort hasn’t yet been made, but the Appeal reported that U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton, Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich and Memphis police have confirmed they are planning the task force. “We want to roll this out as soon as possible, but we want to be successful the first time,” Stanton said. “Egos have been checked at the door. We all want something that is going to be meaningful, effective and efficient.” Also agreeing to participate are federal agents with the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the newspaper reported. Members of the Memphis Police Department’s

Gang Unit say they’re eager for reinforcements. “With us just having a 12-man unit, we’re spread thin,” said unit supervisor Lt. Anthony Carter. Several recent shootings and killings have been linked to gangs, police and court officials confirmed. Suspected Gangster Disciples members, ages 16 and 17, are charged with shooting a mother of three in the head in front of her 4-year-old son as a group sat in lawn chairs outside a friend’s North Memphis home in July. The woman wasn’t the intended target — that man survived a bullet to the back — but prosecutors say the older teen bragged about her death. On Jan. 9, officials say, a 17-year-old Crips member teamed with two adult gang members to shoot a rival. Two days earlier, a dispute between rival gangs led to the shooting death of a 22-year-old in South Memphis. The gang problem in Memphis, decades in the making, is difficult to quantify. Police rarely disclose gang links to crimes to the media. However, University of Memphis criminologist George Richardson • The Daily Beacon Richard Janikowski said more than 28 percent of Charles Stewart, senior in aerospace engineering, flies an RC helicopter in the Memphis’ 119 murders last year involved a susHumanities Amphitheater on Wednesday, Jan. 25. pect or victim who was in a gang.

Italian cruise ship may affect tourist season The Associated Press GIGLIO, Italy — The cruise ship that capsized off Italy’s coast will take up to 10 months to remove, officials said Sunday, as rough seas off the Tuscan coast forced the suspension of recovery operations. Officials called off both the start of operations to remove of 500,000 gallons of fuel and the search for people still missing after determining the Costa Concordia had moved four centimeters (an inch and a half) over six hours, coupled with waves of more than one meter (three feet). A 17th body, identified as Peruvian crew mem-

ber Erika Soria Molina, was found Saturday. Sixteen crew and passengers remain listed as missing, with one body recovered from the ship not yet identified. Officials have virtually ruled out finding anyone alive more than two weeks after the Costa Concordia hit a reef, but were reluctant to give a final death toll for the Jan. 13 disaster. The crash happened when the captain deviated from his planned route, creating a huge gash that capsized the ship. More than 4,200 people were on board. “Our first goal was to find people alive,” Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the operation, told a daily briefing.

“Now we have a single, big goal, and that is that this does not translate into an environmental disaster.” University of Florence professor Riccardo Fanti said the ship’s movements could either be caused by the ship settling on its own weight, slipping deeper into the seabed, or both. He also could not rule out the ship’s sliding along the seabed. Gabrielli noted that the body of a man recovered from the ship remains unidentified, despite efforts to obtain DNA samples from all of the missing, meaning that officials cannot preclude that the deceased is someone unknown to authorities. Costa has said that it runs strict procedures

that would preclude the presence of any unregistered passengers. Experts have said it would take 28 days to remove fuel from 15 tanks accounting for more than 80 percent of all fuel on board the ship. The next job would be to target the engine room, which contains nearly 350 cubic meters of diesel, fuel and other lubricants, Gabrielli said. Only once the fuel is removed can work begin on removing the ship, either floating it in one piece or cutting it up and towing it away as a wreck. Costa has begun the process for taking bids for the recovery operation, a process that will take two months.


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