1988 Gallimaufry

E q u i n o x " "Vi I he emerald green glow illu- /—— minated the end of the yellow •f- —I brick road, Dorothy cried, —I——I "Oh, it's beautiful!" And such were the moments of the Equi– nox/Solstice festival. In cooperation with the Illinois Arts Council, IMSA presented the festival on September 23rd that merged both art and science into the spirit of myth. Marie Reinke, who helped create visual props, re– marked, "We reincarnated a festival celebrated for thousands of years. It was like stepping back to let us see where we are and where we're going." Julie Salk, IMSA's artist-in-residence, coordinated the program, allowing stu– dents to interpret and integrate their own imagination into the program. The program itself was divisible into four sections, each of them presenting dif– ferent aspects of the Autumnal Equi– nox. During the equinox, when the sun crosses the celestial equator at 10:45 p.m., day and night become equal for a fleeting moment. Ushers guided the au– dience from the auditorium to the night outside, then into the gym and back to the auditorium. In this presentation the audience saw dancers symbolically en– acting the process of photosynthesis, tracing a spiral path in their movement, and the event concluded with the IMSA orchestra's first public performance. But the celebration was shared; the en– tire audience received the chance to participate. Everyone was given an op– portunity to reflect with the performers and stroll their spiral path, and also to trace their feelings in the air with chem– ical "glow sticks" that cut the darkness with their green aura. Lonnie Kowalski, one of the performing dancers, com– mented, "It was neat, because it was audience participatory. You didn't have to understand it to enjoy it." Both the audience and the performers ex– pressed pleasure for the program. Julie Salk hands out glowsticks to performers for the indoor portion of the program. Students form molecular configurations on the lawn. • A F a . ' i J I WL JF ^^M * HB ^n^l I H JiBBr P ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ B fl ,|5 >M, :,v v, ' 10 I V 5 Activities