Vets Invited to Dance Preview

Kista Tucker, assistant professor of dance at Sam Houston State University, is issuing a special invitation to area veterans to attend a preview of a project created in their honor.

Tucker and her students will give a preview performance of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Project "Forgotten No More" for area veterans Wednesday (June 9) at 2 p.m. in the SHSU Dance Theater located in Academic Building 3.

The dance project is an original creation by Tucker, who hopes that the performance will help audiences to see war in a more enlightened way.

"It creates a certain mood, so that the audience sees the idea of death, the struggles, the comaraderie between soldiers, the pain of leaving your loved ones behind," said Tucker.

"It's a way of assisting people to look at society, and their values and why we do things. Why do we find one thing beautiful and another thing not beautiful. Why do we favor one thing but not another? Who puts the value on things?"

Inspired by sculptor Frank Gaylord's statues at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., "Forgotten No More" has been in development for just over a year, beginning after Tucker received a $26,500 grant from SHSU Research Enhancement Funds.

The 30-minute presentation, choreographed by Tucker, combines elements of both modern dance and the Japanese dance style of Butoh, a "more internalized style of modern dance."

Tucker is joined in the cast by seven of her students including Tiffany Nirider, Ian Dodds, Golden Wright, Matt Redden, Jennifer Montgomery, Genelle Higgins and Ronnie Williams.

Though "Forgotten No More" was inspired by it, Tucker says that the message conveyed is not limited to the Korean War.

"It was inspired by the (Korean War) memorial, but the ideas presented can be applied to any war," she said. "Any veteran can talk about their experience after watching this."

Wednesday's performance is meant to be a testing ground for the piece, as Tucker hopes to get feedback from the veterans who attend so they may "tweak the show" before it is performed at the Laban/Bartenhieff Institute of Movement Studies' Bienniel Conference in Long Beach, California on June 19.

Tucker hopes that as many veterans as possible attend so that they may "provide insight to make the performance even better, and so that we may hear their stories."

Admission to the performance is free of charge and will be followed by a short reception.

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SHSU Media Contact: Stewart Smith
June 8, 2004
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