‘Empty Walls’MFA exhibit fills the walls of the Fine Arts Center GalleryWednesday in Lifestyles

Phone: 575.7540 | E-mail: travlife@uark.edu Page 5 | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2009Lifestyles Editor: Anna Nguyen | Assistant Lifestyles Editor: Lindsey PruittLIFESTYLESTHE ARKANSAS TRAVELER

Discounted tickets are avail-able today for subscribers of the 2009-10 season at the Walton Arts Center on Dickson Street.

WAC is the largest venue for performing arts and entertain-ment in Arkansas.

“It is beneficial for the entire community to expose the cam-pus to this great resource,” said Ashley Tull, associate dean of students for campus life.

WAC hosted about 4,300 stu-dents last season, and the pro-gramming staff has developed the schedule to draw more stu-dents to the theater starting this fall. This season has about 40 performances, including at least seven Broadway shows and a concert from the North Arkansas Symphony.

“The 2009-10 season is a wide range of programs that highlight some of the best and most accomplished artists in the world at a pretty reasonable price,” said Jodi Beznoska, com-munications director for WAC.

The WAC program directors are looking for ways to collabo-rate with the UA and to make tickets more affordable for stu-dents. Waltonartscenter.org will have a student page this sum-mer, and the center will con-tinuously update its Facebook page for information on ticket discounts and sales for students.

Although the details are not definite, ideas include setting specific days of the week for students to purchase Broadway tickets at half price and on-site discounts for students who come by the WAC.

“Grease” and “Legally Blonde” are two Broadway hits that will be in town this season. “Grease,” which is Time maga-zine’s 2007 pick for the No. 1 musical of the year and stars Taylor Hicks as Teen Angel, will arrive on stage May of 2010. “Le-gally Blonde,” a successful film about an underestimated blonde who is determined to go to Har-vard Law School, commences the season on July 7 and will run through July 12. “The Wedding Singer” will be perfecting its show here in September before heading off on a national tour.

Talent of every genre of per-forming arts will grace the Fay-etteville stage this season. If the audience wants to laugh, “The

Second City” is celebrating its 50th year of unrestricted improv and sketch comedy on August 28-29. Musical performances range from classical symphony to the root music of the Ameri-can Revival, which mixes funk, folk, bluegrass and more, exem-plifying “Americana at its finest,” said Jenni Swain, vice president of the WAC programs.

Some of the music acts, such as Grammy award-winning South African a cappella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Kayhan Kalhor/Brooklyn Rider are living, breathing examples of cross-cultural dialogue and connection, Beznoska said.

In addition to music and dance, some shows combine the arts, such as “Little House on the Prairie” or “The Nutcracker.”

“I would like to see the WAC used more as a local venue, in-viting students and people to en-joy it between the major shows,” said Jasmine Nile, a UA senior art history major.

Tull is working with the WAC to coordinate Friday Night Live events and other occasions at the venue. The studio theater will host the University Theatre’s rendition of Arthur Miller’s Pu-litzer Prize-winning drama, “The Death of a Salesman,” in October.

“I can only ask for more world dances, symphonies, or-chestral symphonies and bal-

lets,” said Libby Atkins, a senior food science major.

Beznoska encourages all stu-dents to experience the events at the WAC.

“Live performance is a really important part of a dynamic, engaged lifestyle,” she said.

“Movies and recorded music are great, but live performance has an element of authenticity and uniqueness that can’t be experi-enced in pre-recorded media.”

For a full list of performances and upcoming student discounts, visit Waltonartscenter.org.

Contrary to some myths, musicians and bands grow older (see Mick Jagger). It is evident in some bands, whether it’s in their appearance, sound or diminished touring schedule. And it’s no surprise that Massachusetts’ acoustic pop-rock band Guster is growing older.

Since hitting the college rock scene back in the mid-’90s, Guster has dazzled crowds with their unique live show and catchy (and, at times, touching) pop songs. Now the quartet has families, houses, bills to pay and passion projects that need tending to. While this has affected aspects of the band’s demeanor, they certainly are not looking to stop any time soon.

Guster – consisting of vocalist/guitarist Ryan Miller, vocalist/guitarist Adam Gardner, drummer Brian Rosenworcel and bassist Joe Pisapia – have not stopped touring. In fact, touring (which many fans believe to be the band’s bread and butter) has just gotten “smarter,” Miller said in a phone interview last week.

“Rather than touring eight months a year, we’re doing five months to sort of consolidate the tour to spend more time with our families,” Miller said. “We’re still really excited about being in a band, and (touring with families) is not completely uncharted waters. We’re just going to do everything a lot smarter and better.”

This new, “smarter” touring will make its way through Fayetteville tomorrow night, as Guster will also be hitting up several other college towns throughout the nation. But touring is not the only thing the band is cutting down on when it comes to life on the road. Gardner, along with his wife, have started Reverb, an organization devoted to finding ways to make touring “greener” and environmentally friendly, such as by using smarter fuels, recyclable batteries and water bottles. The touring life this year also will provide a delay for the band as they look to put out a new album by the end of the year.

“We’re getting there,” Miller said. “Basically, this album is going to follow the pattern of the last two. We go in, finish it, take a look and realized we need a few more songs. We have a bulk of the album finished. We just need to write and record a few more songs to round it out.

“There’s no release date, but hopefully it will come out at the end of the year,” he said. “But it won’t be any time soon.”

Although new material will not be released until 2010, Guster will provide fans their fix with their live show that has garnered critical and fan acclaim during their tenure as a band. From the intense live albums to the inventive hardcore percussion moves (playing with no sticks, bongos, etc.), the members do see themselves as a live band. But Miller also thinks the band’s recorded material and live shows are two different aspects and should be treated as so.

“For a long time, our first couple of records didn’t make a good record, so we were more of a live band,” Miller said. “But there’s definitely two sides to it. We don’t try to recreate albums when we play live. It’s sort of a different affair. Two different animals, and you have to treat them different. There’s a lot of production in the albums and a lot of add-ins on stage. It’s a huge part of our career. Being on the road has a lot to do with why we’re still a band and still touring.”

Being together for more than a decade also has allowed Guster the unfortunate challenge of pleasing new and old fans alike. But with every new album, every new sound and every new venture, Miller hopes fans see them as getting better than when they first got together in college in 1991.

“Hopefully we’ve gotten better,” Miller said. “We sort of met in college, and the early records sound like some college band. And now we’re adults and fathers and have remained music fans the whole time. We hope that maturity shows through and hopefully a band interested in pushing the boundaries of what it means to be in Guster.”

Brian Washburn is the News editor for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Monday.

GUSTER GROWS UPListen Up!

BRIAN WASHBURNdwashbur@uark.edu

Walton Arts Center reveals next season’s dance, music

and theater events

COURTESY PHOTO

Grammy Award-winning South African a cappella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo will perform at the Walton Arts Center next season.

COURTESY PHOTO

Broadway hit “Legally Blonde” will begin the Walton Arts Center’s 2009-10 season this summer July 7. Other Broadway plays that will arrive in Northwest Arkansas include “Grease” and “The Wedding Singer.”

Natalie JohnsonStaff Writer

MUSIC

Pilates, a workout developed in the early 20th century by Jo-seph Pilates in Germany, is a fitness system used by many stu-dents on the UA campus.

The founder originally start-ed these series of workouts to help rehabilitate bedridden sol-diers in World War I, according to Kidshealth.org, but now the fitness system is used to tone bodies and promote agility.

There are two kinds of Pilates – one type is machine-based and the other involves the partici-pant using a floor mat.

An instructor at the HPER said she is trained in both mat and machine Pilates and that both require intensive training sessions.

Pilates is a good workout for both athletes and dancers. The workout is designed to help the

participant be light on his feet, and it also is great for balance, two factors important to athletes and dancers.

“I’ve been doing (Pilates) since high school,” said Allison Chinn, a UA junior. “I was a swimmer, and our coach told us to have no body fat, and Pilates helps with toning.”

Pilates is mostly core work, meaning that it balances the development of the deep and su-perficial muscles that stabilize, align and move the trunk of the body, especially the abdominals and muscles of the back.

“Pilates works out your en-tire core and every part of your stomach and upper and lower abs,” Chinn said.

The HPER Pilates instructor said she works with baseball and football teams to help improve their strength and flexibility.

Pilates: creating a lean, toned body

Kelsey McQuearyStaff Writer

See PILATES on Page 8

MAGGIE CARROLL Staff Photographer

Participants stretch during a Thursday Pilates class at the HPER. The HPER offers two types of Pilates workout sessions – a machine-based workout and one that involves a mat.

FITNESS