Alabama grad makes top 20 on ‘So You Think You Can Dance?’
Tuscaloosa News – July 24
After training with Cornelius Carter and other dance professors at the University of Alabama, Janelle Issis was prepared for pressures of the big city. But it still stung on last week’s episode of the Fox television competition show “So You Think You Can Dance?” when the judges didn’t seem to like the hip-hop routine that Issis and dance partner Dareian Kujawa concocted with choreographer Chris Scott…“We got the smooth hip-hop that Chris wanted out of us, and we were happy with how we presented ourselves. Now we just have to hope that America disagrees with the judges and votes for us,” Issis said, laughing…At UA, she worked with Carter, director of the dance program, and other professors including Rita Snyder, who taught her about breaking down music for choreography, John Verciglio and Sarah Barry. “Working for Cornelius definitely helped me out, gave me the confidence and strength to get through anything,” she said. “Alabama is an amazing place, and I hope I can make the school and my professors proud.”
It’s a bit warm, but the party’s down here: ‘Hell: Paradise Found’ at 59E59 Theaters
New York Times – July 17
Mother Teresa, you may be surprised to learn, is in hell. And still bitter that a certain blond British princess died the same week she did, grabbing all the news media attention. But William Shakespeare is in a good mood, writing a new play for James Dean. Jesus visits now and then. Such is the state of the underworld in “Hell: Paradise Found,” a simultaneously nutty and witty one-act comedy by Seth Panitch that has landed at 59E59 Theaters with an underlying philosophical message that never gets in the way of the laughs. Mr. Panitch, a drama professor at the University of Alabama (most of the performers onstage are university alumni), has brought to life a frequently voiced opinion among everyday sinners: “Who wants to go to heaven? I’d hate everybody there.”
The big send-off: Parents get kids equipped for life in a dorm
Chicago Tribune – July 24 (Registration required.)
This time last summer Sharon Adams, of Wheaton, was consumed with helping her twin son and daughter pack for freshman year at college. She was stacking a mountain of ready-to-go items in the living room and efficiently checking those items off her list. Now, as another school year approaches, the living room has become a storage area again. But as an experienced college parent, Adams is more confident about what her children need, will use and won’t use (such as filtered water pitchers), and how guys and girls handle the college experience differently. . . . Talks between Sharon Adams and her daughter, Tori, last year often came while shopping, or they triggered more shopping. Tori was going to the University of Alabama in early August for sorority rush and needed a wardrobe that met the sorority dress code. She needed the right dresses, the right sandals, the right colors, the right linens, and the right storage items to organize all the right things she was taking all the way to Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Bernice A. King to sign books on Lincoln School Reunion
Birmingham Times – July 24
The University of Alabama Press is proud to announce that Bernice A. King will sign copies of “Desert Rose: The Life and Legacy of Coretta Scott King” at Phillips Auditorium in Marion on Saturday, July 21, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. (The cost of the book will be $38 including sales tax.) Bernice A. King is the daughter of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. “Desert Rose” is her mother’s memoir written by King’s aunt Edythe Scott Bagley, who is also the sister of Coretta Scott King. Bagley died in June 2011, and King is signing on her behalf. The event is co-sponsored by Black Belt Treasures and is free and open to the public.