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W e d n e s d a y ,   M a y   7 ,   1 9 9 7

VOLUME CCVI, No. 75

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

MARK R. TALUSAN '97 performs 'Dancing Deviant' in the Adams House Kronauer Space.

Performer
Charges
Censorship

Dancer Refused Funding

By ARIEL R. FRANK

   "Dancing Deviant," a multi-media performance containing nudity and sexually explicit material, was denied funding from the Harvard Council on the Arts for Arts First Weekend.

   Council members said they felt the performance, which explores sexuality, was inappropriate for the venue's wide audience.

   A form letter sent by the Office for the Arts (OFA) to the producer of the performance, Dana C. Gotlieb '97, said, "the Council selected the projects which most clearly and closely fit our guidelines."

   The guidelines listed for sponsorship were artistic innovation and a wide appeal among the student body. Programs initiated by organizations less than three years old were favored.

   "We hope that, nonetheless, you will somehow be able to bring your good ideas to fruition," the letter concludes.

   In a hand-written post-script, Myra A. Mayman, the director of the OFA, wrote, "The Council gave your application full and lengthy consideration but decided not to fund it."

   "Given the broad range of audience and ages that Arts First attracts, and the casual nature of attendance," she added, "the Council thinks that Arts First isn't an appropriate forum for the play."

   Despite the lack of funding, the show opened to a nearly full house last Friday in the Adams Kronauer Space.

   It received alternate funding from the Undergraduate Council, the Adams House Drama Society and Open Gate, a wing of the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association.

   Mark R. Talusan '97, the writer and sole performer of the show, said he believes OFA tried to place restrictions on the type of material presented in Arts First.

   "It's not representative of all student arts anymore. It's a packaged event," he said. "It smacks of censorship."

...

Pushing the Limits of Comfort

   Talusan admitted that his performance, which includes a self-penetration scene with a vibrator, "is very arresting."

   "A lot of people who see it run out of the theater," he said, adding that the audience's shock is "understandable."

   Talusan, who has trained in ballet and modern dance for seven years and studied dramatic theory, acting, directing, playwriting and fiction, also acts and dances in the show.

   Black-and-white slides of his nude body, and color photographs of him in drag, are shown in the background.

   "It advances that gender and sexuality are fluid and shouldn't be tied to heterosexual models," Talusan said.

   ...

   Arthur L. Loeb, senior lecturer in visual and environmental studies and a member of the Harvard Council on the Arts, said he thinks the decision not to fund the performance was correct.

   "Don't forget that we also have to deal with public statutes. We're doing it in public space," he said. "There are certain restrictions in Cambridge about what you can and cannot do in public."

   But Jeffrey A. Masten, Cowles associate professor in the humanities, said he was surprised that Arts First did not fund a pioneering program such as Talusan's.

   "Monitoring the content of art -- especially the content of art that takes up questions of sexuality -- is a dangerous business," said Masten, who advised Talusan on his senior thesis.

   "I wish Arts First had chosen to fund this event -- I hope that Arts First will continue the great work it does by promoting the widest variety of arts events.... Art that makes people nervous should be high on the funding list," Masten said.

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