FEATURES

YES! TWO EXTRA PERFORMANCES

OF CLEVELAND BALLET

Because of the great demand for seats, CLEVELAND BALLET has expanded its April season at the Hanna to five performances! If you missed out last time, order now for the "hottest" tickets in town!

"A Devil of a Good Show"

ORDER NOW TO GET THE BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE!! with your Master Charge or BankAmericard by calling 621-3634

SPECIAL GROUP RATES AVAILABLE!

"A Spectacular Success!!"

-Wilma Salisbury, Plain Dealer

"Cleveland Ballet Performance

Nothing Short of Superb"

-Paula Howard, Journal Newspapers

SPRING REPERTORY:

(For the first Time with Live Orchestra)"

THREE VIRGINS AND A DEVIL (deMille/Respighi)

Three virgins one a prude, the second lustful and the third greedy on their way to church meet a devil. They succumb to his temptations though not without a struggle. Comedy dance at its best! Dennis Nahat recreates his American Ballet Theatre role as the Devil. (Sponsored by the Chessie System).

ONTOGENY (Nahat/Husa)

Dennis Nahat's controversial ballet about "life cycles." Karel Husa won a Pulitzer Prize for his score.

GRAND PAS de DIX (Nahat/Glazounov)

The grandest of dances, choreographed in the Russian Imperial style.

SUITE CARACTERISTIQUE (Nahat/Tchaikovsky)

Colorful fantasy of Slavic orientation. Back by popular demand!

MAIL ORDERS NOW!!

CLEVELAND BALLET TICKET PRICES

April 24 (8:00 p.m.

April 22

April 23

April 24

(8:30 p.m.)

(3:00 p.m.)

(8:30 p.m.)

(3:00 p.m.)

ORCHESTRA

$8.00

MEZZANINE

Sold

$7.00

Out

FIRST BALCONY

Sold

$6.00

Sold

$6.00

Out

SEC. BALCONY

$5.00

REAR BALCONY

$4.00

PERFORMANCE DATES

NUMBER OF SEATS

FRI. APR. 22, 8:30 P.M.

SAT. APR. 23, 3:00 P.M.

SAT. APR. 23, 8:30 P.M.

SUN. APR. 24, 3:00 P.M.

SUN. APR. 24, 8:00 P.M.

PAYMENT: The total cost of my order is.... -payment in full.

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PRICES PER SEAT

Make check or money order payable to CLEVELAND BALLET, 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115. Please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope for the return of your tickets.

For information call 621-3634

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HELP US MAKE OHIO A BETTER PLACE FOR ALL GAY PEOPLE!

LOVE

by Leon Stevens

Have you ever fallen in sex? Of course not. Who ever heard of falling in sex? Sex is a new word. It's almost as there had been no sex before the twentieth century. But we'd all have to admit that we've fallen in love over and over and over and over.

The meaning of love has inflated faster than the most irresponsible currency, pumped up by illustrious and schmalzy poets alike, Peanuts comic strips, theologians and daytime television. Some people would say that it's better that way, that the definition of love should be "eternal," nebulous 'and subtle. They're wrong!

Any word so emotionally charged, yet as well worn as a lunch bucket, should have a precise and concrete handle. We are taught to conceive of love as a single phenomenon (whatever that may be), but like Sybil, love seems to represent multiple distinct entities. It was not always this way. Tracing our concept of love back to its conceptual cradle in ancient Greece, we can see how our Western definition of love became a mysterious etymological recluse.

The ancient Greeks could have, in fact, said, "I am in sex with you," but could not have said, "I am in love with you." The Hellenic civilizers used four important words to express mutual attraction or affinity. These were namely: 1)Storge' meaning affection among members of a family. 2) Philia denoting a bond between members of an "in" group (club, organization, army).

3) Eros designating sexual attraction.

4) Agape signifying magnetism based on intellect including ideas, shared interests and so forth.

The Greeks had no choice but to use one of these four words and mean only one of four specific things. When an Attic speaker used agape, she/he automatically excluded sex from his/her statement. A pre-Christian Athenian could say in no uncertain fashion, "I have the hots for you" without disgrace or malevolence. A Peloponnesian could express loyalty to a comrade without implying that his/her friend was necessarily less than obnoxious idiot.

With the coming of Christian mysticism, this type of semantics changed abruptly. Christian Greeks were not supposed to admit they had sex, even with their wives or vice-versa. Actually no one was permitted to like anyone or anything for any reason other than the highest philosophical congruity. Consequently, agape evolved into "love."

Now that Western humanity has rediscovered that it does indeed have sex, Westerners are:

not sure how to classify "the hots." We still can't say, "We are in sex with someone." If we are sexually attracted to another person, then we must be emotionally compatible with that person. It's either all or nothing. We can have lovers or we cannot have sex. Who ever heard of a sexer? Consequently, if we have sex with someone, we must do so under the pretext that we are in conformity with our bed partner's highest philosophical visions.

The Greeks had a modular concept of love. Americans, however, are forced to lug around clumsy motorolas d'amour. When we view love through Hellenistic eyes, it loses

PAGE 10

wanting someone for this or that reason?

What a pity we cannot solicit an interesting persons' presence frequently without embarrassing sexual overtones. What a waste of time to have to discuss the postal industry with the mail carrier we just did. Is there after all such a thing as an Oedipus Complex or is it merely that we cannot say "I love you mother and father" without having to tack on the dead ballast of sex? And we can't really love our friends of the same sex straight or gay withoug implying homosexuality. Consequently, philia does not exist anymore except in Philadelphia. Love is a medieval anachron-

AMOR VINCIT, one of the several works of art donated to the Cleveland Museum of Art by gay philanthropist, Leonard B. Hanna Jr.

much of its misty mystery, but. gains connsiderable stability. Our cultural ancestors said precisely what they thought before their biologies were driven underground by the church.

When will we be able to say what we think and sort out our thoughts into proper relevant categories? The severity of some social environments has forced some cultures to be more honest about love. The SerboCroation language, for example, dispenses with transcendentalisam and uses their word "to want" to translate "to love." Thus, "ja te volim" means to interpreters "I love you" but to Serbians simply "I want you.". And isn't that what love is about,

ism as primitive as the chastity belt. It keeps us from having sex. It discourages us from having close friends. It embarrasses us with our families. It bores us in bad company. And it makes fools of us in countless, silly epithets. What the world needs now is not Jackie DeShannon's "Love, sweet love" but parental affection, intimate friendships, cameraderie and free sex!

As long as we use the word "love" we shall never be able to think for ourselves but will always be governed by the neuroses of the Archbishop of Byzantium. Love may be beautiful, but so are opium poppies. If you think love was sent from above by a dove, then shove it.