Final Club Interrupts First Nights

A band of shirtless male ballet dancers interrupted the second largest class at Harvard yesterday by performing an excerpt from Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in what was most likely a final club initiation prank.

As Professor of Music Thomas F. Kelly discussed a movement that was playing in Literature and Arts B-51, "First Nights," six to eight students ran onstage with slogans such as "Nijinsky Lives" painted on their chests, a reference to Vaslav Nijinsky, the choreographer of the original Rite of Spring.

After performing what Kelly called "a sort of Cliff-Notes version of The Rite of Spring, complete with sacrificial virgin," the students ran out of Sanders Theatre accompanied by applause and cheers from the class.

"I've seen quite a bit of my dance in day and this wasn't bad," said Jason T. Sauer '02.

Kelly was not as entertained.

"To amuse themselves at the expense of people who are here to [learn] strikes me as stupid or selfish or arrogant," Kelly said.

"I was trying to tell people some stuff about music and I got upstaged," he joked later. "They were funnier than I was, but it's not my job to be funny."

The students were punches for the Phoenix S.K. final club, according to a student in the class who recognized one of the dancers as his friend but refused to give his name.

"If the professor complains, we will certainly pursue it," said Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III. "Students should understand that they may not undertake performances within a classroom without the express permission of the faculty member. That is a strict rule."