Dayton Daily News from Dayton, Ohio • 35

COMING SATURDAY What's happening across the Miami Valley? Our Activities Connection has the scoop. IN THE DAYTON DAILY NEWS TODAY IN Irked comedian Lewis Black brings his ventorama to Victoria Theatre. Dayton Daily News Friday, March 11,2005 DaytonDailyNews.comlife MO J. Wright answer, but wrong premise? D.L. Stewart COMMENTARY Do you know who invented the automobile, the television or the computer? Do you I know where they lived? -Hi- i 7 7 V.

-1 Miami Valley Dance Company's Spring Gala began with small, tentative steps By Terry Morris tnujrrisDaytonDailiiNews.com In her most stressed-out moments before a big performance, Terre Manning will sometimes try to pin it all on Pam Turner Ellis. "She reminds me that I got her into this, and it's true," says Ellis, whose dedication as an eighth-grader convinced Manning to spin a performing company off from her Kettering school, Terre's Dance Workshop. The Kettering Youth Ballet, now the Miami Valley Dance Company, was born. With the 15th annual Spring Gala coming up this weekend, neither woman would change a thing if she could go back in time. "Pam really is the reason I started it," says Manning, who isnt one to boast but can be coaxed into listing a few things that set her pre-professional company apart from others in the dance-rich Miami Valley.

"We're the only one I know of that commissions original versions of the story ballets," such as a new Cinderella choreographed by Ballet Tennessee Director Barry Van Cura that will have its premiere this weekend. "The dancers have come in contact with 14 different choreographers since we started," Manning said. "We also do a lot of in-school and outreach performances, and we've been funded by Culture Works for 12 of our 15 years. We've come a long way since that first year, when we only had 10 dancers and didnt even do a spring show. Now we do that and an annual Nutcracker.

We've more than doubled." The company has performed in Vienna and Steyr, Austria, and Kettering, England. Please see GALA on E5 Would you visit there, even if you did know? These are, apparently, important questions for Dayton. Because, according to a recent survey, 80 percent of Americans know that the airplane was invented by the Wright brothers. Given a multiple choice between the Wright brothers, William Boeing, Charles Lindbergh, lia Earhart and Louis Bleriot, that figure flew to 93 percent. But only 14 percent of those surveyed knew the airplane was invented here.

And that has some people concerned. "We needed to do this benchmark (survey) to find out what the challenges are and figure out how to attack it," said David Lightle, marketing consultant for Visual Marketing Associates. He added that the survey will help the Aviation Heritage Foundation develop a marketing campaign that leverages the famous Wright name. Leveraging the famous Wright name obviously is a great deal more difficult than it might seem. The last people who tried it were the promoters of Celebrating Flight, an event that launched a million shrugs.

Still, people continue to attack this challenge, and not just because we are losing the license-plate war with North Carolina, which is where 40 percent of Americans think the airplane was invented. "The communication opportunity is to capitalize on the high awareness of the Wright brothers (and their invention of the airplane) and build a compelling story to bring people to Dayton, Ohio (connect the dots)," the authors of the survey concluded. I am, of course, proud as I can be of my adopted city's aviation heritage. But, even if 100 percent of Americans knew that the Wright brothers grew up here, would that bring them thundering to our doorstep with their digital cameras and their tourist dollars? Or is it one small step to awareness but one giant leap to caring? There are, to be sure, places that attract lots of tourists because of the people who used to live there. Last summer we stood for hours in 90-degree heat for the chance to go through Mon- ticello.

Thousands of visitors each year pay $25 to visit Grace-land, and some couples even get married there. Greenfield Village does pretty well; but then, it's an entire village, including the Wright brothers' home and the bicycle shop in which they invented the first airplane. Which, by the way, also does not reside in Dayton. Beaver City, Utah, on the other hand, probably is not overrun with tourists, even though it's the birthplace of television inventor Philo Famsworth. The last time I was in Germany it never occurred to me to visit Baden Muehlburg, the home of Karl Benz, generally regarded as the inventor of the automobile.

I did stop in Berlin, but not because it was the birthplace of Konrad Zuse, the man most at fault for the invention of the computer. So maybe it is important to make people aware that the inventors of the airplane were from Dayton. But I'm wondering if it's not even more important to meet the challenge of determining what difference it will make if they know. DA. Stewart's column appears Tuesday, Friday and Sunday In the Life section.

Contact him at 225-2439 or by e-mail at News.com. CHRIS STEWASRTOAYTON DAILY NEWS HOW TO CO What: The Miami Valley Dance Company Spring Gala 2005. Whtn: 7:30 p.m. today and 2 p.m. Saturday.

There will also be a 'Glass Slipper Tea' before the matinee. Whtrt: Kettering Middle School Auditorium, 3000 Glengarry Drive. Tickets: $8 for performance only; $10 for tea and performance. Mort Info: 435-0503. PAM TURNER ELLIS (right), once a student of Terre Manning, prompted her then-instructor to start what has grown into the Miami Valley Dance Company.

Ellis is now an instructor with the troupe, which is staging its Spring Gala this weekend. Frenetic Robin Williams talks up new voice role 'Robots marks his first animated work since Blue Genie in 'Aladdin THERE'S MORE SEE DAVE LARSEN'S REVIEW OF 'ROBOTS' IN TODAY'S STEVE MARTINO, ART DIRECTOR FOR IS A NATIVE OF THE MIAMI VALLEY. SEE STORY IN SUNDAY'S LIFE SECTION. I ipmum. mm ill IP II IL.i VIA By Nancy Mills New York Daily News manic energy.

Fender is "a skid row bum, a man living hand to foot who puts the 'funk' in dysfunctional," Williams says. He also talks nonstop sound familiar? and keeps losing body parts to rust. The performance makes use of Williams' hyperactivity without, as he puts it, "my having to train. Animators can create the physicality I could never get near. "You get a bit of carte blanche," he adds.

"I love doing the voices. I can play STEVE JENNINGS20TH CENTURY FOX HOLLYWOOD In an ideal world, Robin Williams would have been born a cartoon character. After all, merely human roles rarely give him the chance to free-associate, deliver dozens of accents and leap through his imagination the way no regular person ever does. And, let's face it, when he starts doing his shtick offstage, he occasionally wears out his welcome. With his extra-large personality, it's little wonder that Williams has a serious affinity for the animated world.

ROBIN WILLIAMS provides the voice of Fender (left) in will begin calling him "Fender." Fender is Williams' first animated role since Aladdin. The red robot with a coffeepot for a head may not look much like the 53-year-old comic, but they share a certain When he took the role of the Blue Genie in 1992's Aladdin, Williams crafted one of the most indelible characters in animation history. But after Robots opens today, it's possible that Williams addicts Please see 'ROBOTS' on E5 PUTTERING AROUND WITH A WISE SAYING. Stu IL IIIjIVIjI ft TRUCK-DECORATION RULE NO. 1: CHECK YOUR GEOGRAPHY.

We're used to seeing strange stuff on the back of ie-rlliwr spotted tnese words oi Dimeq TODaY'S BIG REaD TaMlilG POINT This week Congress defeated two proposals to raise the national minimum wage of $5.15. One would have increased to $7.25 and the other to $6.25. What do you think the minimum wage should be? JOIN THE BIG READI fV )M I ri wisdom on a sign inside Wnuwi Deano's College Corner Tavern in College Corner, Ohio: "He who has the fastest (golf) cart never has a bad lie." Bob Batz Ink Overheard run dally. Got an Item? Contact Ron Rollins at 225-2165 or rrolllnnA pickup trucks, but this one threw us: The back window of this one had a giant Confederate flag and the truck was a Nissan Titan. Urn, don't Rebel flags usually show up on American-made trucks? The whole South-will-rise-again gig doesn't mean the south of Japan, you know.

Ron Rollins PAY EQUITY BAKE SALE: Wednesday, 9 a.m., West Carrollton Branch Library, 300 E. Central Ave. 859-4011..