A Dance Performance You Shouldn't Miss |
Dance lovers have something to look forward to this weekend. The 8th annual Dance in the Desert Festival, July 21 and 22, offers a wide variety of dance artists and companies representing many dance disciplines and choreographic visions.
This year's festival honors choreographer, performer, educator and dance theorist Murray Louis, in recognition of his profound influence on the dance community. One of the great male dancers of the 20th century, he is also an accomplished teacher and a uniquely gifted choreographer whose work is distinguished by a fluid elegance and an insightful wit. Louis is also a talented writer and has published several collections of essays on the art and theory of dance.
Each of the companies represented at each of the three unique festival programs owes a major debt to Louis's artistic vision. The participating dance groups include the award-winning classical ballet company, Metropolitan Ballet; contact improvisation troupe Threshold Dance; a more traditional modern dance company, Nannette Brodie Dance Theatre; and the abstract narrative of Kelly Roth & Dancers, plus many others. The various companies come from the East Coast and the Midwest, from California, Utah, Arizona, and from Nevada and represent a wide range of cultural traditions.
Dance in the Desert is always fun, innovative and provocative. Don't miss it.
Loosely Held Convictions |
1. That the four pages in the August Vanity Fair extolling the genius of Martin Short would have been better devoted to fragrant ads for celebrity perfumes.
2. That Butterfinger's new TV ad, featuring a white hand with a brownish index finger, is too, um, proctological for comfort.
3. Same goes (but in a different sense) for Jim Gibson's new anti-Dina Titus ad, accusing her of 17 years of failure on education, as if there weren't 62 other legislators.
DVDs |
Basic Instinct 2: Unrated, Extended Cut (1 star)
$26.98
The logistics of creating a sequel to Paul Verhoeven and Joe Eszterhas' hugely profitable thriller, Basic Instinct, have tormented its producers for most of the last 14 years. When they weren't being turned down by top actors and directors, they had to contend with a prickly Sharon Stone, who took them to court over a trivial business distinction and vetoed their choice of a leading man. By the time both parties had settled their differences, precious little was left to sweat such small stuff as a coherent script. Stone's murderous pulp novelist, Catherine Tramell, is the only character in Basic Instinct 2 recognizable from the first film, which also benefited from performances by Michael Douglas, Jeanne Tripplehorn and George Dzundza. Although Stone has surrounded herself with such formidable Brit actors as David Morrissey, David Thewlis and Charlotte Rampling, it's clear she didn't want to be overshadowed by anyone, including the screenwriter. Besides being a world-class sexual athlete, Tramell's greatest talent lies in her ability to create alibis for herself whenever someone dies in the service of her pulp novels. In the absence of a compelling storyline, viewers' eyes go directly to the mirror-like sheen of Stone's facelift and the cantaloupe-shaped implants on her chest. There's the real crime, considering the solid work Stone's done in Casino, The Muse, Broken Flowers, The Practice and Huff. Even worse, Basic Instinct 2 isn't bad enough to qualify as a camp classic, as did Verhoeven and Eszterhas' risible Showgirls.