Centralian Advocate, Friday, August 17, 2012 — 37

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ARTHOUSE CINEMA: The Lady(France/UK) Rated MA15+, English Subtitles

The Lady is the story of Aung San Suu Kyi as she becomes the core of Burma�s democracy movement, and her relationship with her husband, writer Michael Aris. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton watched �The Lady� before she met the real Aung San Suu Kyi.Running time: 132 minutesSunday 19 August, 7.00pm

LIVE MUSIC:Antony Peebles: Piano RecitalAntony Peebles is an international performer, having delivered recitals in 131 countries to date, and will charm his Alice Springs audience with a delightful programme of virtuoso piano music, playing works by Schubert-Liszt, Schumann-Liszt, Beethoven, Chopin and Grieg when he performs live on stage at the Araluen Arts Centre. Don�t miss this unique and enchanting opportunity.Saturday 18 August, 8.00pm

EXHIBITION: Four ElementsKerry Martin

Kerry Martin returns to the Araluen Arts Centre this month for her third solo show, Four Elements; an exhibition of vibrant, expressive oil paintings inspired by the rocks and rock formations of Central Australia including Kata Tjuta, Uluru and Karlu Karlu (the Devil�s Marbles).

Exhibition closes Sunday 19 August

ALICE LIVE

Brisbane-based circus instructors Tisi Hatcher and Abbey Church are inAlice Springs to help CircusUS prepare for their September show

Two join the circusA PAIR of circus performers havecome to Alice Springs to help theCircusUS crew get ready for theirshow in the Alice Desert Festival.

Tisi Hatcher and Abbey Churchare running a series of workshops,both for the general public and theestablished circus community.

Tisi said they would be focusing onaerial and acrobatic work while theywere in Alice Springs.

‘‘We’ll be teaching the performersabout trapeze and balancing acts —all the ways you can balance anotherperson on yourself,’’ she said.

‘‘We’ll be mentoring the CircusUSperformers for the Ghost Circus.However, we’ll be running work-shops, on Sundays at the AliceSprings Youth Centre, that are opento the general public.’’

Tisi and Abbey, who are based inBrisbane, have been doing circus foryears. Abbey, who took it up when

she was four years old, said: ‘‘I don’tthink my mother thought I’d grab onto it the way I did.

‘‘I’ve been doing circus all throughmy life and I love it — it’s alwaysexciting. There are always challengesand new things to do.

‘‘You have to push your body andtrust people.’’

Tisi said doing circus was a greatway for young people to understandtheir bodies.

‘‘It’s a really good tool for childdevelopment,’’ she said. ‘‘I specialisein training kids, and circus reallyhelps them find out what they canand can’t do.’’

Workshops will be open to thegeneral public from 4pm to 6pm onSundays. The show in Septemberwill be a fundraiser for the CircusUSperformers to go to a circus festival inTasmania in January.

Cameron Boon

Chance to jiveunder the sailsCameron Boon

Dancing in the Streets: Dante Basford says SilaCrosley (pictured) and Alice Springs helped him

rediscover his passion for dancingPicture: SUPPLIED

AFTER the roaringsuccess of the firstDancing in the Streetsat last week’s launch ofthe Alice Desert Festi-val, Dante Basford willbe taking a groovierroad this time.

The dance teacherwill be demonstratingto the people of AliceSprings how to jive,under the Todd Mallsails this afternoon.

He said the style waseasy to learn and peopleshould bring comfort-able shoes.

‘‘Jive is very swingbased and we’re goingto be doing a 30-minuteintroduction class atthe start. It’s a reallyfun dance and there willbe a lot of alternatingpartners, so nobody willmiss out,’’ he said.

‘‘Jive has a lot of en-ergy and there’s a lot ofhigh knees. A lot ofpeople feel like theyhave to run to keep up,but if you bounce yourway through it’s a loteasier. I wouldn’t en-courage wearing yourhighest heels.’’

Dante discovered hispassion for dancing as aboy in America.

‘‘I actually starteddancing in a mall inChicago when I wasnine years old.

‘‘I danced mostly for

competition and per-formance,’’ he said.

‘‘When I first started,I absolutely loved it.Dancing was so differ-ent from anything I’dever done before.

‘‘I stopped when I was16 because I didn’t havea dance partner.

‘‘It wasn’t until after Igot to Alice Springsthat I started dancing

again. Some local danc-ers encouraged me.’’

While he dances con-temporary, hip-hop andother styles, Dante likesto focus on ballroom.

‘‘I dance ballroom andLatin ballroom. Thereare five dances in Latinballroom — samba,rumba, cha-cha, pasoand jive.

‘‘Standard ballroom

has waltz, tango andquick-step.

‘‘When I first arrivedin Alice, there wasn’tany ballroom beingtaught, so I took upsalsa.’’

Dante said he was en-couraged by the AliceSprings dancers SilaCrosley and MelissaKerl to continue withthe ballroom dancing.

‘‘Alice Springs helpedme get my passion backfor doing what I love.

‘‘It was very weird be-cause I came herethinking ‘no, no, no’ andthat there wouldn’t beanything here, but itwas a good change be-cause I’ve started tak-ing classes and teachingagain.’’

Dante’s favouritestyle of dance is samba.

It is ‘‘all about shak-ing what you’ve got,’’ hesaid.

‘‘It’s mostly Braziliansand a lot of Brazilianwomen like to shake it.

‘‘Samba is all abouthaving fun.’’

He arrived in AliceSprings almost a yearago with his family.

Dancing in the Streetis free and it will getunder way tonightunder the sails in ToddMall from 6pm.

Sapphires will charm mostCameron Boon

IT is all too easy for a home-grown, unashamedly feel-goodaffair like The Sapphires to bedamned with faint praise.

Especially in what has been adecidedly feel-bad year for theAustralian film industry.

But what The Sapphires doeswell — blending stirring musicinterludes with genial comedyand a touch of drama — it doesvery well indeed.

A crowd-pleaser that hitsevery audience demographicwith effortless efficiency is notto be underestimated.

Local viewers of all shapes,sizes and persuasions are boundto have a lot of fun in thecompany of The Sapphires.

The moderately-budgeted pro-duction was snapped up by amajor American studio on theeve of the Cannes Film Festival.It’s not hard to see why Holly-wood took an instant shine tothe film.

T h e m o v i e t a k e s aquintessentially Australian tale— inspired by the real-life ex-ploits of a little-known Aborig-inal girl group of the 1960s — andtells it in an irresistibly charm-ing way sure to resonate farbeyond these shores.

The McCrae sisters, Gail(Deborah Mailman), Cynthia(Miranda Tapsell) and Julie(Jessica Mauboy) grew up on aquiet mission settlement think-ing country-and-western musicwas where everything was at.

Then they have a chancemeeting with a boozy Irish musicimpresario, improbably namedDave Lovelace (Chris O’Dowd).

An acolyte of soul music in itspurest form, Dave removesevery last trace of Nashvillefrom the girls’ creaky repertoire,and applies a Motown makeover.

With the recruiting of a fourthmember from the McCraestable, estranged cousin Kay(Shari Sebbens), the shimmer-

ing, shimmying Sapphires arean instant song-and-dance sen-sation. In a flash, the girls findthemselves spirited from thebanks of the Murray River to thekilling fields of Vietnam at theheight of the war.

It must be said that TheSapphires is more than a littleclunky in parts.

Aside from two standout ex-ceptions — the comedic nous ofMailman and O’Dowd (a charis-matic presence poised for biggerthings very soon) saves the dayrepeatedly — performances areuneven across the board. Manycharacters are underdevelopedto the point of stereotyping.

But all shortcomings are for-given whenever the hyper-talented Mauboy gets near amicrophone, and the film’s win-ning selection of soul standardsand original tunes fire up.

The Sapphires is rated PGand is showing now at the AliceSprings Cinema.