Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Thursday 13 ORTISTIC EXPRESSION. Tucson's acclaimed Orts Theatre of Dance opens its 1997 season with a trio of promising premieres, featuring everything from trapeze choreography to a riveting portrayal of life in the flood-ravaged east. The troupe also continues to break ground with the trapeze, and choreographer Anne Bunker taps that talent with Expanded View. Bunker is also behind Tossed Salad, with seven dancers using lots of partnering and tossing against a backdrop of R. Carlos Nakai's music. Joy Kellman's Shift rounds out the roster, charting personal transformations faced by easterners who've seen their world up-ended by rising water. See Margaret Regan's article in the Arts section for more information. Preview performance is today at 10:30 a.m., with performances at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Preview tickets are $5. Advance tickets for Friday and Saturday performances are $8, $6 for seniors and students, and $2 more at the door. Kids ages 15 and under are admitted free with an adult. Tickets are available at Bentley's House of Coffee and Tea, Silverbell Trading, or by calling 624-3799. TWO VOICES. Her book, Conspiracy of Silence: The Trauma of Incest, has become a benchmark text in healing young victims of sexual abuse. But survival for author and psychologist Sandra Butler took on a different face when her partner died of breast cancer in 1988. Two years later she published Cancer in Two Voices, a vivid account of disease and death within the bounds of a close relationship. That experience was committed to a documentary film of the same name. Tonight, the YWCA and the UA Women's Studies Department presents a free screening of Cancer in Two Voices at 7 p.m. in the UA Center for English as a Second Language, located on Second Street east of Park Avenue. A discussion follows. For information, call 626-7338. Friday 14 GRACEFUL REPOSE. So maybe you're not Ginger Rogers or Fred Astaire. Maybe you were tragically born with two left feet, and the closest you've come to a tux is eyeing penguins at the zoo. No time like the present to leave the past behind and hoof it anew, as Arizona Ballroom Dancing presents an evening of silky-smooth slithering across the big floor. Singles and couples are welcome to add a dash of romance to their Old Pueblo lives while learning the most graceful of steps, beginning with a 30-minute group class. And tuxedos are definitely not required. Events run from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. every Friday, and the second and fourth Saturdays each month, at the Arizona Ballroom Company, 5536 E. Grant Road. Cost is $5. Call 290-2990 for details. URBAN CARPET. Every year we wait and hope and hope and wait. And no, it's not eternal love we're lusting after, but something far more relevant: wildflowers. The optimistic souls of Tohono Chul Park are already enjoying little outbursts of penstemon, woodflowers and poppies. With the "Official Bloom" now underway, and recent rains expected to bolster their debut, the park has undertaken seasonal wildflower walks on its northwest grounds. Tours begin at 10 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday through April 18 at Tohono Chul Park, 7366 N. Paseo del Norte. A $2 donation is requested. For information, call 742-6455. Saturday 15 MUSICAL VALET. Jamie Anderson, whose curricula vitae reads "Singer/Songwriter/Comic/Parking Lot Attendant," brings her talent to town tonight. Honored as a finalist in the 1994 Telluride Bluegrass Festival's Troubadour Contest, she's also been noted by Tom and Ray, the indomitable Tappet Brothers, who played her "Midnight Alice" on NPR's Car Talk. International folk magazine Dirty Linen says Anderson "sings funny and touching songs about the life and romances of an average goddess babe lesbian." She comes to town toting her latest recording, Never Assume, featuring "Menstrual Tango," among other alternative classics. Opening the show will be those queens of divafolk, Justina and Joyce. Show time is 8 p.m. at the Southwest Center for Music, 2175 N. Sixth Ave. Advance tickets are $10, $9 for TKMA, TFTM and KXCI members, and $2 more at the door. They're available at Antigone Books and Girlfriends. Call 884-1220 for information. GRUBSTAKE GAL. She was known for taking care of business with a feminine touch in the town too tough to die. Now the wizened Nellie Cashman stages a Southwestern return in Arizona Rose Theatre Company's Beyond the Legend. No less a source than the Tombstone Epitaph says the musical "captures 1880s life." Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday through February 23, at the Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway. Tickets are $15, available at Robinson-May's, Blockbuster Music, or by calling 321-1000. PIGS REDUX. Author Susan Lowell won a legion of adoring tikes with The Three Little Javelinas. Now she likewise entertains wee ones with a reading from her new Little Red Cowboy Hat, a westernized version of Little Red Riding Hood. "It's the same kind of retelling as The Three Little Javelinas," says Haunted book-buyer Lynn Mezzano. "It's really delightful, with beautiful illustrations. And the book just came out." Free event is at 10 a.m. at The Haunted Bookshop, 7211 N. Northern Ave. For information, call 297-4843. Sunday 16 KING OF TROUPERS. It seems that Charlie King has been coming to town since Mayor George Miller was still in knickers, and that's one healthy chunk of time. Regardless, the folk maestro has apparently tasted the musical fountain of youth. His craft just keeps getting better, his gentle ribbing of modern human existence ever-more incisive. This year King arrives with an added bonus, in the form of his daughter, Nell McGloin King. Appropriately, this show promises to have a child-like ring. And the little King is becoming a folk queen in her own right, as the pair revisit their harmonies from their recent double release, The Senseless Laughter of Whales and Ship in the Sky. The musical tour-de-force will be followed by a pasta feast dished up by the Tucson Vegetarian Resource Group. Performance is at 4:30 p.m. in the Unitarian Universalist Church, 4831 E. 22nd St. Tickets are $10 for the show and pasta dinner, $5 for the performance only, available at the door or by calling 623-1688. KEYS OF LOVE. Local wizard of the classical ivories Alexander Tenster tackles music of the Romantic Age in a performance and discussion at Borders Books and Music. He'll play selections from Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Frederic Chopin, and explain what keeps their compositions as powerful as ever. Free performance is at 4 p.m. at Borders, 4235 N. Oracle Road. For details, call 292-1331. OPERATIC HEARTS. Many are taken by the lovely Manon, including dashing Chevalier des Grieux. Spotting her at an inn, the young charmer meets her gaze, and immediately the two are swept up in joyous romance, leading to a hasty abdication by stolen carriage. Soon they've set up housekeeping in a remote little cottage, in this latest offering by the Arizona Opera. But, as with life, there is much more to the story of Manon, and des Grieux's headaches begin as a rival suitor starts sniffing about. Tempted by opulence and extravagance, the young seductress returns to an existence softened by wealthy paramours, as her former lover devotes his life to God. But hardly able to stand such an insult, she returns, mightily testing both his faith and his pocketbook. Needless to say, the climax can only be one of tragic proportions. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. today and 2 p.m. tomorrow in the TCC Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets range from $14 to $53, and are available at Dillard's, TCC and Centennial Hall box offices. Call 791-4836 for reservations and information. Monday 17 CREATIVE SHUDDERS. You may think of them only in terms of mini-skirts or sheer wrap-arounds. But artist Judith Stafford sees the dress in potent, symbolic terms. She explores that notion in Slavery: My Dress is on Backwards, now on exhibit in the G.A.S.P. (Great Art by Students) Gallery. The upshot is that you'd better think again before tossing that tattered K-Mart shift. And that's not the only food for thought--Stafford's show, and all G.A.S.P. exhibits, are curated by students, who act as docents throughout. Exhibit runs through March 4, with an opening reception from 6 to 7 p.m. tomorrow at the G.A.S.P. Gallery, located in Utterback Middle School, 3233 S. Pinal Vista. Gallery is open during regular school hours. Call 617-6100 for information. Tuesday 18 BEYOND THE POLISH. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum does its own take on Tucson's fascination with rocks in Minerals of the Sonoran Desert Region: Photography by Jeffrey A. Scovil. Coinciding with Scovil's work is Minerals: Specimens of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Permanent Mineral Collection. Museum spokeswoman Amy Chapman Smith calls Scovil's pieces striking, "over-sized color montages. They're very neat, especially when paired with our extensive collections of minerals on display." And today is your final chance to glimpse these raw materials of our landscape. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Admission is $8.95, $1.75 for kids 12 and under. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is at 2021 N. Kinney Road. Call 883-2702 for information. MANIFEST FEMININITY. Painting the frontier, either as it was or as it is, hardly remains an exclusively male domain. That fact is brought to the forefront with the Tucson Museum of Art's Women of the West show and sale. "It's why the show was started," says Tisa Rodriguez Sherman, assistant to the museum director. "We wanted to let people know there are contemporary women artists working in the western format." She says the style sticks primarily to "traditional realism," and that at least six of the artists come from Arizona. Among notable contributors are Suzanne Baker, Susan Kliewer, Sherry Salari Sander and Dee Toscano, in this wide-ranging depiction of the West, both old and new. Exhibit runs through March 9 at the Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main Ave. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. For information, call 624-2333. WALK THE DOG. And no, we're not talking about taking Fluffy out for her afternoon piddle-fest. This kind of walk has mesmerized youngsters--and more adults than will admit it--ever since Duncan Yo-Yos claimed pre-eminence on school playgrounds many moons ago. Now Don Duncan Jr. carries on the stringed tradition started by his father in 1927 at the Yozeum, a veritable treasure trove of the spinning disc. "We have 200 to 300 yo-yos from the Duncan family collection," says Yozeum spokesguy Mike Leonard. "Some of them go back to the '20s, and we even have a picture of a yo-yo from Greece in 450 B.C. That tells you how long they've been around." Leonard says yo-yo videos are shown throughout the week, spiced by regular expert demonstrations. "You can see people doing some pretty amazing stuff." The Yozeum is at 2900 N. Country Club Road. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. For information, call 322-0100. Wednesday 19 LOVE AND LOSS. Borderlands Theater presents the life and early passing of one valiant girl in Wilma Bonet's Good Grief, Lolita! The remarkably upbeat play celebrates the joy of existence--despite its brevity--as much as mourning the death of Bonet's daughter, who died of cystic fibrosis at age 7. Noted Latin percussionist Al Guzman provides a musical backdrop for the drama, which was selected by Brava for Women in the Arts as part of their Taking Shape series in 1994, later landing Bonet a Marlon Actor's Achievement Award. The visiting San Francisco performer gives three performances only: today's preview at 10 a.m., and evening performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, February 21 and 22, in the PCC Proscenium Theatre, 2202 W. Anklam Road. Tickets are $10, available in advance from Antigone Books, Jeff's Classical Records, the PCC West Campus Cashier's Office, or by calling 882-7406. PLAYING THE NEWS. The guy has chased just about every journalistic fantasy we garden-variety writers could imagine, from playing football with the Detroit Lions, basketball with the Boston Celtics and hockey with the Boston Bruins to performing percussion with the New York Philharmonic and practicing trapeze artistry with the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus. All that, and George Plimpton still set aside time for serious literature as founder of the esteemed Paris Review. He also did editorial stints with Horizon and Harper's magazines, and remains a special contributor to Sports Illustrated and Esquire. He brings both his talent and experience to town today, as part of the William R. Mathews Ethics in Journalism lecture series, named after a long-time editor of The Arizona Daily Star. This free lecture is at 7 p.m. in the UA Student Union Arizona Ballroom. For information, call 621-7556. HOW THE WEST WAS WON OVER. So you think life in the real old Tucson was all hard-tack, Indian attacks and lousy hygiene? Think again. There were also plenty of chuckles in pioneer times, says Sandy Cord of the Tucson Museum of Art. She'll tap into a few of those yuks today with a lecture titled A Humorous Look Back at Territorial Tucson. Her free talk begins at 2 p.m. in the River Center Library, 5605 E. River Road. Call 791-4979 for details. City Week includes events selected by Calendar Editor Mari Wadsworth. Event information is accurate as of press time. The Weekly recommends calling event organizers to check for last-minute changes in location, time, price, etc.

		© 1995-97 Tucson Weekly . Info Booth