The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 67

The Pittsburgh Press Section Thursday, April 25, 1991 Day trip National Dance Week leaps into action If you're not inclined to get out and cut the rug yourself, the local movers behind National Dance Week want to at least show you how it's done. The week officially gets under way Sunday, but tomorrow and Saturday, the Boyce Campus of the Community College of Allegheny County will present works by local independent choreographers. Tomorrow, works by Nora Ambrosio, Tome Cousin, Michele Flauraud, Erica Kaufman, Elsa Limbach and Douglas Miklos will be presented. On Sunday, there will be works by Denise Azzari, Susan Gillis, Ryan Gober, Angelina Nahay, Nola Nolen, Maria Rendina and Toni Stowers. Performances start at 8 p.m.

in the campus theater. Tickets are $5. Playhouse Dance Theatre will fill the Pittsburgh Mysteries of the Nile open to exploration Laze away the evening in the Pharaoh's Pleasure Garden. Haggle with the merchants for exotic trinkets or Oriental rugs in the Grand Bazaar. Taste Egyptian delicacies while gazing at the belly dancers and enjoy the general merriment of "Night on the Nile." Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m., The Carnegie Museum of Natural History will celebrate the first anniversary of the Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt with a gala of Egyptian delights, including a display of Egyptian gemol-ogy, hunting games, souvenir photos and door prizes on the Oakland museum's second floor.

Theme costumes are encouraged. There will be a cash bar. Proceeds from the evening's festivities will benefit the construction of The Carnegie's newest pro Antiques on display In the antiques world, Art Deco and teddy bears are in. Almost anything country is in pine and cherry furniture, blue and white china, baskets, quilts, copper and brass. What's out? Ruth Van Kuren thought a while.

"Some formal things are out among people more interested in a casual lifestyle." Van Kuren, owner of Ruth's Antiques, is also manager of the Antique Show at Mountain View Inn (Westmoreland County), to be held tomorrow through Sunday Sixty dealers from 1 1 states will display fine furniture, jewelry, linens, majolica, items from China and Japan, silver, toys, quilts, art glass, paintings, Staffordshire and Royal Doulton china, miniatures, holiday and country-store items. And more. Van Kuren has been at many of the past 68 shows, as seller or manager. At least once a day, she hears browsers say with pain, looking at pricey items for sale: "Gee, we had lots of those things at home and I threw them all out" The $4 admission fee is good for three days. Hours are 11 a.m.

to 9 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday, 1 1 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. No charge for children 12 and younger.

(The distance from Downtown Pittsburgh to Mountain View Inn is 38ls miles 26 miles on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to exit 7 Irwin and miles east on Route 30.) ject a multimedia theater for The Carnegie's future Hall of African Wildlife. Party participants are invited to steal away to the Playhouse, Oakland, with "Dance Capers," tonight through Sunday. Curtain is 8 p.m. tonight through Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday.

For ticket information, call 6214445. third floor for a sneak preview of the planned hall, which is slated to WW open in 1993. WW Tickets for Satur 'Forbidden Pittsburgh lampoons again Grab a garbage can lid and man the fortifications. No Pittsburgh politician, celebrity or media type is safe Don Brockett and his irreverent gang are on their annual roast 'em-toast 'em rampage. "Forbidden Pittsburgh '91" opens tonight at the Green Tree Marriott Music Tent with a cast that includes Phyllis Stern.

See the review on page D7. Reception and buffet dinner begins at 7 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; show follows at 8:30 p.m. Price per person is $35. For reservations, call 922-8400.

day's event are $75 per person, $100 per patron. For reservations and information call 622-5777. Dress like Cleooatra or wrap yourself up like a (fi All-star jazz cruise sets sail on Sunday They'll be jammin' and struttin' aboard the Gateway Clipper Fleet's All-Star Jazz Cruise this Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. Robbie Klein and friends like Etta Cox, Al Dowe and Roger Humphries' R.H. Factor will crank out the music for the 3V4-hour ride.

Tickets are $10 per adult and $6 per child. Call 355-7980. Boarding will begin at 1 p.m. the tombs Saturday night. MIIUY 1 I WW Armies are restless at Fort Pitt When knighthood was in radiant flower Drums beat.

Smoke rises from dampened campf ires. Muskets are loaded. Warriors of another era will come to life this weekend at the Fort Pitt Colonial Fair at Point State Park, Downtown. The fair will feature armies and people of the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars, battle demonstrations, typical 18th-century entertainments and a candlelight camp tour. Hours are noon to 9 p.m.

Saturday and noon to 5 i p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Bring a sense of history. LLA I I I r- 1 I I I Armor will clank, swords thunk and lusty cries of combat will rend the air Saturday and Sunday when members of the Society for Creative Anachronism re-create the drama and spectacle of a medieval joust and -fair in the courtyard of the Pittsburgh CIJ1-dren's Museum.

The foot joust and fair are the finale of the 4 long-running, medieval-themed "Mellon Bank Presents Puppets on Stage" at the North Side museum. The exhibit of art, weaponry, crafts and armor of that period will continue until May 5. The joust will introduce visitors to the his- -tory of fighting, details on armor and weapons and much more. It will be held outside rain or shine. The fair, however, will watch the skies and may be moved inside if the weather turns foul.

The fair will feature demonstrations of dancing, singing, games, lace making, spin- ning, egg decorating, traditional stitchery, weaving, stained glass making, a medieval puppet show by Charlie Holden. Museum hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Fair begins at noon, -Jousts are scheduled hourly beginning at noon; medieval drama showtimes at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. Sunday only. Admission is children under 2 and mu- seum members admitted free. Ted CrowThe fttuburgh Press Weekend TV: ABC's ambitious 'Dinosaurs' worth a second look Robert Bianco On television and radio ple lines of 'The Simpsons" to the cluttered, dark background of "Dinosaurs." (That dark clutter is a Henson trademark, from the company's unsuccessful "SNL" stint to overdone movies like "The Dark It's too soon to judge all the characters, but the best so far is -Baby, a pesky infant who is a running litany of needs and de- sires. (His favorite line? "Am I in the story Of all the charac- ters, it's likely that Baby ador- able and exasperating will touch the fondest nerve.

For "Dinosaurs" to work, it must surmount the hurdle faced by any fantasy show: It must make us accept the characters as human, for all their scales, claws -and cartoon exaggerations. To its credit, though, it's already surmounted another major TV hur-die: It demands to be seen a second time. I haven't been able to say that about a sitcom since, oh, it feels like 60,000,003 B.C. (Robert Bianco is The Pitts-burgh Press TV-Radio editor.) ried about exposing their kids to some of the darker humor. (Fran reaches into the refrigerator for a drink, and "dinner" fights her for the beer.) The show is, says producer Michael Jacobs, "an obvious contemporary show told in parable." It also is an obvious and intentional takeoff on "The Honey-mooners," which was Jacobs' way of making his strange characters instantly identifiable.

You'U certainly identify them as a technological marvel. ABC doesn't want to reveal any details (ruining the magic, and all that), but the show is a mix of mechanics, puppetry and probably men in Dino suits. Whatever they are, they have an impressive ability to register emotion more impressive than some actors I could name. The voices on the preview tape were uncredited, but you may recognize Hemsley, Stuart Pankin and Sally Struthers. For all its techno-wizardry, "Dinosaurs" will not impress everyone.

While I respect the effort involved, I prefer the clean, sim even dubbed Friday "D-Day." There'll be a "Dinosaurs" tie-in in every ABC late-night and daytime show Friday, starting with "Into the Night" and moving through the soaps. The promo plan is, says ABC, the biggest promotional blitz since every ABC daytime show slipped in the "Batman Is Coming" tag line 25 years ago. Don't you love trivia like that? It would be a near miracle for any show to live up to so much hype. That "Dinosaurs" even survives it is an achievement in itself. Set in the year 60,000,003 B.C., "Dinosaurs" follows the first generation of married dinosaurs in their attempt to adjust to family life.

Earl Sinclair (note the oil company name, one of the show's clever conceits), is a megalosaurus who considers himself king of the house and king of the beasts, a claim his wife, Fran, disputes. Together, they have two children, a 12-year-old material girl and a 14-year-old son who can't THE much-anticipated premiere of ABC's "Dinosaurs" raises two major, and entirely separate, questions: Is it any good, and will it be a big hit? The definitive Pittsburgh Press answers are "Kind of and "Could be." Big help, huh? Premiering tomorrow night at 8:30 on ABC, "Dinosaurs" is the first (and probably last) collaboration between Jim Henson Productions and Walt Disney Television, two companies that have spent the past few months accusing each other of power-lust and greed. (Verdict: Both companies are right.) The show also is the last, great hope for a break-out TV hit this season and the season's last test of the "People Want Something Different" theory of TV programming. If you do want different, ABC is giving you an extremely expensive half -hour sitcom swamped with techno-marvel dinosaurs who dance and talk and look just about as lifelike as spray-painted rubber can. ABC is so anxious for a hit, it's is the new age, and dads no longer eat their children? He toys with the idea of leaving his family, but is talked out of it by Arthur Rizzic, a little creature who has just escaped being dinner.

Arthur teaches Earl the most important lesson of '50s sitcom fatherhood: "No matter how low you are in this world, as long as you have a family to come home to, they're lower." As you can see, "Dinosaurs" lumbers between "The Flint-stones" and "Roseanne" contemporary satire for the adults, cute puppets for the kids. The clear danger is that adults will be turned off by the cute, and wor understand why next year is 60,000,002. are we count-, ing backwards? What are we waiting Like many TV fathers, Earl is blustering and unsure of his responsibilities, which include a dino-egg baby on the way. Pressed for money, he asks for a raise from his boss at "Wesayso," where Earl pushes trees over for housing developments. Tricera-tops boss B.P.

Richfield (voice by Sherman Hemsley) is not sympathetic. "The way I see it, you don't need more money. You need less family." What is Earl to do, since as his best friend points out this.