Festival dedicated to injured choreographer

Friday, July 25, 2003 | 8:45 a.m.

What: "Dance in the Desert Festival."

When: 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Nicholas Horn Theatre, 3200 E. Cheyenne Ave.

Tickets: $10; $8 for students and seniors.

Information: 651-5483.

Schedule

Groups scheduled to perform at "Dance in the Desert Festival"

Saturday afternoon

CCSN Dance Ensemble; CCSN Concert Dance Ensemble; Nannette Brodie Dance Theatre; Canyon Movement Company; and Susan Abbot-Doskocil.

Saturday evening

Kelly Roth & Dancers; Nannette Brodie Dance Theatre; Canyon Movement Company; and Special FX.

Sunday afternoon

Solstice Dance Theatre; Ballet Mink Colbert; and Angela Palmeri-Davis.

More than five years ago a local choreographer teamed with the head of the dance program at the Community College of Southern Nevada to create a festival that would celebrate the diversity of Las Vegas dancers.

The effort would offer commercial Strip dancers a chance to perform in a more artistic venue with concert dancers.

It would become an annual event. Eventually, regional dance companies would participate.

This weekend, the two-day "Dance in the Desert Festival" celebrates its fifth year by paying tribute to Kyla Quintero, the dancer and choreographer who conceptualized it.

Quintero was seriously injured last September when the vehicle she was driving was hit head-on by a drunken driver with a reported blood-alcohol level of 0.23 (the legal limit in Nevada is 0.10). Quintero suffered massive head trauma and several broken bones. At home recovering with her family, Quintero has not been able to work, but has already surpassed all recovery expectations.

"She wasn't expected to live," said Kelly Roth, CCSN dance program head and co-founder of the festival. "Then she wasn't expected to walk. She is slowly getting pieces of her life back. She has fragmented memory. But she is doing relatively well.

"Her personality has returned. So has her sense of humor."

Quintero is expected to attend Sunday's performance when her dance group, Solstice Dance Theatre, will honor her by performing snippets of Quintero's choreography.

The festival, which originally focused mainly on concert dance, is incorporating the hip-hop group, Special FX, and belly dancer Angela Palmeri-Davis this year.

"We've expanded it to try to grow the audience," Roth said. "The idea is the old vaudeville circuit. We're trying to create that for dance."

Groups include the CCSN Dance Ensemble, CCSN Concert Ensemble, the Nannette Brodie Dance Theatre from Huntington Beach, Calif., Canyon Movement Company from Flagstaff, Ariz., Susan Abbott-Doskocil, Kelly Roth & Dancers, and Ballet Mink Colbert.

This is the first year Quintero is not working on the project. Quintero will be considered co-director emeritus until she is able to return.

The accident was quite a blow to the dance community.

"It was very hard because if you know Kyla, she has such an effervescent, radiant personality," Roth said. "She had her hand in so many things professionally, it was just a great shock."