Review: 'Grace Fury... A Voice With Legs' Earnest, Vague, and Unremarkable

World-ranked Scottish Highland dancer and six-time national champion Laura Carruthers presents the autobiographical dance film "Grace Fury...A Voice With Legs."

A 12-member dance troupe in colorful athletic wear dances to new agey Celtic-inspired music in Glendale, California's Alex Theatre, accompanied by mystical, husky, and syncopated voiceovers by Carruthers and some brief behind-the-scenes snippets. Evocative of Michael Flatley's self-indulgent "Lord of the Dance" tours, along with the "Celtic Woman" concert vibes and fin-de-siècle spoken word tropes (some of which are printed on screen), 2018's "Grace Fury" offers a variety of group dances for a post-pandemic, performance-starved public.

Carruthers choreographed and performed in the dances, as well as directs the 75-minute presentation, which has made the rounds at film festivals. The earnest endeavor is like an extended thesis project production: Competent, yet navel-gazing (sometimes, literally, during dance lifts), open yet predictable, confessional yet precious. The dancing is energetic but unsurprising, and the narrative is vague and unremarkable.

"Grace Fury...A Voice With Legs" will be released on VOD on April 20.