Benn Widdey

Bringing his company of eleven unparalleled and exacting dancers to the Barclay Theater in Irvine for a single performance this Wednesday night, globally-acclaimed contemporary choreographer Stephen Petronio returns to the southland with two performance collages of new ideas.

Though it wasn't officially Mother's Day, this past weekend motherhood was celebrated at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica as choreographer/performer/educator Christine Suarez mounted her hour-long one woman show, "Mother.F*cker"directed by Tessa Blake.

Choreographer/dancer Christine Suarez is bringing two sides of her life—dancing and new motherhood—front and center in "MotherF***er" this weekend at Santa Monica's Highways Performance Space. Recently dubbed "a hub of experimental theater, dance, solo drama and other multimedia performance" by the Los Angeles Times, this premiere seems right in line with the venue's accolades.

Part of a national tour coordinated by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Indonesian choreographer Ery Mefri and his company Nan Jombang will settle in for four performances of "Rantau Berbisik (Whisperings of Exile)" this week.

Inspired by the Sufi tradition and the Persian poet and philosopher Rumi, classically trained Kathak dancer and now world renown choreographer Khan "explores man's earthly nature, his rituals and the consequences of human actions" in this 2010 70-minute work.

By the Santa Monica beach, performer/director Sheetal Gandhi is culminating her choreographer-in-residence period at the Annenberg Community Beach House with two afternoon performances of "I Am You," a Rumi-inspired, community-engaged, site-specific dance-theater work.

What better way for Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center to open its 10th Anniversary season than in the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the city’s very own new ballet company? Commissioning the recently formed L.A. Dance Project and its acclaimed choreographer Benjamin Millepied, this inaugural event will have its premiere performances this Saturday and Sunday.

Juxtaposing sometimes surprising quick spins with a series of more pedestrian-like turns (think, "I'll do this until I get dizzy!"), the artist breathed and spoke into a handheld microphone, raised her skirt, lowered her yellow drawers and rubbed her pubic hair with the mic, revealing, per program notes, "three different tones based on Mei-mei Berssenbrugge's Concordance."

The final program of the three weekends New Original Works Festival a REDCAT brings the work of three daring women artists to the downtown stage. Emily Mast, Melanie Rios Glaser and Heather Woodbury each investigate deep, important and meaningful questions through lenses that are unique, compelling and entertaining.

It's the summer. You can feel the heat. The sun beats down on the hot pavement. Many people head out of town for their break from the regular grind. Lots of folks are hanging at the beach. But, a group of local artists are heading for the roof.