San Diego weekend arts events: Dance, spooky karaoke, free theater and more

Dance

Disco Riot's "Choreo & Scaryaoke" is the next iteration in the contemporary movement company's inventive "Choreo &" series. For the spooky season, they're combining original horror- and folklore-inspired choreography with spooky karaoke (and yes, the karaoke is audience-participation).

"(The format) gives people an opportunity to experience performance in a different way and participate in community with others around something that brings some joy and some fun and maybe lightness in a way that like sitting in a theater and watching a performance doesn't necessarily do," said Zaquia Mahler Salinas, Disco Riot's cofounder.

The dances tap into the scary spirit in different ways: one is inspired by text from Edgar Allen Poe, some play with magical realism. One of the pieces, by San Diego dancer and choreographer Tina Carreras, was inspired by two iconic horror movies: "The Shining" and "Nightmare on Elm Street."

"I decided I would play with the characters from those movies. So Freddy Krueger and Danny Torrance, who's the little boy in 'The Shining,'" Carreras said. "I thought: What would happen if these two characters met? And why would they meet? And could I make a dance about these two characters?"

Carreras said she picked up on some of the visual motifs, like things each character did with their hands, as well as their iconic sweaters. She's also playing with music and the different ways those two films used sound and noise to ramp up the terror. Choreographers and performers also include Martin Anthony Dorado, Giovanna Francisco, Meesh Herd, Erin Kracht, Brianna Pilkinton (Accipiter Dance) and The Tchotchkes.

Details: DISCO RIOT presents: Choreo & SCARYaoke. Art Produce, 3139 University Ave., North Park. $15.

Courtesy of San Diego Ballet

San Diego Ballet: :"Sleeping Beauty" is a twist on the Sleeping Beauty story, bringing along characters from other beloved fairy tales and children's storybooks as the plot unfolds. With the humor and familiar characters, San Diego Ballet's 90-minute format makes this a promising choice to introduce your kids to ballet. Stephanie Maiorano dances the title role.

Details: "Sleeping Beauty". Joan B. Kroc Theater, 6611 University Ave., Rolando/College Area. $15-$45.

Visual art

Danielle Dean's "Bazar" opens at Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego-North this weekend. Named after and informed by Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville, an iconic Paris department store chain that was founded in the mid-1800s. Dean drew from their history of retail catalogs for visual elements for the multi-disciplinary work: a four-channel video and a series of oversized diorama-style sets. The work is also informed by Dean's interactions with a Permis de Vivre la Ville, a women's community engagement group in Paris.

Image courtesy of the artist and 47 Canal, New York.

Dean's works are highly researched and insightful, in addition to being curious, almost whimsical in their exploration of consumerism and capitalism. She's also ICA's first resident artist that is actually based in San Diego.

Details: Danielle Dean: "Bazar." On view through Dec. 30. ICA North, 1550 S. El Camino Real, Encinitas. Free.

"Explorations: 17th Annual Juried Youth Exhibition" and "James Balog: Photographs of the Anthropocene" will both be open at the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA@SDMA) this weekend.

James Balog's "Photographs from the Anthropocene" features powerful photography that captures our human impact on the Earth. The pieces capture fire, ice, natural disasters, plus striking portraiture: like a fisherman holding an oil spill-covered net, or more surreal or symbolic works like a chimpanzee with a curtain falling around it. On view now through March 10, 2024.

James Balog

Also opening is the always-impressive annual juried youth exhibition. This year's theme was "exploration," open to K-12 students in the region. The works that I've seen so far are fantastic, and fantastical, featuring lots of creative and insightful photography and collage work. Opens Saturday, Oct. 21 and will be up through April 21, 2024.

Details: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. MOPA@SDMA, 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park. Free/pay what you wish.

"Under the Influence of Walter Cotten" opens at City College. Walter Cotten, beloved professor of photography and lithography at San Diego State University, died in 2008. His influence lingers among artists who worked with or studied with him. In a memorial written in the Daily Aztec, SDSU's student paper, fellow professor Richard Keely reflected on Cotten's lasting legacy: "He’s got this amazing influence, and most of those people he worked with … they will be artists for the rest of their lives," Keely told the Daily Aztec in 2008.

Now, 15 years after his death, this group show includes many of his former students who are indeed still making art. Richard Keely, Anna O'Cain, Neil Kendricks, Jason Sherry and many more are among the 21 artists in the exhibit.

Details: "Under the Influence of Walter Cotten." Regular gallery hours are 12-4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. On view through Dec. 8. City Gallery at City College, 1508 C St., Arts & Humanities Building AH314, downtown. Free.

Theater

"The Comedy of Errors": Globe For All Tour begins its journey through the region. This twice-a-year engagement program from the Old Globe takes professional stage productions out into the community, arts desert or not, for free performances at libraries, community centers and more. This time, they're performing Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors." It's said to be one of Shakespeare's funniest plays, about two sets of twins separated at birth, leading very different lives. This current Globe For All Tour staging is also a somewhat unique vision for Shakespeare: It's designed to evoke "The Jersey Shore."

Details: "The Comedy of Errors" (Globe for All Tour). Some performances offer advance registration though many are walk-in only. Through Nov. 5. Free.

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" just opened at North Coast Repertory Theatre, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the Robert Louis Stevenson book. Hatcher's adaptation is known to be playful with casting: actors takes on several roles, and the role of Mr. Hyde is embodied by four different actors. The story is familiar — a suspenseful investigation into Dr. Jekyll and the coincidences and similarities with a murderer, Mr. Hyde — but the staging promises to be fresh and nontraditional.

Details: "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." This weekend's shows are 7 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday. North Coast Rep, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Dr., Ste. D, Solana Beach. $49-$74.

Pacific Lyric Association's "La Traviata" runs this weekend only in Escondido. Based on the play (and novel) by Alexandre Dumas fils, "La Dame aux Camélias," Verdi's opera follows a Parisian high-society woman stricken with illness, Violetta, as she falls in love and disrupts her lavish lifestyle.

Details: La Traviata Opera Presented by Pacific Lyric Association. California Center for the Arts, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $75+. Children are $18.75+, and students are $37.50+.

Music

Lila Downs will perform Dos Corazones: Día de los Muertos at the Balboa Theatre on Sunday. The multi-Grammy-winning Latin musician has been performing and releasing albums since the 1990s, with a variety of Mexican music styles like cumbia and rancheras. Raised in Oaxaca, she is an anthropologist and a natural storyteller, which translates profoundly to her music.

Details: Lila Downs - Día De Los Muertos. Balboa Theatre, 868 4th Ave., downtown. $43.50+.

Salty Series: Experimental Guitar Show takes place at Bread and Salt in collaboration with Project [BLANK] and Stay Strange. It kicks off with a "noise guitar workshop" at 7 p.m. with M.J. Stevens, followed by a concert at 7:30 featuring Randy Chiurazzi, Bobby Bray (of The Locust) and A. Eugene LeGrow.

Details: 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20. Bread and Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. $10/pay what you can.

Bach Collegium's "Last Blasts!" showcases some "career capstones" for the composers Georg Philipp Telemann and Emmanuel Bach, also known as C.P.E. Bach, the son of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Emmanuel Bach piece is a concerto for harpsichord and fortepiano, which is an early music version of a piano. Telemann's "Ino," is a vocal work, and is considered one of his masterpieces. Telemann composed in the late baroque period, and this piece is dramatic, lush and heavy — but that baroque lift and lilt keeps the mood dancing.

Details: Two performances. 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20 at All Souls' Episcopal Church, 1475 Catalina Blvd., Pt. Loma; 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21 at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, 3459 Manchester Ave, Cardiff. $15-$60.

Judy Reeves

Books

Judy Reeves' "When Your Heart Says Go" is a memoir by the longtime local writing hero. Billed as "The origin story of Judy Reeves," the story begins in her late 40s, when she was recently widowed and embarked on an around-the-world journey. Reeves will celebrate the book launch at the downtown library with refreshments, a reading and a Q&A.

Details: An Afternoon with Judy Reeves and her new book: "When Your Heart Says Go." Shiley Special Events Suite at the San Diego Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., downtown. Free.