DANCE


Cirque du Soleil: KOOZA
Through Oct. 5
Bayside Expo Center
200 Mt. Vernon Street, Columbia Point, Boston
MBTA: Red Line to JFK
$38.50 to $215.00, 800-678-5440
www.cirquedusoleil.com
OK, so it’s not totally dance, but people do move around in weird rhythmic ways. The title of the latest production by the idiosyncratic postmodern circus troupe, KOOZA, sounds like a whimsical child’s toy, but the capital letters add a stark-raving-crazy angle. Fitting for a place that employs clowns.

Kira Seamon
Sept. 12
Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center
41 2nd St., Cambridge
MBTA: Green Line to Lechmere
$15-$20
www.cmacusa.org
Award-winning dancer Kira Seamon brings her dance and music concert, "Collections," to the Multicultural Arts Center's Destination Dance series. She'll appear with Melissa Gendreau and Gendreau's Perceptions Contemporary Dance Company. Guests dancers include Tim Read, Catherine Murcek and Christine Sieberg. See that girl, watch that scene -- you know the rest.

Adrienne Celeste Fadjo Dance
Sept. 19 and 20
Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center
41 2nd St., Cambridge
MBTA: Green Line to Lechmere
$15-$20, 617-577-1400
www.cmacusa.org
Adrienne Celeste Fadjo, along with Brian Feigenbaum and guest company Guidance, Inc., presents "In Mixed Company," a modern dance production that explores "birth, separation, sickness and life." Sweet toe-tappin' God, they will be dancing like you read about.

Tom Wealth: A Dance for the Masses
Sept. 19 and 20
Tsai Performance Center
685 Comm. Ave., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Boston University
$12 to $25, 617-353-8725
www.caitlincorbettdance.org
OK, so you think that Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is the Great American Novel -- but admit it, you've never seen a modern dance interpretation of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." Choreographer Caitlin Corbett's "Tom’s Wealth: A Dance for the Masses" is a piece for 35 performers (five company dancers and 30 non-dancers) based on text from Twain's 1876 novel.

The Movement Workshop Group
Oct. 3 and 4
Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center
41 2nd St., Cambridge
MBTA: Green Line to Lechmere
$15-$20, 617-577-1400
www.cmacusa.org
Described as a "dance/theater hybrid about dreams, addiction, and the depths of the ocean," "Moontides in 23, 149 Parts" receives its premiere at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. New York-based Leslie Guyton directs, while Boston dance/hip-hop choreographer Liza Hostetler-Ingalls handles the marine-inspired body rocking.

Night of Stars: A Boston Ballet Gala Performance
Oct. 10
Citi Performing Arts Center
270 Tremont St., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Boylston
$83, 617-456-6348
www.bostonballet.com
For the third year running, the Boston Ballet opens its season with this one-night-only company-wide extravaganza. Boston Ballet's principal dancers will perform solos, pas de deux, and ensemble pieces. Guests include New York City Ballet dancers Maria Kowroski and Albert Evans. The program features works by George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, William Forsythe, Twyla Tharp, and Jorma Elo.

Fearless Symmetries
Oct.10 through Oct. 26
The Sanctuary Theatre
400 Harvard St., Cambridge
MBTA: Red Line to Harvard
$35, 617-354-7467
www.ballettheatre.org
The Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre offers a "new dance experience" at this performance of two works, including the premiere of a dance set to John Adams' "Fearful Symmetries": seating is cabaret style and cocktails will be served during the show. If watching people in tights from that kind of proximity becomes uncomfortable, simply order more drinks

 Sayat Nova Dance Company
Oct. 17 and 18
Arsenal Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal St., Watertown
$30, 617- 923-8487
www.arsenalarts.org
The Sayat Nova Dance Company of Boston, the leading Armenian dance company in North America, takes its name from an 18th century troubadour. You should remember that in case they give you a pop quiz at the performance.

V
Nov. 7 and 8
Boston University Theatre
264 Huntington Ave., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Symphony
$25-$30, 617-358-2500
www.bosoma.org
The title of this BoSoma Dance Company performance reminds us of some of our favorite rock albums with numerical titles, like "Led Zeppelin III" and "Van Halen II" -- a promising distinction for those who yearn for a ballet-rawk crossover. This showcase will feature Katherine Hooper's "Amygdala," Irada Djelassi's "Boxed," and "The Challenge," a set of choreographic duels.

COMEDY

Improv Asylum's Main Stage Show
Ongoing
Improv Asylum
216 Hanover St., Boston
MBTA: Orange Line to Haymarket
$10-$20, 617-263-6887
www.improvasylum.com
You'll never see the same show twice at the Improv Asylum, because, as their very name would indicate, they don't work from a script like those anal, line-memorizing actor types.

ImprovBoston
Ongoing
ImprovBoston Theater
40 Prospect St., Cambridge
$10-$16, 617-576-1253
www.improvboston.com
People on the other side of the river have improv needs too! IB has an interesting show that just started called “The Adventures of the Crime Solving Bear.”  Supporting characters include Marijuana Iguana, Racist Raccoon and Magic Monkey. Sounds like our high school. Not the personality traits, we just attended high school in a zoo.

OTHER

Luisa Rabbia: Travels with Isabella, Travel Scrapbooks 1883/2008
Through Sept. 28
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
280 The Fenway, Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Museum of Fine Arts
$5 -$12, 617-278-5156
www.gardnermuseum.org
Luisa Rabbia's contemporary video exhibition “rearranges and adds her own layers of imagery and animation to photographs from an elaborate travel scrapbook compiled by Isabella Gardner while in China to create an imaginary landscape and a fantastical narrative through space and time.” Whoa, we totally don't understand what that means, but reading the description gave us the same tingly feeling we got when Keanu Reeves first entered the Matrix.

Cirque du Soleil: KOOZA
Through Oct. 5
Bayside Expo Center
200 Mt. Vernon Street, Columbia Point, Boston
MBTA: Red Line to JFK/UMASS

$$38.50 to $215.00, 800-678-5440 

www.cirquedusoleil.com
The title of the latest production by the idiosyncratic postmodern circus troupe, KOOZA, sounds like a whimsical child's toy, but the capital letters add a stark-raving-crazy angle. Fitting for a place that employs clowns.

Gardner After Hours
Sept. 18 through Oct. 16
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
280 The Fenway, Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Museum of Fine Arts
$5-$12, 617-278-5156
www.gardnermuseum.org
The Gardner continues its nightlife programming with more live music, cocktails and food, and, of course, art. This is perfect for us, because we have lots of interesting things to say about the artwork after a few vodka tonics. In September it's “Wanderlust,” and in October the theme is “Living Music,” which will “explore the museum's musical connections.”

Thomas S. Blanton with Alasdair Roberts: Secrecy in the United States: Priorities for the Next President
Sept. 18
Walsh Theater at Suffolk University
55 Temple St., Boston
MBTA: Red/Green Line to Park
Free, 617-557-2007
www.fordhallforum.org
Thomas S. Blanton, Director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, and Alasdair Roberts, professor at Suffolk's Law School, will talk about presidential reform and sign books in honor of International Right to Know Day. There really is an International Right to Know Day. And the fact that we just let you know about it should indicate that it's working.

The 2008 Boston Comedy Festival Finals
Sept. 20
Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College
219 Tremont St., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Boylston
$45-$65, 617-824-8000
www.maj.org
The Smothers Brothers' 50 years in comedy will be honored with the Lifetime Award at this year's yuk-yuks fest. Try the veal, tip your waitress, and -- is this thing on?

‘Exclamation Point!’
Sept. 27
Channel Café
300 Summer St., Fort Point, Boston
MBTA: Red/Silver Line to South Station
Free, 617-750-8900
www.fortpointtheatrechannel.org
You know that when something is titled “Exclamation Point!” with an actual exclamation point after it, it's bound to be super! exciting! Wow! It's actually a showcase of work by local video/film artists and musicians, which is exclamation point-worthy regardless.

Art in a Time of War
Oct. 2
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
280 The Fenway, Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Museum of Fine Arts
Call for ticket price, 617-278-5156
www.gardnermuseum.org
Award-winning journalist Anne Nivat (“Chienne de Guerre”) and Lida Abdul, a former Artist-in-Residence at the Gardner, will chat about the titular topic. Some people say that the best art is made in times of intense strife, and so clearly Bob Ross is not some people.

David Sedaris
Oct. 12
Symphony Hall
301 Mass. Ave., Boston
MBTA: Orange Line to Massachusetts Ave.
$30-$55, 617-482-2595
www.celebrityseries.org
Wit, humor, and nuggets of unexpected profundity (funny nuggets!): David Sedaris has got the goods, as his NPR appearances and “New Yorker” contributions regularly illustrate. He's touring in support of his latest book of essays about his life's past and present, “When You Are Engulfed in Flames.”

Opening Our Doors Day!
Oct. 13
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
280 The Fenway, Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Museum of Fine Arts
Free, 617-278-5156
www.gardnermuseum.org
It's all free at the Gardner this Columbus Day, courtesy of the Fenway Alliance: jazz in the courtyard, storytelling and art making, museum talks and music from New England Conservatory of Music students. That's a smorgasbord of creative activity for the cheapo in all of us.

Triumph of Marriage: Painted Cassoni of the Renaissance
Oct.16 through Jan. 18
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
280 The Fenway, Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Museum of Fine Arts
$5-$12, 617-278-5156
www.gardnermuseum.org
If you were married in Tuscany in the 15th century, there's a good chance someone gave you a “marriage chest,” or cassoni, that they had painted. Those were the days before gift registry, so it's likely you got two of them, and returning a cassoni was always such a hassle, since the person who gave it to you went through all that hard work. See what we're talking about at this Gardner exhibition, which features 15 cassoni paintings, including the museum's own “Triumphs of Petrarch” by Pesselino.

Nature and Balance: Final Family Day
Oct 19
Arsenal Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal St., Watertown, MA 02472
MBTA: RT 70 or 70a Bus to School St.
Free,  617-923-8487
www.arsenalarts.org
The most annoying thing about checking out art is that you're never allowed to touch anything. Some paintings just beg to have a brushstroke traced with an oily finger. Are we wrong, dude? The former Watertown Arsenal thinks not -- their free outdoor exhibit of public art and sculpture is totally hands-on. There will be walking tours, improv with the Watertown Children's Theatre, and a concert by Eight to the Bar.

 Halloween Spooktacular
Oct. 26
Newton Cultural Center
225 Nevada St, Newton
$8-$14, 617-527-9717
www.newphil.org
You're encouraged to attend the New Phil's annual Halloween concert in costume -- in fact, it'll look great when you march in their costume parade. The real reason to go to this is for the Instrument Petting Zoo, where children get to meet the musicians and try out their instruments. Why no one ever talks to the French horn player, we'll never know.