Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the turkey-time B9:
➤ There are, of course, indigenous and native folk dance forms emanating from every continent on the planet (OK, maybe except Antarctica). But in terms of influence and power, Africa might very well rank at the top of that pyramid. No weekend festival, however lavish and ambitious, is a match for the breadth and depth of African dance. But that’s not stopping the Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center from devoting its weekend to the magic of the African diaspora in art. The Deep Roots Dance Fest comes to the Colligan Theater in Santa Cruz on Friday and Saturday, presenting performances with roots in the Congo, Senegal and Nigeria, as well as Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean. But this is more than a dance show. It also embraces poetry, visual art, storytelling, live music and fashion design from Santa Cruz’s most astounding textile artist, I.B. Bayo. Variety, color, passion, it’s all there at the Colligan this weekend.
➤ We’re hip-deep in November, which means that midsummer is but a dream. But Mountain Community Theater is counting on audiences responding to the magic of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” no matter the season. One of the most durable stage fantasies in the English language opens this weekend at Park Hall in Ben Lomond.
➤ Bay Area fans of Americana are already fully aware of the luminous Nicki Bluhm, the East Bay-born singer-songwriter who has been producing soulful country folk for more than a decade. The news now is that she’s got a new album out titled “Rancho Deluxe,” which might be her best work yet. She comes to Felton Music Hall on Friday.
➤ You don’t really need an excuse to spend an evening with the wonderfully Jerry Garcia-adjacent quartet Painted Mandolin. But the group’s Saturday night performance — alongside the Mojo Navigators — at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center is all about support for the community radio stalwarts at KSQD in Santa Cruz. Seeing a memorable live show is a pretty sweet way to help K-Squid, I’d say.
➤ How do you get audiences to come out to support the fine community work of Housing Matters? A benefit show featuring the music of Bob Dylan might do the trick. An impressive roster of Santa Cruz musicians will gather at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Friday to run through songs from Dylan’s immortal albums “Blood On the Tracks” and “Desire” with proceeds going to HM’s efforts to forge pathways out of homelessness. Win-win.
➤ About a month before “The Nutcracker” comes to town, the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium will host another a big colorful ballet based on a beloved children’s story. This one is “Cinderella” (you know the story), a production of the Los Angeles-based World Ballet Company, with 40 performers wearing more than 150 costumes among gorgeous sets. A nice little pre-holidays bon mot for the romantics among us. It all goes down Friday.
➤ Right there in the middle of the panoply of faces and images from 2010s pop culture is comedian Daniel Tosh, the longtime host of the internet-themed Comedy Central show “Tosh.0.” Tosh himself has courted controversy with a style that relies heavily on sarcasm and politically charged “punching down” humor that has offended many. You can judge for yourself next Tuesday when Tosh headlines the Santa Cruz Civic.
➤ Big, bold, brassy rhythm & blues is alive and well, at least on the West Coast, thanks to the Oakland-based California Honeydrops. For close to two decades, the Drops have been thrilling audiences with soulful but danceable blues and rock. The band comes to The Catalyst on Saturday to support a new album that NorCal folks should really take to heart. It’s called “Redwood Highway.”
➤ Even if Led Zeppelin were still touring and coming to an arena near you, which they’re not — all the surviving members are north of 80 — I might advise that the better ticket for Zep fans would still be Zepparella, the all-female tribute act from San Francisco that delivers all the songs you love with an ear-bleeding intensity and the swagger and spirit we’ve all come to associate with Zeppelin. Merely one show can’t contain them, so they’re playing back to back Friday and Saturday at Moe’s Alley.
