Best Bets: ‘Dance Into Spring’

Nina Deacon is among the performers in Mt. Baker Ballet’s “Dance into Spring” annual repertoire performance at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 22, at Bellingham High School’s Theatre, 2020 Cornwall Ave., in celebration of National Dance Week. The performance features new works choreographed by artistic director Nancy Whyte, including “Summer Night,” with music by Samuel Barber, a series of dances set to klezmer and Armenian music, a jazz work, “Le Jazz de Paris” and a piece featuring a Beethoven string quartet. Admission is $12 adults, $10 students, seniors and children; tickets are available at Creative Dancewear. For more information, call 734-9141 or visit www.nancywhyteballet.com.

Ryan Shupe, Nathan Cox and Stacy Citron, Cail Musick-Slater and Arielle Luckmann, perform in Western Washington University’s production of Harold and Edith Lieberman’s drama, “Throne of Straw,” which tells about the events of the Lodz Ghetto, established for Jews and Roma in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The play invites participation from audience members to share thoughts about the morality of the leader of the ghetto, who made difficult decisions about the fate of the its people. Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. April 25-28 and May 1-5 and at 2 p.m. April 29 and May 5 at WWU’s Performing Arts Center Underground Theatre. Tickets are $8 general, $6 students and seniors, available at WWU’s box office, 650-6146, and online at www.tickets.wwu.edu.

Seattle novelist, poet and playwright Sherman Alexie reads from “Flight,” his first novel in 10 years, at the next Chuckanut Radio Hour, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, at Bellingham High School, 2020 Cornwall Ave. Sponsored by Village Books and the American Museum of Radio and Electricity, the show will be taped and broadcast later this spring. Alexie will also read some of his poetry and do a bit of stand-up comedy, according to Village Books co-owner Chuck Robinson. The house band, The Walrus; and the Bellingham High School Showstoppers will also perform. Tickets for this event are $5 or one free with prepurchase of “Flight” at Village Books. Net proceeds benefit the Northwest Indian College. For information, call 671-2626.

Learn the political proclivities of the “Modern Major General” at a stage performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operetta, “The Pirates of Penzance,” at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 21, at Mount Baker Theatre, 104 N. Commercial St. Written in 1879, it’s a topsy-turvy plot involving a band of orphaned pirates, a bevy of blushing maidens and an unlikely hero. Tickets are $20, $47 and $50 at the theater ticket office, 734-6080, and online at www.mountbak ertheatre.com.

The 10th annual “Reaching for the Light” exhibit, which features works by local and regional artists who have been impacted in some way by breast cancer, opens with a public reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 20, at the Blue Horse Gallery in Bay Street Village, 301 W. Holly St. Among the works is Michelle Hoffman’s painting, “The Reclamation.” The exhibit runs through May 11. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. For information, call the gallery, 671-2305.

Experience emotional and energetic music from 19th-century Eastern Europe in a concert by Millie and the Mentshn at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 22, at Western Washington University’s Performing Arts Center’s Concert Hall. The program includes original compositions and adaptations created by the ensemble from songs that were written in ghettos and concentration camps during World War II. Tickets are $5 general, $3 students at WWU’s box office, 650-6146, and online at www.tickets.wwu.edu. For more on the ensemble — Ken Bronstein, oboe; Phil Heaven, viola and violin; Millie Johnson, vocalist; Warren Palken, percussion; and Lou Lippman, keyboards — visit www.millieandthementshn.com.

Uncle and nephew duo George H. Emert and Stanley G. Emert Sr. — known musically as the Bird’s Creek Boys — dish up a round of bluegrass, gospel and country tunes in the style of the Delmore Brothers and other duos of the ’30s and ’40s at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 25, at the Roeder Home 2600 Sunset Drive (at Broadway). The concert is sponsored by the Whatcom County Homemade Music Society and Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Department. Suggested donation is $8 to $12. Call 733-0662 for more information.