TODAYHonoring a Russian masterTo open its five-performance...

TODAY

Honoring a Russian master

To open its five-performance engagement at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, American Ballet Theatre celebrates Tchaikovsky in a gala tonight that includes three works by George Balanchine -- “Theme and Variations,” “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux” and “Ballet Imperial” -- along with the so-called “White Swan” and “Black Swan” duets from “Swan Lake.” Otherwise, the company devotes the weekend to its familiar staging of the full-length “Giselle.” Leading dancers include Stella Abrera, Maxim Beloserkovsky, Jose Manuel Carreno, Angel Corella, Marcelo Gomes, Paloma Herrera, Julie Kent, Gillian Murphy, Xiomara Reyes and Michele Wiles. Although she has been featured in company advertising, Italian ballerina Alessandra Ferri is injured and will not be dancing here.

American Ballet Theatre, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, L.A. Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. 7:30 tonight (mixed bill). $25 to $95. (213) 365-3500. (213) 972-0711.

* Also: 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (“Giselle”).

Posing the macabre

Photographer Joel-Peter Witkin’s shows aren’t for the squeamish or the faint of heart: Known for his bizarre and macabre images, Witkin often poses corpses with bowls of fruit to create morbid still lifes and tableaux. In his latest collection of work, “Heart Beats Dust,” the photographer re-creates scenes and imagery from the past in celebration of history. Alvin Booth’s “Projections” is also on display.

“Joel-Peter Witkin: Heart Beats Dust” and “Alvin Booth: Projections,” Fahey/Klein Gallery, 148 N. La Brea Gallery, L.A. Opens Thursday. (323) 934-2250.

* Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Ends June 18.

Paper work completed

Composer Tan Dun has been writing a series of works that explore his roots in rural China. His “Paper Concerto for Paper Percussion and Orchestra,” on this week’s Los Angeles Philharmonic program, hearkens back to his childhood musical training in which he had to transform paper into various instruments. The orchestration for “Paper Concerto” calls for large paper screens, paper cymbals, cardboard thundersheets and other such papyrus-derived instruments to combine sounds from natural materials with those of a modern Western orchestra. Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts the work on a program that also includes Stravinsky’s “Song of the Nightingale” and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, with soloist Vadim Repin.

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave. 8 p.m. today. $15 to $125. (323) 850-2000.

* Also 11 a.m. Friday; 2 p.m. Sunday.

FRIDAY

It’s not all in the past

The line between the present and past begins to blur in the world premiere of Lucinda Coxon’s exploration of destiny and identity, “Vesuvius,” about the coming together of a woman seared by memories of the past and a man obsessed with a more recent disaster.

“Vesuvius,” South Coast Repertory, Julianne Argyros Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Opens 7:45 p.m. Friday. $27 to $56. (714) 708-5555.

* Runs 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Ends May 15.

They have to move

The body is a living organism and moves according to its needs -- no choreographer required. That’s the kind of motion that interests Italian dance maker Emio Greco and Dutch theater director Pieter C. Scholten. So in “Rimasto Orfano” (Abandoned Orphan), their fierce seven-member company, Emio Greco/P.C., shows bodies driven to extremes as if by pure impulse. Featuring music by American composer Michael Gordon of Bang on a Can, this unsparingly visceral 75-minute piece comes to the UCLA Live series to offer local audiences what the London Times called “one of the most exciting, original and eccentric dance vocabularies of anyone.”

Emio Greco/P.C. in “Rimasto Orfano,” Royce Hall, UCLA campus, Westwood. 8 p.m. Friday. $15 (students) to $42. (310) 825-2101 or www.uclalive.org.

* Also: 8 p.m. Saturday

Enron’s heavy toll

Enron? End run is more like it when executives of the nation’s seventh-largest company walk away with more than a billion dollars, leaving shareholders and employees empty-handed. Writer-director Alex Gibney’s documentary “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” based on the bestselling book by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkin, is a detailed account of the corporate misfeasance -- including profiteering during the California energy crisis -- that led to the company’s eventual downfall. Gibney examines the corporate culture that nurtured the misbehavior and the tragic price paid in human terms.

“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” unrated, opens Friday in selected theaters.

SATURDAY

Putting the 80th candle on the cake

James Moody’s 80th birthday party is scheduled for Saturday night at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Because the renowned jazz saxophonist-flutist is known for his association with trumpet great Dizzy Gillespie, it’s only fitting that Gillespie’s All Star Big Band will also be on the bill. Also on hand to wish the legendary bebop man well will be Bill Cosby, singer Nancy Wilson, trumpeter Roy Hargrove and singer Chaka Khan.

James Moody’s 80th Birthday Celebration, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A. 8 p.m. Saturday. $40 to $100. (323) 850-2000.

SUNDAY

A passion for society’s forgotten

“Jose Luis Cuevas: In Drawings and Sculpture” celebrates three decades of the Mexican artist’s works. Cuevas chose to represent those most alienated in society and found his subjects at brothels, hospitals and mental institutions. An outspoken critic of the Mexican Mural movement, as a member of the Generacion de Ruptura in the 1960s, Cuevas encouraged more expressive and figurative Mexican art.

“Jose Luis Cuevas: In Drawing and Sculpture,” The Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach. Opens Sunday. $3 to $5; 11 and younger, free. (562) 437-1689.

* Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 28.