Running with the arts crowd this weekend

Two dance companies, one premiere

Two high-energy dance companies perform together this weekend and next: Black Label Movement, under Carl Flink, and Contempo Physical Dance, led by Marciano Silva dos Santos. The companies have produced a new work to perform together and will also present some previous pieces of their own. The Cowles Center is promoting the event as the venue's first collaborative dance concert. Matt Peiken's video of the rehearsal process suggests that it will be an exciting performance, so long as nobody gets hurt. June 17, 18, 24 and 25 at the Cowles Center in downtown Minneapolis.

Reason to go: Just watching is a pretty good workout.

Rock the Garden, or Island

If you don't already know about Rock the Garden, you're probably not interested. But maybe you just moved to Minnesota a few hours ago and you've been asking yourself, "What's a big music event that's worth my time and money?" Each year, the Walker Art Center and our sister station The Current put together a big outdoor music festival. This year the event is being held on Boom Island in Minneapolis instead of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, which is undergoing reconstruction and expansion. Acts include The Flaming Lips, Polica, GRRRL PRTY and Chance the Rapper. Complete details are available from The Current. Starting at 1 p.m. Saturday, Boom Island, Minneapolis.

Reason to go: Everybody who doesn't go has to spend weeks hearing about how great it was.

An 11-year-old takes on "Hamlet"

Another performance that you'll be hearing about if you miss it is the return engagement of Jeffrey Hatcher in his one-man show, "Jeffrey Hatcher's Hamlet." On the surface, it recounts the playwright's experience directing a Shakespeare play in an elementary school in Steubenville, Ohio, in 1969. But it's really a journey into the mind and heart of an 11-year-old boy. This engaging memoir offers a glimpse into the soul of one of Minnesota's most prolific and accomplished theater artists. June 16 through June 26 at the Lowry LAB Theater in downtown St. Paul.

Reason to go: Hatcher vividly evokes that childhood sensation of having a brain that can't quite get traction yet.

Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!

It's the fashion to complain about arts education in the public schools these days, but the truth is that many baby boomers got their introduction to classical music from TV — namely from the cartoons of Chuck Jones, the animation genius behind Bugs Bunny. Jones brought us "What's Opera, Doc?" and "The Rabbit of Seville," as well as hundreds of cartoons with little or no educational value. Jones' enduring contributions are explored in the exhibit, "What's Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones," on display at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul through Aug. 14.

Reason to go: Road Runner (Accelerati Incredibilus) has been sighted.

Nudity alert

Park Square Theatre is opening "Calendar Girls," a British play about a group of women who pose nude to raise money for a hospital. One of them has lost her husband to cancer, and the hospital had treated him. Of course, the calendar becomes a runaway success. Let's see: a heartbreaking loss, an underdog success story and nudity — this play could do pretty well. June 17 through July 24 at Park Square Theatre, St. Paul.

Reasons to go: Christina Baldwin, Charity Jones and Shanan Custer.