NEWPORT BEACH : MUSIC AND DANCING AT ARTS SALUTE

A new ballet, Scott Joplin rags and Renaissance music and dance will be among the highlights of Newport Beach’s “Salute to the Arts,” which will be held today from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. at various locations in Fashion Island and Newport Center.

The “grand finale” from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Fashion Island Stage Court will feature the electronic minimalist band Repetition Repetition and the Joe McPhee Quartet, a jazz ensemble.

More than 10 performing groups will appear, and 30 restaurants and 40 wineries will offer samples of their wares. The event is free, but a donation of $5 is necessary to buy a book of coupons redeemable for sampling various foods and wines.

Scheduled to perform between 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Mutual Plaza are:

- The South Coast Ballet, premiering “Mephisto Waltz,” a ballet choreographed by Marilee Stiles-Stern to music by Liszt. The program also will include the “rock” ballet “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” choreographed by James Jones to hit songs by Cyndi Lauper.

- The Southern California Brass Company, a brass quintet, playing ragtime music by Scott Joplin and Eubie Blake, transcriptions from Bach’s “Art of the Fugue,” music by contemporary Canadian composer Morley Calvert and the “Quintet No. 2” by Victor Ewald, a Russian composer who was a contemporary of Tchaikovsky.

- The Southern California Early Music Consort, playing Renaissance music while four dancers in Elizabethan court costumes re-enact period dances.

Other performers appearing at various locations: The Mississippi Mudders, a Dixieland jazz group; Bryan Parris, who plays Jamaican music on a steel drum; Relampago del Cielo, a Spanish dance group that will present regional dances of Mexico; “No More Houses,” a new-wave band; the Spiffy Saxes, a saxophone quintet that will play ragtime, swing and original compositions; Michael Holly “Saltimbanque,” a juggling magician, and members of the Laguna Mime Theatre, who will provide strolling entertainment.

This is the third year the business and arts communities of Newport Beach have collaborated on the “Salute to the Arts.” Proceeds from the event are earmarked for purchase of an artwork to be displayed in Newport Beach.