GOINGS ON / SANTA BARBARA : Best Foot Forward : The influence of dancer/choreographer Ted Shawn on modern dance will be saluted two nights next week at UC Santa Barbara.

Male dancers from some of the most prestigious troupes will perform at UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall Tuesday and Wednesday nights in a tribute to dancer-choreographer Ted Shawn, who died in 1972.

“Jacob’s Pillow Men Dancers: The Ted Shawn Legacy” looks at Shawn’s influence in modern dance, specifically his efforts to gain acceptance for male dancers. He ran his own male dance troupe from 1933 to 1940.

Shawn’s influence, however, goes back further. In 1915, he and dancer Ruth St. Denis founded the Denishawn company and school, which brought primitive and ethnic dance to American audiences. One of the students there was Martha Graham, whom Shawn later married. In 1930 Shawn founded a summer center for dance on a Massachusetts farm named Jacob’s Pillow.

Show times are 8 p.m. General admission is $16, $14, and $10. Call 893-3535.

In conjunction with the performances, the UCSB College of Creative Studies Gallery has a photo exhibit that compares male dancers of the 1930s with those of modern times. The show will run through next Thursday. The gallery is open weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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The Santa Barbara Symphony will present works by 19th-Century American composer Arthur Foote and Austrian composer Gustav Mahler, in concerts Saturday and Sunday at the Arlington Theatre. The program will include Foote’s “Irish Folksong” and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Saturday’s performance will begin at 8 p.m., Sunday’s at 3 p.m. General admission ranges from $15 to $32 on Saturday, and $13 to $24 on Sunday. Call 963-4408.

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If you’re a little overwhelmed by the sweetness of Valentine’s Day, you might want to check out the “Love and Other (Fatal) Attractions” exhibit at Santa Barbara’s Contemporary Arts Forum.

The name of this five-artist show pretty much says it all. “They are all taking a slightly skeptical and scant view of relationships,” CAF Director Nancy Doll said. “It’s not as if everything is hearts and flowers with a happy ending. In some cases the scenes pictured are love gone awry, star-crossed lovers or jilted lovers.”

The show will run through March 27. There will be a reception Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. CAF is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It is at 653 Paseo Nuevo, on the second floor of the Paseo Nuevo shopping center. For more information, call 966-5373.

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More than 40 years ago, some men at Alabama’s Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind formed a gospel ensemble. That group, Clarence Fountain and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, is still going strong, with a variety of gospel styles. The sextet will perform Monday night at the Lobero Theater. Show time is 7 p.m. General admission is $16. Call 963-0761. The theater is at 33 E. Canon Perdido.

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Twenty-one-year-old violinist Gil Shaham and his 294-year-old Stradivarius will be in concert Tuesday night at Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre.

Shaham has performed with the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, l’Orchestra de Paris, the Royal Philharmonic and many other internationally acclaimed groups. He debuted with the Jerusalem Symphony at age 10. He will be accompanied at the Lobero by pianist Rohan de Silva, an instructor at the Julliard School of Music.

The evening’s program will include Dvorak’s Sonatina in G Major, Brahms’ Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Debussy’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Korngold’s Suite from ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ ” and Sarasate’s “Zigeunerweisen.” The performance will begin at 8 p.m. Tickets are $19 (general) and $17 (seniors and students). Call 963-0761.

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Michael Douglas and Barbara Hershey will be at Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre on Wednesday night for the world premiere of their film “Falling Down.” Director Joel Schumacher will also attend.

The showing will benefit Santa Barbara’s Heath House, a residential AIDS shelter, and Access Theatre, a company of disabled and non-disabled actors. Douglas is on the Access Theatre board of directors. The movie will be interpreted in sign language and described in audio.

“Falling Down,” which also stars Robert Duvall, is the story of an otherwise normal guy whose frustration with life turns him into a vigilante. The film will open nationally next Thursday.

Tickets are $50 (for the movie and pre-show reception) and $10 (for the movie only). Call 963-4408. The Arlington is at 1317 State St.