8pm Dance

all day Movies

Supposedly, Hollywood doesn’t make musicals anymore, but someone forgot to tell Baz Luhrmann. A double bill of Luhrmann’s most recent film, “Moulin Rouge,” and his first feature, 1992’s “Strictly Ballroom,” highlights the Australian filmmaker’s flair for mixing flashy visuals with song-and-dance elements, both conventional and reinvented. “Moulin Rouge,” a solid contender in this year’s Oscar race, is a fever dream of musical spectacle, its dizzying visual and melodic panache is operatic by intention and excessive by design. Glamorous turns from Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor as singing star-crossed lovers in turn-of-the-century Paris lend the film a classic touch. “Strictly Ballroom,” a wised-up homage to the musicals of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, manages to poke fun at and honor the conventions of the genre.

Baz Luhrmann double feature, New Beverly Cinema, 7165 Beverly Blvd., L.A. “Moulin Rouge,” Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 2:10 and 7:30 p.m. “Strictly Ballroom,” Friday, 9:55 p.m.; Saturday, 5:35 and 9:35 p.m. $3 to $6. (323) 938-4038.

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8pm Dance

They’re young, gifted and black--dancers internationally recognized for more than 30 years for creating the most audience-friendly, technically sophisticated, life-affirming ballet experience ever packed into four little words: Dance Theatre of Harlem. This season, the company’s exclusive Cerritos visit features “Virra,” “New Bach” and the “Pas de Deux for Phrygia and Spartacus” at all performances. On Friday night and Saturday afternoon, the program ends with “South African Suite.” On Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, the finale is “Concerto in F.”

Dance Theatre of Harlem, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos, 8 p.m. Also Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. $35 to $50. (562) 916-8500.

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all day Art

Celebrating its 11th year with a bonanza of photographic images for the public to ogle and buy, Photo L.A. 2002 opens Friday at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Los Angeles photography dealer Stephen Cohen, who has organized the fair since its inception, has lined up 70 galleries and private dealers from Denmark, France, the Czech Republic, Russia and the U.S. They will offer everything from classic images by Ansel Adams and Eugene Atget to cutting-edge works by contemporary artists.

Photo L.A. 2002, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main St., Santa Monica. Friday-Saturday, noon-7 p.m.; Sunday, noon-6 p.m. One-day pass, $15; three-day pass, $25. (323) 937-5523.

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7pm Family

Visual theater alchemist Leland Faulkner will bring his simple implements to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza to stage his noted “World of Wonder” program. Delicate paper cutouts and hand shadows, illusion and folk tales make up Leland’s exploration of myth and magic. Much of Leland’s worldly tale-spinning and ancient art forms are inspired by the people he has met while traveling abroad.

Leland Faulkner, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Scherr Forum, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., 7 p.m. $15; $12, children. (805) 646-8907or 449-2787.

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8pm Pop Music

Following up last summer’s Hollywood Bowl appearance with Buena Vista Social Club compatriot Ruben Gonzalez, singer Ibrahim Ferrer is on a 14-city tour backed by a 15-piece orchestra.

Ibrahim Ferrer, Royce Hall, UCLA, Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m. $45 and $75. (310) 825-2101. Also Monday at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos, 8 p.m. $60 to $75. (800) 300-4345.

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8pm Music

All that dressing up for classical music got you down? The L.A. Phil feels your pain. (Heck, its musicians play the violin in a tux.) But the Phil has lightened things up with its Casual Fridays With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which shows off the orchestra in less dressy attire and with a shorter program. The 70-minute concert includes Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Symphony and pianist Alexander Toradze performing Alexander Scriabin’s tone poem “Prometheus,” complete with light show. Sandra Tsing Loh will play host at the pre-concert program, Upbeat Live, during which a quartet will play Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 1.

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. Upbeat Live talk, 7 p.m.; concert, 8 p.m. $12 to $78. (213) 365-3500.

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8pm Theater

Two men are on death row for murder, one for killing a drug dealer, the other--simple-minded and possibly insane--for burning down a church, killing 37 African Americans. In Alliance Repertory Company’s West Coast premiere of the razor-edged drama “Coyote on a Fence,” playwright Bruce Graham explores questions surrounding capital punishment: Do the men deserve the death penalty? Who are the decision-makers? What is society’s obligation? Presented with alternating casts, the play features members of the 2001 Ovation Award-winning ensemble from the company’s revival of Richard Greenberg’s “Night and Her Stars.”

“Coyote on a Fence,” Alliance Theatre, 3204 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends March 17. $15. (323) 655-8587.