There is a ton of great stuff to see in the Bay Area this weekend, here are a few of the live performances you should know about.

Dance picks: Chitresh Das, Headless Horseman

Here are three recitals that Bay Area Dance lovers should know about.

Chitresh Das Institute: The San Francisco company and school founded by the late legendary Kathak dancer and choreographer for which it is named this weekend presents a world premiere, “Invoking the River,” in collaboration with ODC Dance Theatre. Created by Das’s protege and artistic director of Chitresh Das, Charlotte Moraga, the work combines traditional Kathak themes with a clarion call over a 21st-century concern: the ecological degradation that threatens some of India’s holiest rivers.

Details: 8 p.m. Oct. 14-15, 4 p.m. Oct. 16; ODC Dance Theatre, 3153 17th St., San Francisco; $20-$45; odc.dance.

Oceanica Ballet: The South San Francisco company blends classical ballet with Mexican folklorico dance in a recital this weekend featuring two works, “Sleepy Hollow” and “Lupita.” The first adapts the legend of the Headless Horseman and the second is inspired the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday.

Details: 4 and 7 p.m. Oct. 15, 1 and 4 p.m. Oct. 16; Bay Area Ballet Conservatory, 275 Wattis Way, South San Francisco; $30; oceanicaballet.org.

Rogelio Lopez & Dancers: The East Bay modern dance company founded in 2015 presents “Entre Despierto y Dormido” (Between sleeping and waking), a new evening length work that explores the cost of denying one’s true nature because of social demands and expectations.

Details: 8 p.m. Oct. 14 and 7 p.m. Oct. 15, Joe Goode Performance Annex, 401 Alabama St., San Francisco; $20-$50; joegoode.org.

— Randy McMullen, Staff

Remembering Eric Garner

In 2014, a middle-aged Black New Yorker named Eric Garner who had a history of run-ins with the police encountered one more – only it would be his last. During his arrest in Staten Island — reportedly, for illegally selling cigarettes – he was swarmed by several officers including one who placed him in a prohibited choke-hold that proved to be fatal. Garner’s final words included the desperate plea, “I can’t breathe,” which has become something of a metaphor for the dispiriting number of black men who have died at the hands of police.

Garner’s death has a new musical production to be performed this weekend at Stanford University. Described as part offering, part opera and part protest, “The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist ” was created by Stanford composer and professor of music Jonathan Berger and Dartmouth painter and professor Enrico Riley, with a libretto by Vievee Francis. The production features 6 musicians, soprano Neema Bickersteth and a chorus, visual and text elements and choreography – all led by famed New York stage director Niegel Smith.

Details: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 and 2:30 p.m. Oct. 15; Bing Concert Hall, Stanford University; those attending Friday’s performance are invited to take part in a “procession of breath” at 5:30 p.m. leading from Black House to the concert hall; $15-$64; live.stanford.edu.

— Bay City News Foundation

Gillian Laub: Family Matters exhibit

An extensive solo exhibition of Gillian Laub’s photography, which opens today at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, exposes the saga of an American family over the course of nearly two decades. Organized into four acts, “Gillian Laub: Family Matters” presents 60 photographs from 1999–2020 that grapple with the complex and conflicting feelings that families can inspire through a vulnerable look at the emotional, psychological, and political landscape of Laub’s own family.

“This project is an exploration of the conflicted feelings I have about where I come from — which includes people I love and treasure, but with whom, most recently in a divided America, I have also struggled mightily,” Laub said.

As the series progresses, Laub turns both an inevitably loving yet necessarily critical eye on her growing discomfort with the many beliefs and extravagances that marked her family’s lives, from decades of family traditions and celebrations through their growing division in the face of political tensions and the emergence of the pandemic. It’s impossible not to see your own relationships reflected in the images. The exhibition forces all of us to ask what, in the end, really binds us together.

Details: Oct. 13-April 9; Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission St., San Francisco; Admission free-$16; thecjm.org.

— Brittany Delay, Staff

Yuja Wang’s world premiere

The only thing more attention-grabbing about Beijing-born piano whiz Yuja Wang than her flamboyant sense of fashion is her phenomenal command of the keyboard. So look beyond the flash of her attire this weekend in San Francisco’s Davies Hall when she throws herself into the world premiere of a work expressly written for her. Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a commission from fellow Finn Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony, was inspired, the composer says, with Wang’s virtuosic skills in mind.

“When I began working on this concerto, I decided to tailor everything for her,” Lindberg said in an interview. “I wanted to make it something that would attach to her world.”

Wang will perform the piece on three outings on a program, conducted by Salonen, that also includes Carl Nielsen’s “Helios” Overture and the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra.

Details: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13-15; $40-$209; www.sfsymphony.org or call 415-864-6000.

Levitt Concert Series goes on

Despite legal issues delaying work on the planned Levitt Pavilion, St. James Park in San Jose is still hosting free concerts this fall, including a show this Sunday, Oct. 16, featuring singers Jose James and Jackie Gage.

James’ wide-ranging vocal styles blend everything from jazz to soul to hip-hop, which Gage, a San Jose-based performer, is known for her lush delivery embracing jazz and folk.

The concert runs 3-6:30 p.m. Future Levitt San Jose Fall Concert Series shows include reggaeton singer La Doña (Oct. 23) and classic funk/soul outfit , Will Sprott and Orgone (Oct. 30)

Details: Concerts run 3-6:30 p.m.; park is at North 2nd Street and East St. James Street; beer and food trucks available; more information at sjdowntown.com.

— Randy McMullen, Staff

Dances with awesome views

If you haven’t yet visited Salesforce Park, the 5.4-acre marvel atop the Transbay Joint Powers Authority building in San Francisco’s SOMA district, this weekend offers another reason to do so. RAWdance, the Bay Area contemporary dance troupe, is hosting the second of its free “Step/Song Story” events in the stunning urban park.

Conceived and choreographed by RAWdance co-artistic director Katie Wong, the performance incorporates dance, music and spoken word into a story that will emerge across the park. Performing on Sunday will be RAWdance company dancers including Wong, Nick Wagner and Stacey Yuen; R&B duo Cocoa Keys (part of the Women of Color Bay Area musicians’ collective) and spoken word artists Jamey Williams, Bri Blue and Kai Heartlife.

What exactly the performance will entail is TBA, but it’s hard to go wrong when your venue is a stunning rooftop urban oasis with amazing views of the city, rolling lawns, redwood and bamboo groves, 13 gardens with all manner of plants and designs, a children’s play area and a 1,200-foot “Bus Fountain” art installation that explodes in water with each bus arrival. There’s a lovely trail that circles the park and plenty of room for picnics.

Details: Noon and 2 p.m. Oct. 16; 425 Mission St., enter via escalators or elevators in the Salesforce Transit Center, on 1st Street between Mission and Howard streets; free; rawdance.org.

— Bay City News Foundation

A violin virtuoso returns

Appearing at Zellerbach Hall in UC Berkeley for the first time in 15 years is the Russian-born Israeli Maxim Vengerov, a violinist who showed such an amazing early talent that he began recording more than three decades ago at the age of 10. He counts both the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the conductor-pianist Daniel Barenboim among his musical mentors and has taken up conducting both opera and orchestral music himself. In the company of pianist Polina Osetinskaya, Vengerov with play the Bach Violin Sonata in B minor, the Beethoven “Kreutzer” Sonata (in A Major), Ten Preludes by Shostakovich (as arranged by Dmitri Tziganov) and two violin works by Tchaikovsky.

Details: Presented by Cal Perfomances; 8 p.m. Oct. 14; $36-$110; calperformances.org.