On March 30, 1958, Alvin Ailey and a group of young, African-American modern dancers performed at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and the ALVIN AILEY DANCE THEATER was born. Ailey passed away in 1989 after creating 79 original choreographies, and the tradition of bringing important and culturally diverse works to the world has been continued by Artistic Director Judith Jamison. Alvin Ailey Dance Theater returns to New Orleans Friday and Saturday to close out the 2004-2005 New Orleans Ballet Association (NOBA) season. Two nights of programming mix brand new works with old classics. Friday's performance opens with the world premiere of Love Stories. The piece explores the world of African-American social dances, set to the music of Stevie Wonder. Shining Star, a 2004 premiere, features a duet to the music of Earth, Wind & Fire. The evening concludes with Alvin Ailey's signature piece, Revelations. Created in 1960, Revelations is a tribute to Ailey's "blood memories" of Texas, blues, gospel and African-American spirituals. Saturday's program gives a nod to jazz legends Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie with Alvin Ailey's Night Ritual, Donald Byrd's Burlesque and Billy Wilson's Winter in Lisbon. It marks the first time Alvin Ailey Dance Theater has performed Donald Byrd's Burlesque choreography, which was commissioned in part by NOBA in 1999 and chronicles the seedy underworld of burlesque performers. They will also perform Elisa Monte's Treading, set to music of Steve Reich. Keep an eye out for locally born and trained Rosalyn Deshauteurs, who studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts before moving on to Perry Mansfield, the School of American Ballet, the Ailey School and Juilliard. Both performances begin at 8 p.m. at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre of the Performing Arts (Armstrong Park). Tickets range from $26.50-$75.50, with discounts for students, seniors and subscribers. Call the NOBA box office at 522-0996, TicketMaster at 522-5555 or visit www.nobadance.com for ticket purchase.

Being Dead Is No Excuse 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29 Beaucoup Books, 3951 Magazine St., 895-2663 'Not everyone is lucky enough to die a Southerner,' says Gayden Metcalfe, co-author of Being Dead Is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral (Miramax). Along with Charlotte Hays, Metcalfe documents the rites, rituals and recipes of funerals in the Mississippi Delta. With hilarious precision, the authors dissect the culinary habits of their fellow Greenville, Miss., residents -- the Episcopalians make aspics, the Methodists use cans and the Baptists are masters of the mini-marshmallow. Although Southerners may die with grace, the book's tales of bad behavior at Delta funerals reveal that folks sometimes lose their dignity when they lose a loved one. The staff of Beaucoup Books will prepare recipes from Being Dead Is No Excuse, because you can work up an appetite laughing about the dearly departed. -- Todd A. Price

Emerson String Quartet 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 30 Tulane University, Dixon Hall, 895-0690; friendsofmusic.org Friends of Music officially celebrates its 50th anniversary with one of classical music's foremost chamber groups, the Emerson String Quartet, and special guest pianist Jeffrey Kahane. Violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, violist Lawrence Dutton and cellist David Finckel have played together for nearly 25 years and have won six Grammy awards, including one for 1997's ambitious seven-CD release of every single Beethoven quartet. They are joined by Jeffrey Kahane, one of those rare musicians who jumps on and off the podium as a soloist and a conductor. He's been a featured soloist with the likes of the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony. On the program is Franz Josef Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ, op. 51 and Johannes Brahms' Quintet in F Minor for Piano and Strings. Tickets $35 general admission, $17 students, free admission for Tulane students. -- Brown

Willem Breuker Kollektief 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Wednesday, March 30 Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro, 626 Frenchmen St., 949-0696; www.snugjazz.com Saxophonist-leader Willem Breuker and company have been touring the world for 30 years, and have produced 21 albums on the way to becoming Dutch cultural heroes. Like Gustav Mahler if he composed for a 10-piece jazz band, the Kollektief tries to corral the world in the music; brass bands, anarchic vaudeville, hymns, movie themes, R&B and baroque music are all game. As this list implies, the music is at the service of a wide emotional palette, from Spike Jones hilarity to the angst-ridden trilogy "Hunger," "Thirst" and "Misery." This is the Kollektief's first visit to the United States in a while, so it's a rare opportunity to hear a successful mix of intricate, through-composed "classical" charts interspersed with heavyweight jazz improvisation, all filtered through a continental mindset. Tickets $18. -- Tom McDermott

SweetArts Ball 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, April 1 Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St., 528-3800; www.cacno.org This year's SweetArts Ball will definitely live up to its theme "Cinematic Lovers," and not just because some of the honorees for this fundraiser for the CAC come from the local film community. Not only will film-themed costumes and attire be encouraged, but guests will be treated to rooms featuring everything from that most New York of trends, Film-aoke (in which participants can act out some of their favorite silver-screen moments), Live music will be provided by the Paradise Vendors, Java Swing, Uisdom and Zaza, with food provided by Acme Oyster House, Bank Cafe, Byblos, Zoe Restaurant, Partysist and much more. This year's honorees are Dorian Bennett, Jacqueline Bishop, Nina Buck, Henry Butler, John Desplas, Lyn Fischbach, Mark Fullmer, Luther Gray, Pat Jolly, Vince Morelli, Sandy Shilstone and Jimmie Thorns. Tickets $180 general admission, $150 CAC members, $75 "late date" ticket (general admission after 11 p.m.) general admission ($50 for CAC members). -- Simmons

Mike West and Truckstop Honeymoon 10 p.m. Friday, April 1 The Circle Bar, 1032 St. Charles Ave., 588-2616; www.circlebar.net Mike West is the 21st century Charlie Poole, a prolific chronicler of a vanishing rural lifestyle. West's 'levee hillbilly' lisping drawl, old-timey banjo picking and backwoods demeanor fool many listeners into thinking he's a character out of Deliverance, but the transplanted Australian is a sophisticated songwriter and wickedly funny social critic. Just as Poole and his Depression-era contemporaries used music as a weapon against hard times, West writes cheerily about living 'Downwind of the Refinery,' one of the songs on the new Christmas in Ocala (Squirrel). Truckstop Honeymoon is West and his wife, Katie Euliss, on a variety of acoustic instruments. They will be joined on this gig by West's longtime sidekick Sneeky Pete on more acoustic instruments. Also joining in for this CD-release party is the duo of Pistol Pete and Popgun Paul. Admission $5. -- John Swenson

Kermit Ruffins 10:30 p.m. Friday, April 1 Tipitina's, 501 Napoleon Ave., 895-TIPS; www.tipitinas.com According to Kermit Ruffins' liner notes to his new CD, Throwback (Basin Street), it was 12 or 13 years ago that he told the ReBirth Brass Band's Philip Frazier he wasn't going to be able to make a ReBirth tour to Africa. The onetime member of ReBirth had decided to stay closer to his home and family and work on a solo career. Throwback reunites Ruffins and ReBirth, and it's a prayer answered for those who love to hear Ruffins play. He's clearly part of the ensemble again -- his trumpet isn't mixed any farther forward and solos are spread around -- but it's great to hear a CD that captures the joy of living that is the soul of Ruffins' best solos. ReBirth meets him on even footing, sounding as loose and spontaneous as ever, while remaining a relentless funk machine. Tickets $12. -- Alex Rawls

Legends of the Second Line 1 p.m. Saturday, April 2 Tipitina's, 501 Napoleon Ave., 895-TIPS, www.tipitinas.com The indigenous culture of New Orleans is born in the city's streets. It's the parades, the Mardi Gras Indian practices, the guys cooking pork chop sandwiches from the back of their trucks. Tipitina's, as part of its Masters Seminars, has put together some of the veterans of New Orleans street culture to talk about its origins and manifestations and play some of its music. The lineup includes the Treme Brass Band (whose leaders Benny Jones and Uncle Lionel Batiste are two of the more dapper and eloquent spokesmen for street culture), Big Chiefs Monk Boudreaux and Larry Bannock, members of the Young Men's Olympian Social Aid and Pleasure Club, and Queen Linda Green, famous for her killer ya-ka-mein soup. This is a good way to check out street culture of New Orleans in a controlled environment. Kids are encouraged to bring instruments to jam with the bands. General admission $5; free admission for students. -- David Kunian

Evita 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2; 2 p.m. Sunday, April 9; through April 10 Jefferson Performing Arts Center, 400 Phlox Ave., 885-2000; www.jpas.org Andrew Lloyd Webber may be going all Hollywood on us (see Phantom of the Opera -- or don't), but we still remember a time when he took Broadway by storm, and there was no bigger proof of that time than 1980's Evita. The musical about the iconoclastic wife of Argentinian dictator Juan Peron won seven Tony Awards including Best Musical and later offered Madonna one of her many (failed) attempts at a movie career. (Bless her heart.) The musical is filled with sweeping numbers, including the legendary "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," which has embedded itself in the pop-culture lexicon as the source of endless puns. Brandi Cotogno, who performed as Velma Kelly in JPAS' production of Chicago, stars in the title role, while Vatican Lokey (another Chicago alum) plays Juan Peron and San Antonio native Roy Bumgarner takes on Che. Ron Bermingham conducts the JPAS Broadway Pit Band, with music direction by Glyn Bailey. Tickets $33 orchestra seats, $28 adult parquet and balcony, $15 students (18-under) in the parquet and balcony. -- Simmons

Thomas Glover: Figures Through March 31 d.o.c.s. gallery, 709 Camp St., 524-3936; www.docsgallery.com The future ain't what it used to be. In the 1930s, futurism meant streamlined and heroic -- think of art deco classics like the Empire State Building, or Rockefeller Center's heroic yet mythic sculpture. Florida sculptor Thomas Glover's sensual stone figures suggest similar sensibilities. Art deco was big on Mayan design as well as aerodynamic lines, and Glover hints at Mayan carvings in figures that suggest power, grace and erotic tension without ever being explicit. Or as he puts it, "I like to take a small group of figures arranged in such fashion as to create tension and suggest a small, momentary story. I prefer the female figure which provides a softer, more elegant line, and I like to be daring, establishing the territory and parameters of erotic art, but in a responsible manner." -- D. Eric Bookhardt