Art Beat

This weekend you can enjoy some professional dance, witness a live storytelling event, and check out a festival dedicated to bringing communities together through films celebrating the people, stories and cultures that make D.C. unique.

You can dance the blues away at two local performances by avaunt-garde companies, or check out some text-based paintings that highlight how information can be relayed through abstract art.

You can revel in the beauty of indie-cinema this week at the oldest independent film festival in Washington. Then you can check out a gallery exhibition dedicated to D.C.'s favorite fleeting flower.

The outside world is brought indoors at two gallery exhibitions. You can check out a collection of paintings focusing on the Eastern Shore and a series on graffiti that highlights the important role of names in the art form.

This weekend you can do the time warp, see some powerful art, and take part in the world's largest Francophone festival.

A coming-of-age story hits the stage on the last day of Black History Month, and two art exhibits show the vast uses for photography.

The places we go, people we meet and things we do can greatly impact our worldview and sense of self. In the case of the artistically inclined, it can also inform their work.

Using art as your time machine, you can travel back to the Civil War-era, or the not-so-distant past of the 1990s.

You might not be "from" here, but this week you can enjoy some art that has its roots in D.C., from go-go enthusiasts, to mohawked moshers, to street painters and a locally-educated comedian.

This weekend you can reflect on the concept of community with two contemporary dance performances and meditative music.

Times and styles change, but art never expires. You can see contemporary and traditional art at two local exhibits.

This month you can learn more about Nordic cultures through a festival and new exhibition showcasing work by Danish painter Anna Ancher.

Do unseen forces guide our world? This week you can watch gods and mortals interact in a play and see one man's attempt to capture the almighty through his camera lens.

Change can be a good thing, but it's not always easy to adapt to new situations and surroundings.