Dance: One of the innovations of the Miami-based Knight Foundation has been its Random Acts of Culture, many of which can be seen on YouTube. Don’t be surprised next week if you see something similar here from Ballet Palm Beach, Colleen Smith’s Palm Beach Gardens-based dance troupe. This coming Thursday, the company will do 10-minute “flash ballets” at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, and Whole Foods Market at University Commons in Boca Raton, and Mizner Park. Many more are planned on Friday and Saturday in south county, Palm Beach island and north county, and it’s a charming way to get the word out about this inventive little company; its 13th season begins Oct. 25 with a program of dance set to music by Astor Piazzolla and Glenn Miller. For more information, visit www.balletpalmbeach.org.
Film: You need not be a fan of golf to enjoy Josh Greenbaum’s new documentary, The Short Game, about an international golf tournament for 7- and 8-year-olds. True, you might identify more with the joys and frustrations that these skilled kids go through, but it is the human story that radiates throughout the film, not unlike the spelling bee movie Spellbound from 2002. Adding to the involvement for area moviegoers is the fact that two youngsters from here, Allan Kournikova of Palm Beach and Alexa Pano of Lake Worth, are prominently featured, hitting the dimpled ball straight and true. And when things go wrong for them in the tournament — as they inevitably do — it is easy to identify with their 7-year-old’s emotional meltdown. Opening this weekend at the Muvco Parisian in CityPlace.
Theater: The theater community’s attention this weekend is focused on Boca Raton, where theatrical costume mogul Marilynn Wick opens her self-named playhouse, saving the former Caldwell Theatre from becoming a Walgreens or CVS pharmacy. In a month and a half, she will open her costume museum on the site, but now she unveils the first production of her family-friendly slate of musicals and comedies. She opens with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final collaboration, The Sound of Music, in a production patterned after the most recent Broadway revival. Surely it is no coincidence that she happens to have the original costumes from that revival. Continuing through Oct. 20. Call (561) 995-2333 for tickets.
Music: It’s the second night of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s first fall season since it first took the summer stage in July 1992. In its low-key way, it has held down the fort for the local classical arts, and its summer concerts are always interesting and worth attending. Tonight’s concert at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church marks the group’s first appearance there, and the program includes music by Gebauer, Martinů, Copland and the sublime Clarinet Quintet of Mozart. Tickets are $20, and the music starts at 7:30 p.m. Call 800-330-6874 or visit www.pbcmf.org.