Our Picks

5. IDEALS & ISMS

[ON STAGE] Dance troupes Inspirit and VTDance team up for two programs that challenge cultural "isms" from an idealistic perspective. Inspirit's four-part piece, "Past Her Rites," explores the identities of the modern professional woman, set to the music of Nina Simone and Mocean Worker. VTDance's solo work "Render and Proceed" focuses on media and humanity through video projections of icons and commercials, images of humanitarianism and live cello accompaniment.

Saturday at 8 p.m., March 9 at 4 p.m. Dance Place, 3225 Eighth St. NE. $22; seniors, students, artists and teachers $17; children $8. 202-269-1600.

-- Sunday Source staff

Critics' Choice

DEGAS TO DIEBENKORN: THE PHILLIPS COLLECTS

[EXHIBIT] Set aside a leisurely chunk of time to walk through the Phillips Collection's exhibition and study the 110 works the museum has gathered in the past decade. You'll learn about 20th-century experimental artists who became masters. And there are oddball links, such as the motif of eyeglasses in a 1967 silk screen from Jasper Johns and a 2000 oil by Wayne Thiebaud.

-- Jacqueline Trescott

Through May 25. Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St. NW. $12, seniors and students $10. 202-387-2151.

ALICE SMITH

[CONCERT] Alice Smith is usually filed under R&B, but the artist with the big, swooping voice and multiform style doesn't quite fit in that tidy categorical box. Her great major-label debut, "For Lovers, Dreamers & Me," suggests Fiona Apple channeling Nina Simone singing the pop-rock blues. Smith is a knockout live performer, too: a live wire with a serious theatrical streak.

-- J. Freedom du Lac

Wednesday at 8 p.m. Rams Head Tavern, 33 West St., Annapolis. $21. 410-268-4545. March 9 at 8 p.m. Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. $15. 202-667-7960.