11 things to do in San Diego this weekend: Mojalet Dance Collective, Tanabata Festival, ‘Rock of Ages’

Mojalet Dance Collective presents 2019 Summer Series @ The Vine

7 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 4:30 p.m Sundays. Through Sept. 15. The Vine Theater at Bernardo Winery, 13330 Paseo Del Verano, Rancho Bernardo. $10-$16. (858) 243-1402. mojalet.com

Mojalet Dance Collective’s Faith Jensen-Ismay is launching her annual weekend summer dance series this week with a new perspective. She’s unafraid. “I’m more open and vulnerable about life,” explains Jensen-Ismay, who co-founded her contemporary dance company in 1991. “In the past, I think I was afraid of putting in too much movement or making it too emotional. I want the dancers to feel like they are expressing their technical abilities or athleticism, and I found that I’m finding a better balance choreographically. My work is a lot more about the community.” Jensen-Ismay connects with members of the dance community near and far to schedule a diverse lineup of dance performances at The Vine Theater, located within the shaded grounds of the bucolic Bernardo Winery. Shows begin Saturday with the California Rhythm Project’s TapRoots. Nearly a dozen tappers will install their own floor (for maximum sound effect) and pay tribute to African-American tap greats. MARCIA MANNA

Ian Anderson’s 50 Years of Jethro Tull

8 p.m. Sunday. San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown. $56.50-$106.50, plus service charges. ticketmaster.com

Ian Anderson founded the English progressive-rock band Jethro Tull in late 1968. By late 1971, he was the sole original member in the group, which went through three dozen or so lineup changes before ceasing to exist earlier in this century. Moreover, Anderson is no fan of nostalgia, which is why it’s doubly intriguing he is now leading the Ian Anderson Band in a tribute to Jethro Tull’s 50th anniversary.He’s doing so with a quintet that features two latter-day members of Jethro Tull — and two members who weren’t alive when the band formed. GEORGE VARGA

Fleet Science Center presents “Turtle Odyssey”

Open today. Fleet Science Center, 1875 El Prado, Balboa Park. Part of admission: $18.95-$21.95. (619) 238-1233. rhfleet.org

Travel the world with an Australian green sea turtle named Bunji in the new film “Turtle Odyssey,” which opened Friday at Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park. The film, narrated by Russell Crowe, “explores the unique lifecycle of an Australian green sea turtle ... and her incredible journey across the open ocean.” The film, to be shown in IMAX, “follows Bunji from a hatchling into adulthood as she swims thousands of miles, meets incredible creatures and has some really wild encounters. She will eventually migrate, with mysterious precision, back to the very beach where she was born — to lay her own eggs that are the foundation of the next generation.” Sea turtles, which have been around since the dinosaur era, are protected by the Endangered Species Act in the United States. “We are thrilled to have Russell Crowe narrate the film as he is already such a champion of turtle conservation. It was a natural fit for all of us, and the perfect way to give a voice to an animal that now more than ever needs to be heard,” says the film’s producer, David Gross. MICHAEL JAMES ROCHA

“Jaws”

8 p.m. tonight, Saturday, and Sunday. La Paloma Theatre, 471 S. Coast Highway 101, Encinitas. $10. brownpapertickets.com

Go back to the summer of 1975, when a great white shark was scary enough on screen to keep people out of the water in real life. La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas is showing “Jaws” through Sunday. One of the highest-grossing films of all time and based on the novel of the same name, the story follows the response to the death of a young woman killed by the shark. While the police chief in the beach town wants to close the beaches, the mayor keeps them open to attract tourism revenue for the town. So a scientist and a ship captain help the police chief go after the ferocious killer. LISA DEADERICK

Bayside Summer Nights presents The Midtown Men

7:30 p.m. Saturday. Embarcadero Marina Park South, 200 Marina Park Way, San Diego. $31-$92. (619) 235-0804. sandiegosymphony.org

It’s been 10 years since Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard and J. Robert Spencer first got together to form The Midtown Men. Now the quartet — all original members of the Broadway smash hit and La Jolla Playhouse-sprung “Jersey Boys” — is back on the road for the official The Midtown Men Tenth Anniversary Tour, where the foursome brings to the stage iconic songs from the 1960s, including music by The Beatles, Elvis, The Beach Boys and, of course, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. On Saturday, they’ll be performing as part of the San Diego Symphony’s Bayside Summer Nights. The concert, which will not feature the San Diego Symphony orchestra, will have UC Irvine grad Quinn VanAntwerp filling in for Spencer, who has previous engagement this weekend. But on hand will be San Diego resident Hoff, who won a Tony in 2006 for his portrayal of Tommy DeVito in “Jersey Boys.” MICHAEL JAMES ROCHA

Tanabata Festival

Noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Japanese Friendship Garden, 2215 Pan American Road E., Balboa Park. $16 general; $14 seniors (65 and up), students and military. (619) 232-2721. niwa.org/tanabata

The Japanese Friendship Garden, in partnership with the Minatomo Japanese Community, will host its inaugural Tanabata, or Star Festival, on Sunday in Balboa Park. “We are excited to have the first Tanabata Festival in San Diego,” said Jon Osio, the Friendship Garden’s event and marketing coordinator. “Like the Cherry Blossom Festival and Obon Festival, Tanabata will introduce cultural aspects to visitors through activity booths, performances and traditional customs.” The garden will be embellished with fukinagashi kazari — large ball decorations with paper flowers — and colored streamers amassed from the Los Angeles Tanabata Festival, which will be celebrating its 11th year. From that acquisition, Osio said that the idea of having a traveling kazari (decorations) display came about, with the Tanabata Festival being the platform to promote it. CAROLINA GUSMAN

PAWmicon 2019

11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Comic-Con Museum, 2131 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park. $10-$20; $10 cosplay contest entry per dog. animalcenter.org/events/pawmicon

Bring the family and your canine sidekick for a celebration of heroes big and small at the seventh annual PAWmicon convention Sunday. Taking place 12 days before its human counterpart, Comic-Con, the “Cosplay for a Cause” pup-culture festival, benefiting the Helen Woodward Animal Center, will get local and out-of-town comic book enthusiasts pumped for all things superhero. Festivities include the all-important PAWsplay contest, a science fiction coalition “movie set” to take action-packed photos of Fido, music, games, pop-culture trivia competitions, food, vendors, and so much more. You may even catch a glimpse or two of such uniquely comic critters like Bark Panther and Arf-quaman. CAROLINA GUSMAN

“The Tale of Despereaux”

7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, (and additional times and days through Aug. 11) at the Old Globe Theatre, Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park. $32-$99. (619) 234-5623. theoldglobe.org

PigPen Theatre Co. charmed Old Globe audiences in 2017 with its fable-like “The Old Man and The Old Moon.” Now the company returns with this world-premiere musical take on the children’s story about a brave mouse who dreams of becoming a knight. JAMES HEBERT

‘miXtape’

7:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 7:30 p.m Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through Aug. 11. Lamb’s Players Theatre, 1142 Orange Ave., Coronado. $18-$78. (619) 437-6000. lambsplayers.org

When the ‘80s revue “miXtape” originally landed at downtown’s Horton Grand Theatre in 2010, it was all about celebrating that decade of MTV, big hair and weird pop-culture fixations (Cabbage Patch Dolls, anyone?) Now, as Lamb’s Players Theatre brings the musical back in a brand-new production, it’s still about those things. But it’s been long enough since the original staging that the experience now is conceivably also about nostalgia for “miXtape” itself. (And to quote Moon Unit Zappa, that Bard of 1982’s “Valley Girl”: “Uh, I don’t know if I can handle this.”) JAMES HEBERT

“Rock of Ages”

Opens Saturday. 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays–Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through Aug. 25. Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., Old Town. $35-$65 (discounts available). (619) 337-1525. cygnettheatre.com

If you can’t live the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, at least you can belly up to the rock ’n’ roll bar — the same one that the guitar-slingers and glam-metal singers of “Rock of Ages” preside over. The musical, after all, is set at a joint called the Bourbon Room, and Cygnet Theatre’s production of the satirical, rock-saturated Broadway show will boast a working version of the bar where patrons can pop onstage to grab a drink before the performance and at intermission. That’s part and parcel of the real-and-raw feel this Southern California regional premiere of the show is going for, say lead actors Megan Carmitchel and Rory Gilbert. And it apparently extends to the comportment of the crowd. JAMES HEBERT

“Wally Gilbert: From Science to Art”

Through July 25. City Gallery, AH314, San Diego City College, 1508 C St., San Diego. facebook.com/citygallerySDCC

From running a research lab at Harvard University to co-founding two biotech companies, scientist and artist Wally Gilbert (he shares a Nobel Prize for developing one of the first methods to rapidly sequence DNA) specializes in digital art photography, which is currently on exhibit here in San Diego. LISA DEADERICK