Florida seems to be a good place to enjoy Russian culture this month. Unfortunately, for the first event, you have to be there this afternoon.

Today at 4 p.m., the University of Florida's Phillips Center for Performing Arts in Gainesville will host Les Folies Russes. It's being billed as "what happens when you combine the glitz and glamour of a Las Vegas floor show with the warmth and charm of Russian folk art." The 50-member dance troupe has been touring the United States, and I apologize for not noting its other tour dates. But I've got an e-mail out to the tour organizer now, and if there are other performances coming, I'll let you know.

The Russian National Ballet Theatre and Orchestra will be at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, performing Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet on Monday, April 9 at 8 p.m.

Also on April 9, the National Philharmonic of Russia will perform at 7:30 p.m. at the Phillips Center. On the program is Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture and two works by Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Symphonic Dances.


Here are other Russian cultural events of note around the U.S.

Tonight at 7 p.m. The Bowery Poetry Club in New York City will hold an "Evening of Contemporary Russian Writers". The event will feature Anastasia Chekhovskaya, Elena Fanailova, Iana Tokareva and Tatiana Zima, reading in both Russian and English. Chekhovskaya has twice won the Debut Award, one of Russia’s top prizes for young authors.

For something totally different, how about Red Elvises, an alternative rock group formed by three Russians and one American. They'll be performing what they call "Siberian surf rock" at Old Ironsides in Sacramento, Calif. on Monday, April 2, at 9 p.m. and again at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle on Saturday, April 14.

Two arts events of note. On April 7, the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. will open "The Heritage of the Russian Avant-Garde: Vladimir Sterligov and His School". This was a group of abstract painters who worked in Leningrad from 1960 to 1990. The show runs through October 14.

Christie's will host a major auction of Russian art on Wednesday, April 18, in New York City. The centerpiece of the show, Vasilii Vereshchagin’s Solomon’s Wall, is expected to fetch between $3 million and $5 million. The painting has been part of the collection of the Berkeley Art Museum in California.

And finally, on Thursday, April 26, the Russian National Ballet will be performing Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty at the Calvin Theatre and Performing Arts Center in Northampton, Mass.