A+E

• Ariana Atkins-Salazar

If, like me, your office Dancing with the Stars pool has just begun and you were unlucky enough to draw Marla Maples so that you now have not only a snowball's cha-cha chance in hell at winning the pot, but also feel like you are covered in Drumpf cooties, take heart. You needn't watch the slow, sequined car crash.

Skip the C-list drama and see some real dancing. In fact, you've got a rare chance to see some of our area's best dancers outside of a recital or a holiday show. The Arkley Center for the Performing Arts raises its velvet curtain for Dancing Stars of Humboldt on Saturday, March 26 at 7 p.m. ($15). Expect a cavalcade of styles from dancers and studios around the county. Breakdancing head-spinners The Humboldt Rockers will be both popping and locking, while the hip-shaking Ya Habibi belly dance takes the stage in a swirl of silks. Humboldt State University's Demolition squad and Ariana Atkins-Salazar and Milo Mateer bring hip-hop moves, while the Emerald Coast Irish Dancers stomp it out. There will be ballet from Trillium Dance Studio, an en pointe solo by Iris Van Atta, as well as a hybrid jazz-ballet performance by 2016 Vienna International Ballet Experience winner Melissa Hinz. 555 Dance comes with contemporary dance, and 7- and 9-year-old prodigies Teralee and Karlee Johnson go Broadway with their Hairspray number. Seriously.

There are plenty more names on the bill, which you can check out at www.dancingstarsofhumboldt.com — you may want to stretch.

Merde, everybody.

• Photo by Jennifer Fumiko Cahill

This could be the year you hand paint those elegant, gilded Russian Easter eggs and serve that gorgeous Instagram-crushing brunch you've been virtually assembling on your Pinterest board. Unless you have small children, in which case you need to jam some candy into plastic eggs, find some new hiding places, run interference so the eldest doesn't snatch up all the chocolate bunnies and brace yourself for what the ensuing sugar rush will do to your home.

Or you could grab your camera and take the kids out for a community egg hunt in the sunshine with friends, photo ops and plenty of room to bunny hop around. On Saturday, March 26, you've got plenty of choices.

In Eureka, the Carson Park Easter Eggventure goes from 10 a.m. to noon, with games, egg hunting and an Easter Bunny meet and greet. Like all these hunts, it's free, but BYO basket. The holiday hide and seek at McKinleyville Safeway Shopping Plaza has age and special needs groups, and starts at the kiosk at 10 a.m. Catch your breath afterward with an Easter Bunny withie. The Ferndale Easter Egg Hunt gets cracking at 10:30 a.m. at the Firemen's Park with prizes to win in all age groups. The resourceful Ferndale Scouts are doing the hiding, so bring your A-game. The Soroptimists host the Eel River Valley Egg Hunt in Fortuna's Rohner Park at 10 a.m. — don't be late for the scramble — and all ages are welcome to look for goodies at the Loleta Easter Egg Hunt, 10 a.m. at the Loleta Downtown Park.

Over in Rio Dell's Fireman's Park, the hunt begins at 10:30 a.m. with more prizes, nibbles and games. Want the little ones to eat something more substantial than jelly beans? Shake a cottontail down to Bridgeville Elementary School, where a 10:30 a.m. breakfast ($4, $3 kids) precedes the noon hunt (free).

• Leprechaun

Sure, you could hit the bars for the annual amateur night that is St. Patrick's Day, guzzling green beer with a sparkly green top hat wobbling on your head. Or you could celebrate Thursday, March 17 the traditional way: by watching Leprechaun, the 1993 cult horror flick about a miniature ginger menace hassling pre-Friends Jennifer Aniston. The holiday horrors (including some terrifying '90s jean shorts) start at 10 p.m. at the Richards' Goat Miniplex ($5, 21 and up).

The unlikely seasonal slasher is a winking cross between Krampus and Chucky, spawning a lucky seven films total (if you include the 2014 reboot Leprechaun: Origins — let's not quibble). The universally panned original stars Warwick Davis, whom you may recognize from Willow or the Harry Potter movies, playing it goofy as a malevolent leprechaun who's set loose by an unwitting kid. He embarks on a gross-out killing spree in search of his — you guessed it — pot 'o gold. And in his path is young Tory, played by fresh-faced Jennifer Aniston, as yet unscathed by gossip or the Pitt-Jolie military-industrial-entertainment complex. As she stalks around in LA Gear sneakers with a shotgun, her hair, as expected, is great. No blarney.

— Jennifer Fumiko Cahill

• Courtesy of the Humboldt Juggling Festival

This weekend, you can't throw a rock without someone juggling it. From Friday, March 18 through Sunday, March 20, Humboldt State University's West Gym is commandeered by the juggling juggernaut that is the 16th annual Humboldt Juggling Festival (free). From 10 a.m. to midnight, all manner of spinning, juggling, circus skills and theater workshops are on offer free of charge. Even the truly butter-fingered can pick up some moves.

And while you may not be quite ready to run away with the circus, you'll be more than ready to appreciate the nimble hands of the folks making it look easy in Weightless at the Van Duzer Theatre on Saturday, March 19 at 7 p.m. ($15, free to kids 12 and under). Acts with names like Doctor Bonkers, Justin Credible and Something Ridiculous mean you should expect clowns, acrobats, illusionists and, of course, lots of juggling.

It's not part of the festival, but on Friday, March 18 at 7 p.m., The Flying Karamozov Brothers throw down at the Van Duzer Theatre ($46, $26, $10 HSU students). Even funnier than the Dostoyevsky novel that is their namesake, the brothers are fast and furious. Keep your eyes peeled for the part where they juggle the toughest items the audience can come up with.

— Jennifer Fumiko Cahill

• Photo by Robi Arce

The students at Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre have been digging deep for the strongest emotions and gut-wrenching moments. Sound a bit over the top? Intense? That's melodrama. And it's on display this weekend in Blue Lake.

Dell'Arte's first year ensemble leaves it all on the stage during Blood and Thunder: Melodrama Lives from Thursday, March 17 to Saturday, March 19 at 8 p.m. in the Carlo Theatre (donation). The presentation is the culmination of five weeks of study with Dell'Arte master teachers Lauren Wilson, Michael Fields and James Peck, and guest teacher Evamarii Johnson. For Blood and Thunder, students created original short plays examining the highs and lows of being in the throes of love and hatred, loyalty and jealousy, hope and revenge, tyranny and cruelty. Heightened by music and the use of exaggeration or hyperbole, the stories show how the human spirit confronts, lives with and ultimately triumphs over adversity. See how it all plays out this weekend. Don't let cash keep you away — it's pay what you can. These kids understand the struggle is real.

The Arcata Playhouse's Family Fun Series opens this weekend with the award-winning Australian Windmill Theatre's Big Bad Wolf on Friday, March 11 at 7 p.m. and March 12 at 2 and 7 p.m. ($12, $10 kids 12 and under).

This year, the Playhouse celebrates 10 years of bringing kids to the theater and the theater to the kids, at schools and at the playhouse, through its Family Fun Series. And the kick-off show is something else.

The story is an unusual take on a classic fairy tale character. The Big Bad Wolf's not bad, you see, he's simply misunderstood. As another Animal once sang, he's just a soul whose intentions are good, but people can't get past his scary appearance (he has yellow eyes and is a bit long in the tooth). Thankfully, one girl sees that he is, in fact, just a lamb in wolf's clothing, and the two of them develop a charming connection. Through song, dance, puppetry and humor, the mismatched pair discovers that true friendship knows no size, shape or species. 

Bring the kids (suitable for ages 5 and up) to this colorful show and keep your eye on the marquee. The series continues through April and May with troupes coming our way from Portland and San Francisco.