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Dance

The city of Los Angeles has not yet settled a 2-year-old lawsuit filed by the Lula Washington Dance Theatre over the seizure of property previously approved as the site for Washington’s long-planned community dance center. But Washington, right, isn’t sitting on her hands. On Saturday, she’s staging a benefit performance at downtown’s restored Orpheum Theatre to raise funds to renovate her new company studios on South Crenshaw Boulevard. Guests include Debbie Allen, Jasmine Guy, Tavis Smiley, Ronald E. Brown and Rudy Perez.

Movies

For its 50th anniversary, Vittorio de Sica’s neo-realist classic, “Umberto D,” below, is being re-released with a freshly restored 35-millimeter print. De Sica’s collaboration with screenwriter Cesare Zavattini focuses on an afternoon in the life of a retired bureaucrat facing loneliness and degradation in post-World War II Italy. Opens Friday, exclusively at the Regent Showcase in Hollywood.

Also: Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand and James Franco star in the melodrama “City by the Sea.” De Niro plays a veteran Manhattan detective whose father was executed and whose estranged son may face the same fate. Opens Friday.

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Jazz

Karrin Allyson was Grammy-nominated earlier this year for best jazz vocal performance for her CD “Ballads--Remembering John Coltrane.” She didn’t win, but the nomination vaulted her to the top of her genre. Allyson does a one-night stand Tuesday at the intimate Spazio in Sherman Oaks.

Theater

A reluctant prodigal son finds himself mired in family expectations when he returns home at the request of his sister and father in “Jumping for Joy,” a dark comedy by Jon Marans, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for “Old Wicked Songs.” Starring veterans of TV, stage and screen Allan Miller, Daniel Nathan Spector and Deborah Van Valkenburgh, the world-premiere play opens Saturday at the Laguna Playhouse.

Art

An exhibition of commissioned works by 15 contemporary artists explores the contention that the U.S.-Mexico border, or “Bajalta” California, is one continuous urban region in “Mixed Feelings: Art and Culture in the Postborder Metropolis,” opening Wednesday at USC’s Fisher Gallery.

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Pop Music

Organizers of the Sprite Liquid Mix Tour say it’s designed to reflect the urban experience, but for hip-hop fans it looks mainly like a chance to see Jay-Z, below, one of rap’s major stars. The headliner is joined by rock band 311, Hoobastank, N.E.R.D., Nappy Roots, Talib Kweli and others, along with sports, art and fashion demonstrations. On Saturday at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine.

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