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player ready...During a Family Fun Concert at RAVINIA, some members of the JOFFREY BALLET of Chicago will perform pas de deuxes with dancers in wheelchairs and ride piggyback on their chairs in a piece called “Portrait of a Hitch.” On their own, the Joffrey dancers will present “Pas des Deesses,” a classical ballet with dancers on point, “Inner Space” in which 3 barefoot dancers thud around inside a lucite box, and a dance performed to the music of Prince. “Children will see dancers stretching the boundaries of the types of people who can dance and also the types of movement that are called dance,” says Harriet Ross, the company’s outreach coordinator. ” `Can’ is the word.”
Family Fun Concert, 2 p.m. Saturday; Ravinia, Lake-Cook and Green Bay Roads, Highland Park. $5. 847-266-5100.
Children will be able to listen to stories passed down through the generations and others based on published works at the Fox Valley Folk Music, Dance and Storytelling Festival. They will also be able to create their own puppets with papier mache heads in a two-day workshop, make jewelry and other crafts and learn how to make percussive sounds using kitchen utensils. After sitting still for a while, they can let off steam during the Kids Olympics and run a three-legged race or one using potato sacks.
Fox Valley Folk Music, Dance and Storytelling Festival, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday; Kane County Government Center, Route 31 at Third St., Geneva. $10 adults, free for children under 12; 630-844-3655.
A number of injured birds of prey who can no longer survive in the wild find a home at the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center. They include a blind screech owl and a hawk whose wing was injured in a collision with an airplane. In their own habitat, these warrior birds, equipped with talons and tearing beaks, are formidable hunters. In captivity they may live to be 20 or 25 years old, while on their own they may encounter natural enemies or kids with slingshots. The program at the Little Red Schoolhouse will help people to understand the virtues of these birds of prey and the reasons to respect and protect them.
Birds of Prey, 10 a.m. Sunday, Little Red Schoolhouse, 9800 Willow Springs Rd., Willow Springs. Free. 708-839-6897.
Children will discover how artists create self-portraits as well as likenesses of others in an activity called ART! at the Kraft Education Center of the Art Institute. They can add their artwork to a canvas on the floor depicting a portrait of Van Gogh and choose their own colors to fill in the outlines of portraits by other artists on small sheets of heavy paper. To celebrate the new installation of the Galleries of Contemporary Art, a portrait of Mao by Andy Warhol will be projected on the wall to oversee how children create their own cultural revolutions.
ART!, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sunday; Kraft Education, Art Institute, Michigan Avenue and Adams Street. $7 adults, $3.50 children. 312-443-3600.
Children can use fat pieces of chalk to color to their hearts’ content on the sidewalk in front of the Children in Paradise Bookstore. Some will follow their individual inspiration while others may get carried away with a spirit of community and work together on a mural. One thing is certain: a crowd of adults is sure to gather to remember with nostalgia the times they used to create ephemeral masterpieces on cement.
Sidewalk Chalk Extravaganza, 11 a.m. Saturday, Children in Paradise Bookstore, 909 N. Rush St. Free. 312-951-KIDS.