DANCE

WHEELDON ON HIS TOES Amid critical and public acclaim for the New York debut of his ballet company, which had its opening on Wednesday, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon holds a free public rehearsal. Balletomanes are invited to sit in on a practice session of the newly formed Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company. Mr. Wheeldon leads a discussion of the artistic process involved in creating new works, and an open conversation with the audience. Ultimately, the young choreographer intends to demystify dance and help to cultivate a new generation of dance audiences. The company’s inaugural season concludes Sunday, and tickets are currently on sale. Friday, 4 p.m., New York City Center, 131 W. 55th St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues, 212-581-1212, free.

ART

HER VERY OWN Françoise Gilot might be best known for her love affairs. She was the wife of the late physician Jonas Salk, who created the first polio vaccine, and a mistress of Pablo Picasso. Ms. Gilot is a formidable painter in her own right, filling large expanses of canvas with solid color in her many abstract works. “Françoise Gilot: Compositions, 2002–2005” celebrates the 85-year-old’s career. Selections include “The Tree of Life” (2002). Through Saturday, December 1, Sunday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., New York Studio School, 8 W. 8th St. at Fifth Avenue, 212-673-6466, free.

UNDER WRAPS Kohei Yoshiyuki’s provocative exhibit “The Park,” at Yossi Milo Gallery, features shots of clandestine gatherings taken in various Tokyo parks during the 1970s. In the September 6 New York Sun, critic David Cohen wrote, “The thrill and squalor of these images reflects far more on the act of taking them than the actions captured.” Through Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Yossi Milo Gallery, 525 W. 25th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-414-0370, free.

FOOD & DRINK

DARJEELING UNLIMITED A behind-the-scenes view of one of the city’s most elegant luxury hotels, the Waldorf-Astoria, is on offer during a “High Tea” hosted by the 92nd Street Y. Participants are given a tour of the Waldorf’s ornate banquet halls and guest suites, where heads of state, socialites, and the well-heeled have laid their heads. Tea is served on the hotel’s fabled Cocktail Terrace. Friday, noon, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, 301 Park Ave., between 49 and 50th streets, 212-415-5500, $55.

TALKS

ARBUS AND BEYOND Diane Arbus is considered to have had not only a seminal influence on photography, but also on much of contemporary art. A photography historian and curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Sandra Phillips, discusses the goals that Arbus worked toward during her career, and the impressions she left on her photographic subjects. Sunday, 3 p.m., Rutgers University, Zimmerli Art Museum, 71 Hamilton St. at College Avenue, New Brunswick, N.J., 732-932-7237, free.

THEATER

THE GREAT PERFORMERS The Town Hall’s third annual Broadway Cabaret Festival celebrates the spectrum of Broadway musicals, from classic to contemporary productions, and the stage performers who populate the casts. The composer of such hits as “Godspell,” “The Magic Show,” and “Wicked,” Stephen Schwartz, is honored during the festival’s kick-off event. Performers Liz Callaway, Judy Kuhn, and Lari White, among others, pay tribute to the composer. Friday, 8 p.m., Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd St., between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, 212-307-4100, $50 for three weekend performances.

THE MUSIC MAN A prolific composer, Irving Berlin, wrote more than 1,200 songs, and scored a dozen-plus Broadway shows, as well as several Hollywood motion pictures. The musical “I Love a Piano” comprises more than 60 songs from Berlin’s catalog, including “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Ray Roderick and Michael Berkeley are artistic directors of the show. The production takes the audience on a journey through several decades of American music. Sunday, 3 p.m., Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, 2900 Campus Rd. at Hillel Place, Walt Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, 718-951-4500, $25.

OFFICE SPACE The lives of a receptionist and her coworkers are changed when a handsome businessman comes to town, in “The Receptionist.” The play is written by Adam Bock and directed by Joe Mantello, the director of Broadway’s “Wicked.” Among the featured cast members is Jayne Houdyshell, who was nominated for a Tony Award last year for her role in Lisa Kron’s comedy “Well.”

Through Sunday, December 23, New York City Center, 131 W. 55th St., between 6th and 7th avenues, 212-581-1212, $75.

TOURS

GREEN COMMUNITY The Municipal Art Society offers an interactive element to its latest exhibit, “Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York,” with a walking tour of Forest Hills, Queens, which was recently dubbed the no. 1 “garden community” in America by Cottage Living magazine. Jacobs criticized such “garden city” planning, but the tour aims to explore whether Jacobs would have approved of other elements of the town. An architecture columnist for The New York Sun, Francis Morrone, leads the tour. Saturday, 2 p.m., meet at Austin and Continental streets, near the 71st St./ Continental subway stop on the G/ R/F/V/E trains, 212-935-2075, $15 general, $12 members.

SCULPTURE

WELL-DESERVED RELIEF Eli Bornstein, a Milwaukee native born in 1922, is considered a pioneer of the Structurist Relief movement, which sprang from the constructivist movements of painting and sculpture that developed between 1915 and 1922 in Russia and the Netherlands. Bornstein’s work features colorful planes of enameled aluminum that seem to defy dimensions, with small pieces rising or jutting into the foreground. Selections include “Double Plane Structurist Relief No.12” (Summer Growth Series, 1974–77), above. Through Saturday, November 24, Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Forum Gallery, 745 Fifth Ave., between 57th and 58th streets, 5th floor, 212-355-4545, free.

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