Choices, choices, it’s all about choices when single-event tickets go on sale next week for the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts’ 2011-12 season. Staff and faculty get a one-day head start, Thursday (Aug. 11), and their usual discounts.

Dance? How about the U.S. premiere of Blanche Niege (Snow White), Angelin Preljocaj’s first full-length story ballet; or Trey McIntyre with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band?

Music? How about Chick Corea and Return to Forever IV, the much honored jazz-rock fusion ensemble, with Zappa Plays Zappa; The Chietans, on their 50th-anniversary tour; the Wayne Shorter jazz quartet; or So Percussion, a John Cage celebration?

Distinguished speakers? How about Patti Smith or Oliver Stone?

Just plain fun? How about Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo or Circus Oz?

With single-event tickets, you can attend as a nonsubscriber — that is, you have not purchased a series subscription or a choose-your-own plan (five or more events).

Single-event tickets come at a 10 percent discount for staff and faculty, or 20 percent off in the Pick 3 plan (three events of your choosing).

To take advantage of the staff-faculty head start, you must visit or call the box office from noon to 6 p.m. (No online sales during the head start period.) Telephone: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787.

Single-ticket sales open to the general public next Friday (Aug. 12).

Subscription and choose-your-own plan sales began in April — and, consequently, you may not be able to get tickets for all of your choices. As of today (Aug. 4), tickets were limited in availability for:

• k.d. lang and The Siss Boom Bang

• The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, but you're still in luck for the San Francisco Symphony.

• The Alexander String Quartet's 2 p.m. performances (three of them throughout the season), but you're still in luck for the quartet's 7 p.m. shows.

Complete information about the 2011-12 season is online. Note: Previous Dateline coverage indicated incorrectly that the twin bill of Return to Forever IV and Zappa Plays Zappa was part of the 2010-11 season; in fact, the Sept. 21 RTF-Zappa concert is the first event of the new season.

Read about special themes in the new season: Spirit of New Orleans and Focus on India.

Click here for online ticket sales. Box office hours: noon-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and one hour before ticketed events. Telephone: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787.

Reubens event canceled

Paul "Pee-wee Herman" Reubens has turned from comedian to magician in
the blink of an eye. Last week he was a late addition to the Mondavi Center's 2011-12 season. This week he disappeared from the schedule, with a Mondavi Center spokesman attributing the cancellation to a scheduling conflict, nothing more, nothing less.

Reubens had been scheduled for a spoken-word engagement on Dec. 3.

SummerMusic on the Quad

"Imagine a scene from a Bollywood movie, smack in the middle of a thumping nightclub — swirling colors, the rhythm of pounding feet and the relentless energy of brilliant beats." This is Non Stop Bhangra — as described on the NSB website, heralding the Indian dance party held monthly in San Francisco.

On Saturday, Aug. 13, DJ Jimmy Love and the Dholrhythms Dance Company bring their celebration of Punjabi folk music and dance to UC Davis.

Non Stop Bhangra is the second and final program in this year's free SummerMusic series presented by the Mondavi Center. The series opened July 16 with the Cajun sounds of Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys, drawing an estimated 1,000 people to the Quad.

The NSB show is set to open with a dance lesson for the audience. Dance performances will follow, with Love spinning a mix of bhangra, hip-hop, reggae and electronica.

The Quad opens at 6 p.m. for picnicking, and NSB begins at 7:30 p.m. Alcoholic beverages are prohibited on the campus.

Read more about SummerMusic on the Quad.

Follow Dateline UC Davis on Twitter.