After such a warm reception by the Courtenay community last year, Helix Dance Theatre returns with its new 2011 company performing at the Old Church Theatre on May 13.

Performing at Tarbell’s Coffee Bar in Cumberland on May 13 are two of Vancouver Island’s favourite songstresses — Birgit Kuit and Joanna Finch.

Life has been a series of right turns — in more ways than one — for Corwin Fox. In his teens, an opportunity to attend an arts high school saved him from a life of petty crime. A decade later, meeting the love of his life catapulted him from the freewheeling lifestyle of a musician hitchhiking across the continent to being a dad and a full-time student.

On Saturday evening from 6 to 8 p.m., Zocalo Café, at the corner of Fifth and Cliffe in Courtenay, hosts the opening of the 2011 Mayworks Festival of Labour and the Arts Mail Art Exhibition.

A double bill comprised of Ladies of the Canyon and Old Man Luedecke — award-winning new roots and bluegrass — takes the stage at Joe’s Garage Thursday, May 12.

Tambura Rasa is a buoyant cultural cross-pollination that fuses contemporary and traditional sounds and rhythms into one energetic musical brand all their own.

Prepare yourself to witness some of the greatest up-and-coming (VIU-based) jazz talent this Thursday at the Elks’ when the Wigmore Needham Quintet takes the stage at 7:30 p.m.

The Dreamspeaker Cruising Guides have become standard reference for B.C. boaters, with their easy-to-read maps and descriptions of both popular and little-known highlights for sailors all along B.C.’s coast.

What the heck has happened to Derek Edwards?

Indigo Jazz appears monthly at the Zocalo Café, and to the great delight of the trio, the first Friday of May lands just two days prior to Mother’s Day.