Six South Carolina professional ballet companies will perform Friday night at the SC Festival of Dance: 2012 Jubilee, USC Dance’s celebration of the state’s best professional dance. The show is at the Koger Center.

The companies are: Carolina Ballet Theatre, Charleston Ballet Theatre, Columbia Classical Ballet, Columbia City Ballet, Unbound Dance and Wideman/Davis Dance. The USC Dance Company will also perform, premiering an original work by Gianni Di Marco, a former Boston Ballet dancer and a faculty member at The Boston Conservatory.

Susan Anderson, the founder of the USC Dance program and artistic director of the USC Dance Company, said the Greenville-based Carolina Ballet Theatre is the “company to watch in the state.”

“They are amazing. His dancers are just beautiful,” she continued, referring to Hernan Justo, the ballet’s artistic director.

CBT will perform “Map,” a piece by internationally known choreographer Alonzo King.

“Not everybody gets an Alonzo King,” Anderson said.

Charleston Ballet Theatre will perform “Abracadabra”; Columbia Classical Ballet, “Etude”; Columbia City Ballet, “Dracula”; Unbound Dance, “What I Cannot Control”; and Wideman/Davis Dance, USC dance program’s resident professional company, will premier a new piece.

The SC Festival of Dance will showcase the best dance companies in the state, but it will also be a recruiting opportunity. Many professionally companies operate schools, and Anderson want the companies to send their best students to USC for college.

“I want to keep them in state,” Anderson said. “I’m proud of what we have accomplished artistically at the university, and I want to show it off.”

The program begins at 7:30 p.m. The Koger Center is at 1051 Greene St. $12-$18; (803) 777-5112 or (803) 251-2222

The 10th annual Song Bird Cafe, a benefit for Sistercare, will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at Leaside. The scheduled performers: Jesse Lee, a country singer; Tyler Mechem, the frontman of the Americana rock band Crowfield; and Radney Foster, a well-respected Nashville-based performer. Song Bird Cafe allows the performers to share stories about their songs. Leaside is at 100 East Exchange Place. $100; www.sistercare.com or (803) 926-0505

Leo Twiggs will lecture at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Columbia Museum of Art. Last year the visual artist Twiggs published “Messages from Home: The Art of Leo Twiggs.” The book brushes through Twiggs’ 40-year career and has more than 150 reproductions of his paintings. Twiggs, named professor emeritus at South Carolina State University in 2000, was a longtime art professor at the university. He helped develop the university’s I.P. Stanback Museum. The museum is at Main and Hampton streets; www.columbiamuseum.org

As part of First Thursdays on Main, Nickelodeon Theatre will have a parade on Main Street. The parade will start at 7 p.m. at Main and Lady streets. (Main Street between Lady and Blanding streets will be closed between 6:30-8 p.m.) Nimbaya, a Guinean drum and dance company temporarily based in Columbia, is marching. Also scheduled to participate: Eau Claire High School marching band, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia City Ballet, Double Dutch Forces, Trustus Theatre, Next Door Drummers, Tapp’s Arts Center, Hoop Hounds, Kudzu Queens and Krewe de Columbi-Ya-Ya.

A documentary on the Jam Room will premiere at the new Nick, 1607 Main St., at 8 p.m. Also at First Thursday: FOM Series Presents: PIENSA: Blanco/Negro; and Life=Art: Imperfect Perfection at S & S Art Supply. Don’t forget about Meet Me @ the Plaza On Main. From 11:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m., tables will be set up on Boyd Plaza in front of the Columbia Museum of Art for people to eat lunch as Dick Goodwin and his band will perform music.

In its second year Cola-Con, the convention where comic and hip-hop culture meet in Columbia, will be held over two days: Friday and Saturday at the Columbia Museum. There will be appearances by comic writers and illustrators, panel discussions, vendors and, of course, music performances. Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang Clan and Phife of A Tribe Called Quest will perform. Cola-Con is from 5-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The museum is at Main and Hampton streets; $35 for museum members, $40 for non-members for a two-day pass and $20 and $25 for daily admission; www.columbiamuseum.org

if ART Gallery will present “Columbia/Kaiserslautern: The International (Mural) Project” at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios. The show, which opens Friday, is a group exhibition and mural project. The exhibition is part of an informal exchange with artists in Columbia’s sister city of Kaiserslautern, Germany. The artists featured in the show: Roland Albert, Stephen Chesley, Jeff Donovan, Ralph Gelbert, Mary Gilkerson, Tonya Gregg, Klaus Hartmann, Jorg Heieck, Peter Lenzo, Reiner Mahrlein, Janet Orselli, Anna Redwine, Silvia Rudolf, Laura Spong, H. Brown Thornton, Mike Williams and David Yaghjian. The mural, the centerpiece of the show, is being created by nine Columbia artists and two German artists. It will be a patchwork of canvases exhibited as one piece. The opening reception is 5-9 p.m. Friday. There will be a panel discussion about the exchange at 2 p.m. Oct. 7. The show runs through Oct. 16. The gallery is at 808 Lady St.; (803) 238-2351

“The Importance of Being Earnest” the Oscar Wilde comedy, will be performed by Theatre South Carolina Friday through Oct. 13 at Longstreet Theatre. Showtimes: 8 p.m. Friday and Oct. 10-12; 7 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. Oct. 7; and 7 and 11 p.m. Oct. 13. The theater is at 1300 Greene St. $12-$18 (the 11 p.m. show is half price); (803) 777-2551

The Fresh Beat Band, the stars of the nick jr. TV program of the same name, will perform at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Township Auditorium. The band — Kiki (Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer), Shout (Thomas Hobson), Marina (Tara Perry), and Twist (Jon Beavers) will perform The Fresh Beat Band hits. Fresh Beat Band Party packages, which include a meet-and-greet with the quartet, are available. The Township is at 1703 Taylor St. $28.50-$38.50; www.thetownship.org