We Love Durham NC

Dance Class PTA Fundraiser

Get ready for a fun-filled day of Dance on Saturday, November 15th from 1 - 5 pm at Barriskill Dance Theatre School located at 3642 Shannon Rd Durham 27707.

Barriskill Dance Theatre School opens its doors to Durham Public Schools’ students, teachers, their family and friends courtesy of a partnership between Barriskill Dance Theatre School and your PTA.

Support your school’s PTA as you dance all day. Choose from a wide variety of classes. Take as many as you like for ONLY $10 per family! All proceeds to go your school’s PTA.

Barriskill Dance Theatre School - 3642 Shannon Rd Durham 27707 — To register, please visit: www.barriskilldance.com

Saturday, November 15 (suggested $10 donation per family for unlimited number of classes — all proceeds go to your school’s PTA)

1:00 pm — Creative Dance through storytelling (ages K - Gr.2)
1:00 pm — Hip Hop (10 yrs and up)
2:00 pm — Zumba (teenage and up)
2:00 pm — African Dance (all ages)
3:00 pm — Hippity Hop (6 - 10 yrs)
3:00 pm — Broadway HairSpray (11 yrs and up)
4:00 pm — Broadway High School Musical (6 - 10 yrs)
4:00 pm — Adult Dance Fit (teenage and up)
4:00 pm — Salsa Tots (parent/child: 15 months - 6yrs)

For questions or more information, please contact Katherine Hirsh at 401-2399 or akhirsh@gmail.com or Michael Barriskill at 489-5100 or michael@barriskilldance.com

Tags: dance, school fundraiser

CenterFest for Kids

CenterFest returns this fall with lots of new activities for the little ones.

The 35 year old street festival will be held the weekend of September 20-21 near the Downtown Durham YMCA. Kids’ activities led by the Durham Arts Council include Paint Like Picasso, Magical Music, and Jazzy Jewelry Kids. James Lim, of Immense Events and CenterFest Event Coordinator, confirms that these activities are free for festival visitors.

Other activities, such as Paint Savvy face painting, train rides, and a moon bounce, have a small fee.

Performers your kids won’t want to miss:
Bull City Gymnastics
Bouncing Bulldogs
Sandbox
Encore Dance
Barriskill Dance

Several local nonprofit groups will have exhibits, including the Girl Scouts, the Fire Department, Durham’s Partnership for Children, churches, and political parties. Most of these will have stickers, magnets, and other giveaways in addition to information on programs for kids.

A $4 donation per person is suggested at the gate.

Remembering from last year, if the weather is warm, it gets hot on the asphalt and there’s little shade and seating. Bring a water bottle and strollers for the little ones, too.

Children’s Theater in Downtown Durham

Starting Friday, August 22nd, through September 14th, Find the Light Community Theatre in Downtown Durham will present Marmalade Gumdrops by Carol Lauck for ages “5 to 15 and parents of all ages.”

Shows are Fridays at 6:30pm, Saturdays 2:30pm, and Sundays 2:30pm. Tickets are $7.

Location: 124 W. Parrish Street, around the corner from the Bull.

Marmalade Gumdrops is about an imaginative 10 year old boy in his room. Characters include the boy, his bed, a chair, a bookcase, and a “not too bright” floor lamp.

See the Marmalade Gumdrops flyer here.

The director is Gennaro D’Onofrio. Yes, you’ve heard that last name before if you’re a Law & Order fan. Yes, that’s his dad.

Library Show Afternoon

We caught two free shows at the library yesterday afternoon. The first was a Science Magic show with Dr. Elwell and his assistant Mike. We saw a Cartesian diver, a “clock” reaction of iodine and starch, a “stoplight” reaction caused by shaking a liquid, DNA from a strawberry, blue and red dyes extracted from grape soda, and dyes that reacted to acids or bases. The kids were sufficiently convinced that magic was happening, but also want to try the experiments at home. If you click the links above, it will tell you how some of the “magic” happens.

(Ms. Elwell told us if we liked this, to check out the Destiny Bus from UNC that comes around once a month. Dates are not set for 2008-2009, but the next one is in August. I also recommend books by Janice VanCleave.)

After a short intermission to walk over to Harris Teeter with our friends to get a dragon cookie, check our blood pressure, and zoom around in the rocket cart (I also bought an onion to go with squash for dinner), we walked back to watch the next show from Bright Star Children’s Theatre based out of Asheville.

The company’s costumes were primarily handmade, and brilliant. When Sadie the caterpillar came onto stage, several toddlers screamed at the strange realistic creature. Other characters were a grumpy roach from the Bronx, a British ladybug, a peppy sunflower, and of course The Beautiful Thing that Caterpillars Become. The story was about overcoming bullies, feeling great about who you are, and not judging people by what they look like.

We biked home, happy with a fun afternoon. A block from home the Boy ran slam into the back of a parked pickup truck. No broken bones this time, and amazingly both the bike and truck were also unharmed. Bless his heart.

Squash and crockpot for dinner. Early bedtime. Great day had by all!

Still Spots and Scholarships at the Durham Arts Council

There are still scholarships available at the Durham Arts Council Summer Arts Programs. Call (919) 560-2726 for more information.

American Dance Festival and Nasher Family Fun

From the Nasher newsletter:

“Saturday, June 21st: The American Dance Festival, this year celebrating its 75th season, invites families and children of all ages to experience the joy of dance. The day begins with a one-hour children’s matinee by Pilobolus at 1 p.m. at Duke University’s Page Auditorium on west campus. Tickets are $12. Call Duke Box Office at (919) 684-4444.

The fun continues at the Nasher Museum from 2 to 4:30 p.m. with activities including an African Dance and Drumming workshop, a workshop with The Scrap Exchange, entertainment by Paperhand Puppet Intervention and Hooping, a new activity combining meditation, dance, circus, athleticism and play.

Activities at the Nasher Museum are free and open to the public. For more information, go to American Dance Festival.”

Sarah’s Compost Bucket

My dad sent money for my birthday a while back and I knew immediately what I would spend it on, this compost bucket from Sarah’s House of Clay. I finally got around to doing so at the Durham Farmer’s Market on Wednesday.

My dear Granny, also named Sarah, would make her biscuits in an old brown melamine bowl ~ massaging shortening into the dry ingredients and then quickly and gently squeezing in buttermilk ~ then use the bowl for other dinner scraps to toss over the railroad tracks. She’s my composting inspiration, and this bucket is going to remind me of all kinds of nice things when I use it. I hope it will survive long enough for my own grandkids to remember.

I feel bad showing the world I threw out perfectly good spinach, but it was not; it was uncharacteristically bitter (not from the DFM).

Artists in DurhamÂ

Durham Divas

One more Y post. There are photos on the bulletin boards of a senior citizen cheerleader group based out of the Durham YMCA. Now that looks like fun. Stay active!

Durham Kids’ Theater

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Rags To Riches theatre for young audiences will be presenting,”Caught in
the Web,” a collection of Ananse Spider Tales from Africa, on Friday,
April 25th at 10:00am at Duke Memorial United Methodist Church in
Whitford Hall, 504 W. Chapel Hill St., Durham, NC 27701. Tickets are on
sale now $5.00 for everyone 2 and up. For ticket information please call
Melody Peters at 919-423-8696 or by e-mail at mpeters4@nc.rr.com.

Also, We will be performing at all of the libraries in Durham, NC during
the week of April 14-19. Please let me know if they have sent this
information already. If not I can send you the specific show titles and
branches and specific dates.

For the beginning of May you might want to highlight a few dates as you
usually do. We will be performing,”The Paul Bunyan Tales,” on Sunday,
May 4th at 4:30pm at the Broad Street Cafe, 1116 Broad St., Durham, NC
27705. Tickets $5.00 at the door. For information call 919-416-9707 or
www.TheBroadStreetCafe.com. For more information on Rags To Riches
theatre for young audiences please call Melody Peters at 919-423-8696 or
by e-mail at mpeters4@nc.rr.com.

Durham Rocks

Need a smile? Wear a Durham Rocks t-shirt. Works every time.
I wonder if there are a lot of them for sale in the 305 South Anti-Mall inventory ebay sell-off.

Durham Sudoku

Exercise your brain with the Durhamite sudoku.

A Shoe For Your Foot

While we’d love the Justin Roberts-es and Jimmy Magoos of the world to head over to our fair town, sometimes one is forced to leave Durham. Tonight was one of those nights. Paperhand Puppet Intervention gave a spectacular performance at the Forest Theater on the UNC campus. Well, I’ll just let the 2-year-old tell you: “There were some scary ones and some nice ones. And there was a cow, a real cow, and I got to touch his horn but I didn’t because I didn’t want to. And the scary ones had three horns out of the tops of their heads. They picked up a biiiig shoe. They played music and we liked that. I was dancing. And there was a real cow [no, not really]. The ones that had hands [instead of heads] were the nice ones. There were gross ones [kissing] ewww. My favorite was the boxes! He died. And I saw an inch worm!”

And from the not-2-year-old: The puppets were gorgeous. The music and sound effects were amazing. For lack of dialogue, the message was loud & clear.

Durham Actors

We are watching Pirates of the Penzance, hence a trip to IMDB. There are 42 actors born in Durham, according to the IMDB, including one nicknamed Pigmeat. Hee!