Tag Archives: University City

Arts & Culture Events for Preschoolers, Arts & Culture for Kids, Community, Holidays

Lunar New Year Celebrations

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YearoftheRoosterBring the family to celebrate the Lunar New Year and welcome the Year of the Rooster! Here are some highlights of St. Louis area celebrations open to the public.

The Magic House
Saturday, January 28, 2017, 10 am to 2 pm
Families can enjoy a Lion Dance performance, arts, crafts, and Chinese face painting. Free with museum admission.

Saint Louis Art Museum Lunar New Year Festival
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Explore Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese culture with activities, performances, and demonstrations. Special performances including a Lion Dance and T’ai Chi and Kung Fu demonstrations start at 2 pm in the Sculpture Hall. Free.

University City Lunar New Year 2017
February 3 and 4, 2017
Experience parades, lion dances, authentic Chinese food, 50 local artists, hands-on activities, and performances. Performances are in partnership with the Lunar New Year Festival student run organization of Washington University. Free.

Lunar New Year Festival Kick Off
Friday, February 3, 2017, 5 to 9 pm
Mandarin House Banquet Center, 8004 Olive Boulevard,
University City
Night Market: Featuring Taste of Asia restaurants, artisans, retailers
6 pm: Chinese Community Performers
7 pm: Fusion
8 pm: DJ

Lunar New Year Parade & Festival
Saturday, February 4, 2017, 11 am
11 to 11: 30 am: Pre-Parade Gathering Brittany Woods Middle
11:30 to noon: Lunar New Year Parade (Weather Permitting)
Departs Brittany Woods Middle School, 8125 Groby Road, St. Louis, MO 63130 at 11:30 am. The parade heads north down 81st Street, and turns into the parking lot of Seafood City, ending at the Mandarin House Banquet Center, 8004 Olive Boulevard.

Night Market
Noon to 8 pm
Mandarin House Banquet Center
8004 Olive Boulevard, University City
Featuring Taste of Asia restaurants, artisans, and retailers.

Performances
Mandarin House Banquet Center, 8004 Olive Boulevard,
University City
1 pm: Lion Dance Kickoff
2 to 4 pm: Washington University Lunar New Year Festival Performances
4 pm: DJ
5 pm: Chinese School Performers
6 pm: Fusion
7 pm: Headliners
8 pm: DJ

Lunar New Year Festival at the Edison Theatre
6465 Forsyth Boulevard
February 10, 2017 at 7 pm
February 11, 2017 at 2 pm and 7 pm
The Lunar New Year Festival (LNYF) is an annual event on the Washington University Campus celebrating the Lunar New Year and promoting awareness of the different aspects of Asian culture from China to Korea and more. This spectacular show in the Edison Theatre, is a completely student-run production and promotes interaction and unity among the various Asian groups on campus. Through a great variety of exciting performances of acting, dancing, and music, people of all backgrounds can enjoy and celebrate the New Year together. Tickets $10.

 

 

Arts & Culture Events for Preschoolers, Arts & Culture for Kids

Chalk Festival in the Loop

The Delmar Loop hosts its third annual chalk festival on Saturday, August 31, 2013 (rain date is September 1) at the Chuck Berry Statue, 6555 Delmar, 9 am to 5 pm. Great for artists of any age!

Artists can register and compete in one of four categories:
* Best of The Loop Theme: The Loop was designated “One of the 10 Great Streets in America” by the American Planning Association. Capture in chalk what you love most about The Loop.

* Chalk of Fame: Choose an inductee from the St. Louis Walk of Fame and portray an important aspect of his or her life or achievements through chalk.

* Most Creative: Free your mind. Draw anything.

* Chalk Land: Chalking space for children ages 12 and under.

Entry Fees for Artists (includes all supplies)
$10 for adults (ages 18 and up)
$8 for students (ages 13-18)
$6 for children (12 and under)
Free for spectators.

Prizes
The winning artists in each category will be featured on The Loop’s website with photos of their winning artwork, artistic biographies, and links to their portfolios or personal websites. Winners will also receive cash prizes and gift certificates from a variety of Loop businesses.

Register
Register here in advance. After registration is complete, artists should print out the confirmation of payment and bring it along with them to the event check-in on Saturday, August 31, 2013 starting at 9 am, at the Chuck Berry Statue. Participants will receive chalk and designated areas where they can get their chalk on! Be sure to arrive in time to complete your masterpiece. Judging is 5 to 6 pm. You can also register in person the day of the event.

Arts & Culture Events for Preschoolers

COCA Family Theatre Series

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In addition to being a great arts education facility, the Center of Creative Arts (COCA), located in University City, has a fun and entertaining performing arts series with reasonable ticket prices, good programming, and a small hall (400 seats) that makes each performance easy to see and enjoy.

We saw Michael Moschen last weekend–a juggler extraordinare and MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant recipient. He demonstrated some incredible feats of physics, illusion, perception, and rhythm. The show seemed more suitable though for 8 year olds and up. Most of the preschoolers in the audience at the Sunday matinee were getting a little squirmy and bored (including my 3.5 year old–but she’ll sit through opera, go figure), although the show was billed as a performance for all ages. Be sure to ask the COCA staff if you’re unsure about age suitablity and do some of your own research about the artist or performing group before you buy tickets.

Most performances are about an hour long. Tickets range $14 to $18 each (everyone entering the theater must have a ticket). Arrive at least 10 minutes early to find parking and well, 20 minutes early if your kid needs to use the potty. The COCA parking lot fills up fast and street parking can be tough at times.

Two upcoming productions you’ll want to bring your preschooler to this season (be sure to read the original books with your child before going):


COCA Family Theatre Series 2010-2011 Season Brochure

Box Office Information

Seating tips

  • There are booster seats available in the coat room outside the theater doors.
  • Try to buy your tickets early so that you can get an aisle seat (if you anticipate that you’ll have to take your little one out for a potty break mid-performance). Each seating section does not have a center aisle (see web site for seating chart–scroll down to Founders’ Theatre seating chart), so it is at times tough to climb over a lot of people if you have to head out before the show ends.
  • The padded and cushioned seats fold up like in a lot of movie theaters. If your child is under 35 pounds, he or she probably won’t be able to lean back in their chair and not fold up! Be prepared to hold the seat down for your child throughout the performance or put them on your lap.
  • If you can, don’t buy tickets too far over to the right or left. Your neck will thank you.
Dance

Adult Ballet Classes in St. Louis

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St. Louis doesn’t seem to have a big audience for serious ballet study, and most programs are geared towards young children and high school students. If you are looking for ballet class for adults (beginners, returning students, college students coming home for a visit, etc…), here are a few good studios to try. A side note: in some cases, these web sites do not accurately represent the dance studios, so try to look beyond the design (or lack thereof).

Caston’s Ballet Academie: Located in Webster Groves, Caston has some fine teaching for beginners and intermediate dancers. I recommend the Friday at 4:30 pm class and the Saturday at 10 am class. Both are advanced beginning, maybe early intermediate levels and are attended by mainly teenagers and several adults (Saturday class). Teachers Yulia, Lynette, and Akira are wonderful with adults. The downside of this studio is that classes are quite expensive. The drop in rate for adults is $20 a class and can go down to about $16 class if you sign up for an entire semester. Pricing information.

East West Ballet: Located at the Dance Co-op St. Louis inside the Crestwood Mall, East West Ballet is run by Kay Tabisaura-Hahn, a certified Royal Academy of Dance teacher. The adult ballet classes are held on Saturday mornings starting at 9 am. The intermediate class starts at 10 am. Kay is an incredibly comprehensive teacher who is patient, creative, and uses beautiful music. These classes are very small so far, so be prepared to have individualized attention. The studio floor is fairly hard, marley on top of a rubber mat on top of cement, so be careful if you have any knee issues. East West Ballet offers a trial class for $5 and adult drop in rates are currently $8 to $12 a class depending on how many you buy at once. Schedule and pricing information.

COCA (Center of Creative Arts): COCA is the glamorous one of all (i.e. big and well funded). Located in University City, COCA is a nonprofit multidisciplinary and multicultural arts organization who provides performing and visual arts education classes, performance opportunities, professional development, a theater, exhibition space, and an outreach program for low income youth. It’s huge 60,000 square foot space gives you some expansive dance studios filled with natural light and great flooring.

Many of the adult ballet classes feature a live pianist which makes ballet so much more dynamic and time efficient (no fiddling with the CD player!). I’ve had classes with Carrie, Christine, Kathleen, and Octavio so far, and they have all presented well planned, fun, humorous, and smart classes. Carrie teaches an excellent beginning class on Sundays at 2:30 pm (I don’t think there is another Sunday ballet class in St. Louis) and Christine offers brilliant corrections in her Tuesday at 7:30 pm intermediate class. I don’t believe Kathleen is teaching adult ballet this semester, but if you do get a chance to take her class at some point, she is fabulous and challenges your memory skills and core strength. I only had one class with Octavio this past summer, but he had a wicked sense of humor and presented such thoughtful combinations with an important focus on breath and fluidity.

Classes are expensive (a recurring theme with ballet in St. Louis, a side effect of not having a large enough audience). When you become a COCA member (tax-deductible contribution) at a certain level, you can get a small discount on semester registration and do not have to pay the registration fee. So technically, classes are approximately $16 to $20 class depending on your COCA member status. They do have a drop-in card but it is reserved for professional dancers and college students, although if you ask permission you can sometimes buy a class card ($180 for 10 classes, expires in one year) in addition to already being registered for one class. They have a flexible make-up class policy.

COCA’s 2010-2011 Classes Guide

Happy dancing and keep that ice pack handy.