Ballet Northwest boldly enters its 55th season with highly innovative, inspirational and diverse programming in store. Time flies by quickly, so mark your calendars now. After a performance of Crescendo on October 11, comes The Nutcracker, Olympia’s favorite December tradition that invites the whole family into a land of sweets and all others we create in our imagination. We are excited to give you an inside glimpse into everything that is in store.
The Fall/Winter print edition of OLY ARTS N0. 34 is published! Here is a list of the articles and where in the Olympia area you can pick up your FREE copy. Enjoy!
Many of the South Sound’s best theater and visual arts critics write for OLY ARTS. We asked six of them to highlight some of their favorite visual and performance art shows from 2024, and we congratulate and celebrate the Olympia and Tacoma-area artists selected. Due to the limitation we put on the critics of no more than two or three shows, we are aware of and acknowledge that many great shows and artists were not picked. We are lucky to live in such a vibrant creative community.
At Evergreen City Ballet, currently based in Renton, Artistic Director Maximiliano Guerra has plans to embrace an enhanced learning philosophy. During the school’s 2024-2025 season, Guerra and the team are establishing a unique curriculum that includes the study of broader topics, with art, history, and classical music to complement instruction in ballet. In December they will be performing Wade Walthall’s The Nutcracker.
MOSAIC: Tacoma’s Arts and Culture Festival at Tacoma’s Wright Park on July 27 and 28 is a weekend of multicultural music, dance, art, crafts, and cuisine, with an evening movie in the park and a Kids Zone and sprayground. The festival will see a visit from the Mobile Teaching Kitchen, which will provide a preview of culinary courses available through Metro Parks Tacoma.
By Lynette Charters Serembe This is on page 10-11 of OLY ARTS Summer 2024 print edition. Olympia Harbor Day started in 1973, showcasing the vintage tugboats of the Puget Sound at Percival Landing in Olympia. It was a casual gathering hosted by the nonprofit South Sound Maritime Heritage Association, which organizes the event to this …
Both the Studio West Dance Theatre production, opening Nov. 24, and the Ballet Northwest version, opening Dec. 8, are beloved traditions. Studio West first performed the ballet in 2009, and the venerable Ballet Northwest premiered its version in 1983. “There’s always a buzz around The Nutcracker,” said Stephanie Wood-Ennett, the co-director of Studio West. “So many people feel that their holiday is not complete without it.”
“Another thing I think is different and nice about this event is that it’s not just visual artists,” Daniel Garcia continues. “In some cases, we have literary artists, we have poets, we have dancers, so we’re really trying to find that whole realm of artistry and bring it through to Arts at the Armory.”
Indicative of the vast art and entertainment to be found at Arts Walk, check out the OlyFilm and OlyAct film demo where You’re the Star!
Expect miracles, at least those of the theatrical kind, at The Midwinter Revels in Tacoma’s Rialto Theater this holiday season.