Calendar of Events
Upcoming events and things to do in Asheville, NC. Below is a list of events for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, group meetups and more.
Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.
Led by Stewart/Owen Dance Co-Directors, Vanessa Owen and Gavin Stewart, this open level adult contemporary dance class gradually awakens the body and senses through guided improvisation and a follow along warm-up, followed by foundational across-the-floor exercises and center-work combinations. All experience levels welcome!
In person: $10, pay at the door
Online: $7 suggested donation, contact [email protected] for class link and details.
About Stewart/Owen Dance: Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen, a husband and wife duo, are the co-directors of Western North Carolina based Stewart/Owen Dance. Their choreography has been presented by festivals and companies across the U.S., and their careers have most notably taken them around the globe on fifteen U.S. State Department tours to teach, perform and choreograph contemporary dance with Washington D.C. based Company E. In 2017 they made North Carolina their home base where they work towards building a sustainable community for professional dance artists to set roots. They have choreographed music videos for artists such as Moses Sumney, Sylvan Esso and Ben Phantom. Gavin and Vanessa won the Audience Choice Award at the NYC Dance Gallery Festival 2018, were commissioned as Dance Gallery 2019 Level UP Artists, are recipients of a McDowell Regional Artist Project Grant, a North Carolina Artist Support Grant and were voted “Artists Who Most Pushed the Boundaries with the Human Body” by 2020 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival. Since the pandemic, they have focused on producing COVID-conscious dance experiences for live audiences, including drive-up performances and a guided walk-along dance exhibit presented in residence with Asheville’s beloved Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.
Led by Stewart/Owen Co-Directors, Vanessa Owen and Gavin Stewart, this class begins with full body conditioning followed by a series of technical modern exercises, and culminates in either phrase creation or Stewart/Owen repertory. Dancers are encouraged to modify for their own bodies and spaces! We recommend this class to experienced dancers who are looking for a fast-paced contemporary class that pushes their physical and mental boundaries.
In person: $10, pay at the door
Online: $7 suggested donation, contact [email protected] for class link and details.
About Stewart/Owen Dance: Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen, a husband and wife duo, are the co-directors of Western North Carolina based Stewart/Owen Dance. Their choreography has been presented by festivals and companies across the U.S., and their careers have most notably taken them around the globe on fifteen U.S. State Department tours to teach, perform and choreograph contemporary dance with Washington D.C. based Company E. In 2017 they made North Carolina their home base where they work towards building a sustainable community for professional dance artists to set roots.They have choreographed music videos for artists such as Moses Sumney, Sylvan Esso and Ben Phantom. Gavin and Vanessa won the Audience Choice Award at the NYC Dance Gallery Festival 2018, were commissioned as Dance Gallery 2019 Level UP Artists, are recipients of a McDowell Regional Artist Project Grant, a North Carolina Artist Support Grant and were voted “Artists Who Most Pushed the Boundaries with the Human Body” by 2020 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival. Since the pandemic, they have focused on producing COVID-conscious dance experiences for live audiences, including drive-up performances and a guided walk-along dance exhibit presented in residence with Asheville’s beloved Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.
Burlesque Brunch is a monthly burlesque and bellydance show with a classic speakeasy feel. Join our dancing dames and dandies every third Sunday of the month for a little singin’, strippin’, and sippin’ starting at noon. It’s a Sunday afternoon to delight the senses!
**Ticket price covers entry, brunch is not included in price.
18+
Burlesque Brunch is a monthly burlesque and bellydance show with a classic speakeasy feel. Join our dancing dames and dandies every third Sunday of the month for a little singin’, strippin’, and sippin’ starting at noon. It’s a Sunday afternoon to delight the senses!
**Ticket price covers entry, brunch is not included in price.
Families and people of all ages are invited to come and enjoy community, earth-friendly crafts, environmental education, and more!
Join Conserving Carolina and our partnering organizations as we share our knowledge and passion for the preservation of this amazing planet!
The event features educational activities, crafts, and hands on learning. Subjects include river restoration, water quality and monitoring, non-native and invasive species, climate change and action, the history of Harmon Field, American Chestnut restoration, folk medicine, bee keeping, and more!
In partnership with Parsec Financial, there will be a special showing of NOVA’s Polar Extremes at the Tryon Depot, 22 Depot St, Tryon, NC, at 6:30 pm. Click here for more information. Space is limited and pre-registration required at this link.
Organizations and presenters at the event include: MountainTrue, Foothills Equestrian Nature Center (FENCE), Polk County Soil and Water, Drunken Root Apothecary, NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources, NC Forest Service, Polk County Agricultural Economic Development, Trout Unlimited, Polk County Appearance Commission, the Henderson Polk County Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, Quible & Associates, P.C., Foothills Humane Society, Unity in the Community, Polk County Library, NC Cooperative Extension Polk County Center 4-H Youth Development, Girl and Boy Scouts, National Centers for Environmental Information, American Chestnut Foundation, Housing Assistance, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Polk County Health and Wellness, NC State Parks, Steps to Hope, Polk County Parks and Recreation, Tryon Arts and Crafts, North Carolina Bluebird Society, Tryon Garden Club, nature and forest therapy, and an expert bee keeper!
Music by Blue Wall, Phil and Gaye Johnson, and the PacJAM Clover Pickers!
Manzolina’s Eatery will provide food for purchase: hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, nachos, drinks, etc.
History of Earth Day:
Earth Day was a unified response to an environment in crisis — oil spills, smog, rivers so polluted they literally caught fire.
On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population at the time — took to the streets, college campuses, and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet.
The first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, and is now recognizes as the planet’s largest civic event.
Theme in 2022:
The theme for Earth Day 2022 is Invest in Our Planet. “This is the moment to change it all — the business climate, the political climate, and how we take action on climate. Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, our livelihoods… together, we must Invest In Our Planet.“ Click here for more information.
Climate change represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable.
On April 19th from 5:30 – 7:00 pm, join us at Mountain Child Advocacy Center’s downtown office at 124 College Street, Third Floor, for a film showing of “Spare the Child”, a local film production from the Justice Film Collective. The short documentary explores the childhoods and subsequent adulthoods of three diverse survivors of childhood abuse and the lifelong impact on the human body, heart, and psyche. This event is open to the community and free of charge. There will be an expert panel of community professionals and filmmakers for a Talk-Back and Q/A session following the screening.
The live show is based on Pinkfong’s viral earworm and global dance phenomenon, ‘Baby Shark’. This one of a kind concert experience will delight fans of all ages as Baby Shark joins up with his friend Pinkfong to take an adventure into the sea, singing and dancing through new and classic songs including Five Little Monkeys, Wheels on the Bus, Jungle Boogie, Monkey Banana Dance and of course, Baby Shark! Baby Shark, Pinkfong’s global hit song about a family of sharks, has climbed the charts and connected with fans around the globe. After entering the Billboard Hot 100 at #32, the song has been recording a 14-week streak in the Top 50, while topping the Kids Digital Song Sales Chart as #1. The Baby Shark Dance video has over 2.7 billion views, making it the 10th most viewed videoin the history of YouTube.
Get moving in this fun, high-energy dance class focusing on Broadway-style choreography. Lay the foundation of jazz technique through warm ups and across the floor, and practice picking up steps and style in theatre dance combinations inspired by a variety of musicals. Join us to get a weekly workout, learn how to fill your movement with character, and step into your next dance audition feeling confident. Masks are required.
Instructor: Anna Kimmell
Notes: To ensure the safety of our students and staff, we require that all participants and faculty wear masks during indoor classes.
Wednesday evenings from 6:30-8:30pm at Story Parlor
April 13, April 20, April 27, May 4, May 11, May 18*
*Final class on May 18 runs from 6:30-9:30pm
Make up class reserved for May 25
Story Parlor presents Creativity Lab: a six-week exploration of the creative process, common blocks and obstacles, and ways to kickstart and sustain creative momentum.
Focused on the process and the act of doing, opposed to product or outcome, Creativity Lab explores ways to overcome fear, embrace curiosity, and channel our muse in all creative endeavors.
The six-week workshop is experiential, hands-on, and tactile. The Lab will utilize exercises to help cultivate imagination, innovation, and creativity. Each class will focus on a different part of the creativity process all while building a tool kit for dealing with obstacles in our way, creating positive habits for growth, and investigating the ways our personal narratives intersect with our work.
Registration Includes:
A guidebook with supplementary readings, exercises, and activities
A custom Story Parlor notebook
Access to Creativity Mixers
Who Should Attend:
Anyone looking to kickstart or follow-through with a creative project
Anyone wanting to discover more about their habits and approach to creativity
Anyone hoping to learn more about the process of being creative
Anyone wishing to make creativity a part of their daily life
Anyone looking to explore the intersection of art and the human condition
Anyone interested in identifying their core values’ intersection with creative goals and aspirations
Anyone wanting a creative community in which to play, explore, and experiment
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An All-Ages Hip Hop Dance class led by LEAF Schools & Streets Master Teaching Artist Otto (Aquaboogy) Vazquez. Get up and get your body moving every Thursday at LEAF Global Experience, with this great family-friendly, fun class!
Weekly on Thursdays from 2:00 – 3:00pm at LEAF Global Experience (19 Eagle St, Asheville, NC, 28801)
“The Office’s” mockumentary style used for Blue
Ridge CC Theatre Department’s spring film
production of “Medea”
Get ready to laugh at a tragedy as the Blue Ridge Community College Theatre
Department premieres its spring production of “The Making of Medea: The
Musical? The Movie!” on Friday, April 22 via YouTube.
Produced as a “mockumentary” filmed in a fashion similar to NBC’s “The
Office,” this pre-recorded production turns the classic Greek tragedy of
“Medea” into a comical affair.
According to Theatre Department faculty Jennifer Treadway, the continuous
presence of COVID-19 made switching their usual live, onstage production to a
film all the more simple.
“Live theatre is still taking a huge hit, because if even one of our cast – of an
onstage production – gets COVID, countless others will have to quarantine and
it just puts the entire production on hold,” Treadway stated.
Contrary to a live production, a video has multiple benefits, Treadway said,
including the flexibility of time schedules for actors. Also, since each scene can
be filmed in any order, there’s never a time when the entire cast has to be
present at once.
The classic Greek tragedy “Medea” centers around the titular character as the
wife of Jason, of “Jason and the Argonauts.” When Jason leaves Medea for
another woman, Medea kills his new wife and her own two sons as revenge.
The College’s “Medea” plot will center around a college theatre department
attempting to put on the traditional onstage “Medea” play.
“Since it’s a mockumentary, viewers will get to see all the wild antics that
happen when a theatre department tries to put on a play,” Treadway said. “So
it’s more about the people putting it on rather than the play ‘Medea’ itself.”
To maintain the semblance of a mockumentary and to collect b-roll footage,
the auditions and rehearsals were filmed and will be included in a portion of the
final version. The first rehearsal took place on Feb. 7, and there are now more
than 30 cast and crew members.
Filming will take one month of work, with a shorter turnaround time to edit. The
runtime will be approximately 30 minutes long.
Join Conserving Carolina and Parsec Financial for a screening of NOVA’s new special, Polar Extremes, hosted by paleontologist and Sant Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, Kirk Johnson. Using the fossil record, Johnson takes viewers on an amazing adventure through time, exposing the numerous polar extremes our planet has experienced over thousands of years.
Johnson uses the evidence of the past to help reveal our planet’s climate today and shares what may be in store for the future.
While visiting Downtown Tryon for the film, be sure to enjoy 4th Friday! A monthly event where businesses in Town extend their hours, staying open until at least 7 pm! There will be live music, dinner specials, refreshments, and more!
Asheville’s LARGEST vaudeville show featuring WNC’s best comedy, juggling, magic, burlesque, acrobatics, aerial arts, short plays, puppetry, sideshow, music and more!
Led by Stewart/Owen Dance Co-Directors, Vanessa Owen and Gavin Stewart, this open level adult contemporary dance class gradually awakens the body and senses through guided improvisation and a follow along warm-up, followed by foundational across-the-floor exercises and center-work combinations. All experience levels welcome!
In person: $10, pay at the door
Online: $7 suggested donation, contact [email protected] for class link and details.
About Stewart/Owen Dance: Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen, a husband and wife duo, are the co-directors of Western North Carolina based Stewart/Owen Dance. Their choreography has been presented by festivals and companies across the U.S., and their careers have most notably taken them around the globe on fifteen U.S. State Department tours to teach, perform and choreograph contemporary dance with Washington D.C. based Company E. In 2017 they made North Carolina their home base where they work towards building a sustainable community for professional dance artists to set roots. They have choreographed music videos for artists such as Moses Sumney, Sylvan Esso and Ben Phantom. Gavin and Vanessa won the Audience Choice Award at the NYC Dance Gallery Festival 2018, were commissioned as Dance Gallery 2019 Level UP Artists, are recipients of a McDowell Regional Artist Project Grant, a North Carolina Artist Support Grant and were voted “Artists Who Most Pushed the Boundaries with the Human Body” by 2020 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival. Since the pandemic, they have focused on producing COVID-conscious dance experiences for live audiences, including drive-up performances and a guided walk-along dance exhibit presented in residence with Asheville’s beloved Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.
Led by Stewart/Owen Co-Directors, Vanessa Owen and Gavin Stewart, this class begins with full body conditioning followed by a series of technical modern exercises, and culminates in either phrase creation or Stewart/Owen repertory. Dancers are encouraged to modify for their own bodies and spaces! We recommend this class to experienced dancers who are looking for a fast-paced contemporary class that pushes their physical and mental boundaries.
In person: $10, pay at the door
Online: $7 suggested donation, contact [email protected] for class link and details.
About Stewart/Owen Dance: Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen, a husband and wife duo, are the co-directors of Western North Carolina based Stewart/Owen Dance. Their choreography has been presented by festivals and companies across the U.S., and their careers have most notably taken them around the globe on fifteen U.S. State Department tours to teach, perform and choreograph contemporary dance with Washington D.C. based Company E. In 2017 they made North Carolina their home base where they work towards building a sustainable community for professional dance artists to set roots.They have choreographed music videos for artists such as Moses Sumney, Sylvan Esso and Ben Phantom. Gavin and Vanessa won the Audience Choice Award at the NYC Dance Gallery Festival 2018, were commissioned as Dance Gallery 2019 Level UP Artists, are recipients of a McDowell Regional Artist Project Grant, a North Carolina Artist Support Grant and were voted “Artists Who Most Pushed the Boundaries with the Human Body” by 2020 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival. Since the pandemic, they have focused on producing COVID-conscious dance experiences for live audiences, including drive-up performances and a guided walk-along dance exhibit presented in residence with Asheville’s beloved Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.
Dance competition in Asheville, NC
The story of Giselle is one of young love and betrayal; of a philandering Count Albrecht and a trusting peasant girl, Giselle.
The Story – Act I
Despite having a weak heart, Giselle loves to dance and her beauty enchants Count Albrecht. On the day of the village festival, Albrecht disguises himself as a peasant. Unaware of his noble birth, Giselle first resists Albrecht’s advances but ultimately succumbs to his romantic persistence. She trusts his pledge of eternal love, and she too falls in love. The arrival of a hunting party in the villages includes the Duke of Courland and his daughter Bathilde, to whom Albrecht is already engaged. Hilarion, a gamekeeper in love with Giselle, discovers Albrecht’s true identity and reveals his lie to Giselle. Learning of this deceit, Giselle loses her mind, and the first act ends with her untimely death.
The Story – Act 2
Act II is set deep in the forest where Giselle was buried and has become a wili. The wilis are ghostly apparitions – girls who have died betrayed by their faithless lovers on the eve of their weddings. Mourning at Giselle’s grave, Hilarion tragically encounters Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, and her maidens, who haunt the forest, luring those who pass by to dance with them until they die, which he does. Full of remorse, Albrecht also comes to Giselle’s grave. Myrtha commands Giselle to come from her grave and entice Albrecht to join her in dance. Giselle dances with Albrecht through the night. And although she was betrayed by Albrecht, she helps him to stay alive until the dawn when the wilis lose their power and cannot destroy him. At dawn, Giselle disappears into her grave, and Albrecht’s life is spared by Giselle’s love.
CREDITS
Choreography Marius Petipa, Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot
Staging Vlada Kysselova
Music Adolphe Adam
In conjunction with Gillian Laub’s Southern Rites exhibition on view through July 4, 2022, join us to view Laub’s 2015 documentary. Please note, face coverings are required to view this film.
Southern Rites visits Montgomery County, Georgia, one year after the town merged its racially segregated proms, and during a historic election campaign that may lead to its first African-American sheriff. Acclaimed photographer Gillian Laub, whose photos first brought the area unwanted notoriety, documents the repercussions when a white town resident is charged with the murder of a young black man. The case divides locals along well-worn racial lines, and the ensuing plea bargain and sentencing uncover complex truths and produce emotional revelations. This timely film debuts the week of the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision 61 years ago. Executive produced by John Legend, Troy Carter and Mike Jackson; written and produced by Josh Alexander.
The story of Giselle is one of young love and betrayal; of a philandering Count Albrecht and a trusting peasant girl, Giselle.
The Story – Act I
Despite having a weak heart, Giselle loves to dance and her beauty enchants Count Albrecht. On the day of the village festival, Albrecht disguises himself as a peasant. Unaware of his noble birth, Giselle first resists Albrecht’s advances but ultimately succumbs to his romantic persistence. She trusts his pledge of eternal love, and she too falls in love. The arrival of a hunting party in the villages includes the Duke of Courland and his daughter Bathilde, to whom Albrecht is already engaged. Hilarion, a gamekeeper in love with Giselle, discovers Albrecht’s true identity and reveals his lie to Giselle. Learning of this deceit, Giselle loses her mind, and the first act ends with her untimely death.
The Story – Act 2
Act II is set deep in the forest where Giselle was buried and has become a wili. The wilis are ghostly apparitions – girls who have died betrayed by their faithless lovers on the eve of their weddings. Mourning at Giselle’s grave, Hilarion tragically encounters Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, and her maidens, who haunt the forest, luring those who pass by to dance with them until they die, which he does. Full of remorse, Albrecht also comes to Giselle’s grave. Myrtha commands Giselle to come from her grave and entice Albrecht to join her in dance. Giselle dances with Albrecht through the night. And although she was betrayed by Albrecht, she helps him to stay alive until the dawn when the wilis lose their power and cannot destroy him. At dawn, Giselle disappears into her grave, and Albrecht’s life is spared by Giselle’s love.
CREDITS
Choreography Marius Petipa, Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot
Staging Vlada Kysselova
Music Adolphe Adam