Get into the spirit of the era and step back in time  to that unforgettable summer in the Catskills and join us where it all began in the breathtaking mountains of Western North Carolina. Filled with excitement and nostalgia, fans can experience  the  the moves, music and memories from our all time favorite movie and fancy the chance to channel their inner “Baby & Johnny.”

This year’s one-day  festival showcases film-inspired entertainment and activities for all ages that will be treasured with friends and family for a lifetime. You’ll go crazy for  Swayze, enjoy some great entertainment, and weep with joy attempting the famous lake lift scene all while keeping the awareness on the fight against Pancreatic Cancer strong.

It’s time to dress up as your favorite character, dust off your Keds, and really  shake it down
​where Johnny & Baby once did the Mambo!
 The Chamber of Hickory Nut Gorge is happy to announce the return of the   Dirty Dancing Festival  of Lake Lure!
This year’s  festival will  be a ONE-DAY event  certain to be “the time of your life!”

Start making your plans to attend the Festival AND participate in the various pre and post-festival activities
being offered at local establishments.

​
Only 2500 will be available for this year’s festival so get yours early to ensure  entry!
​More than 800 tickets were sold in the first week!

Our committee is still in the planning stages,  so check back frequently and visit our Facebook page for more information as it becomes available

Beginner’s workshop lesson at 7:30 P.M., then 8-11 P.M. Contra Dance with Country Waltzing at the break and the final dance. This is a partner dance but it’s not necessary to come with a partner. We have different live bands and callers.

Recommended for Grades 5-12

Experience how a groundbreaking mix of dance styles, music and cultures create an entirely new and exciting vision of human movement! With a diverse repertoire ranging from ballet in toe shoes to street dance, Complexions explores the intersections of the classical and contemporary. Enjoy a selection of their work and connect with the artists after the performance in an engaging Q&A.

Learn more about Complexions Contemporary Ballet here.

Prepare for your visit, learn about the theatre, and get the most out of each performance with this Guide to the Wortham Center.

Performance Length: 60 minutes

This innovative New York City-based company combines remarkably gifted dancers, powerful choreography and the electrifying riffs of rocker Lenny Kravitz in LOVE ROCKS, part of a larger program that re-envisions ballet through technical precision, athletic prowess and sheer passion. “Companies like Complexions are game-changing: They’re forging a path for what ballet can be instead of what it historically has been” (The Guardian).

Connect with Complexions

• Master Class: For intermediate and advanced dance students ages 16 and up. September 24 at 1 p.m. Henry LaBrun Studio. Learn more and register here.
• Pre-show Discussions: September 23 & 24 at 7 p.m. Tina McGuire Theatre.

It’s time for some Inclusion, Y’all! That’s the theme of this year’s Blue Ridge Pride Festival, taking place at Asheville’s Pack Square Park on Saturday, September 24 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. This is Western North Carolina’s largest Pride event, typically attracting 14,000 to 18,000 people.

Two stages feature some of the most noted musical and DRAG talent in the region. Over 100 organizations that focus on social justice, community service, health care, faith, education, and the LGBTQ community will be on hand. Another 100 local employers, merchants, artists, food concessions, and service providers will round what may Asheville’s largest, most diverse collections of exhibitors to gather for a day of advocacy, service, education, and celebration.

This innovative New York City-based company combines remarkably gifted dancers, powerful choreography and the electrifying riffs of rocker Lenny Kravitz in LOVE ROCKS, part of a larger program that re-envisions ballet through technical precision, athletic prowess and sheer passion. “Companies like Complexions are game-changing: They’re forging a path for what ballet can be instead of what it historically has been” (The Guardian).

Connect with Complexions

• Master Class: For intermediate and advanced dance students ages 16 and up. September 24 at 1 p.m. Henry LaBrun Studio. Learn more and register here.
• Pre-show Discussions: September 23 & 24 at 7 p.m. Tina McGuire Theatre.

Join us in our new monthly social swing event on the 1st Saturdays of every month, The
music, open vintage space and wood floors and is guaranteed to have you dancing East Coast and/or Lindy all night long, A free
lesson is offered to kick things off and will include a different combination of moves each time, No partner or rhythm needed and
dress is casual, $10 for lesson and/or social dance.

LESS DETAIL

Come check out for yourself the popular West Coast Swing dance style that can be done to a
wide variety of music, including pop, country, blues, and contemporary music, come at 7pm for a group classes: intermediate
classes with Pflumm and Alain Rogozhin and beginner classes with Rachel Harris and Tola Sun, Followed by a social dance at
8pm, Dress is casual and no partner is needed, BYO wine or beer,

A Transformational Evening of Ecstatic Dance

World-renowned master of the African Kalimba, Kevin Spears teams with DJ Morphonic for an extraordinary evening of live musical artistry within a guided intentional experience. It’s a unique musical experience for listening and/or dancing.

Asheville’s own DJ Morphonic has become a highly sought-after Ecstatic Dance DJ due to his eclectic yet transformative mix of music from around the world. DJ Morphonic (Maurice Legendre) is known far and wide for his beautiful and incredible sacred art concert backdrops that must be seen to be believed. DJ Morphonic is truly a gifted soul in the field of transformative and regenerative art and music.

Kevin Spears the KalimbaMan is an internationally renowned kalimba player and one-man ensemble who designs and uses electronic musical gadgets to create a literal one-man ensemble right before your eyes and ears. He has performed extensively in the U.S and abroad and has done what was once thought impossible on the kalimba, the traditional African instrument he has studied and played since the age of 10.

It’s time to kick off your shoes and dance in the Big Barn here at Hickory Nut Gap Farm in gorgeous Fairview, NC! Come out from 6pm-9pm to see West End String Band, a driving combination of Bluegrass, Americana and Honkytonk that have performed in the area for years, and fan favorites from many of our Barn Dances of the past decade.

What goes better with the banjo, strings, guitar and old school vocals than good ‘ol smokey, savory, locally crafted BBQ? We’ll have Asheville’s own Buxton Hall, who always serve up their own blend of Southern heritage and modern cooking.

Hickory Nut Gap will have a bar serving local beers, ciders, seltzers and non-alcoholic beverages to slake your thirst between jigs. We will have our good buddy Rob Elliott(some of you may remember him from his own band, the Cane Creek Hellbenders) calling some barn dances for this show, so wear comfortable shoes and don’t be shy!

A NOTE ABOUT SEATING: Our Big Barn has an official capacity of over 200- we do not have a seat for every single attendee but there will be picnic tables, cafe tables and benches available first come first serve. With this in mind, please feel free to bring picnic blankets or camp chairs. It’s gonna be a hootenanny y’all!

PET POLICY: While we normally allow leashed pets on the grounds, we ask you leave your furry friends at home for the Barn Dances.

Beginner’s workshop lesson at 7:30 P.M., then 8-11 P.M. Contra Dance with Country Waltzing at the break and the final dance. This is a partner dance but it’s not necessary to come with a partner. We have different live bands and callers.

1. Tatia Adams-Fox, The New School of Etiquette

Come check out for yourself the popular West Coast Swing dance style that can be done to a
wide variety of music, including pop, country, blues, and contemporary music, come at 7pm for a group classes: intermediate
classes with Pflumm and Alain Rogozhin and beginner classes with Rachel Harris and Tola Sun, Followed by a social dance at
8pm, Dress is casual and no partner is needed, BYO wine or beer,

Join us in our new monthly social swing event on the 1st Saturdays of every month, The
music, open vintage space and wood floors and is guaranteed to have you dancing East Coast and/or Lindy all night long, A free
lesson is offered to kick things off and will include a different combination of moves each time, No partner or rhythm needed and
dress is casual, $10 for lesson and/or social dance.

Join us for our monthly poetry event featuring three poets and coordinated by Mildred Barya. This month, we welcome Sarah Cooper, Barbara Costas-Biggs, and AE Hines. This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited amount of seats available to attend the event in-store. The event is free but registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.

Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.

Please click here to register for the IN-PERSON event.

This event includes a book signing. If you are not attending in person but would like a signed book you may request one using the comments field when you order online or by call the store at 828-254-6734 during store hours.

If you decide to attend and purchase the authors’ books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you! Feel free to email [email protected] with questions. We look forward to seeing you, whether in-person or online!

Sarah Cooper is the author of two poetry collections: Permanent Marker (Paper Nautilus, 2020) and most recently, 89% (Clemson University Press 2022).  Her poems also appear in Lunch, Sinister Wisdom, Iron Horse and other anthologies and literary journals.  Currently, Sarah is a PhD candidate in Rhetorics, Communication and Informational Design at Clemson University. Her dissertation project explores how spatial practices intersect with lesbian identity. She is a professor of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies at Clemson University where she received the Holman Award for teaching, was a 2021 LGBTQ+ Faculty Excellence Award winner, a 2022 Gentry Award winner for teaching excellence and the 2022 Tee A. Corrine Fellow at the University of Oregon. For more, visit https://www.sarahcooperpoet.com/poetry

Sometimes, a poem can show us a map of the human heart and all its pumping valves, all the blood it welcomes and lets go. In 89%, Sarah Cooper gives us that map from all angles-the love and loss of a mother, the loss and love of self, the way romantic love can scare us into silence. In this stunning debut collection, Cooper splays open these moments of tenderness with precision and skill. This book is both the carving knife and the soothing balm. These poems have an unflinching eye-they see all the way through us and then swaddle us in whole, critical heartbeat of truth. 89% won the poetry prize for the Clemson-Converse Literature Series.

—

Barbara Costas-Biggs is a poet and librarian from Southern Ohio. Her work has appeared in Appalachian Review, Northern Appalachian Review, The Pikeville Review, 8Poems, and elsewhere. Her chapbook, The Other Shore, was a finalist for the Washburn Prize from Harbor Review. She holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and an MLIS from Kent State University. For more, visit http://stilljournal.net/interview-barbara-costas-biggs.php

“Things can be idyllic and then ugly,” Barbara Costas-Biggs writes. “A basket of pears in ochre, then piss the same color.” In Broken On the Wheel, the familiar is made strange, as it is in dreams. The speaker of these poems is a mother, a griever, a “hope-against-hoper,” so it’s no wonder this collection is packed with epiphanies and memories and crapshoots—“That in-between stuff./ What we, I hope, are mostly made of.” Broken On the Wheel is a perceptive, masterful debut.

—

AE Hines’s debut collection, Any Dumb Animal, received Honorable Mention in the North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2022 Brockman-Campbell Book contest, and was also a daVinci Eye finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book award. His work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, The Southern Review, Rhino, American Poetry Review, Poet Lore, The Greensboro Review, Ninth Letter, The Missouri Review, Tar River Poetry and elsewhere. Born and raised in rural North Carolina, AE resides in Charlotte and Medellín, Colombia. For more, visit https://www.aehines.net

Any Dumb Animal (Main Street Rag, 2021), AE Hines’s poetry collection, presents a memoir-in-verse as told by a gay man raised in the rural South who comes of age during the AIDS crisis. Flashing back and forth in time, a cast of recurring characters and circumstances are woven into a rich tale of survival and redemption, exploring one man’s life as a queer son, father, and husband, over a span of more than thirty years.

Join us for an evening with the legendary J. Creek Cloggers on Saturday night, November 12th. The night begins with a delicious BBQ dinner at 6 PM and culminates with a rollicking performance by the J. Creek Cloggers at 7:30 PM – featuring TikTok star Zeb Ross! The iconic dance group will perform multiple examples of traditional mountain dancing, as well as teaching the audience several fun dance steps. Group leader, Kim Ross, will also give a short talk on the history & traditions of mountain dancing. Grab your partner and come and join us for a memorable, fun-filled evening!
Admission is $10 for event only; $15 for event + BBQ dinner. Free for Motel guests.
Call 828-926-1717 for tickets & room reservations!

Inspired by nature and following the self-published released of How to Heal the Planet from Wherever You Are, Cortina Jenelle introduces Oshanna Church of Spiritual Activism, with Oshanna debuting as a dynamic experience rooted in ceremony and inviting nature as a co-facilitator through theater, art and spoken word. After each production, all ticket proceeds are donated to a mission partner who is doing work in service to Mother Earth while also furthering truth, healing and reconciliation across race, gender and class.

Black Starseed: Immaculate Conception is the second installment of the Black Starseed series, which goes back in time as a prelude to Black Starseed: Revolutionary Reimagination (2020) – a debut partnership between adé PROJECT and PechaKucha Asheville co-creating a storytelling experience in voice of Black women at the intersection of creativity x spirituality. In this prelude, the life story of Cortina Jenelle becomes a moving memoir and an embodiment of a shared story from the matriarchs of Black, indigenous descent in a world where femininity, Blackness, sovereignty and indigeneity were not just criminal, but a threat to society. Black Starseed: Immaculate Conception may appear to just tell the story of one, yet is actually one version of the same story that constantly loops through time. Do you know how purposeful, brilliant and divine you already are, Starseed? This is heart song of the black sheep generation + millennials, and those born torn between ancestral remembrance and playing the game of life to win. Join us in a gathering of art, theater, ceremony (with a bonus book signing post-show) and storytelling and leave reminded of how to heal the planet from wherever you are.

Ticket proceeds benefit cleanup of the French Broad River with our mission partner for this show, Asheville Greenworks.

EAST COAST SWING: LEVEL-ONE BEGINNER,  1½ – Hour Class 

Saturday, November 19th, 11 to 12:30 pm. at The Grey Eagle Music Hall, 185 Clingman Ave., Asheville. Learn this popular, fun dance. We start with the basic step and progress to foundational steps and a few cool moves. Taught by UCWDC World Champions Richard & Sue Cicchetti. Richard is a DVIDA Certified Dance Instructor. You will learn correctly from his clear instructions. With Richard’s progressive method you will learn how to remember steps and how to transition seamlessly from one step to the next. Singles are welcome. No partner is needed, bring one if you can. Treat yourself to a delicious taco at the in-house Taqueria. Early bird discount by November 12th. After November 12th online and at the door $25/pp. 828-333-0715.  Save your space, pre-register now at: https://tinyurl.com/ynrmhfrs

WALTZ: LEVEL-ONE BEGINNER,  1½ – Hour Class 

Saturday, November 19th, 12:45 to 2:15 pm. at the Grey Eagle Music Hall, 185 Clingman Ave., Asheville. Learn this beautiful, popular dance. Taught by UCWDC World Champions Richard & Sue Cicchetti. Richard is a DVIDA Certified Dance Instructor. You will learn correctly from his clear instructions. With Richard’s progressive method you will learn how to remember steps and how to transition seamlessly from one step to the next. Singles are welcome. No partner is needed, bring one if you can. Treat yourself to a delicious taco at the in-house Taqueria. Early bird discount by November 12th. After November 12th online and at the door $25/pp. 828-333-0715.  Save your space, pre-register now at: https://tinyurl.com/mry72v86