And in the center ring....
Circus Collective
Monday, May 6
Have you ever wanted to join the circus but didn't think you had the chops? Here's your chance to change that. This summer, Denver performance troupe Circus Collective is holding flexibility, tumbling, aerial yoga and hooping workshops designed for busy people. The summer session begins at 5:45 p.m. Monday, May 6, and runs through June 2; fees start at $28 per session. All classes take place at 4459 Jason Street, Unit 3; for more information or to register, go to circuscollective.com.
Tuesday, May 7
Do you run an arts group or project? If so, Denver Arts & Venues wants to help you promote it. The agency, which oversees Denver’s public art program and its arts education and urban arts funds, among others, will host Market Smarter — a Digital Marketing Workshop for Arts Leaders from 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, May 7, at the McNichols Building, 144 West Colfax Avenue. The three-session event, part of the city’s Imagine 2020 speaker series, will be led by digital marketing consultants from Capacity Interactive and will cover cultural groups using digital tools to promote themselves, strategies for working with creatives, and using Google Analytics as a tool to understand audiences. Find free tickets to the workshops at eventbrite.com.
Silent-era staple Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau in 1922, will be thoroughly reanimated with a live score provided by the Invincible Czars, in an update of the classic tradition. Over the years, actor Max Schreck's Count Orlok has become a fixture of pop culture's collective nightmares, and antiquity has hardly diminished the movie's unparalleled capacity to inspire terror and wonder in equal measure. Take a trip to Transylvania without ever leaving Denver when the undead unspool at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 7, at the Alamo Drafthouse Sloan's Lake, 4255 West Colfax Avenue. Buy tickets, $12.50 (if any are left) at drafthouse.com/theater/sloans-lake.
Wednesday, May 8
Gird your loins for the Bike Smut Film Festival, a tour de pantsless exhibition of the horniest movies on two wheels. Presenting a pansexual array of independently produced erotica from cyclists of all backgrounds, Bike Smut is a body-positive bonanza of short films dedicated to demonstrating how creative filmmakers get freaky in the sack and astride the saddle. See what these "randy riders" get up to on their "hot wheels" when Bike Smut rolls up to the Oriental Theater, 4335 West 44th Avenue, at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 8 (doors open at 7). Buy tickets, $18, and learn more at theorientaltheater.com.
Thursday, May 9
Decades before this country ratified the 19th Amendment, Colorado was the first state to give women the right to vote (though the Territory of Wyoming beat us to it). Head to the Molly Brown House Museum, 1340 Pennsylvania Street, at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 9, for an installment of the 2019 Salon Series that explores 171 years of women pushing for equal rights, from the 1848 confab in Seneca Falls to the 1977 National Women’s Conference, from the 1913 Women's Suffrage Parade to the 2019 Women’s March. The event is free, but you must register at mollybrown.org.
Put two businesses together under one roof and you’ll find services that you’d never expect in a standard retail boutique. Just in time for an early Mother’s Day, Midnight Rambler Boutique, at 2220 East Colfax Avenue, is collaborating with Rachael Grace Photography on Mom’s Night to Recharge, a combined discounted shopping spree with noshes and drinks, and a lesson on how to take better snapshots of your baby. Recharge and acquire new photography skills on Thursday, May 9, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Admission is $12 in advance at midnight-rambler-boutique.shoplightspeed.com; choose “pick up in store” as the shipping method.
Through films like The Best Years of Our Lives, Coming Home and Born on the Fourth of July, the plight of male veterans making their way back home has long been in the public eye. But what about the female veterans? A new play, Beverly Coyle's Show of Force, about four women returning from Kuwait to civilian life, will give voice to the feminine side of the veteran experience in an all-woman production from And Toto Too Theatre Company. The play, directed by local women's theater champion Susan Lyles, opens at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 9, and runs for five performances through May 12, in the Studio Loft at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Performing Arts Complex; find tickets, $20 to $31, at axs.com. Learn more at andtototoo.org.
Friday, May 10
Mother's Day is often considered the kick-off of the planting season in Colorado, and Re:Vision will host a twist on that tradition at the Mother's Day Garden Bazaar, running from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, May 10, and again on Saturday, May 11, and Sunday, May 12, at the new home of the Westwood Food Cooperative @ RISE Westwood, 3800 Morrison Road. This is a family affair: While Mom and Dad pick out plants and buy gardening supplies, kids can enjoy free crafts and recreation activities; craft and food vendors will also be on hand. Admission is free; find out more at revision.coop/mothers-day-garden-bazaar.
Does your mother dream of surrounding herself with chocolate? Bring her along while you taste and shop your way through aisles and aisles of chocolate vendors at the Colorado Chocolate Festival, a spring tradition at the Denver Mart, 451 East 58th Avenue, with more than 100 vendors, a chocolate martini bar, contests and chocolatier judging. Treat yourself from 4 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 10, or 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 11; admission is $5 and tasting tickets run $10 per dozen, or you can splurge on an Ultimate Experience VIP ticket for $50, all at cochocolatefests.com.
In honor of Mother’s Day, Hijos del Sol — the Best of Denver award-winning official gift shop of the in-progress Latino Cultural Art Center (which will break ground next year in Sun Valley) — will open its doors for a full weekend of Queridas Madres Shopping, a bonanza of Latin-American folk art, vintage and antique wares, works by local artists, workshops and food trucks, as well as live music, kids’ art projects and a Saturday live auction. Shop from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, May 10, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 11, at the shop, 2715 West Eighth Avenue; find details on the Queridas Madres Shopping Facebook page.
Long before there was Amazon, there were department stores, enormous local emporiums holding everything from household items to clothing. Mark Barnhouse, the author of six books on Mile High history, will offer insight and plenty of shop talk on his latest, Lost Department Stores of Denver, at 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 10, at West Side Books, 3434 West 32nd Avenue. Admission is free, and books will be available for signing and sale; find out more at westsidebooks.com.
