Before Garrett Ammon’s ballet company got its makeover as Wonderbound, The Nutcracker was a stock annual performance for what was then Ballet Nouveau Colorado, just as it is for so many other companies. But in the present, Ammon wanted to drop the stiff crinolines of the Tchaikovsky classic for something…
Mare Trevathan is learning that Balls! A Holiday Spectacular, the annual variety show she helped found six years ago, has a life beyond her and the others who created it. “Now I feel like it has its own stamina; it now exists beyond any of us,” she notes. The charitable…
Most of the year, Britt Madden of the Banshee Press printmaking studio handles big loads of finely crafted commercial work that’s artful if not always actual art. But she’s decided to have some fun this month – during what she calls her “down season” — by collaborating with a handpicked…
In the midst of celebrating twelve wonderful years of facilitating projects by kids and artist-mentors, PlatteForum is pulling up stakes from its Riverfront-neighborhood home and taking a leap into the Temple, a Curtis Park venue-in-progress in the heart of Denver’s growing artist community. Though the nonprofit still has a lease…
The art of craft can include everything from affordable art to locally-designed clothing to handmade everything and, in Colorado, to limited-edition microbrewed beers. All make great gifts — or little presents to ourselves — and in keeping, there’s a show or market in the metro area with just the right…
On Thanksgiving eve, amateurs took the stage at Voodoo Comedy Playhouse for a grand karaoke showdown inspired by that ridiculous ’70s game show, the Gong Show. Judges Juicy la Booty, Long Gong Scooter and Bad Cop Robin weighed in on each performance, while contestants hoped to avoid hearing the toll…
You can go to the mall. No one’s going to stop you, if you’re so inclined. And some people really do like the camaraderie of burning off Thanksgiving dinner by freezing to death in line to get into some big-box store and grab a doorbuster deal. But in the interest…
After cats and dogs, which cute animal rules the Internet? We’re willing to bet on pandas, especially the wee, roly-poly bamboo-gobbling denizens of China’s Wolong Conservation and Research Center in Sichuan Province, where young pandas are raised and prepared for release into the wild. There’s nothing cuter than baby pandas,…
Waddie Mitchell grew up in the rarefied atmosphere of the Nevada ranchlands near Elko and spent years wrangling — and sitting around many a campfire, listening to stories — before finally hanging up his boots to become a bona fide cowboy poet in the ’80s. That’s when he helped found…
There are lots of ways to spend the Thanksgiving weekend in Denver, but many families end up at the annual Rocky Mountain Auto Show, which kicks off the official holiday season with a welcome distraction from Black Friday shoppers and fleeing skiers. Billed as the “Crème de la Chrome of…
What do you do with the family after Thanksgiving is over? You dress them up and take them to see A Christmas Carol, because some stories were just made for retelling, generation after generation. And if you don’t have a family with spit-washed faces, you can throw a little whipped…
Some local stages stick with the classics for the holidays, such as the Denver Center Theatre Company’s A Christmas Carol and the Colorado Ballet’s The Nutcracker. But if you like things light and perhaps a little bit wacked, there are a few ways to buck tradition and deck the halls…
As part of every season, Denver’s lauded Curious Theatre Company commits to at least one rolling world premiere of challenging work from the National New Play Network. This year, it’s Robert Caisley’s black comedy Lucky Me, the story of Sara Fine, a woman whose life story seems to unfold under…
Anyone familiar with the delicate yet explosive artistry that comes out of Dale Chihuly’s internationally known glass studio in Washington state will immediately get what might happen when a large-scale collection of Chihuly glass takes over the Denver Botanic Gardens for the summer. But if that’s mind-boggling to think about,…
What makes holiday teas at the historic Cherokee Ranch and Castle so special? The list goes on and on — just like a ten-year-old’s Christmas wish list — but it starts with the charm of the castle in the foothills, which offers Front Range views that stretch from downtown Denver…
Susan Lyles of And Toto Too theater company, an ensemble dedicated to presenting work by women playwrights, was looking for something different to fill the final slot of the season. “I got to thinking about what might happen if I got a group of playwrights together and had them all…
#43: Noah Van Sciver If you read Westword, you’re familiar with Noah Van Sciver — since 2008, when he started inking the 4 Questions feature in Backbeat, the hard-working cartoonist has been making observations about modern society and its many characters in these pages and online at westword.com. But Van…
The shift happens so fast, it’s nearly imperceptible, but that won’t last for long — Halloween’s over, and the holiday shopping season is on. Shopping handmade and local is the trend, and we’ve made it a little easier for you to navigate the best of the markets, sales and small…
Proving that Boulder has some cachet in the entrepreneurial world, NewCo — a one-day event that gathers together businesspeople and investors with innovative companies in cities here and abroad — has added the foothill republic to its 2014 itinerary, which also spreads as far afield as New York City, the…
#44: Britta Erickson Britta Erickson, a Denver native who’s the director of the Starz Denver Film Festival, not only builds the fest from the ground up behind the scenes but also serves as its public face. Popular Denver Film Society side projects such as Film on the Rocks and the…
#45: Darrin Alfred As associate curator of architecture, design and graphics at the Denver Art Museum, Darrin Alfred — who cut his teeth at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before landing in Denver — keeps the museum’s design collection up-to-date, while curating such shows as 2009’s popular poster…
The paradox of Denver Arts Week is this: Do we really need to set aside a special week to celebrate what happens in Denver every other week of the year as well? The answer is yes. The fact that our city is teeming with galleries, museums, music halls, restaurants and…
