arts

Lake Tahoe’s 36th annual Valhalla Arts, Music & Theatre Festival opens June 17 at the historic lakefront Heller Estate (Valhalla) on the South Shore. Exclusive “one night only” performances will deliver a high caliber lineup of music and dance performances to Lake Tahoe’s arts and culture scene. Master Scottish Fiddler, Alasdair Fraser, will strike the first chord of the summer festival in Valhalla’s celebrated Boathouse Theater with Lake Tahoe as the backdrop, in a rare and highly anticipated solo performance.

The Tahoe Prosperity Center mission is uniting Tahoe’s communities to strengthen regional prosperity. Prosperity is defined as “the condition of being successful or thriving, especially economic well-being.” The Tahoe Prosperity Center is the basin-wide organization focused on that goal for all who live and work in Lake Tahoe.

Christina Thomas is a woman of Paiute, Shoshone, and Hopi descent who has been acknowledged as an emerging leader of her people. Christina explores the performing arts of traditional singing, drumming and dancing. She has given lessons in the Paiute language, tells traditional stories, shares knowledge of traditional foods and plants, and also discusses the history of the Great Basin native peoples; and gives her unique perspective on contemporary Native American issues.

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It’s that time of the year again!

The annual Bert’s Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser is May 14th, 2015 from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 at Bert’s Cafe in South Lake Tahoe. Enjoy the evening as TAP Board Members and volunteers serve up tasty spaghetti along with wine and baked goods.

Come hungry and ready to have fun! Proceeds will benefit Tahoe Arts Project.

Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe (SISLT) awarded eight local organizations a total of $25,000 in grants at Harrah’s Tahoe on Wednesday, April 15.

“There are so many wonderful organizations working to improve the lives of women and children in our area,” said Micky Madden, SISLT’s Grant Allocation Co-Chair. “We are honored to aid these efforts made possible by the community’s support of our annual fundraising activities.”

In typical South Lake Tahoe fashion, Mother Nature has decided to visit the local Earth Day celebration on Saturday. While sunshine may be preferred by some, needed moisture will be making a visit.

Don't let a forecast of rain or snow keep you from Earth Day 2015 though. As seen in the video in this story, snow fell just prior to last year's event too.

Give Where You Live! is a 24-hour giving challenge coordinated by the El Dorado Community Foundation. This year's day long giving day is Thursday, April 23, 2015.

“We have approximately 70 nonprofits participating in the event this year. Each nonprofit will have its own website presence to highlight a particular need or needs for which it is focusing giving dollars, as well as more information about the organization in general,” said Megan Buchanan, donor services coordinator at the foundation.

Reno's first-ever poet laureate, Gailmarie Pahmeier and poet/teacher Shaun T. Griffin will be the next featured artists at the Lake Tahoe Community College's Writers Series on April 21 at 7 p.m.

The poets will read selections from their works, answer questions from the audience and sign copies of their books at the event which will take place at the college'e Roberta L. Mason Library. Their books will be available for sale.

Knowing that not all South Lake Tahoe kids plan on heading to a four-year college, John McDougall wanted to help those students find their vocational path.

And he is accomplishing this in two ways: Pay it Forward Scholarships and with a High School Mentoring Program.

"I'm helping kids that are taking the vocational path," said the 1972 South Tahoe high graduate.

The annual Gala for the South Tahoe High Performing & Visual Arts Booster Association (PABA) is being held on Saturday, March 20 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Enjoy appetizers and "mocktails" prepared by the STHS culinary arts students prior to the evening's performance of A Midsummer's Night Dream.

Tickets for the Gala are $30 for the Gala only; $40 for the Gala plus a show ticket; $50 for the above plus a bonus gift; and $75 for all this plus a reserved seat in the theater!

Have you heard any good Middle Eastern Oud or Kemenche lately? How about South American Charango and Zamponia or East Indian Tablas or Santoor? Intrigued? These and many other ethnic instruments from the Middle East, Central Asia, India, China and South America will be played by multi-instrumentalist Todd Green at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 27 at South Tahoe High School Theater. Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $5 for children. The concert will be preceded by a half-hour quiet strings-only, live prelude.

The 3rd annual Dancing With the Tahoe Stars is quickly becoming a community favorite. A capacity crowd filled MontBleu Casino Resort to watch ten local celebrities paired with professional dancers vie for the mirror ball trophy.

South Lake Tahoe teacher Lisa McDaniel and Lake Tahoe Unified School Board Member Ginger Nicolay-Davis each ended up with the top honors in the first ever tie. The tiebreaker combined judge's scores, ticket donations and crowd noise.

Five, six, seven, eight. Dancers will always have numbers in their head as they count out the beat, and those participating in the annual Dancing With the Tahoe Stars are no doubt experiencing just that as they wrap up their final two weeks of rehearsals.

There's an old saying: "Writing about art is like dancing about architecture." After watching rehearsals this week I starting searching for the words to start as I found that translating the movement of the human body into something written down to be a frustrating process.

So instead, I'll focus on those who are participating.

This Valentine’s Day you can hypnotize your valentine in hypnotist Chris Cady's Comedy Hypnosis show at the Nugget in Sparkso, NV on Saturday, February 14, 2015.

The show will take place in the Celebrity Showroom starting at 8 p.m.

His show is called, “Chris Cady’s Hypnotize Your Valentine Comedy Hypnosis Show.”

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Kealoha and Diane Ferlatte will be in South Lake Tahoe this week as part of the Tahoe Arts Project's goal of bringing the arts to town.

Diane Ferlatte, world famous storyteller, and Kealoha, Poet Laurette of Hawaii, come together for an exciting night of slam poetry, storytelling and prose. Don't miss your chance to see these two industry legends together in a unique performance to be enjoyed by all ages.

In case you haven't made it to any of the previous Tahoe Arts Project Dancing With the Tahoe Stars you'll want to put March 7 on your calendars.

Ten local celebrities will be paired with talented and experienced dancers from the area. In the group of ten is a real estate agent, business owner, comedian, Barton executive, lawyer, doctor, teacher, fireman, casino executive and public relations expert.

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is the next play being put on by the Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) Theatre Arts Department and they will soon be holding auditions.

There are a wide variety of roles available for men and women. Auditions are Tuesday, January 6 at 7 p.m. in LTCC’s Duke Theatre. Performances will be March 13 through 22, 2015.

An evening of wine tasting and dancing to benefit The Brewery Arts Center (BAC). Enjoy entertainment and the arts across the entire campus in this interactive festive celebration. Experience the finest vineyards, exceptional wines, great music and dancing. There will be a live jazz orchestra and light hors d'oeuvres.

Tickets available online and will be available to pick up at the BAC office prior to the event or at Will Call the night of the event.

BAC is located at 449 W. King St., Carson City, NV. Their phone number is 775-883-1976.

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Tahoe-based nonprofit the Zawadisha Fund is teaming up again with Bona Fide Books to offer an opportunity to shop locally while having global impact this holiday season. Connect with contemporary local artists, crafters and entrepreneurs at the 4th Annual Zawadisha Holiday Bazaar on Sat., Nov. 29, from 10 a.m.- 3 p.m. at Bona Fide Books,1069 Magua Street in Meyers, CA. All vendor space fees benefit the Zawadisha Fund.

The Sierra Nevada Ballet will present the popular “Peanutcracker – The Story in a Nut Shell” on Dec. 6 in the Bob Boldrick Theater in the Carson City Community Center at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Based on Lev Ivanov‘s original ballet “The Nutcracker,” Peanutcracker is a shorter, 45-minute narrated version that is “designed for families with younger children to introduce them to the wonderful world of ballet,” noted Rosine Bena, Artistic Director of the Sierra Nevada Ballet who wrote and choreographed this traditional holiday show.

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As part of their mission to give back to the community and protect the environment, Vail Resorts gave away 49 grants to Lake Tahoe area groups during a ceremony on Tuesday at Heavenly Valley.

A historic donation was made to the Lake Tahoe Community College today, enabling the school to build the Robert Maloff University Center on campus in preparation for offering four year degrees. LTCC has applied to be part of a state pilot program that will bring in baccalaureate degrees to 15 community colleges, beginning with at least one program at each school.

During Wednesday night's community Open House concerning the proposed Loop Road project in South Lake Tahoe, people can preview the plans and provide feedback on any elements of the plan.

From 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel, staff members from supporting agencies will be on hand to present the proposed plan for the U.S. Hwy 50 Revitalization Plan (also known as the Loop Road).

The rush was on in 1864 to make Nevada a part of the union. Congress was in a hurry to have the support of the Republican dominated Nevada territory for President Abraham Lincoln's reelection. The three electoral votes Nevada would bring helped bring the end of slavery when Lincoln was re-elected just 9 days after Nevada became a state.