The Canadian School of Ballet joins with Ballet Kelowna to once again bring to life the magical story of The Nutcracker, December 7th and 8th in Kelowna and December 14th and 15th in Vernon.

The Canadian School of Ballet's Nutcracker has become a Kelowna family tradition playing to audiences for over 15 years. "People have grown up with this family production, as audience members coming back year after year and as dancers and performers."  comments Lori Larson Co-Artistic Director.
 
The Nutcracker story draws its audience into all those things that should be tradition at holiday time, a fun celebration with family and friends, a journey through a winter wonderland, sugar plums and candy canes, magical dreams and dancing.  It is a Christmas eve party at the Bergermeister home. A special guest, Mr. Drosselmeyer arrives to charm the children with gifts and magic.  Drosselmeyer give his god-daughter Clara the special gift of a Nutcracker and a magical dream.  As mid-night strikes Clara falls asleep and the adventure begins.
 
As Kelowna's largest local stage production with 100 performers, beautiful costuming and stage design The Nutcracker is a must see for
families wanting to celebrate the holiday season.
 
Tickets are available at ticketmaster.ca for Kelowna performances and ticketseller.ca for Vernon performances.
Kelowna
Friday December 7th- 7:30 p.m.
Saturday December 8th- 2:00 and 7:30p.m.
Vernon
Friday December 14th- 7:30 p.m.
Saturday December 15th- 2:00 p.m.
 
Ticket prices
Adults $27
Student and Seniors $20
Children (17 years and under) $18
Contact:  Tracy Ross  762-8022

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08 Nov 2007

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07 Nov 2007

An informal afternoon hour showcasing the people, ideas and inspirations featured in Okanagan Q.

Join us as Jack Whyte, internationally acclaimed for his series of books based around King Arthur and more recently the Knights Templar, discusses his latest book - his memoir Forty Years in Canada.

» This is a free event. Refreshments will be available at a modest cost. » Seating is limited, please reserve yours here.

King of Arthurian Tales Reveals his Passion for Canada.

The city's most famous fiction writer arrives at Mosaic Books November 8 as part of the continuing Expressions events put on by the Okanagan Institute.

Jack Whyte, who came to international acclaim with his series of books based around King Arthur and more recently the Knights Templar, releases his latest book - his memoir Forty Years in Canada.

Okanagan Institute is co-hosting the special evening event along with Mosaic Books. The festivities get underway at 7 pm.

"I know Mosaic has had a long relationship with Jack Whyte and it's events like this that give the Okanagan public an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the intellectual and artistic diversity we have in this valley," said Robert MacDonald, head of the Okanagan Institute. "Jack Whyte is a well-regarded author of international acclaim and we're very pleased to be hosting this event along side Mosaic Books."

Forty Years in Canada chronicles Jack Whyte's emigration from Scotland in 1967 to begin life in Canada as a teacher. But the profession couldn't hold him, and before long he was in theatres nation-wide telling tales of his homeland's literary hero - Robert Burns. Since those days he's had time to write books that have wooed readers from Italy to Invermere. And between it all, he's had time to ruminate on true Canadiana - like Pierre Trudeau, Alberta oil, multiculturalism, fast food, the Canadian military, and a broken education system.

"It's always healthy for a community to see itself through the eyes of the immigrant - even an immigrant who has been here as long as Jack Whyte," said MacDonald. "His observations provide us with some new perspectives on how we can see our country. And it doesn't hurt that he knows how to tell a good story."

Jack Whyte: Reflections is a free event, and takes place at Mosaic Books, Kelowna's independent bookstore. It's presented by the Okanagan Institute in association with the magazines of Wheat King Publishing - Okanagan Arts, Okanagan Home, and Okanagan Q.


Expressions is sponsored by the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan, Wood Lake Books, UBCO Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, and supports the work of Project Literacy Kelowna.

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06 Nov 2007

Boomers and seniors are shaking up Kelowna with not only their growing numbers, but their new perspectives on how they want to age. Not satisfied with the same old notions and nostrums, they're demanding, and creating, change.

This Thursday, November 1, at 4:30 pm, the Okanagan Institute continues its Re:Imagine discussion series at Mosaic Books with The Ages of Adventure: Growing Older and Better, which looks at how today's seniors embrace life in ways never considered in previous generations.

Mary Ann Murphy is an associate professor of social work at UBC Okanagan, with a speciality in aging. She was the research consultant on one of the first major national studies on the cost-effectiveness of home care, and served as the sole planner to a 500-bed chronic care hospital in Ottawa.

Murphy says the Baby Boom generation is redefining retirement and aging. Indicators include the rise in highly-trained senior athletes - with it the increased need for joint replacement - and their general rejection of such Okanagan mainstays as gated communities. "Boomers believe they will live forever, and generally they take charge and shake things up," Murphy says. "I don't think they're going to accept the current models for care and they're going to demand change."

David and Dorothy Counts are two retired anthropology professors (McMaster and Waterloo University) who epitomize the active living and learning lifestyle. Oyama-based authors of Over the Next Hill: An Ethnography of RVing, the Counts researched the RV lifestyle with the conclusion that living on the road assists seniors greatly in cultivating friendships and a fulfilling life.

“People need three things in retirement – control over their life, interesting and challenging things to do, and a sense of community,” says Dorothy Counts. “RVing accomplishes all three of these things. They really do have control over where they are going with their lives and what they want to do. Plus, travel is interesting, and they make community on the road.” Counts recalls one case of an avid RVer who suffered a heart attack. A fellow traveller stepped into help – not only getting her to the hospital, but taking care of her rig. “You just don’t find that anywhere,” she says.

The Ages of Adventure: Growing Older and Better is a free event, and takes place at Mosaic Books, Kelowna's independent bookstore. It's presented by the Okanagan Institute in association with the magazines of Wheat King Publishing - Okanagan Arts, Okanagan Home, and Okanagan Q.



Re:Imagine is sponsored by the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan, Wood Lake Books, UBCO Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, and supports the work of Project Literacy Kelowna.

For more information and to register: http://www.okanaganinstitute.com

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26 Oct 2007

Everyone wants to be green or get green these days - but it's the gardeners in our world who make the most important decisions about what kind of future we are going to share. At the personal level, it is they who first question the use of pesticides and fertilizers, who determine what's natural and needed, and who dare to dream of communities in balance with nature.
 
This is no metaphor, this is real life. Okanagan Institute presents internationally-acclaimed author Don Gayton at Mosaic Books this Thursday, October 25 as the Re:Imagine Series continues with Wild at Heart: An Ecologist's Green Reality.

Gayton will be reading from his just-published book - Interwoven Wild: An Ecologist Loose in the Garden, published by Thistledown Press. The book explores both the serious and the humourous. With his powerful and lyrical prose style, this Okanagan ecologist explores the inter-reliance of species, soil fertility, and weed invasions. He speculates on gardeners - their need to landscape, to purchase specialized tools, to use (or shun) chemicals, and the art they bring to the enterprise. Interwoven into the book are works of painters, writers and landscape architects who have each lent their particular gifts to the soil.

"I've heard Don Gayton speak many times and he has a way of pulling out the stories that make us both laugh and think," says Okanagan Institute head Robert MacDonald. "His passion for his subject is unmistakeable. We can all learn from his observations."

A grassland specialist and ecologist for FORREX in the Okanagan, Don Gayton is the author of The Wheatgrass Mechanism, Landscapes of the Interior and Kokanee. Winner of the Canadian Science Writers Journalism Award and the U.S. National Outdoor Book Award, his work has appeared in Canadian Geographic magazine, Equinox, and Western Living.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE.

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22 Oct 2007