By Dayna Martinez, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

In the midst of starting construction on the brand new 1,100-seat Concert Hall, which will open in Spring, 2015, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is getting ready for a busy summer!

We kick off the summer season with the Flint Hills 2013 International Children’s Festival, which begins on May 28th with four days of performances for over 15,000 school children, and then culminates in a fun Family Weekend on June 1^st and 2^nd.  The Festival this year features five international artists:

• Cirque Ziva –Chinese Acrobats
• The Star Keeper – Puppetry from Montreal, Quebec
• RumbaTap – Tap dance and body percussion paired with Afro-Cuban music
• Wind – Theater from Bologna, Italy
• Australia’s Sway Poles’ Swoon – Outdoor spectacle with performers atop 15-foot flexible poles

Tickets for our indoor performances are just $5.  And, there will be FREE activities going on outside in the Parks on the Family Weekend:

• Two stages with the best in local and regional music and dance performers
• A Story Time Garden with storytellers – folktales from around the world
• Activity tents with make-and-take art activities

For more information about the Festival and to purchase tickets, click here.

Story Time Garden – Flint Hills International Children’s Festival. Photo: Peter B Myers

On Saturday, June 8^th, the Ordway is excited to be participating in this year’s Northern Spark Festival, which is an all-night festival of art and culture taking place in and around the Union Depot in Lowertown, Saint Paul. We’ll be representing by throwing a good, old-fashioned 50’s Style Sock Hop, to get ready for Buddy:  The Buddy Holly Story, which plays at the Ordway June 11-16.  For more information about Northern Spark, click here.  And, to find out more about Buddy and to purchase tickets, click here.

Starting on June 13^th, our very popular Summer Dance series begins.  Summer Dance is a free, weekly social dance event, Thursday evenings in June and July.  Each week is a different dance and music genre and the evening starts out with a dance lesson taught by professional dance instructors.  Then the live, local band takes the stage and folks can dance the night away showing off the skills they learned during the dance lesson.  This year, Summer Dance takes place right in the middle of Rice Park!  To check out the 2013 Summer Dance lineup, click here.

Finally, single tickets will go on sale for our 2013-14 Season on June 16^th.  It’s a great theatrical season featuring touring Broadway shows such as Miss Saigon and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Wizard of Oz, plus the Ordway’s own Broadway Songbook series.  The Target® World Music and Dance Series will bring athletic hip-hop dance from Philadelphia with the company Rennie Harris Puremovement, and beautiful a cappella harmonies from South Africa with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.  Check out the full 13-14 season here.

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Summer Dance is fun for all! Dance instruction during a 2012 Summer Dance event. Photo: Peter B Myers