Local Arts

The fifth annual Spring Into Dance show featuring the Coast Contemporary Dancers at the Heritage Playhouse last weekend was lacking some of its usual magic this year.

When a performer's career is about to rocket launch, the audience seems to sense it. The appearance of mezzo-soprano Rose-Ellen Nichols had that effect.

The Seacoast Chamber Players will give their annual concert on Good Friday, April 14, at 7:30 p.m. in St. Hilda's Anglican church in Sechelt. They will perform works by two composers: Mozart, born 250 years ago in 1756, and Pergolesi, born 1710.

A Celebration of Light opens at the Harbour Gallery in Madeira Park this week, April 8 to 24, as a showcase for two local artists who paint together and learn from one another: June Malaka and Helen Broadfoot.

This is a book whose time has come. Sticks and Wheels is a guide to accessible travel on the Sunshine Coast researched and written by mobility challenged author Ellen Frank of Gibsons.

This year's Spring Into Dance will take place April 7 and 8 at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons. Shows are at 8 p.m. on Friday and 2 and 8 on Saturday. Spring Into Dance aims to promote and celebrate contemporary dance on the Sunshine Coast.

The Sunshine Coast Arts Council presents two local artists at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre Gallery.

The male figure stands in a classical pose, much as a god might have been depicted by a Renaissance artist. Think Hercules. The muscles are defined, taut.

Rose-Ellen Nichols sings the Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at Vancouver's Chan Centre March 31 and April 1. She's with the Van-couver Symphony then, but she heads the bill April 9 at Gibsons' Heritage Playhouse.

It's official. The Sunshine Coast Music Society (SCMS) has been reinstated.Canada Revenue Agency's Charities Directorate includes the Society, which can now issue income tax receipts for gifts received.