Things to Do in Matthews

Lotus offers a fun and supportive workout environment for women of all shapes and sizes. You needn't have a svelte tummy to engage in belly dance's ancient arts; in fact, it's an excellent way to tone tired torsos and increase overall core strength. Classes with Lotus's instructors offer a private space to learn belly rolls, hip pops, shoulder shimmies, and candle-arms, among other animated inanimate-appendage techniques. The schedule is set to run classes continuously in four-week sessions; feel free to mix and match times to meet your schedule's needs. Options are available for untrained tenderlings and spicily seasoned belly veterans alike. At the end of every four-class session, one free session of Intro to Bellydance is offered, to touch upon the fundamental fundamentals.

Jewelology puts beauty into the hands of the beholder, leading to a sense of accomplishment rivaling that of a financially successful mime. Jewelry parties require four participants or more, and each Groupon entitles one partygoer to $15 worth of jewelry-making materials such as natural gemstones, Swarovski crystals, Czech cut-glass beads, sterling silver, and freshwater pearls (it is not required that all partygoers have a Groupon in order to attend). Or, if you don't want your firefighting buddies know you're a jewelryholic, reserve a spot in any class offered except the lampwork class and the hammered-silver class. Learn techniques such as wire ring wrapping, chain-and-stone necklace making, or chandelier-earring construction ($15 worth of class-specific materials will be provided).

Celebrating their 20th anniversary this season, the Charlotte Eagles contend with 10 rival teams for supremacy in the United Soccer League’s Pro division. This year's roster is packed with seasoned players such as Colombian Jorge Herrera and local Charlottean Darryl Roberts, who sits among the league’s top scorers so far in 2012. A glance at the current schedule will help fans plan to attend a game when the sun will be close enough to earth to tan their bodies in home-team orange.

In a handful of studios scattered between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Springfield, Missouri, kids express their artistic creativity under the friendly supervision of Noah’s Art instructors. Classes cover a wide variety of topics—from painting and clay sculpture to vocals-based Song Art—and are arranged by age group, allowing children to interact with peers of a similar developmental stage while engaging in philosophical musings on the meaning of parent-enforced time-outs. Instructors also teach basic art tools and techniques, such as how to properly hold a paintbrush or sculpt clay using only your mind.

Many dance companies approach ballet from a modern angle. Caroline Calouche prefers a more perpendicular one. When the stage is not enough space for her visions of macabre masquerade balls or surreal dreamscapes, she takes to the air above it, outfitted with a cirque's worth of aerial harnesses and accouterments. Her dancers are just as likely to pirouette down a 20-foot skein of golden silk as across a hardwood floor. Pairs of lovers might hang precariously from the frame of a hollow cube or perform a gravity-defying pas de deux on the double lyra—their suspension above the earth either an expression of freedom or a prison of their own making. Like identifying an elderly smoker's gender over the phone, the airborne element leaves plenty of room for interpretation.

By marrying the storytelling ability of floor-bound choreography with the gravity-defying tricks of circus arts, Caroline Calouche & Co. unleashes the full potential of aerial dance. The company's productions are free to venture to strange new places. For example, in past shows, women have risen from their graves to haunt their murderous husbands. Likewise, the sounds of Moby and Blue Man Group are more likely to be heard than Debussy.

Audience members who want to plqy the ropes and silks for themselves can learn to do so during the dance company's aerial-dance classes, along with a tight curriculum of ballet, contemporary, and stretching and strengthening courses. For all its global influences and aerial showmanship, Caroline Calouche & Co. keeps its feet rooted in the local community with outreach programs for all ages, ethnicities, and social groups.

An affable red-footed tortoise named Confucius and a gentle black rat snake named Oreo greet visitors at Cold Blooded Encounters as founder Sean Amidon, a former reptile handler at Disney's Animal Kingdom, supplies a steady stream of compelling facts. Secluded and multispecies habitats house more than 150 species of amphibians, fish, reptiles, and invertebrates, including fire salamanders, jewel cichlids, Kenyan sand boas, and whip scorpions. Annual memberships grant gift-shop discounts, guest passes, and a family photo posed with an animal. Cold Blooded Encounters also reaches out to school groups from preschools to colleges with effusive educational programs and sends ambassadors to birthday parties, where children can help feed turtles or pose for photos with 8-foot snakes.