Things to Do in Metairie

Though his rhythmic past runs through hip-hop and breaking culture, Derik Dollis broke ground on Liquid Rhythm Inc. after seeing how seamlessly club styles meshed with the ballroom art of salsa. Dollis and a quintet of additional instructors schooled in dance styles such as ballet and jazz use salsa's unmistakable rhythmic structure as a loose guideline, allowing students to break from the idea that they need to master tricks to succeed. Classes encourage dancers to develop a personal style while learning posture, isolations, and body movement in tandem with adding sensual flair and the least-prickly ways of holding a rose in your mouth. The company also totes its New Orleans pride across the country to perform at national salsa congresses.:m]]

At home in the French Quarter, the House of Blues New Orleans keeps its heritage ever near with a metal box of mud from the Mississippi Delta hidden beneath its stage. Around this, more than 290 pieces of folk art—one of the largest collections in the country—decorate the walls and cover up the evidence of indoor shot-put practice. Also bringing its Southern charm and homestyle feel are hardwood floors, no fewer than three bars, and two levels for concert viewing.

The vibrant mural stretching across the side of National Art & Hobby’s building serves as a symbol of the creativity-fueling items held inside. The shop’s cozy interior is packed with shelves of fine art materials, craft supplies, and jewelry-making equipment, as well as an extensive collection of glitter, sequins, rhinestones, and feathers often used by local Mardi Gras Indians to decorate their ornate costumes. Owner Nat Ward and a friendly staff stand by to answer customers' questions and shed artistic advice, from product suggestions to thoughts on which nontoxic paste is the tastiest.

For the last 20 years, satanic cults, monsters, and the undead have been congregating at The House of Shock to perform unspeakable horrors in the name of Halloween. Envisioned by a crack team of fright experts, including Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo, this seasonal haunt has been featured in the Travel Channel's Halloween's Most Extreme, Rolling Stone, Maxim, and Top Haunts magazine's list of the Top 13 Haunts nationwide. The house's exhibits are so scary that they've caused some extreme reactions. Allegedly, one patron's heart stopped beating. After she was resuscitated and rushed to the hospital, it was determined she had technically been dead for a short period.

As a live metal band strikes its first ominous chords, the fright fest kicks off with a nightly horror show of pyrotechnics, death metal, live stunts, and masochists. Adrenaline levels soar as courageous guests tiptoe through the coffins, ornate gravestones, and crumbling mausoleums of an ancient graveyard. The house's professional actors don't just slink by waving chainsaws and body parts—they tear apart bodies and scare the dickens out of guests who brave the interactive horrors of a funeral parlor, a morgue, and a butcher shop's dreadfully rotten cuts of beef. The adventure reaches terrifying new heights in a controversial satanic church, where flickering candles and hellfire cast eerie shadows on demonic worshipers and their torture victims. The onsite Hell's Kitchen churns out thematic eats and adult beverages to help frightened guests regain their senses before they revert to a mental world where the only conflict is over which Teletubby wore it best.

The volunteers at Deutsches Haus have worked since 1928 to celebrate German culture and introduce locals to the country’s music, food, language, and history. The chirp of accordions and the crackle of bratwurst on a grill hint at events, including Oktoberfest and Volksfest festivals. Beers from German breweries such as Paulaner and Warsteiner run in straw-hued rivulets from mugs, and vendors dressed in dirndls and lederhosen sell traditional steins. During weekly meetings of the Schlaraffia, a jovial, international fraternity, guests belt out literary and humorous compositions to entertain one another or try to teach robots to laughs.

Formed in 1989, the Louisiana Tour Company started out by organizing Swamp tours narrated by knowledgeable boat captains. Today, the company has grown to offer other excursions such as city Ghost tours on foot, visits to plantations in a van, and Airboat tours of swamp and marshland on the backs of indigenous amphibians. Three-hour New Orleans City and Post-Katrina tours invite sightseers to load up into a minibus to visit city landmarks and areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.