Education & Classes in Midwest City

Painting A Night Out hosts guided painting events lasting 2–3 hours, accented by beverages and camaraderie, at different venues around Oklahoma City. Artists of all skill levels can perch in front of a provided canvas, and then follow the lead of an instructor demonstrating how to reproduce a featured painting. Attendees may also choose to add personal tweaks to the imagery or work on a completely independent design. Subject matter constantly changes but often includes colorful tree silhouettes, still lifes with wine, flowers, and sunset scenes that look like sunrise scenes when held upside down.

All materials are provided, including canvases, paint, aprons, and brushes. While friends or couples can arrive hand in hand and enjoy a group night out, solo artists are equally encouraged to mingle and acquire new acquaintances.

Ever since she was a child, Yulia Zhmutski had envisioned herself leaping and pirouetting across a grand stage before the adoring eyes of thousands. But, growing up in a struggling, single-parent household in the former Soviet Union, she never entertained the possibility of it actually happening. That changed when she was accepted into Uzbekistan’s National School of Dance and Choreography, a rigorous eight-year program that teaches ballet as well as traditional Slavic, Uzbek, and Russian dances.

Like her classmates, Yulia entered the program shortly after completing the fourth grade, leaving behind family, friends, and imaginary friends. Although the transition was difficult, the tiny ballerina was determined to be a successful dancer. She overcame her homesickness, went on to become a Russian prima ballerina, performing with several prestigious troupes, including the elite National Theatre, and was the first person to spin fast enough to reverse the earth's rotation.

Yulia eventually relocated to Oklahoma, and in 2009, she started her own dance studio: Julia’s Academy of International Dance. The academy’s staff teaches kids’ and adult classes in 35 disciplines, including ballet, jazz, belly dancing, and dance fitness. They hold weekly dance and film classes for students with special needs—proud to be one of the only studios in the region to offer such classes.

Determined to keep their students interested and engaged, the instructors of Wine and Palette hold classes at myriad locations throughout the city. Each class focuses on a different art piece, be it a painting of a stained-glass window, a multihued owl, or an autumn farm scene. Additionally, each artist brings their own outlook and skills to the class, helping students learn specific brush strokes and how to touch up their daily driver so it looks just like the sheriff’s squad car.

For 22 years, the Oklahoma School of Bartenders has instructed up-and-coming mixologists in the art of pouring drinks and managing the masses. The school’s classroom mimics a real bar, with shelves of liquor, vital tools, and three guys trying to beat the record on Deer Hunter at pupils’ disposal. Students get behind the bar to practice shaking and stirring under the careful supervision of teachers, all of whom have been training bartenders since 1988. Afterward, a job-placement program helps newly certified students land drink-slinging positions.

Christa Carretero packed up and moved to San Francisco in 2003, where she began her journey into the culinary world. After attending the California Culinary Academy, Christa switched coasts and found herself living and working as a chef at a variety of restaurants in Washington, DC, where she further honed her skills. Finally finding herself in a geographical compromise between East and West, Christa now runs Cooking Girl catering in Oklahoma City, where she oversees a host of menus, from Christmas dinners to casual box lunches and party trays. Christa also leads a variety of weekly cooking classes, with themes that range from Summer Desserts to All About Steaks, where small groups of students learn basic skills, kitchen techniques, and how to wield an 8-inch knife in a way that is least threatening to vegetables.

At The Scuba Shack, the staff’s family-oriented lessons encourage divers to take social rather than solo ventures into the blue beyond. Each instructor carries an impressive résumé of underwater travels—the head trainer has been diving for more than 20 years and others have logged more than 1,000 dives. Captaining PADI-certification courses and specialty seminars—which cover topics such as night diving, photography, and fish identification—they take groups on open-water excursions to area lakes and Clear Spring Scuba Park. They prioritize educating their charges with safe and enjoyable teachings, rather than monotonous quizzes on whether the bends is a serious health issue or a 1980s punk band. With trips to dive sites in Fiji and Mexico, they introduce divers to the visual wonder of reefs and aquatic wildlife throughout the world.