Things to Do in Oatfield

Portland Festival Ballet's artistic director, John Magnus––whose career has touched down in the world of South African dance as well as the prestigious Joffrey Ballet School in New York––headlines a cast of performance-arts instructors and serves as the architect behind the organization's lively, world-class productions. Their seasoned coaches prepare fledgling hoofers and thespians to face the crowd through a schedule of acting and dancing classes for kids, teens, and adults. During breathtaking performances that have included The Nutcracker and the annual Spring Concert, Portland Festival Ballet's charismatic performers storm the stage at the ACMA Performing Arts Center to dazzle audiences with high-flying pirouettes and convincing impersonations of ficus trees.

Stoneworks Climbing Gym's climbers while away their days on the gym's vast top-rope, lead, and bouldering walls. The walls soar to the ceiling and bear holds with multicolored tape to delineate each climbing route, which start at 5.6 and vary in difficulty. The diverse set of routes and climbing difficulties have made Stoneworks an ideal gym for climbing the past 20 years and for competitions, such as the annual Boulder Joust.

Avid climbers themselves, the route setters and staff at Stoneworks are also guides, leading teams of beginner and skilled climbers into the mountains of Oregon for outdoor climbing. They also equip members with the skills needed to scale their routes in both group and private lessons that focus on technique, sport climbing, and vertical Twister. Kids are welcome to join the junior climbing team or summer camps.

North Clackamas Aquatic Park's 400,000 gallons of 86-degree H2O stream down two twisty tube slides and splash swimmers in three swimming pools housed within this waterlogged indoor playground. During Big Surf! recreational hours, divers plunge into 13-foot-deep water as swimmers on rental tubes crest the wave pool's 4-foot surf, whereas competitive swimmers hone skills in the 25-yard, six-lane lap pool. A drop slide sends adventurous aquanauts plunging, as climbers head the other direction on a 29-foot rock wall with three routes for scalers of all skill levels. As adults unwind in the hot tub, pint-size splashers flit about interactive fountains, coast down the Sammie the Seal slide into a kiddie pool, or organize their fellow tots into a filibuster until chaperones acquiesce to snack demands at the Waves Cafe. Swimming lessons, complimentary life jackets, and inflatable submarines are also available to help guests swim safely.

Trails End Golf Center encompasses 45 hitting stalls and two grass tee areas from which golfers can blast golf balls across its 20-acre expanse, earning it a spot among Golf Range Magazine's top 100 ranges in 2011. Each hitting stall is fully covered and heated so that practice can continue in any weather, especially when it's hailing free golf balls. When game improvement hits a roadblock, golfers can enlist the help of manager and head pro Jason Kelp, who lends his expertise to help players of all skill levels—including beginners and children—better enjoy the game through lower scores and more frequent opportunities to domesticate wild golf carts.

Before it mutated into a weaponized haze of reality shows, MTV aired a novelty known as the music video. These bite-sized works of art, which married pop songs to striking imagery, revolutionized the entertainment industry and ushered in an era of music known as “new wave.” For the task of curating and introducing these fresh sounds and flamboyant sights to audiences, MTV even created its own version of the disc jockey—the VJ.

Though MTV has sent its stable of video jockeys out to pasture, VJ Kittyrox carries the pastel, shoulder-padded torch of Adam Curry and Nina Blackwood as she masterminds the 80s Video Dance Attack. For the last seven years, this popular shindig has united generations of Portlandians with its five-hour feast of '80s-centric sensation. Across 10-foot screens, VJ Kittyrox projects classic videos from artists such as Duran Duran and Michael Jackson as audiences of Breakfast Clubbers and Pretty in Pinkers perfect their cabbage patch, running man, and Pat Benatar shimmies. A bombastic, thumping sound system and a dazzling light show accentuate the time warp as audiences deck themselves in '80s garb and shake away memories of unsolved rubik’s cubes.