Reading, MA Indoor Activities

Salsa y Control's instructors—who have performed and taught across the nation—welcome students for a variety of salsa classes. Beginner salsa courses help dancers develop basic steps, techniques, and etiquette, and more advanced courses delve into refining footwork and working with partners. Salsa y Control also offers intermediate classes, along with classes on bachata, burlesque, and cha cha.

Thousands of fashionistas flock to StyleFixx Premier Shopping Events to meet up-and-coming independent fashion designers and browse the latest styles. This year’s displays include the 2012 lines of Hivernage NYC, Bling Boutique, and Cimber Designs. In between shopping sprees, attendees may relax with complimentary beauty treatments such as hair services by Dellaria Salons, makeovers by Virginn Pure Mineral Makeup, and body wraps by good-natured mummies. Once pampered, refreshed guests mingle while sipping free cocktails and munching on samples from Finale Desserts and Haru Sushi, and each partygoer receives a StyleFixx Swag Bag loaded with product samples.

Majestic Yoga Studio's seasoned instructors pilot an extensive roster of 75-minute classes. During Hatha-yoga courses, participants of all skill levels can practice breath control while moving through a series of postures that were developed centuries ago to help individuals to refresh their bodies after watching too much TV. Vinyasa, or "slow flow," classes enlist gentle, smooth movements and asana sequences to elevate pupils' self-awareness and, like balancing a Fabergé egg atop one's head, Anusara-inspired sessions bolster proper body alignment. Students with injuries or limitations can opt for gentle yoga, designed with basic mobility and range of motion exercises.

In 1799, Salem’s weathered seafarers founded the East India Marine Society and began to assemble “natural and artificial curiosities” brought back from their journeys to Asia, Africa, and other distant lands. Over the following centuries, the collection grew, and while it did, the Society evolved through various shapes until it became the Peabody Essex Museum. Today, more than 1.8 million of these works invite visitors to explore the world in a facility that underwent a $200 million transformation in 2003.

The majority of works now rest in a Moshe Safdie–designed glass-and-brick building, focused around a sunny atrium whose various architectural silhouettes echo local forms. This new building joins the East India Marine Hall, built by the seafarers’ society in 1825 and dedicated in a ceremony attended by President John Adams. Today, that National Historic Landmark hosts society-member portraits and a number of the hall’s original objects; in other galleries, paintings and sculptures by Japanese, Indian, and Chinese artists hang on the walls or perch in glass cases like pies with personal-space issues. Guests can also tour Yin Yu Tang, the only complete Qing Dynasty house outside of China and a 200-year-old structure with intricate carvings.

In 2013, the Peabody Essex Museum will add exciting new displays to its rotating special exhibitions, from Faberge treasures to impressionistic masterpieces from the likes of Monet, Renoir, and Manet, as well as modern African-American art and contemporary art from India. After marveling at the skill and diversity of the artwork, visitors can drop by the Atrium Café or the Garden Restaurant for a bite to eat.

As eventgoers perch under the stately domed ceiling inside Lynn Auditorium, they can take in a chosen show against an elegant red-curtain backdrop and sleek wooden accents. The distinguished interior of the event center augments the caliber of performances available in the form of concerts and holiday specials such as Kenny Rogers and The Vienna Boys Choir. The entertainment unfolds amid newly renovated elements such as updated seating and high-tech lighting that’s capable of illuminating the next line in an actor’s head.