Waterloo Indoor Activities

Since 1902, The Kitchener Lawn Bowling Club has united the thrill of competition with the leisure of a sunny backyard thanks to lawn bowling—a sport whose roots extend deep into the 12th century in cultures across the globe. Today, the club hosts social matches and lessons on its immaculate greens surrounded by shaded benches, flowerbeds, and picnic tables. Membership grants free lessons as well as access to the clubhouse stocked with trophies, photographs, and memorabilia from throughout its history. At night, floodlights illuminate the field, providing a full view of evening games and preventing confused players from trying to hit the moon with every toss.

Create Balance Pilates owners Collette Brown and Renée D’Orsay believe a balanced body is the path to a balanced life that is both healthy and fulfilling. As Stott Pilates instructors, they foster this equilibrium by teaching core-strengthening exercises developed with the input of physical therapists, sports-medicine experts, and exercise-science researchers that stress alignment and form to help students sculpt their bodies safely. Clear, concise cues guide students through isometric exercises atop exercise mats as well as fluid movements performed on spring-based resistance equipment such as Reformers, jumpboards, and reflex-testing jack-in-the-boxes.

In addition to offering small-group classes for many different skill levels, the studio caters to students’ goals during private training sessions in its cozy, sunlit space. No matter which type of instruction students receive, they typically experience a measurable increase in strength and coordination, and find themselves building the type of endurance and flexibility required to run a marathon en pointe.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony was founded out of necessity; in 1945, the Grand Philharmonic Choir was preparing a recital and needed tuneful accompaniment for the harmonic voices. Once its backup duty was over, however, the newly convened orchestra quickly established itself as an independent source for both classical and pops concerts performing more than 100 concerts annually in the Waterloo region. Now home to 52 on-staff musicians, the orchestra continues its decades-long tradition at venues around Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, and Cambridge. From his position as music director, Edwin Outwater oversees the joyful noise, which ranges from baroque to Beethoven to the Beatles and Broadway. Since assuming the role in 2007, Outwater has been one of the orchestra's most vigorous boosters, arranging the group's first commercial recording in a decade, engineering an exploration of prog rock in collaboration with the Institute for Quantum Computing, and knitting sweaters for each musician's instrument.

THEMUSEUM’s vision—“To awe, inspire and enlighten”—is evident to its visitors as soon as they traverse the adult- and child-sized doorways. Once inside, they begin their journey through the exhibition halls in front of the vibrant plants protruding from the Living Wall, whose purpose is to clean the air and cool the interior of the multilevel facility. Along with permanent exhibitions, THEMUSEUM also hosts temporary exhibits; past installations have explored the pop art innovations of Andy Warhol's Factory, the interplay between art and electronics, and the experimental brushstrokes of painter Tom Thomson. In addition, THEMUSEUM is also a destination for global travelling exhibits, having played host to travelling international blockbusters like Our Body: The Universe Within and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.

For more than a decade, House Theatre has devoted itself to creating experiences that emphasize the magic of live theater. First achieving prominence with its supernatural thriller The Sparrow, the outfit has gone on to win 19 Joseph Jefferson Awards and Broadway in Chicago’s Emerging Theater Award. Dedicated to daring storytelling, House Theatre’s productions weave resonant music with mechanical feats of onstage magic to create fully immersive experiences that dazzle audiences and convince actors that they can never go back to the real world or their real families.

For more than 25 years, Fitness Forum owners Alec and Lynne Pinchin have kept their 39,000-square-foot gym in fine fettle through constant renovations and an influx of up-to-date equipment and fitness programs. The facility's high-soaring ceilings and walls shield exercisers from the harsh heat and bitter cold of the outdoors, and expansive skylights let in natural light and views of emus soaring among the clouds. In two cardio centres, heart rates skyrocket as guests tackle treadmills and stairmasters and fix their eyes on HDTVs. The gym also houses an indoor pool area and a rubberized running track.

More than 75 fitness classes energize and motivate visitors in a fun group setting, and squash courts host sweat-inducing bouts between racquet-wielding foes. While parents torch calories rep by rep, kids can while away the time at the gym's daycare centre, where tykes watch movies and fill out tax papers in pudding.