West Springfield, MA Indoor Activities

Since 1981, Lorraine-Michaels Dance Centre's cast of passionate instructors has been helping students of all ages and abilities confidently express themselves through the art of dance. They lead these students through sashays, shimmies, and kicks with an exhaustive roster of dance and fitness classes that ranges from ballroom dancing to tap to kickboxing. During dance classes, they teach students to perform fundamental moves with confidence and musicality, covering a variety styles—including the Argentine tango, waltz, swing, and salsa—tending to bites from the dancing bug or disgruntled dance partners. They motivate students into performance shape in dance-inspired fitness classes such as Zumba, a regimen of easy-to-follow dance moves set to high-energy Latin tunes. In kickboxing sweat sessions, they inspire students to kick and punch their way toward their fitness goals, effectively toning muscles and scaring away the ghosts of gladiators past, while pole dancing classes build strength and teach students how to spin and climb.

Every Friday and Saturday night as the light begins to fade, cars cruise through the dusk into an empty field, where images begin to flicker on the giant screen at Hathaway’s Drive-In Theatre. Moviegoers prepare for double features of new and classic films by positioning one of the drive-in’s special speakers in their car's window or by tuning their radio dials to the affiliated FM station. Picnic-basket packers can choose to bring in their own snacks and drinks for a small fee, while those who like to travel light can patronize the theater's snack bar, which stocks hot dishes and snacks such as house-made fries, Hebrew National all-beef hot dogs, veggie burgers, candy, and ice-cream treats.

Arriving in Paris after leading a scientific expedition through northern China, Sterling Clark was just another Boxer Rebellion veteran and Yale-educated engineer looking for something to do with the inheritance of his magnate grandfather, Robert Clark, who was an heir to the Singer sewing-machine fortune. Like the countless men who found themselves in the same position, Sterling did the only thing left to do at that point of his adventurous life: invest in art.

Sterling and his wife Francine both displayed a discriminating eye for art in their first year of collecting, almost immediately acquiring a piece by the sought-after painter Hyacinthe Rigaud, who was famous for his portraiture of 17th-century European nobility and drawing the most realistic-looking stick people. The Clarks' tastes evolved over time, and their collection ballooned to include more than 30 paintings by Renoir and dozens of works by other impressionist artists.

In 1955, a year before Sterling passed away, he and Francine founded their art institute, where the museum's curators presently stay true to the couple's artistic interests. French impressionism still forms the crux of the collection, but the museum's scope is ever expanding and nowadays includes works of early photographers and American painters and a rotating schedule of well-curated special exhibitions.

Since first enchanting moviegoers with a screening of The Desert Song on May 30, 1929, Madison Theater continues to treat attendees to the latest cinematic offerings. Designed by acclaimed American theater architect Thomas White Lamb, Madison Theater remained a single-screen establishment until 1994, and now projects motion pictures on seven screens, playing Hollywood features alongside films from local and independent moviemakers. As cinematic stories unfold before their eyes, visitors can scarf down handfuls of daily made, cholesterol- and trans-fat-free popcorn. Snackers seeking richer treats can request kernels slathered in canola oil or drenched in a soy-based buttery topping, which concessions employees also insert in the middle of the corn for lasting buttery taste and protection from the beaks of butter-syphoning hawks.

At Fort Ballocity, TreePaad Fun Center's centerpiece adventure, kids and adults fire soft balls at targets, load them into buckets, and disappear beneath a foam-ball shower. Within the same three-story structure, 30 feet of waterless slides send visitors racing through more colorful twists and turns than an Alfred Hitchcock comic strip. However, Fort Ballocity is only one of TreePaad's indoor attractions. Neon lights paint a laser-tag arena, rock-climbing walls stretch to the ceiling, and a video arcade creates an orchestra of electronic beeps. Kids younger than 4 can join the fun in the toddler play area, filled with soft surfaces on which to climb and slide.

This sprawling fun haven can set the stage for parties, office outings, or simply spontaneous visits. For kids' birthdays, an on-staff party coach organizes each moment of the festivities, from serving food to helping kids create stuffed animals at the Stuff-n-Fluff area.

Specializing in Latin and ballroom dancing, Fred Astaire Dance Studio is a national studio owned by luminaries such as New York's Yuriy and Alexandra Datsyk, 1993 Ukrainian Ballroom Dance Champions and Ukraine's representatives to the World Standard Championships. No matter how busy your schedule or how leaden your feet, Fred Astaire’s staff of professionally trained and certified instructors can tailor private sessions to match any dancer's skill level and specific goals. Private introductory lessons ($39 for one class) last 45 minutes and acquaint students with the studio's spacious dancing environment before teaching the basics of ballroom dance. Following the conclusion of your second private session, you'll be ready for a 90-minute, Friday-night dance party ($35 value), where you'll get to sip free drinks and munch on hors d'oeuvres while tripping the light fantastic with fellow students—without clumsily tripping on the light itself.