Summer is
finally here, which
means it's time to get outside
for lively events
at the Seattle Center.
The Pacific Northwest Ballet
is recognized internationally,
and now PNB is offering
a class designed to support
dancers with different abilities.
Stinging, I’m
stinging cold.
Rain or shine, snow or storm.
Notorious Alki
Swimmers share their love of swimming
and our local waters.
Love riding the Monorail?
Get a behind-the-scenes
look at what it takes
for the Monorail maintenance team
to keep those beloved trains rolling.
These stories and more next
on CityStream.
Hello
and welcome to CityStream.
We're excited to bring you the show
this week from the Seattle Center,
I'm Nicole Sanchez.
The Seattle Center
is a vibrant civic
arts and family gathering place
in the heart of our region.
With summer right around the corner,
the Seattle Center hosts free,
fun-filled experiences for all ages,
all summer long.
On this 74-acre campus, visitors
will find vibrant cultural festivals,
outdoor movies,
lively concerts and shows,
fitness and educational classes
and more.
It's summer at the Center.
Stay tuned for a list
of upcoming events.
A newer program
at the Pacific Northwest
Ballet is expanding on PNB's commitment
to make sure everyone
gets the chance to dance.
The school is now offering
a class called Dance for All.
It's designed to support dancers
with different abilities.
And as you'll see,
the class is opening doors
for young people
who are dancing for the first time.
You ready to dance? Yeah.
Me too.
- Ten year old Timea Zivcakova is excited to dance today.
- Good morning and sit up in your tallest back.
Stretch your bodies and then lumpiness.
- This is the first time
Timea has been able to take a dance class.
- Stretch one more time and exhale.
- And she loves it.
- Here we go.
- She has Dravet syndrome, which is very,
complicated disease with,
very serious epileptic seizures.
She loves music.
She loves dance.
But, because of her disease,
she was not able to attend dance
classes like her younger brother.
- The class Timea takes is a special one offered by the Pacific Northwest Ballet.
It's called dance for all.
- The idea behind it is simply that we want to provide
broader access to kids, to be able to participate in dance.
Look at Ned. Go slow.
Good job, Ned.
- Lead instructor
Deborah Kenner got the idea for the class while working on her PhD.
It started with a tiny project I was doing, and we had to figure out
how to help a population that wasn't represented somewhere.
And I thought, not a better group to help out in the dance community.
Ready?
Whoop! Good.
The curriculum is actually very similar to what we do in our typical classes.
So we didn't change it.
We just added more help into the room.
And that help includes peer dancers like 11 year old Jenny Ivey.
I wanted to do it because I love working with kids,
and I think it's really cool that I would be able to get to help them
so that they could dance too, because everybody deserves a chance to dance.
How about the ears?
Where's your ears?
Kitty cat? Yes, those your ears?
- Colleen Rawson is a speech language pathologist, grad student
at the University of Washington.
She says the class combines her love of dance and communication.
during the class it's not therapy,
but I can use a lot of the strategies that I learn in my program
and in my practicum and apply it here just to make everything accessible.
- And you freeze. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 , 8
And stretch.
I feel so excited to come here.
The environment is just so warm and it's a wonderful way to start my weekend.
I get to see all these kids who are so happy to be here
and see their friends and participate in whatever way they choose.
Yeah, it really just starts my weekend off.
So nice.
It's been really wonderful.
(Drum playing)
And we get louder like rain drops.
- And while the curriculum
is similar to other classes, there are a few thoughtful changes
to the look and feel of the room that can make a big difference.
- We don't use a lot of overhead lighting because of the the sensory input of that.
We have everything posted on the mirror.
What we're going to do, and we go through that at the beginning.
We talk about how we can stay safe.
I see the magic land
of tiptoe dancing right up on your tiptoes.
Here we go.
- The class is allowing all children to have the opportunity to dance.
And while it's only in its third session, the class is also
providing opportunities for children to lead.
- I volunteer now.
I feel proud for that.
- Pause there Calla just very second.
- Ten year old Calla Park originally took the class as a participant
and is now a peer dancer, helping others also fall in love with dance.
I like to give compliments to other people.
I'm a positive person.
I did a good job today.
I see
our peer models learn to move in different ways.
Learn to engage in different ways.
It's a bit different than in a traditional ballet class.
So, that type of, expansion of their,
their world is really beneficial
Every student is an opportunity for our team to learn and grow.
And our team is very strong.
So combined skills together.
Has been really neat to learn from one another and, to just keep growing.
Every class we grow
- Learning and growth that is opening doors and touching lives
in powerful ways that are being changed forever.
- Now she's proud of herself that she
she takes dance classes like her brother.
She's more confident, proud
and happy that she's a ballerina.
- And now we stretch wide.
Remember that starfish we talked about?
- Programs like dance for all are so, so important
to the disability community, but also the community at large.
Learning how to support dancers and just people,
across the ability spectrum is
is important to how we are as a society and how we can treat each other.
Do you like dancing?
Yeah, I do ballerina.
It means the world for me
because Dance For All makes,
big change in her life.
Yeah. (Speaking non english language)
Let's do it, go.
To see your child.
Be happy. (claps hands) Good job.
This is all we want.
To learn more about Dance
For All and the other classes
offered by the Pacific
Northwest Ballet School.
just go to their website.
It's PNB.org.
Ever considered
doing a polar bear plunge
or swimming in our local waters?
One group of brave open water
swimmers meets weekly to do just that.
We'll explain as
CityStream continues.
We are the everyday
storytellers of this great city.
We are Seattle Channel,
a gateway to
everything Seattle.
The intersection between government,
culture, news
and the ever unfolding story
of the city we call home.
So follow your curiosity and
come explore Seattle with us.
Seattle Channel.
♪♪
Coming to you
from the Seattle Center.
You've probably heard
about cold plunges,
but what about folks
who take things a step further?
Some in the Seattle area are enjoying
the growing hobby
of open water swimming,
braving frigid temps
for a workout in Puget Sound.
Many without even wearing a wetsuit.
Producer Michael Crowe shares
their story.
♪♪
Our lives are increasingly comfortable.
warm homes to wake up in, cars that insulate us from the sound of traffic
and social media algorithms that feed us what we already want to hear.
(water washing up on to the beach)
But when was the last time you chose to be uncomfortable?
- I'm feeling ... stinging.
I'm stinging cold.
- For those gathered at Alki Beach in West Seattle
this Saturday morning, that's part of the appeal.
- You're walking over to the sound and people are like, “oh my God, you're going to swim?”
Yeah, I'm going to go swim.
- These are the notorious Alki Swimmers who gather here every weekend
to enjoy the frigid waters of Puget Sound, no matter the season, and exercise
not just in overcoming the elements, but building community too.
- It's a people.
It's just a great group of people that do this all the time.
I think a lot of these people live really close, you know?
So it's just nice to have, like, such a local thing,
and you can get to know people who live nearby.
- With water temps as low as about 45 degrees.
They've certainly earned their name, notorious
- 50 degrees as kind of the benchmark for me.
If it's colder than 50 degrees. I wear two swim caps.
- Sam day is one of the original corps members who designed their logo and flies
the flag. It's a pretty informal group,
but has grown more
popular in the years since the pandemic closed pools
and more folks discovered the allure of open water.
- I'm an evangelist for this.
I love talking to new people and, you know, people walk by
and who are not going to swim, and they always ask us questions.
And I love to answer in that, too.
We're pretty social group.
- Now they range from a dozen on Sundays to 40 or 50 swimmers on others.
Folks sharing an iconic part of the Seattle experience,
water and nature in a bracing way.
- There is a connection to the place
there is a connection to the beach, to the sound itself,
and when you swim to the lighthouse and there's just this feeling of
I have arrived, this is the place.
(music, acoustic guitar)
Some may only tackle a few
hundred meters, while others are training for bigger objectives.
Count Melissa Hagler in that second category.
- The swims I'm most proud of with marathon swimming is the triple crown
of open water swimming, which is English Channel, Catalina Channel
and circumnavigation of Manhattan Island.
And probably my favorite marathon swim is actually right here in Seattle.
The Amy Hyland Swim, which is typically Bremerton to Alki,
and I was the first person to do a double.
- That's out and back,
just over 10.5 hours on the go,
but her latest project is ice swimming. Projects in even colder water.
She broke the U.S.
ice distance record captured in the film Ice Mermaid, airing on PBS,
and is filming another movie about climate change and swimming alongside
vanishing glaciers in Alaska called After Drop.
- If you really get to know the water really well, you almost start
seeing the water more like a person that you're building a relationship with.
You get to know it, how it moves, what it looks like,
all the different, you know, intricacies of how the water behaves.
You develop this sense where you trust the water
and you understand almost what it's thinking, in a way.
I'm thankful for that relationship that I have
with the ocean every day.
- To some extent, that's what drives many of the swimmers at Alki.
A new way to appreciate the landscape we love.
- So the connection to place, this is our place.
- Not defying the cold, but embracing it.
- It's hard getting in
more comfortable now.
- To find comfort.
- To go a little further.
- In being uncomfortable.
- It makes you feel alive and it keeps you alive.
♪♪
A warning.
If you're planning on trying
open or cold
water, swimming for the first time,
don't go alone.
And it's definitely
for advanced swimmers.
But the good news anyone is welcome
at the Notorious Alki Swimmers.
You can find them at the Alki
Bathhouse most weekend mornings.
Seattle Monorail Services
keeps the Monorail rolling,
providing a fun, iconic connection
for over 2 million
passengers each year.
That story as CityStream
continues.
It’s summer
and the Center is packed with events.
Here's a few highlights.
Washington Brewer’s Festival
with over 75 regional craft brewers.
Seattle PrideFest,
Workout
Wednesdays Fitness Classes.
Movies at the Mural.
Blast Fest
Afrobeats Music Festival.
Bite of Seattle
with over 300 local food
vendors and 65+
musical performers.
And rounding out
the summer events is Bumbershoot
Arts and Music Festival, which happens
every year on Labor Day weekend.
For more information, just go
to seattlecenter.com/events.
Also in June, MoPOP celebrates
its 25th anniversary.
Can you believe it?
Back in 2000, Microsoft co-founder
Paul Allen launched
the Experience Music Project
to honor Jimi Hendrix
and other music legends.
Well, today
it's called the Museum of Pop Culture,
and it celebrates everything
from music to movies,
games, art, fashion and more.
Producer Randi Eng
takes us inside MoPOP's
silver celebration.
♪♪
MoPOP is turning
25 on June 21st.
It's going to be
an all encompassing day
celebrating the past,
honoring the future,
and tipping off to the next 25 years
of pop culture.
In 2000, the museum opened
as the Experience Music Project,
and it started out as music.
We were one of the first museums
to collect hip hop artifacts.
We have the 1969
Jimi Hendrix, Stratocaster guitar.
And where was he playing that?
At Woodstock during Civil Rights.
That's almost like a history lesson.
And so what we find is that
when multi-generational families
come, there's something for everybody.
♪♪
A lot of people ask me what
pop culture is,
and it goes in so many different forms.
Art. Gaming. Music.
Film. Fashion.
Multigenerational.
It's keeping up with the culture.
It's changing every day.
It's inspiring
young minds to be the artists,
the creator, the filmmaker,
the curator, the reader, the writer.
So many things.
And if you can walk into our museum
and experience those moments
and spark that inspiration for you,
we don't want to tell you
what pop culture is.
For me, if you don't define
it, it defines us.
We in turn define it.
Most recently,
Congresswoman Jayapal and Congressman
Newhouse
sponsored a bill to the White House
so that we could be
the National Museum of Pop Culture.
It would give us
just more credibility around what we do
preserving legacy
and artifacts
and educating kids
from the community
and around the world.
We're celebrating a quarter
century of pop culture.
We're going to have some of our
sound-off artists come back.
So you'll see live performances,
all types of programing in the museum.
You're going to be able
to see our new renovated
cafe and lounge.
So taste some tasty bites
from local, sustainable food
honoring a quarter century
of pop culture and celebrating
our 25th anniversary.
♪♪
Famed
architect Frank Gehry
created MoPOP's
bold eye-catching design.
Pop on the Monorail
to and from the center and you'll ride
straight through this shiny structure,
as you can see.
Did you know the Monorail passes
through MoPOP nearly
a hundred times a day,
and the Monorail has been in operation
for over 60 years.
So what keeps it running so smoothly?
Well, a lot of maintenance
and hard working crew.
Producer Randy
Eng introduces us to the team
that keeps the
Monorail’s wheels rolling.
(train honks)
It definitely has challenges
to maintain a legacy system.
These trains are 60 years old.
Each train has over a million miles on it.
1,365,048 miles.
So they've traveled a long way.
They've carried millions and millions of people.
Every day our technicians work through this checklist,
just making sure that the train is safe and ready to go.
And then they do more thorough inspections of different components of the train
based on the frequencies that are outlined in our maintenance plan.
Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually
to make sure that the train is safe for operation.
We have 64 tires on each train.
What's visible right now is the guide tires, which run
along the side of the beam.
And then beyond that,
you'll see on the top side of the beam there are two large load tires.
They right on the top of the beam, just like a car drives on the road.
Our engineers spent a lot of time looking at tires and making sure that
tire pressure is correct.
So right over here, we're looking at the package.
So this is like the equivalent of the transmission to your vehicle,
just like your maybe manual vehicle has different gears.
Our train has different gears or different points, as we call them.
So we operate in first point and then you go a little faster
and you go in a second point and then you go in a third point.
A lot of the design
intent from 1962 is still absolutely reflected here,
but some of the components like the package have been upgraded over time,
especially as new technology becomes available.
These are the original trains, absolutely...
Granted, you know,
seat cushions have been replaced and, you know, things get replaced over time.
But these are the original trains.
They have never been taken off of the guideeways.
At Seattle Monorail Services,
we have about 30 employees that work here and
our folks come from all over the country, all over the world, honestly.
We have folks that have come from Ethiopia, from Sudan,
from the Philippines, as well as people
local like me that grew up here.
It's a family feeling.
Funny.
This is my husband talking.
It's a family affair.
There's kind of a saying, we don't work at the monorail.
We work for the monorail.
And I think our staff has really embraced that.
We recognize that it takes a lot of hard work to keep the system running.
And we're just so proud that the system is celebrating 60 years.
It's a huge milestone for the system, and we're excited to see it continue to run.
The Seattle Monorail operates daily.
You can buy your tickets
on site, online, or use your ORCA card.
To learn more,
including operating hours,
go to their website
at seattlemonorail.com.
Well, that's going to wrap up
this episode of CityStream
from the Seattle Center.
If you'd like to see any more
of our outstanding Seattle Channel
programming, just go to our website.
It's seattlechannel.org.
I'm Nicole Sanchez.
Thanks for watching.
♪♪