{"id":37492,"date":"2026-01-15T13:51:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37492"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:51:15","slug":"belly-dancing-and-belly-laughs-in-store-for-aurora-town-square-this-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/belly-dancing-and-belly-laughs-in-store-for-aurora-town-square-this-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Belly dancing and belly laughs in store for Aurora Town Square this winter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora Town Square is hitting the ground running this year with winter activities tailored for belly dancing and belly laughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Programming kicked off in earnest this past Saturday with the annual Mayor & Council Levee, which was a chance for residents to get up close and personal with their municipal representatives, while having family-friendly fun at the same time, but took an exotic turn on Monday with their first Egyptian Belly Dance workshop of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quick sell-out, those who missed the January 12 workshop are now able to register for a two-hour session on Monday, February 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been running this for almost a year now and it is so much fun,\u201d says Nichole Campsall of Aurora Town Square (ATS). \u201cThe instructor is incredible and she\u2019s one of the dancers who performs for our Multicultural Festival, so she has a lot of experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dancing gives way for laughter this Saturday, January 17, when ATS hosts its first of two Yuk Yuk\u2019s Comedy on Tour Stand-Up Comedy shows featuring headliner Pete Johansson, MC Dylan Gott, and featuring Keesha Brownie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These comedy showcases were popular attractions in the year that was, and the 2026 dates continue that trend with tickets going fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laughter will continue in February with the launch of ATS\u2019 Flashback Film Series, a chance to \u201crevisit iconic films that have captured hearts and sparked conversations over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrons got an appetizer of the film series to come in the lead-up to the holidays when the Town of Aurora added two film screenings to its traditional Christmas Market lineup: \u201cHome Alone\u201d and \u201cElf,\u201d which proved to be immediate hits with audiences the second, third, or fourth time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was such a great experience to re-experience these films in a community setting on the big screen with other people laughing together at the jokes,\u201d says Campsall of the holiday screenings. \u201cI sat through Home Alone and I thought it was really neat because I\u2019ve seen the movie like a million times, but there were still things I didn\u2019t catch until seeing it on the big screen. It was such a unique experience and we\u2019re really excited to launch this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first in the Flashback Film Series on February 20 is 2006\u2019s Night at the Museum, starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, and Dick Van Dyke. The movie will unspool at 7 p.m., but be sure to get there by 6 p.m. for museum-themed activities and interactive fun before the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNight at the Museum\u201d is a fitting choice to kick-start the series as Aurora Town Square is also home to the Aurora Museum & Archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the chances of local history exhibits coming to life after hours are slim, the Museum is coming alive other ways this winter including a new series of workshops focused on Photo Digitization, which will run January 25 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, and on February 19 from 6 \u2013 8 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis hands-on workshop will guide participants through the process of scanning, organizing, and preserving old prints, slides, and photo albums,\u201d say organizers. \u201cLearn how to protect your family history, enhance image quality, and store your memories safely for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No experience is necessary, they note \u2013 just bring your \u201cphotos and your passion for preserving the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Museum Mondays will also return for the New Year, with new sessions scheduled for January 19 and February 23, each beginning at 6.30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an insider\u2019s look into the museum,\u201d says Campsall. \u201cWe do a little bit of an intro with them, then they take the guided tour with all the inside info from the Museum team. They get to look at the exhibition, they get to go into the collection spaces and be behind-the-scenes, and then we end with an Ask Me Anything session for any questions they might have, whether it be about what they saw or how they do the work they do \u2013 anything that might be of interest to them with regards to how the museum is run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe photo preservation program came to us from a member of the community who had a suggestion, so we have two sessions coming up. Participants can come in and we will have members of our museum team [and] it\u2019s a teaching session, a learning opportunity, and then the last portion of the workshop, participants will have access to our scanners and be able to work with some of the photos they might already have and get a few of them going. It\u2019s a good way to try it out and learn from the experts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a full roster of upcoming activities at Aurora Town Square, whether hosted by ATS, the Aurora Cultural Centre, or other community partners in the space, including how to register or secure your tickets, visit aurora.ca\/whatson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora Town Square is hitting the ground running this year with winter activities tailored for belly dancing and belly laughs. Programming kicked off in earnest this past Saturday with the annual Mayor & Council Levee, which was a chance for residents to get up close and personal with their municipal representatives, while having family-friendly fun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9KI","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-12 03:35:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37493,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37492\/revisions\/37493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}