By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Choreographed dancing, a Celtic band and a saxophone combo will be on stage Saturday at the Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi in a Monthly Grind commemorating the centennial of Sitka’s public library.
The variety program starts at 7 p.m. and will include book-inspired performances by the Sitka Studio of Dance; Mary Sheehan; the band
Anel and the Vatos; and the Sitka Sound Saxophone Quartet. There’s also an audience participation quote quiz.
“The Quiz Quote Show – we’ll get five or so audience members and we’ll ask them a series of famous quotes and three authors to choose from,” said longtime Monthly Grind producer Jeff Budd, who is a member of the library’s 100th Year Committee.
Kris Fulton is part of the Outlander band, which includes her husband John on the English concertina and button box, Brian O’Callaghan on penny whistle, and John Ingman on uilleann pipes.
Fulton, who ran the Sitka Spruce Celtic Dancers program for about 10 years, will dance a Scottish flora and a Scottish lilt.
“Our set is about the brave Scottish rebel Flora MacDonald, who saved Bonnie Prince Charlie’s life,” Fulton said. “I will dance the Scottish national dances, the flora and the lilt.”
The audience will be invited to join in for a singalong to “The Skye Boat Song,” from the Starz TV series “Outlander.” Anel and the Vatos is a band comprised of Anel Figueroa, Cody Russell, Christian Jensen and Marshall Bovee. Musicians in the Sitka Sound Saxophone Quartet are Brad Carow, Mike Kernin, Susan Brandt-Ferguson and Mike Sullivan.
Kernin said the Quartet has been working on “Blues at the Bent Side Key,” by Jeff Driskill, an LA-based musician who played in some years ago at Jazz on the Waterfront.
The group did some saxophone Christmas caroling in the freezing cold weather in 2021, Kernin said, and didn’t play a lot together after that, until a few months ago.
“I do some stuff on my own but it’s good to play with a group,” he said. “We’re trying to stay active and look ahead for other opportunities.”
Melinda McAdams, director of Sitka Studio of Dance, said Virginia Pearson, Aezlynn Nichols, Gemma Diehl and Sally Everson will perform a “book dance,” set to “The Book I’m Not Reading,” written and performed by Patty Larkin.
Laura Turcott choreographed the dance, which was performed at the reopening of the Sitka Public Library after it was remodeled and reopened in 2016.
“The Studio is just really excited to be helping celebrate the library,” McAdams said. Noting some of the other acts, she said, “I think people are going to be learning a bit too.”
McAdams and Studio students have performed several times at the library, and found a strong connection between books and dance.
“Books are often inspiration for dances,” she said. “When we read books it’s a way of keeping our minds open and creative.”
Kari Sagel, who is on the 100th celebration committee for the public library, said she was pleased to see a Grind devoted to libraries.
“Libraries are at the center of civic and community life, and our library is worth celebrating,” she said.
Celtic dancers entertain in 2015 at the Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi. (Sentinel File Photo)
While 100 years is impressive, it’s “only a blip in time,” and the goal of the committee is to not only celebrate the past, but the present, and to plan for the future.
“Increasingly as things go on online there’s still a place for touching the real books, and meeting face to face,” Sagel said. “It’s exciting to think about what the next 100 years will bring. Libraries will be part of the story.”
Tickets to the Grind are $5 and are available at Old Harbor Books and at the door. The event includes free coffee and other hot drinks. Desserts are welcome for the intermission although refunds are no longer given on tickets for those bringing desserts. Prizes will be awarded for best desserts.
