? The Kenai River Folk Dancers will host a contra dance from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday at K-Beach Elementary School featuring live music with the ContraBand. All dances are taught and called to live music. Families, singles, and beginners are welcome.

? Join Kenai Peninsula College in celebrating the best photographic work from Alaska artists in 2012 at the opening of the Rarefied Light Exhibition Friday from 4:30-6 p.m. in the Gary L. Freeburg Gallery. The exhibit will be on display through Feb. 6.

KPC's Kenai River Campus will be housing Rarefied Light 2012, an annual statewide juried photography exhibition, in the Gary L. Freeburg Gallery until Feb. 6.

? Triumvirate Theatre's Class Act Drama Troupe will perform Lockers, a new play by Joe Rizzo at Triumvirate Theatre in the Peninsula Center Mall Friday and Saturday. Show starts at 7 p.m.

? Pamyua will perform a concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Soldotna High School auditorium. The concert is a fundraiser for the Kenaitze Indian Tribe's Yaghanen Youth Program.

? Peninsula Community Health Services is having an "Employee Art Show" in the Cottonwood Gallery, 2nd floor at 230 East Marydale in Soldotna, for the months of February and March.

Best Bet * The 10th annual Evening of Classics returns on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Soldotna Christ Lutheran Church. Local musicians such as Tammy Vollom-Matturro, Audra Faris, Emily Grossman, Natasha Vaissenberg, Crista Cady, Maria Allison, Steve Hileman, Robert Thompson, Jeanne Duhan, Garrett Mayer and many others will perform great works of music in solos and ensembles in a fundraising concert for the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for youth at the door. First Thursday

? Triumvirate Theatre offers a new and frightening take on the classic ghost story this Friday and Saturday, and Oct. 19 and 20. A talented cast of performers will present a series of terrifying tales guaranteed to keep audience members up at night.

The KRC Art Students' League Association has announced that the 2012 Annual Art Extravaganza will be from 6-9 p.m. on Dec. 7 at KPC's Kenai River Campus. Admission is $5 per person and $10 for families.

On a recent snowy Wednesday, Marion Nelson stood inside her warm backyard studio pulling on a pair of blue gloves, occasionally reaching over to lift a heated paintbrush and test the elasticity of a pot of colored pigment.