Family Workshop: Family Dance Class

Downtown York's grandest room isn't one room — it's two. The Appell Center runs the 1,262-seat Strand and the more intimate 450-seat Capitol, a pair of restored 1920s movie palaces on North George Street that have been the city's big stage for a century (the Strand just hit its 100th birthday this season). One night it's a national touring act or a comedian, the next it's the York Symphony or a classic on the big screen through the CapFilm series. It's the kind of place with real history in the walls — it reopened in 1980 with Ella Fitzgerald on the bill and hasn't stopped booking since. Grab tickets, dress up a little if you feel like it, and remember that a proper night out doesn't always start at a bar. Sometimes the best seat in York has a curtain in front of it.