Stepping inside the studio of Steve Coleman, the longtime resident set designer for the Throckmorton Theatre, is like entering an overflowing cornucopia of endless great ideas brought to life in the form of marionettes, set pieces, sculptures, paintings, books, puppets, cabinets and so much more – a visual history of the venue that completely envelops you.

The Mill Valley native’s creative workspace is even more abuzz than usual right now as he prepares for another show. But instead of readying the set pieces for a production of the Throckmorton Theatre or the Curtain Theatre, Coleman is the honored artist at the 61st Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, set for Sept. 16-17 in the redwood grove of Old Mill Park.

Coleman, a 2002 Milley Award winner and the cofounder of the Curtain Theatre in 2000, says he’s excited to be part of the festival again, but he’s also a bit anxious about exhibiting a retrospective of his set designs, art that is far more complex and unwieldy than traditional fair fare like paintings and photographs.

“A lot of them are quite large,” he says. “Many of them connect with the theater in some way, and there are a number of special props that show off the different sizes and scale. And there is one in particular that will make many of them seem very small!”
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As he readies himself for MVFAF, we sat down with Coleman to chat about his life in the theater, his influences and inspirations and his feverish preparation for the festival.

Enjoy Mill Valley: What were your influences when you first got into set design?
Steve Coleman: I’m still puzzled at how I got into this whole world of set design (laughs). I used to do these little miniatures like maquettes and architectural models. I took drama classes at College of Marin, and then I went to acting school in San Francisco so that I could learn both sides of the production. My biggest influence, though, was a teacher I had in San Francisco named Wendell Phillips, who had been with the Group Theatre in New York City and was just this grand old man of the theater. He just knew everything.

EMV: So you started with miniatures when you were a kid?
SC: Yes, I built little theaters, which is very funny to think about.

EMV: Were your parents an influence in terms of learning getting into designing and building things?
SC: My mom was an art major at college but she never did much with it. My dad used to draw with us as kids and help us make characters and that sort of things. He was a strong influence in that way.

EMV: What was the medium as a kid?
SC: Clay, mostly.

EMV: Now I would imagine it’s a little bit of everything.
SC: Pretty much!

EMV: What’s your process of creating a set design when you tackle a new project here at the Throckmorton?
SC: Besides reading the play and familiarizing myself with the text, I just sort of plumb the depths of the director and try to find their vision and what they want. Then you just take off and do the research and imagine it as if you were in the production. The director dictates the style and whether or not they are reimagining the play in a certain way. That directorial vision is the most important thing. Then I dive in from there.

EMV: Did you have a sense of what you wanted to do for this special exhibition at the Fall Arts Festival?
SC: I haven’t done the festival for years. I have shown there before but because I’m always so busy here, I just sort’ve stopped applying. So I’m excited. This will be sort of a retrospective of stuff that I’ve created. Some of the work are the scenes I’ve made for the library cases in Mill Valley and Larkspur over the years. I have these little characters that I’ve created scenes for and they’re used to tell a story.

EMV: Tell me about the poem that inspired you for this exhibit? Williams Butler Yeats’ “Sailing to Byzantium”?
SC: Yes. It’s not so much the whole poem itself, just the name and what its says. When I was thinking of some of the pieces I worked on, it was fun to think of a vision of another world. It was more about thinking of a place that we could go to if we could imagine ourselves there. This work is perhaps the logical extension of the imaginary worlds we created as children growing up in the hills and canyons overlooking Old Mill Creek. In our imagination, the little twig boats we placed in the unchartered waters of Old Mill Creek might somehow reach the far pavilions of distant cities yet undreamt of. We are all dreamers of a better world with visions of the world that might be or might have been.

EMV: Tell me about the “artisan’s grove” where you’ll be showing your work. It’s near the Children’s Grove?
SC: Yes, it’s a separate grove nearby, closer to the creek. It’s a part of the park where there used to be a footbridge to Molino. I wasn’t really conscious of this little particular grove but there are a number of stumps from ancient trees that are there. And they are just fascinating. The burls and the faces in them. All of the spirits of the woods are there.

The 411: Mill Valley native and Throckmorton Theatre and Curtain Theatre set designer Steve Coleman is exhibiting a retrospective of his work at the 61st Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, set for Sept. 16-17 in the redwood grove of Old Mill Park. The exhibit space is sponsored by ​Good Earth Natural Foods. Here's a look inside Coleman's workshop upstairs at the Throckmorton Theatre:

For Emily Turner and Matt Boschetto, the past two years have been filled with chance encounters, joyous, life-changing events and leaps of faith. Oh, and hormones. And an Uber. And a beautiful baby girl.

That roller-coaster ride has resulted in Matildas Magnolias, the couple’s innovative attempt to stir up the floral business, on which Americans spend more than $26 billion dollars a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The business is built around the Bloombox​, a $39 box of fresh cut flowers from local farmers delivered to homes and businesses.

“Flowers in the U.S. are phenomenally expensive, and when you understand the farming part behind it, there’s really no justification for that,” Turner says. “We felt that there was a way to  bring the beauty of fresh flower to people’s homes but do it in an affordable way – that’s the Bloombox.”

It all started with that Uber, and a broken phone. Boschetto’s mother, who lives in the Bay Area, was in New York City and had read an article in Harper’s Bazaar about a new Nexxus salon opening in the city, and made an appointment there. Turner, who grew up in Yorkshire, England and had moved to New York to work for Unilever, managing the rebranding of the hair care products business and the salon launch, was there when she arrived. As Boschetto looked to leave in an Uber after her appointment, she realized her phone had died. Turner happily jumped in and called her an Uber, not thinking much of it.

“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me,” Boschetto said at the time.

“I don’t think that she expected that six months later that we’d announced that we were pregnant,” Turner says, wryly. “It was unbelievable.”

Yes, Boschetto introduced Turner to her son Matt the next time they saw one another, and things moved, well, quickly. The couple moved to London and Turner gave birth to their daughter – you guessed it, Matilda – in June 2016.

And it was at that exact time that they formulated the idea for Matilda’s Magnolias.

“This is my rationale as a woman: when you go through the hormones of having a baby, your mind and body are empowered to be able to do anything,” Turner says. “That’s why I think we chose that moment to reassess our lives. We both had good incomes and could sustain a nice life, but we weren’t really doing anything that we really wanted to do.”

Flowers didn’t exactly come out of left field. Matt Boschetto’s roots in the flower farming business run deep, as Matt’s great-great grandfather Giuseppe Boschetto started Boschetto & Podesta Farms, a flower farm in San Leandro, when he moved to the U.S. from Genoa in 1912. Matt’s grandfather Angelo Boschetto worked at the flower farm when he was a young boy and later founded Able Services, a facilities operations firm that manages more than one billion square feet of real estate and where Matt worked many years later, right up until he met Turner.

The couple moved to the Bay Area after Matilda was born as they planned to launch the business here. “As an Italian-American family with our roots born in the flower industry, we’re excited as the fourth generation to be building a business back where our family started more than 100 years ago.”

That doesn’t mean that raising a baby and birthing a new business simultaneously went off without a hitch. “When you have a baby, all of those hormones take over,” Turner adds. “I was feeling so unbelievably inspired – and then all of that’s gone away and I’ve got a baby and I’m not sleeping and what are we doing?”

​Bloombox
So what makes Matilda’s Magnolias innovative?

While Matilda’s Magnolias leverages its relationship with local flower farms, chooses the flowers and designs each bloom box to contain flowers with different textures and tones, it does not do the arranging (though it does provide arrangement “tips.”).
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“Design and curation is still very much a part of what we do – but the arrangement is not,” Turner says, adding that customers can arrange for a single delivery or set up recurring deliveries. "That's where the savings comes in."

Soon after the launch in April, Matilda’s developed great traction in Mill Valley, as Boschetto’s aunt and local resident Courtney Rudnick helped them a great deal with spreading the word. Those early customers have been vital to Matilda’s success, Turner says.

“When you’re building your own business, the first people you get who are advocates of yours – they become like family,” she says. “You really care about maintaining and prioritizing those relationships, our first advocates came from Mill Valley.”

Turner says the business “is tracking way above our forecasts.” The couple put all of their own money into the startup, taking outside venture capital investments.  “We wanted to prove the principle of our idea,” she says.

Now they’re hiring delivery drivers and are almost ready to launch the Flowerbar, a 1961 Ford Econoline truck that’s been turned into a “food truck with flowers. We’re excited to take it around Mill Valley and San Francisco,” she says. “People will be able to pick their own blooms from the truck and create their own Bloombox.”

Taking a step back from the insane pace of the past two years, Turner says the whirlwind has all been worth it.
“We took a hit to invest in our future by doing something that we were truly inspired to do,” says says. “And now we’re just over the moon.”

The 411: MORE INFO on Matildas Magnolias.

Mill Valley Music​ owner Gary Scheuenstuhl's band the Marinfidels has turned a great idea into a series of them, performing class rock 'n' roll albums in their entirety at the Throckmorton Theatre. After doing two Rolling Stones' albums and the Band’s The Last Waltz, Scheuenstuhl was inspired to do the Who's classic Who's Next, which the Marinfidels will perform at the Throckmorton on Saturday, Sept. 16.

Who’s Next was the band's fifth studio album and includes the songs "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Behind Blue Eyes," and "Baba O'Riley." In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked the album 28th on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, while the album appeared at number 15 on Pitchfork Media's list of the 100 best records from the 1970s.

The Marinfidels include Andy Kopp (vocals), Gary Scheuenstuhl (drums), Brett Boyd (guitar), Richard Gee (guitar), John Olmstead (keyboards), and Kevin Corrigan (bass). Also featuring special guest Jesse Lee Kincaid (violin).

The 411: The Marinfidels perform the Who's Who's Next in its entirety at the Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Ave., on Saturday, Sept. 16. 8pm. ​MORE INFO & TIX.

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Hundreds have turned out for Movies in the Park screening of the classic The Princess Bride and Pixar's Academy Award-winning Inside Out so far this year. Now it's time for one of the biggest blockbuster of 2017: Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast.

The free outdoor film series, a collaboration between the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce, Mill Valley Recreation and the California Film Institute, screens Beauty and the Beast on Friday, Sept. 8. The film, which has grossed more than $500 million since its release in March, tells the tale of Belle, a young woman from a small village, and the Beast, a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. 

The free film screenings are set in the redwood grove adjacent to the playground in Old Mill Park. Seating is general admission, and attendees are encouraged to bring a blanket and/or low beach chair. The film begins at around 15 minutes after sunset, approximately 7:45pm on Sept. 8.

Don't miss this chance to see amazing films in the beautiful Old Mill Park – FOR FREE! Old Mill Park is at the corner of Throckmorton Avenue and Cascade Drive.

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Jane Watson had an age-old problem that she couldn’t get out of her head.

Her young sons were getting older, spending more time at school and activities, and she longed for the next phase of what had already been a long, creative career.

“I’ve had ideas before that I couldn’t get out of my head, and for whatever reason, I didn’t see them through,” Watson says. “But I felt so passionate about this one – about the need for it and my desire to make it happen – that I just wouldn’t let it go.”

“This one” is The Makery, a new creative hub she’s opened in town, a “community handcrafting space” where people can gather around a community worktable and learn an array of creative pursuits, from sewing and floral arrangement to weaving, painting and calligraphy. They do so in small group classes, using high-quality materials and taught by local artists in a gorgeous, brick-laden spaces on the Sunnyside Ave. side of El Paseo Lane, which also includes El Paseo restaurant, Alexander’s Artisan Rugs and Bossa Nova Clothing.

​With a career that has included stints at Design Within Reach and Restoration Hardware, the Makery isn’t much of a departure for Watson, as she’s been into “crafts and tinkering” since she was little, and has always been “that serial class taker” whose roommates would poke fun at her for being the person that “would always sign up for that random pottery class.”

“Anytime a class passed by my eyes, I’d say, ‘That sounds fun’ and sign up,” she says. “Whether it was the skills or the community element, I just gravitated to it. I never said no to a class. But it was in those classes where met some of the coolest women, made some great friends and learned a ton."

Watson chuckles as she rattles off some of the classes she’s taken over the years. “I guess it’s not all for naught,” she says with a laugh.

Born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, Watson grew up with a “Dad who tinkered in the wood shop and an artistic and creative Mom." She attended the University of Virginia, did a “ski bum” stint year in Idaho after college and moved back to the Washington, D.C. area. An English major, Watson got “swept up into the world of project management” at a variety of young startups that blossomed during the first dot-com boom, helping firms develop their corporate websites and internal systems.

​After a few years, Watson was ready for a change of scenery and, with her ties to the tech world established, moved to the Bay Area. “I hopped in a car with my sister and we drove cross-country,” she says.

Watson quickly got a job at a consulting firm that worked with companies like Design Within Reach, ultimately landing a gig with the modern furniture, lighting and home accessories business. After a few years there, Watson needed to scratch her creative itch, and she enrolled at a textile design school in Berkeley at night and on weekends, eventually leaving Design Within Reach to start her own business centering on her handpainted decorative pillows.

“It was a lot of work, and it became a very expensive hobby,” she says with a laugh.  

Watson returned to consulting, this time for Restoration Hardware in Corte Madera. By that time, around 2005, Watson and her husband Tim had moved to Mill Valley, and she eventually became full time at Restoration Hardware.

In 2009, when Watson gave birth to the first of two sons, she left the working world. Over the course of the seven years she’s raised her sons, Watson continued to take classes, almost always finding inspiration in them and longing for the next one. The idea for the Makery got stuck in Watson’s head when she realized, for the umpteenth time, that she had to go to the East Bay for a class, this time one on making a wreath in advance of the holiday season. “I don’t know if I wasn’t searching hard enough or what, but I couldn’t find one closer to home,” she says. “That was the ‘light bulb moment. And then it never went away from there.”

Fast forward to July 2016, and Watson called her husband, an entrepreneur who has created two start-ups, with the nervous excitement and a pitch for the Makery. “He’s the numbers guy, and he was supportive of the idea from the first minute,” she says.

The next several months were a tutorial of sorts for Watson as she toured Mill Valley and Marin, looking for spaces for lease and wrapping her head around the Makery’s business model. She briefly considered opening as a pop-up to get a sense of the appetite for the creative hub she envisioned.

“But I felt so strongly that I wanted a space where you walk in and immediately you just feel like you’re in a lovely, inspiring space,” she says. “That had to be a part of this experience. The physical space is a critical piece, and I wanted to be in control of the environment.”

She also decided that “if I’m going to do this right, it needs to be in Mill Valley,” she says. The search was a slog, but in March, she found her space at 2 El Paseo Lane, as Kelly Scott was relocating her popular housewares and accessories retail shop The Goods to 2 Miller Avenue, the former home of Mt. Tam Dog Co. adjacent to Equator Coffees. Watson worked on building out the space, and had a soft opening around the Memorial Day Parade. She eased into creating the class schedule, and has readied a full roster of classes starting in September.

The Makery also has a retail component, as Watson sells lines of DIY-centric, artisan branded "Take and Make” kits for projects like book-binding, designed by the artists themselves – “things you would find on Etsy,” she says. Watson plans to add other retail items as she identifies those that are perfect fits.
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“I want this space to be community oriented,” says Watson, noting that she plans to have free monthly open house events where attendees “can come and have tea and just bring something they’re working on. This is a space for everyone. It’s warm and inviting for everyone from talented artists to people who are just like me and looking to learn something new.”

The 411: The Makery is located at 2 El Paseo Lane at Sunnyside Avenue. MORE INFO & CLASS SCHEDULES.

​Mill Valley native Dr. Kimberly Henry has been practicing plastic surgery for more than three decades, and there's no indication that her enthusiasm for her life's work is waning anytime soon.

"I just genuinely love taking care of people," she says.

Proof of that continued vigor comes with the news that Henry opened a new location for her practice this month, in San Francisco at 450 Sutter St., Suite 1340. Henry first opened her practice in Greenbrae in 1992, followed by locations in Davis and Petaluma. "This is really a very exciting time for the practice," says Henry, noting that the new office is designed to cater to national and international patients. "The world is getting smaller, and we're able to do virtual consultations for the time constrained and the out of town patients." 

Henry earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Southern California and her Medical Doctorate from UC Davis School of Medicine. She completed her general surgery training at the Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital and her plastic surgery training at the Rush Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago, followed by a fellowship in aesthetic and breast surgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Portland. 

Henry initially focused on general surgery after school before honing in on cranial facial surgery, primarily for those born with birth defects. Trained in a variety of applications, Henry now primarily focuses on cosmetic surgery, such as breast augmentations and reductions, face-lifts, liposuction, hair transplants, laser surgery, nose surgery and eyelid surgery, among others.

With four locations, Henry says she enjoys the distinctions among her four spaces and the patients of each. "I’ve always enjoyed the different dynamic of each office and the different diversity of each office," says Henry, a member of the American Medical Association, American Board of Plastic Surgery and the California Plastic Surgery Society.

Henry says she continues to love throwing her "supper club" events, in which she gathers a group of protective patients for a meal and a presentation, allowing would-be patients the opportunity to engage with her practice and "learn about the most recent techniques and procedures in a relaxed, festive setting."

The 411: Dr. Kimberly Henry​ has four plastic surgery locations in the Nay Area, most recently in San Francisco at 450 Sutter St., Suite 1340. MORE INFO. 

Longtime San Rafael artist ​Kay Russell has had two particular muses of late for her watercolor paintings: Sand Pond, a favorite family destination in the Western Sierras, and the Dogwood tree, "always changing in the backyard – reverent, whimsical, and often melancholy," she says.

"My paintings are a composite of recollections and an evolution of the familiar," Russell adds. "The paintings have grown from landscape representation toward the portrayal of spirit and atmosphere of place. I sometimes add rain to the images, trying to convey the meditative poetry of the moment and the essence of atmosphere. In those paintings, it is intentionally unclear whether you are in the rain, looking out at the rain, or remembering it. The landscapes turned in to familiar objects."

Russell, who teaches watercolor painting at City College of San Francisco, is showcasing her work under the banner of "Recollections: Sand Pond Series & Dogwood Series" at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Ave.), throughout September, with a wine reception set for the Mill Valley Arts Commission’s First Tuesday Artwalk on Sept. 12, 5:30-7:30pm. 

Russell has recently started her paintings by printing abstract, textural backgrounds on plexiglass before adding the images.

"Often I make the background by doing several layers of watercolor monotype color and texture before starting the painting," says Russell, who previously helped curate the art at San Francisco International Airport. "I find that this 'jump starts' the work, throwing me into a moving process. I use gouache, gum arabic, various masks, and paint removal techniques that allow me to move freely through the work, changing my mind, and incorporating my mistakes. This activity emphasizes and facilitates the element of mystery and spirit. It is exciting, unpredictable and very much about the moment, each action and decision leading to the next."

The 411: Kay Russell showcases her work under the banner of "Recollections" at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Ave.), throughout September, with a wine reception set for the Mill Valley Arts Commission’s First Tuesday Artwalk on Sept. 12, 5:30-7:30pm.

Learning that you've been accepted to exhibit in the prestigious Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival is incredible news for any artist.

But for local resident Sharon Axelrod, "incredible" doesn't quite do justice to her emotion at the moment she found out that she'd be showcasing her watercolor illustrations and photographs at the 2017 edition of the iconic event, set for Sept. 16-17 in Old Mill Park.

"It really was a life-saving moment," says the 34-year-old Axelrod.

She was at Stanford Medical Center, seeing her neurologist amidst a mind-numbingly complex, years-long medical struggle, first to find a diagnosis for the condition that had changed life as she knew it, and then to understand how to treat that condition and manage its debilitating symptoms. 

“Those neurology visits feel very futile sometimes," she says. "And I got the (MVFAF) call right after. I've gone to this event every year since I was a kid. I LOVE Mill Valley. I had wanted to apply and do the festival because it has been a very literal life-dream-bucket-list-item for me since I was a little kid. I am so very honored and excited to be showing at the 2017 Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival. It is another dream come true."

One could argue that Axelrod was more than deserving of a dream come true, as the past two years have been quite the opposite. She was diagnosed with Autonomic Neuropathy, essentially a failure of the Autonomic Nervous System to function properly. The nervous systems that control heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and digestion, among others, "have failed to function correctly in me," she wrote in a post on a GoFundMe page​ created by friends in in October 2015, a campaign that has raised nearly $25,000 to assist with Axelrod's medical care.

In an odd twist, Axelrod's condition incited her to apply to participate in MVFAF for the first time. She'd been a longtime, widely revered art director at Kumara School in Tam Valley, and though she's been artist in a variety of mediums for years, she always thought she'd apply to the festival when her teaching career was in the rearview mirror. That occurrence came much sooner than expected, however, and she decided to make the leap.

Axelrod calls her paintings watercolor illustrations, as they incorporate both watercolor painting and ink drawing. Her photos primarily focus on nature around Marin County, often from a macro perspective, that she'd taken on her once regular hikes.

"I’m jumping in the water here with my eyes closed," says Axelrod, who moved Mill Valley nearly 10 years ago and whose grandparents lived here for 35 years. "I'm very nervous and excited."

The 411: Sharon Axelrod is showcasing her watercolor illustrations and photographs at the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, set for Sept. 16-17 in Old Mill Park. Follow her on Instagram @sharonaxlerod. MORE INFO.

When Bzur and Page Haun bought the franchise for Beeline Bikes in Marin, Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Contra Costa, and Alameda counties earlier this year, they didn't have to spend a lot of time brainstorming about the focus of their launch event.

With three kids at Park School, their own careers in technology and a longstanding passion for the arts – Haun majored in both musical arts/piano and organizational development at Vanderbilt University and serves as the pianist for music shows at Park – a benefit for Kiddo! was a no-brainer.

​"Kiddo supports music, the arts, technology and physical education – those are things that are happening in and around our house every single day," Bzur Haun says. 

To that end, the Hauns are hosting their Beeline Bikes' launch event as a Kiddo! benefit at the Mill Valley Middle School basketball courts at 425 Sycamore Ave. on Sunday, August 27 (1-3pm), featuring "yummy treats, bike swag, safety checks and meet a whole new peloton of friends." 

The event will also feature a Q&A with a pair of acclaimed local cyclists, former Tour de France racer Ted King and Alison Tetrick, who recently won the women's race in the Gravel Worlds. Beeline Bikes will be performing safety checks on kids' bikes at the event, and is donating 5 percent of all of its sales to Kiddo between now and Sept. 30. Schedule online at by going here and using promo code "Kiddo" when confirming an appointment. 

"I love the fact that our passion for cycling can positively impact our schools," Haun says.

San Carlos-based Beeline Bikes is a van-based, mobile bicycle repair service provider founded in 2013 by Peter Buhl, who has served on the boards of companies like PayPal. A longtime cyclist and the CEO of Visage Mobile, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider on the mobility space, Bzur Haun was drawn to the idea of "providing mobile bicycle repair services that go to where the demand is," a twist on the traditional bike shop model. 

For instance, Haun will have a Beeline van – a "shop on wheels" stocked with the tools and parts to perform a wide range of repair services – at the Marin County Bicycle Coalitions's Dirt Fondo ride this Sunday, and Haun plans to regularly have vans parked at key locations like the roundabout on the Mill Valley-Sausalito Multi-Use Path.

"The ability to go to where the cycling audience is key," he says. 

The 411: ​Beeline Bikes' launch event, a benefit for Kiddo!, is at the Mill Valley Middle School basketball courts at 425 Sycamore Ave. on Sunday, August 27 (1-3pm).

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Happy Feet Dance School founder Cece Bechelli recently completed a master's degree in Humanities at San Francisco University, a move driven in part by her desire to more deeply connect her organization to the history of dance, particularly the roots of rhythmic tap dance, Happy Feet's specialty.

Now, on the cusp of Happy Feet's 40th birthday – the longtime Mill Valley resident has been teaching kids and adults to dance since 1978 – Cece Bechelli and her family are an integral part of local dance history.

Happy Feet kicks off its 40th year with a wide array of tap, jazz, and ballet classes for beginners and continuing students ages three through adult on Sept. 11, a season that will culminate with a 40th anniversary celebration on Sunday, June 3rd at the Marin Center. 

"We are so blessed to have had the opportunity to teach so many wonderful students in this community," Bechelli says. "It's especially rewarding to have so many children start with us as little toddlers and stay with us all the way until high school graduation. Not only do our students develop into well-trained beautiful dancers, but we get to know our students as confident young adults by the time they leave for college. We are so lucky!" 

Bechelli opened Happy Feet in 1978 in the building that contains Marin Theatre Company on Miller Avenue, and then moved one year later to a 2,600-square-foot, bowling alley-shaped former auto repair garage on Montford Avenue right off of Miller. They’ve been there ever since.

Happy Feet has long been a family affair. Bechelli's three children, Matt, Caitlin, and Kelsey "basically grew up at Happy Feet," she says, all teaching dance in high school and college. And Caitlin Bechelli, who started dancing at the age of two at Happy Feet, taught there during high school and graduated from UCLA in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in World Arts and Cultures/ Dance, is the school's co-director. 

"Having Caitlin as my co-director is a huge blessing," Cece Bechelli says. "She brings a young, vibrant energy to Happy Feet and is a joy to work with everyday."

Sheri Bechelli, Cece's sister-in-law and friend from their childhood dance school in San Francisco, is one of Happy Feet's long-time instructors, while her daughter, Brea, grew up dancing at Happy Feet, taught dance during high school and is now headed to the University of Oregon, where she will major in dance.

During her course of study at SF State, Cece Bechelli researched and wrote about tap's history, including its African and Irish roots. "I was lucky enough to study with many of the late great tap masters such as Charles "Honi" Coles, Fayard Nicholas of the famed Nicholas Brothers and Gregory Hines," she says. "Their stories were fascinating and my interest in tap's history grew as I learned from each of these incredible dancers. Tap is an American indigenous dance form and its story runs directly parallel to American history."

Bechelli developed a lecture film series on tap's history and her master's thesis is titled, Women of the Tap Renaissance. "It's fun to be able to share tap's incredible history with our students at Happy Feet."

The 411: Happy Feet begins its 2017-18 school/dance year on Sept. 11. with an array of tap, jazz, and ballet classes for beginners and continuing students ages three through adult, including a Tiny Toes parent participation class for two- to three- year-old children. Happy Feet dancers will be performing at at the 2017 Winterfest on Dec. 3. MORE INFO.