Dance performances are often loosely described as “entrancing,” the word implying something akin to “compelling.” But viewers watching the work of Seattle choreographer Kate Wallich often actually feel as if they are going into a trance. “I hear that a lot,” says Wallich, 24. Whether a hypnotist or just highly skilled (maybe both), the 2010…

Writer Peter Mountford has a bone to pick with American literature. The Ballard-based father of two young girls, whose debut novel, A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism, won the 2012 Washington State Book Award, is baffled by the fact that one subject remains taboo in fiction writing: money. Sitting in his wedge of an…

You could say Lacey Leavitt is OK with getting hit from all angles—especially since the shy and steady Ballard-based filmmaker has spent time as a local roller derby skater for the Tilted Thunder Rail Birds and Rat City Rollergirls. Her competitive name, Rambo Connection, says it all: On the track and on the set, Leavitt,…

Klara Glosova makes ceramic sculptures that look like tube socks. She flattens clay with a rolling pin from her kitchen, cuts it into sock shapes and fires it in the kiln in the basement studio of her Beacon Hill home, then precisely paints the forms in colors that look straight off a soccer field. In…

On a sweltering day in June, Jerick Hoffer is carefully stretching a second pair of nude-colored dance tights from his toes up to his waist. The Portland-raised, First Hill–based drag performer customarily wears four pairs of these thick pantyhose on stage, plus a couple of Spanx undergarments to make his form more feminine. But for…