City's winter choices 

City's winter choice: dancing

• file photo

There are plenty of ways to raise your body temperature this winter and have some fun doing it (i.e. you don't have to use words like "cardio," "reps," or "ow") That's right, you should be dancing.

Many local groups and venues offer dance nights in their genre of choice, often at low cost and with some sort of basic instruction.

Sundays: Argentine Tango atDancEncounters, HungerfordBuilding, 1115 East Main Street, 7-10 p.m. $7. 325-2101

Mondays: Argentine Tangoat Tango Café, 700 South Clinton Avenue, 8:30 p.m. (lesson at 8 p.m.) $5. 475-0249

International Folkat the Jewish Community Center, 1200 Edgewood Avenue, 7:45-9:45 p.m. $5. 624-1964

Tuesdays: Ballroom Series at EdgertonCommunity Center, 41 Backus Street, 7:30-9:30 p.m. $2. 428-6769

Wednesdays: Irish Country WorkshopsMcGinnity's, 534 West Ridge Road, Greece, 7:30-9:30 p.m. $2. 342-2756, www.irishrochester.org

Swing and Ballroom atDance Biz, 1742 Long Pond Road, Gates, 8 to 10:30 p.m. $7. 254-0300

Swing DancEncounters, 1115 East Main Street, 2nd Floor, 5:30 (classes), 8:30-10:30 p.m. (dance). $6. 748-9574

Argentine Tango, NeoTango Nasty D's, 140 Alexander Street, 8 p.m. (lesson at 7 p.m.) $4. 256-1000, www.midnighttango.com

Thursdays: African Dance, with live jembe drums, at Bush Mango Drum and Dance, 34 Elton Street, 7 p.m. 235-3960, www.bushmango.com

Contra at Covenant United, 1124 Culver Road, 8-11 p.m. $6. 244-2815, www.rochestercontra.com

Swingat St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 2000 Highland Avenue, 8-11 p.m., lesson 7:15 p.m. $10. 244-2815, www.rochesterswingdance.com

Salsa at Tapas 177 Lounge, 177 St Paul Street, 9:30 p.m. Free. 21+ 262-2090, www.tapas177.com

City's winter choice: cinema

Because it's not necessarily the big season for blockbuster openings, winter can be a great time to catch up with old favorites.

The George Eastman House's Dryden Theatre (900 East Avenue, www.eastmanhouse.org, 271-3361) has a number of film programs this winter to keep you occupied. "Intimate Stories" is a program screening in January and February of eight films from Argentina's New Wave --- the world's most recent cinematic talent surge. There is also a collection of "The Films of Louis Malle, Part 1," including A Very Private Affair, Murmur of the Heart, Elevator to the Gallows, and The Lovers. (Part 2 is in March and April.) On January 28, Tom Schiller, one of Saturday Night Live's original staff writers, will be in town to present a collection of the short films he made for the show's segment called "Schiller's Reel." And on Tuesdays in February, the Dryden will screen four of Michael Caine's earlier movies, made between 1966 and 1970, in a celebration of mod cool.

And if you like your movies cheap and in quantity, check in with the Cinema Theater (957 South Clinton Avenue, 271-1785). There are double features of second-run movies at ridiculously low prices ($3) in a lovely old theater --- a theater, by the way, badly in need of business. You'll miss it when it's gone.

WendaGu's "100,000 Kilometers, 2004-5," an installation of hair bricks and panels, is on display at Albright-Knox.

City's winter choice: out of town museums

Sometimes cabin fever is so strong, it pushes you right out of town. And sometimes that coincides with some really good reasons for museum lovers to go. Here is a handful of destinations:

Buffalo: There's still time to see The Wall: Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art at Albright-Knox Gallery (www.albrightknox.org, 716-882-8700); it's on display through January 29. And A-K also has the Gusto at the Gallery program, free admission for activities on Friday evenings. And you can be there for HallwallsContemporaryArtCenter's (www.hallwalls.org, 716-854-1694) January 14 grand reopening after extensive rehabbing of the facility. Or, you can check in later for any of the wealth of programming on tap: film retrospectives, visual art exhibits (see SuzyLake's photos), and performing arts events.

Corning: Right now at the Corning Museum of Glass (www.cmog.org, 800-732-6845) the big exhibit is on the glass of the '60s, but there are tons of side exhibits, family activities, and glassmaking demonstrations to keep everyone engaged, whether they think they're a fan of glass art or not. Plus, CMOG has the Free to Rediscover program; if you pay admission once you can go back free as often as you want the whole year. Corning also has the Rockwell Museum of Western Art, where right now they are showing a collection of Inuit Art. (www.rockwellmusuem.org, 607-937-5386)

Ithaca: Sciencenter (www.sciencenter.org, 607-272-0600) has a new exhibit, Mars and Stars, opening on January 15; Radio Days family workshops are on January 21 and March 4; and there's free admission on Sundays, February 5 and March 5.

Syracuse: Aftermarket: Art, Objects and Commerce is an exhibit on display now through February 19 at the Everson Museum of Art (www.everson.org, 315-474-6064). It includes several projects: AllMyLifeForSale.com, excerpts from an online performance piece; the giant installation Surplus; and Walm-Art.Com, a shop where Wal-Mart items are sold at museum store prices.