About the 2011 Festival
The Spark Children’s Arts Festival returned to Leicester in June 2011 with an exciting programme packed with outstanding arts events to inspire and delight younger audiences. . From 31st May until 12th June this year around 12,600 people enjoyed Spark events during the two weeks of arts festivities especially for children aged 0-13. Venues across Leicester were buzzing with a Sparky feast of theatre, puppetry, dance, storytelling, music, visual arts and even baby opera!
This year, The Spark was thrilled to announce that the new musical play from Curve, Mr Stinkthe hilarious adventure based on the book by David Walliams, would kick-start Curve’s programme of Spark shows. The funny and moving tale of an unlikely friendship between a girl and a tramp premiered at Curve and was followed by a national tour.
Curve acted as a ‘hub’ for The Spark this year with the ‘Play-Ground’ offering lots of hands-on family activities to coincide with an exciting programme of children’s shows and workshops. Half term was spent exploring the theatre with family-friendly interactive back-stage tours, and playing pretend in the dressing-up costume corner and joining in with puppet-making and storytelling treats all free of charge.
Curve also hosted The Spark’s stunning dance performances for children during the week of 6th June from the highly acclaimed Ludus Dance and Theatre Hullabaloo. Leading dance company Ludus presented the jaw-dropping Consequences; an electrifying triple bill from three of the UK’s leading choreographers, Ben Wright, Yael Flexer and Nigel Charnock, the show was ideal for children over ten and those new to dance.
Little ones enjoyed a gentler introduction to dance with Five from Theatre Hullaballo. Five has been created for children aged three and over, exploring the senses, transforming the theatre into a colourful, interactive laboratory where the dancers move among the audience, live music fills the air and everyone gets to join in.
First Spark, The festival’s programme of work created especially for pre-school children was bigger and brighter this year with performances and workshops designed to engage even the tiniest tots. This year, The Spark presented an incredible experience for babies and their grown ups with Baby O, from Scottish National Opera. Baby O - which is for babies as young as six months old - includes arias about bees, ducks and wellington boots. The melodies follow the musical patterns of nursery rhymes to fascinate and mesmerise little ones with their newly developed sense of hearing.
Curve also hosted First Spark shows during half term with the wonderful Box from Body of Art, a magical dance show for ages 2 – 7 featuring dancers, bubbles, wrapping paper, ribbons and lots of boxes. Crammed to the top with fun and intrigue, Box allows the imagination to take flight. Also at Curve Rip Fold Scrunch from Half Moon Theatre Company delighted pre-schoolers with a journey into the multicoloured world of friendship. Rip Fold Scrunch fuses theatre, Kathak dance and music within a paper world, which is created and dismantled before our eyes.
A Sparkly ‘gem’ in the 2011 programme was the incredible finger puppeteer Lejo who delighted audiences with his unique style of puppetry in Hands Up. With the help of some googly eyes and a few tiny props, Lejo’s hands come to life as characters ranging from a hyperactive pianist to a cool DJ in hilarious mini-adventures. As well as performing Hands Up, Lejo Peterson also creates films for Sesame Street.
Following the success of last year’s sell-out open air performance at Leicester Botanic Gardens, families again enjoyed a magical Pied Piper promenade experience on the festival’s final weekend. Devised and directed by students from Leicester University, the show took families on a captivating journey with some surprises along the way. And there was even a pop-up gallery to look out for with an exhibition of portraiture created and curated by local schoolchildren in the city centre during the festival.
In addition, The Spark brings events to smaller venues across the city such as village halls and libraries with its On Your Doorstep programme. And schools across the city also ‘Sparkle’ as the festival’s At Your School programme brings five inspirational companies directly into schools. Schools also get the chance to enjoy exceptional arts at the city’s venues with a contribution to transport costs through the At Your Theatre strand of The Spark.
