DETAILS OF this year’s Baboró International Arts Festival for Children were unveiled at a reception on Monday afternoon and, as ever, a whole host of exciting events feature on what is a packed programme.
This year’s Baboró boasts one of its most exciting line-ups ever - 13 companies and 13 venues to celebrate the festival’s 13th birthday!
There’s mind-blowing dance from the Netherlands, a thrilling dark opera from Northern Ireland, a tearjerker from Denmark, a hilarious clown from Canada, and a brilliant collection of music, comedy, theatre, visual arts, storytelling and puppetry from around Ireland.
As a first for the festival, Baboró is also hosting an international conference on the arts for early years. This promises to be a landmark event for the arts for young people in Ireland.
Among the international visitors to this year’s festival are Italy’s La Baracca company who brought the captivating Colours Of Water to last year’s festival. This year they will perform E Poi...Cadono! /And Then They Fall!
This is a show about things that fall down - like fruit from trees, or rain, snow, leaves and feathers from the sky. People and animals fall down sometimes. Simple words accompany the actors’ actions, creating a wonderful unity of images made with movement, light and sound.
Children and the young-at-heart will be sure to love the funny and charming American clown Jamie Adkins in his newest show Circus Incognitus.
Jamie’s incredible juggling, slackwire feats, and acrobatics are interwoven with a touching story about a natural clown who has something to say, but just cannot quite get it out. An expert at comedy born of desperation, Jamie’s performance is humble and unguarded. He deftly escorts the audience along his poetic journey with side-splitting wit.
The show has already garnered numerous rave reviews, being hailed as “an amazing combination of artistry and drama, a performance out of the ordinary, it’s a pulsating and poetic show which delighted young and old”. It seems sure to be one of the highlights of this year’s festival.
Another exciting international act is Dutch dance troupe Introdans Ensemble for Youth, who will present their thrilling production Black and White.
Prepare to be amazed by this stunning cast of 12 red hot dancers who will rock you with their athletic power, high quality and imaginative dance, and mad sense of humour.
Introdans for Youth occupies a unique position in Europe, being the only dance company on the continent to present modern ballet performances for children and young people. The repertoire includes ballets by choreographers Paul Lightfoot, Sol León, William Forsythe, Hans van Manen, and Robert Battle.
There is also a strong line-up of Irish acts in the programme. From Northern Ireland comes Cahoots with The Musician, a spellbinding new opera for young people. It tells the story of a child destined to become the best known flautist of them all….the Pied Piper. With magic, dance and its very own orchestra, The Musician is a dark, original and truly thrilling piece of musical theatre, written and composed by Conor Mitchell.
Youth Ballet West perform two pieces, The Celebration and Once Upon A Time. Specially commissioned for Baboró and funded by the Arts Council, The Celebration was created by internationally acclaimed choreographer Cathy Sharp. This dance piece highlights the company’s energy and youth.
Once Upon A Time takes the audience on a spellbinding journey through many favourite classic tales, including Snow White, Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks. Inspired by the music of John Lanchberry, the ballet is choreographed by Judith Sibley, Artistic Director of Youth Ballet West.
Another delightful locally-produced show is Pignut’s Ahhhh! which combines music, illusion and physical theatre. Audiences enter performer Jay’s world, where bubbles, a pet pig, mysterious plants, and more play a part in creating moments of ‘ahhhh...’ magic and delight as he settles into his new home.
This show is for very young children. It is also a lovely gentle show for special needs children to enjoy.
The above is just a sampling of this year’s Baboró programme which also features story-telling, readings, exhibitions, workshops and much else besides to delight and captivate children of all ages.
Along with one of the strongest programmes of Irish work ever presented, the festival organisers have programmed an international conference to examine just what the benefits of the arts and creativity are for children.
The Natural Born Artists conference marks Baboró’s commitment to examining and discussing the arts for early years with a view to further Irish research and artistic development in this arena.
“This is the first ever conference on Arts for Early Years to be held in Ireland, and provides a vital platform to encourage the development of and research into the creation and dissemination of such work, both in Ireland and internationally,” said Baboró managing director Teenagh Cunningham.
Key speakers include Martin Drury, Arts Director of the Arts Council and David Coleman, child psychologist and presenter of RTÉ’s groundbreaking 21st Century Child and Teens In The Wild.
This conference aims to bring artists, researchers, crèche teachers, parents and practitioners together to examine cultural politics (with a small ‘p’ ), asking the questions where are we now, where do we want to be in five years’ time, and how do we get there?
There will be a series of presentations and discussions from the perspective of child psychology, cultural policy, artistic development, children’s engagement and the roles of adults (teachers and parents ) in engaging with children and the arts.
Baboró 2009 runs from October 12 to 18 and full details of the programme can be viewed at www.baboro.ie
