Animated over the arts

2nd November 2001, 12:00am

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Animated over the arts

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/animated-over-arts
Regional arts festivals are offering young people special creative opportunities. Denyse Presley reports on the fun going on

Schools throughout Glasgow are involved in more than 40 events and performances that are part of Inspiration 2001, the city’s fourth annual festival of the arts for young people, which opened on Monday.

All the action is centred on the Arches theatre, instead of in schools. Glasgow City Council’s arts development officer, Maggie Singleton, says: “I hope that by staging the festival at the Arches this year it won’t just seem like a day out of school but an experience that will stay with them.”

In a move to be more inclusive this year, several events are aimed at young people who have recently left school. A DJ workshop on Sunday, November 4, will be led by one half of the DJ duo Jengaheads, Martyn Henderson, who also presents a live show on Beat 106. The session will teach everything from the basics to the advanced skills you need to prepare for a large-scale gig.

The special educational needs programme has been expanded this year. The BT Scottish Ensemble has already tuned up to present Fiddlesticks, a music workshop for pre-fives and SEN pupils, today. Five musicians will lead a story-based session which will allow children to get their hands on the ensemble’s mini stringed instruments.

One of the festival’s highlights comes from the India-based Kala Chethna Kathakali Troupe. Today and tomorrow, the troupe, in association with the Scottish Mask and Puppet Theatre, relates The Salvation of Poothana, a puppet tale which recreates the great Hindu Sanskrit epic “The Mahabarata”. Poothana, the demoness, disguising herself as a lady, is ordered by evil King Kamsen to kill the baby Lord Krishna.

Tomorrow’s performance is preceded by a drop-in puppet-making workshop, where children will have the chance to make textile puppets inspired by traditional Chinese puppetry.

There is also an African aspect to this year’s festival. Four members of a Namibian choir who will be conducting a huge project in Glasgow next year are here doing research and holding four workshops featuring African music.

Also, Star Constellation Dances and Other Sky Stories next week (November 5, 6, 8 and 9) fuse African storytelling and dance with Glasgow’s Indonesian gamelan instruments. The workshops for eight to 11-year-olds and SEN children, will combine three art forms - story, music and movement - and climax with a performance for the benefit of the pupils.

Earlier this week, Oak’s Bark ran creative video workshops for eight to 12-year-olds. Two groups of 12 children combined traditional visual arts with digital video to create a stop frame animation of an imaginary artist who has powers hidden under his cap. The animations will have a soundtrack laid on and be put on the Internet, where people around the world can interact with them.

“It was particularly exciting because it involved making your own animation film by using new technology in an artistic way,” says Ms Singleton.

“At the Arches, each new group is enthused by the creativity of those who have been in before.”

However, the festival has been finding it hard to interest secondary schools, although there are some innovative events planned. Tomorrow, Glasgow Film Theatre is holding a film-making workshop, led by an experienced film-maker. The idea is to use the architectural nuances of the Arches as the students’ stimulus and to explore sound, light, shape and animation. On Tuesday (November 6) the GFT is holding a movie music workshop, which will look at the effect of film soundtrack on the audience.

Scottish Ballet’s progressive new course for young men celebrates male competitiveness and athleticism.

For young women, Boilerhouse Theatre is presenting an interactive drama workshop, entitled Initiate, and Blooded, a new play by the Scottish playwright Isabel Wright. Both are designed to challenge accepted models of womanly behaviour.

Ms Singleton already has an eye on next year’s festival.“We’re really going for broke to see what range of activities we can cover for children, to see which areas we reach, where the gaps are, who are the young people we’re not getting access to, and what we need to look at next year.”

Inspiration 2001, October 29-November 9, at The Arches, 253 Argyle Street, Glasgow G2 8DL plus four community venues, pound;1 each, individual or group bookings taken; for information tel 0141 287 9843, tickets hotline tel 0141 287 5522Scottish Ballet education unit, tel 0141 331 2931

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