The Royal Ballet take over Doncaster on 23 and 24 September with two spectacular Gala performances at CAST as well as a unique, free-to-watch, mass dance performance with 300 local school children on 24 September.

Led by Director of The Royal Ballet, Kevin O’Hare, and featuring stars of The Royal Ballet, these special Gala performances offer a dazzling showcase of some of the most exciting performers in dance today from across the Royal Ballet Company. This is a fantastic opportunity to sample the extraordinary range of the Company’s acclaimed classical and modern ballet repertory. Cherished ballet classics will be included alongside works by Royal Ballet founding choreographer Frederick Ashton, though to contemporary work by Royal Ballet Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor. Emerging choreographic talent from within the Company will also feature in the newly created programme.

Iconic classics include duets from Swan Lake performed by Doncaster born Royal Ballet dancer Charlotte Tonkinson, alongside La fille mal gardée, Le Parc and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Emerging choreographic talent will also be celebrated with new works by Royal Ballet dancers Kristen McNally and Joshua Junker who has set his latest work to the music of Elvis Presley.

The Royal Ballet’s visit to Doncaster will also include a special free-to-watch, mass performance by 300 local school children in Sir Nigel Gresley Square outside the theatre on 24 September at 1.15pm. Children will perform a dance routine, Alice’s Adventures in Doncaster inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland led by five dancers of The Royal Ballet including Doncaster local Charlotte Tonkinson in the role of Alice. Doncaster College Fashion student Page Waite’s winning design for a new hat for The Mad Hatter has been made by the Royal Opera House Costume department and will have a starring role in the schools’ performance.

The programme is part of the Royal Opera House’s ongoing, ambitious partnership with Cast and Doncaster Council, which was set up to improve access to arts provision and advocate for the role that the arts play in improving the lives of young people. The partnership commenced in September 2019 and, following a year of postponements due to COVID-19, was recently extended into 2023. Its aim is to reach as many schools as possible across the borough by July 2023, inspiring creativity of the children of Doncaster and develop young talent through dance, music and theatre craft.

Deborah Rees, Director of Cast, said: ‘This partnership marks a shared ambition for culture in Doncaster. Positive outcomes for local young people remain our greatest challenge as a town and our most exciting opportunity to inspire a generation. To be able to share this once-in-a-lifetime performance with the people of Doncaster, particularly those young people who have been taking part, will be a very special moment for Cast.’

Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, said: ‘We are delighted to be taking our hugely successful partnership with Doncaster to the next level this year. After the trials of the pandemic, it feels great to plan for in-person performances in Doncaster once again, and the Company is excited to bring the best of The Royal Ballet to Cast.’

Jillian Barker, Director of Learning and Participation at the Royal Opera House, said: ‘It’s wonderful to see our partnership with Doncaster go from strength to strength and witness the transformative power of dance and ballet in action. I’m proud that we are on track to reach most schools in Doncaster before next Summer, and in particular to see so many enthusiastic children and young people thrive and enjoy all that the performing arts have to offer.’

Ros Jones, Mayor of Doncaster, said: ‘We are delighted to welcome The Royal Ballet to Doncaster and this will be a wonderful opportunity for our residents, and particularly our young people, to have the chance to see this world-famous ballet company right here on our doorstep. We, along with our partners, are determined to raise our cultural offer across the borough and we are setting the bar high with these very special events.’

This programme is supported by Doncaster Creates.

Park Lane Primary School and Nursery in Nuneaton and Race Leys Junior School, and Nicholas Chamberlaine School in Bedworth are taking part in the festival, amongst other schools in the Trust.

The arts festival programme encourages children to develop and express their creativity. Pupils will participate in projects, workshops, and collaborations during the next two weeks, including song, dance, acting, poetry, painting, and monologues.

All 12 schools within the Griffin Schools Trust will participate in the festival and will be celebrating the theme of ‘change makers’, people who take creative action to improve a situation, highlighting those motivated to act and think beyond their own experiences for the greater good.

The likes of Amanda Gorman, The Beatles, and Courtney Matheson are to be celebrated for artistic impact on the world, with new additions, including Marcus Rashford and Greta Thunberg, for their use of communication and speech to make change happen.

Anne Powell, Chief Executive of Griffin Schools Trust, comments: “The festival is a proud tradition of the Griffin Schools Trust, which aims to create high achievement for all its children. The next two weeks will both celebrate their achievements and widen their horizons through art and discovering change makers to look up to.”

As part of the festival, Year 5 pupils entered a competition responding to the theme of change makers. Ten winners from each school have been selected to attend four days of arts-soaked activity, including a Macbeth performance by Oddsocks and a Night of the Proms performance by Ratby Band.

Kim Waldock, Director of Arts for Griffin Arts Festival, and former Head of National Programmes at the Royal Opera House, adds: “It’s important to help children consider the arts beyond simply the skill of painting or singing and to consider the wider impact the arts have on vocation. Through the Griffin Arts Festival, we can stimulate broader thinking and get children excited about what is possible through the arts.”

At the end of the festival, parents will be invited to Griffin Schools Trust schools to view the work their children have been working on in a showcase ceremony.

LEO Academy Trust, which serves over 3,500 pupils across six primary schools in the borough, started the initiative to engage pupils with the many different forms of art and inspire them to have fun expressing themselves.

The Big Arts Week forms a key part of the Trust’s mission, which aims to prepare pupils with lifelong skills and help them develop their independence, confidence and character through creativity, performance and sport.

This year’s LEO Big Arts Week will focus on the theme of the environment. There will be a range of imagery, books, music and dance-based activities and workshops throughout the week to provide hands-on creative learning opportunities, whilst engaging pupils with sustainability and ways to look after the planet. This will include:

• ‘Junk’ percussion workshop with Donald O’Neill, teaching children how to build and play their own percussion instruments from recycled materials.
• Dance workshop with Lily Webb, where pupils will learn a fun dance routine to ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, delivered via a virtual session for children to access at home or in school.
• Arts and crafts session with local artist, Doug Shaw, where pupils will create their own piece of nature-themed artwork inspired by the local area, re-using everyday materials.
• Poetry activities and a competition with children’s poet and illustrator, Mikey O’Crikey

After what has been a particularly challenging 18 months for pupils coping with the upheaval and disruption of Covid-19, providing enriching opportunities for children to have fun and be creative this summer is especially important.

Each Big Arts Week activity is designed to inspire pupils and encourage them to try a new skill, supporting their social and emotional development as we transition out of lockdown.

Dominique Briggs, director of partnerships and extended schools at LEO Academy Trust, said: “We are thrilled to launch this year’s LEO Big Arts Week and give pupils a dedicated space to engage with arts and culture, something which many of us have missed out on during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Creative learning is a vital part of a child’s education, yet lockdowns and school closures have made it more challenging for children to take part in the creative activities they love such as attending music lessons, going to the theatre and dancing with friends.

“We are delighted to be running a range of exciting workshops this week delivered by expert local artists, which will help children develop their confidence, creativity, collaboration and problem-solving skills, but above all have fun with learning. It has been a joy to see the brilliant work that pupils have done so far and how much they are enjoying taking part in the music, arts and creative writing activities.”

For more information please visit: http://www.leoacademytrust.co.uk/659/events-calendar/event/42/leo-big-arts-week

YDance (Scottish Youth Dance) – the award-winning national dance organisation for children and young people in Scotland – have released the official findings of their innovative four-year primary education programme focusing on interdisciplinary learning and closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

In January 2017, YDance launched the Shake It Up programme to raise attainment for over 5,000 primary school children in areas identified as part of the Scottish Government’s Attainment Challenge – Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire and Clackmannanshire.

Funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Shake It Up was designed to enable children to learn a range of curriculum subjects through dance, increase pupils’ engagement through a kinaesthetic approach, and leave a sustainable legacy of teachers with the skills and knowledge to continue to develop this kind of integrated curricular lesson delivery. Sessions covered a range of subjects including numeracy, literacy, science, health and wellbeing, and social sciences.

Two full-time Dance Education Artists in Residence each worked one day a week across six primary schools for a period of two years to deliver the sessions. They worked in close partnership with selected teachers to plan and deliver the project ensuring the benchmarks of the subject were met through the dance workshops.

Running alongside the delivery programme, a research and evaluation impact study was carried out by the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change at the University of Glasgow. The findings of the research are now available at www.ydance.org.