“Theatre..for Toddlers? Is there any point? How’s it going to help Children who are still mastering the art of talking, walking, let alone sitting at one place with concentration?” …. This was the sentiment echoed by me (who has never really been a theatre-loving person herself and yes, totally bogged down of finding ways to get her preschoolers ‘listen’!) when we learnt about the Safari Kid Theatre Festival last week.
I have known the benefits of theatre like self reflection, communication, imagination & curiosity booster- but with toddlers like K & A…there’s no way they can sit still for 1 hour!
We still went ahead and attended one of the shows where ‘Dansema’ – Europe’s beloved theatre group was to perform for kids often age 0-3 years.
The Safari Kid Theatre Festival, a first of its kind theatre festival in India for children in the ages groups of 1-8, was spread over three action packed days, with hand-picked award wining International Artists such as Densema (Europe), Jet Black and Lilly White (Germany) and local talent Priyanka Chatterjee who were to entertain kids to a whole new level.
Safari Kid had specially hand picked these International artists to conduct work shops with exposure to innovative and never before seen practices in theatre aimed at exposing children to multiple skills and concepts of performance art. In Keeping with the Safari Kid culture, all proceeds of the event were to be given to underprivileged children across all their centers. From Interactive dance performance for babies to explain concept of movement,space and shape by Densema to experiential painting – this was truly one of its kinds of events.
And there it was – with a gathering in small numbers, the audience enters a well-lit amphi-theatre pepped with a lot of positive vibes, scintillating background music and a few big colourful blocks!
While in the beginning the kids were being their usual self and exploring the surroundings, it was after a few minutes of the beginning that they started getting curious and excited about what was happening.
The artists took kids through a colourful multi-sensory trip covering the various aspects of a child’s world.
You would know how a toddler’s knowledge of the world around them begins with a variety of geometric shapes (like cube, sphere, cone) and colors (green, red, yellow, blue). These are one of the most basic concepts preschoolers get exposed to. And that’s what was the medium of interaction used by the artists.
How does the surrounding world look like for a small child? Is it round yellow or blue square? Or maybe red soft hollow?
While traveling through the different stages of child development, the artists, like children under one year, were creeping, crawling, like of the second year – floundering, going, fleeing, and the age of three – absconding or spinning.
And these I could see a connection that they made with kids!
From various facial expressions to connecting with the kids using the blocks, the group left kids enthralled. I had never seen a room full of so many toddlers being so quiet yet involved in an act.
I could see children making fresh discoveries in hidden compartments, calling the shots in a performance that is never the same twice.
In a world crowded with special effects, theatre does stimulate creative imagination by relying on the audience to imagine a new world based on simple scenes and props. And theater also breaks through the isolation of the digital age by getting a group of people in a room together, experiencing real people in real time.
What we loved was that there were plenty of opportunities to get involved for children too, whether it be bouncing along in time to the performers and music, rolling colored shapes across the room…..
…or at the end being invited to play with all of the puzzle shapes.
With catchy tunes, excellent energy and – thanks to the clowning skills of the cast – some hilarious faces, we would have been quackers to miss it.
We could see how this experience ignited imagination amongst kids. Indeed theatre gives our children the skills and the creativity necessary to face the world, to understand it and perhaps to change it too. We should value children’s theatre and take it seriously and that means treating it with the respect that we would any work of art including reviewing and critiquing it.
Hey, you may also like to take a sneak peek into the school. Click here for a tour through my eyes!
Go Mommy!