Colourful dance performance in Warwick

We were out and about bright and early this morning, driving to Warwick University Arts Centre to see the latest Wriggledance Theatre production entitled 'The Colour of Me', which has been devised and co-produced by our Kath and her colleague Lucy, with all the music making, sound effects, both live and recorded from Anto. They are now a third of the way through a tour which takes them to venues all over England, and this has been our first opportunity to see it. When they toured with their first production, a couple of years ago, we didn't get to see it until the very last show, so it was good to be able to share their early pleasure and excitement, with their new creation.

We were blessed with fine weather to travel in both directions. To avoid delays from threatened road works on the Worcester bypass, and ensure arriving in good time, we took a different route from the M50 junction near Strensham, going south three miles to the A46 to Stratford via Evesham instead of north to the A422 turning to Stratford outside Worcester, as we've habitually done for the past fifteen years. It's a quicker road and slightly shorter and easier to drive. The A422 is definitely 'the pretty way' passing as it does through the landscape of 'The Archers' mis-en-scene, but it's a slow slow road in any weather. At a fairly relaxed pace, we arrived in the same time as our usual route takes us to Kenilworth. Amazing, it's taken so many years for me to try an alternative route.

Warwick Arts centre was very crowded, due to a weekend of family arts events taking over the entire building. The multi story car almost full, so it was just as well we got there early enough to spend time hunting for a parking space on every one of the six parking levels. Old fashioned parking space sizes, the abundance of oversized modern saloons and SUVs in this part of the world made it extra difficult. I found a space one floor down from the top, big enough for an ancient Golf to manoeuvre into, not  big enough for a more modern vehicle. Interesting that moans about the size of car parking spaces has been in the national news this week, with excuses from manufacturers, but no serious debate about what can be done either to re-size spaces, make larger car parks, or take steps to reduce the number of vehicles congesting and polluting our environment.

'The Colour of me' is a beautifully crafted hour long exploration of primary colours and the near universal association they have with human emotions, through dance and music. It's both simple and profound, as accessible to parents as it is to young children, the target audience. It makes use of state of the art stage lighting technology to create a stage for an interactive event. I was impressed to see so many under fives relaxed, absorbed and involved in the performance. There was little of the restlessness one might normally associate with a group of children in this age group, being asked to sit of their own free will and watch a performance.

The words 'enchanting' and 'magical' will arise when people think about describing this performance, but what's so wonderful is that this doesn't dominate. It's just a means to create a playful environment that relates to children's real experience. With minor linguistic tweaks it could be taken to any country on earth and appeal to children and their parents. Needless to say, we're immensely proud that our Kath and Anto are part of the core creative team which has made this innovative production possible.

After a quick lunch with Kath and Anto in between performances, we set out for Cardiff again, and reached home as the sun was setting, giving us a complete evening to relax, cook a meal and watch the latest Scandi crime drama on BBC Four before turning in, tired but happy, after a wonderful trip.
   

Musical lottery luck

A drive to Kenilworth today to look after Rhiannon while her Mum and Dad are away for two nights of gigging in Lincolnshire. As I was about the leave Kath called with the news that the M4 had been blocked by a crash in one of the Brynglas tunnels at Newport. It's happened before when I've been about to drive out of South Wales, and to avoid traffic standstills, I drove northward, first to Ystrad Mynach, then across the eastern Valleys to Pontypool and Usk to join the usual route to the Midlands via Monmouth. It took me an hour and a half to cover the first thirty five miles, putting me under pressure to drive faster than was enjoyable once I got to open road. I arrived with five minutes to spare and met Kath and Anto just as they were loading the car to leave.

Rhiannon was taking part in a singing event in the afternoon, involving a thousand children from schools around Warwickshire, taking place in the Warwick University Arts Centre. I'd offered to accompany her class on the coach taking them there, and was a little surprised to learn that after a classroom lottery held by the teaching staff, I was one of the lucky few to be chosen out of scores of parents who'd wanted to go along to support the teachers, and take part. I hadn't understood how little room there's be for spare adults with so many children involved.

A team of eight including two musicians led the event, teaching children by singing songs a line at a time and having the children repeat, after the manner of call and response singing. Almost everything was accompanied by physical movements, and there was much standing, sitting, waving of arms and wiggling about. Progressively songs and rhythms and movement became more and more complex, climaxing with a train song done as a four part round. It was an invigorating experiences, and sitting in with the kids  was such an invigorating experience. My word, did I get lucky!

After supper, Rhiannon and I sat together with her laptop, and she asked me how to do some things and showed me without realising, when we started exploring the use of Corel Draw, just how much she has learned in school, in a natural and unforced way. She's a child that loves drawing, writing and painting, and making things. She was in the throes of handwriting a letter to her cousin Jasmine in the form of a scroll on a large piece of paper and an Easter chick with an opening beak from a folded piece of cartirdge paper. I couldn't help noticing how skilful she was using the laptop trackpad mouse. It was such a delight to have this rather special time to ourselves.