Our work in schools with Creative Playground began in 2023 with a test partnership between Seymour Primary School, Broadfield and Brighton Festival. With our help, the festival presented one of the Without Walls shows; Choogh Choogh by Beeja to the whole school including parents and carers at pick up time. We also programmed a Bollywood Dance workshop by local artist Saaj Raja at pick up time which parents, teachers and children got involved in.
“Magnificent, fast paced, talented dancers, suddenly we were in India and I’m from India so I felt at home, intriguing, animals, mountains, adventure, it made me happy, joyful, calm” Child responding to Beeja’s Choogh Choogh
“Incredible – I watched it with children and they were mesmerised.” “It was great to get the families involved after school.” Teacher’s response to the event.
Our evaluation told us that 85% of audiences strongly agree or agree that the event was different from things they’d experienced before. 100% of audiences strongly agree or agree that the event had something to say about the world we live in. 100% of audiences strongly agree or agree that it is important that it was happening here. 100% of audiences strongly agree or agree that the event provided an important addition to the cultural life of the area.
100% of audiences strongly agree or agree that they would like to come to something like this again.
So we decided to continue to explore the idea.
In 2024, again in partnership with Brighton Festival we presented Inspirate’s Ancient Giants at Langley Green Primary School.
“I didn’t expect them to be so so so so so huge!!!!!!!” “I never went to a show before :-(“
“I loved it when the puppets lifted up, it was like the Kong vs Godzilla film” “ I haven’t seen giant puppets before, nothing like this comes to Crawley” responses from students after the show.
Amen, a teacher at Langley Green Primary School: “the children will have never experienced anything like this before” and a Year 3 teacher said her class had said “they were the best shows I’ve ever seen”
In addition to our work with Brighton Festival we developed a new partnership with The Place in London and presented Sonia Sabri’s Mughal Miniatures and Vanhuelle Dance Theatre’s Olive Branch at five primary schools in Crawley as part of a national tour.
The programme had a similar response:
“They were brilliant shows, very different, thank you for bringing them to the school” – Mrs Powys, Principal, Desmond Anderson
“We need more arts in this school we have so many pupil premium children who do not get opportunities like this and it was really wonderful” Year 4 teacher
‘My class were captivated, it was so fun. Thank you so much. The performer’s skill and stamina was an inspiration” Year 1 class teacher, Broadfield Primary Academy
This year we also invited a Playmaker to attend the programming meeting with national partners to help decide which shows were part of the programme.
In July, again in partnership with The Place, we brought The Playground Tour to five Crawley Primary Schools. All the children from Broadfield Academy, Our Lady Queen of Heaven Primary School, Seymour Primary School, Three Bridges Primary School and West Green Primary School watched a double bill of two professional dance performances that had been created especially for the primary age range.
You Too Can Tutu by Gandini and the album- skool edition by SAY brought a combination of ballet, juggling and street dance to the playgrounds. The reception from the schools was fantastic and children and performers alike coped brilliantly with the difficult weather conditions, which ranged from torrential rain on Monday to boiling sun by the end of the week. This event brought live dance performances to over 2000 children, many of whom had not seen anything like it before.
This year, we continued to invite Playmakers to attend the programming meeting with the national partners to help decide which shows were part of the programme.
“The children in Reception had a great time watching the performances and enjoyed taking part themselves. It was great that they also got to ask questions and find out about each performer.” Teacher, West Green Primary School
The relationship with The Place goes from strength to strength and develops into a new commissioning partnership called Stomping Ground. We continue to involve Playmakers in the decision making process. This year our General Manager visited Germany as part of the process to see one of the potential shows, which became the first international piece to be part of the programme.
For the third year running, the tour, produced and toured by The Place and presented locally by Creative Crawley, visited five schools in five days; Northgate Primary, Bewbush Primary Academy, Waterfield Primary, Broadfield Primary Academy and Seymour Primary and by Friday over 2,000 children had watched live professional dance right on their doorstep.
This year’s programme featured two original pieces: BUG by Lea Anderson and Prisma by Rotem Weissman. Each school got two performances across the day, followed by a Q&A where the children put their questions directly to the performers. And they had plenty to ask; from the thoughtful (“How long did it take you to make up the dance?”) to the hopeful (“Can you do a backflip?”). Prisma was created with the support of Explore Dance Network for Young Audiences, and its involvement in The Playground Tour is developed with and supported by the Goethe-Institut London.
“I just know the kids will never forget this” – Amanda, Teacher, Northgate Primary School
“Both shows were brilliant, it was great to see pupils who wouldn’t normally engage having the best time.” – Dev, Year 3 teacher
‘The children had a blast! They rarely get to have experiences like this. The last time they saw a performance like this was last year’s Playground Tour.’ Co-Headteacher, Seymour Primary School
“How tall is Steve? He’s so tall” “I liked all the different bugs. My favourite was the spider. It was creepy” “The noises were weird” Feedback from the students
The Playground Tour is produced and toured by The Place. Prisma was developed with and supported by the Goethe-Institut London. BUG was supported and co-commissioned as part of Stomping Ground, a commissioning partnership with Creative Crawley, City Moves, FABRIC, FESTIVAL.ORG, Pagrav Dance Company, Strike a Light, The Place and Tramway. Thanks to The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, University of Exeter for BUGS! project research support.
