Feel free to bring a packed lunch or you can enjoy a little something from De Montfort Hall’s foyer. After eating you’ll trail down to the Belmont Hotel for ‘genie-rus’ amounts of ice-cream, then return to De Montfort to watch Disney’s Aladdin.

Don’t wear your best clothes but do dress as a genie if you can (especially adults!) as there is a prize for the best boy and girl genie. The trail will take approximately five hours in total, beginning at 11am. Genies from seven plus can join in and tickets cost £5 each – baby genies in arms go free.

For more information please visit www.sparkfestival.co.uk, call 0116 261 6893 or email admin@sparkfestival.co.uk

Take your partner by the hand for a unique musical experience as Boka Halat presents their Afro Ceilidh at The Y Theatre as part of The Spark Children’s Arts Festival. Families can enjoy the fantastic fusion of European, Asian and African beats as Boka Halat lead us on a merry dance.

Boka Halat means ‘mutual inspiration’ and their approach is all about bringing together musical traditions to create new songs, new beats and new music. Five musicians come together to play their original songs and then lead the audience in a ceilidh with a difference. Square dancing, line dancing, whatever shape your dancing is – the Afro Ceilidh will make you get up and move your feet.

A great fun event that children and adults will love with wonderful live music, Boka Halat’s Afro Ceilidh is suitable for children aged 8 plus and will be at The Y Theatre on Friday 11th June at 19:00. Tickets cost £4 for children and £6 for adults. To book please call 0116 255 7066.

For more information please visit www.sparkfestival.co.uk, call 0116 261 6893 or email admin@sparkfestival.co.uk

Join The Spark for an evening of hip-hop dance, poetry, lyricism and theatre for children at Curve. Igniting Hip Hop features leading artists taking kids on a journey deep into the heart of hip-hop culture and its African Roots.

On Saturday 12th June Curve will host an exciting event which will showcase the work of students who have worked with inspiring artists to put together their own performance piece. Young people from Leicester and the region are working with acclaimed choreographers Donald Edwards and Miguel Pereira and performance poets Charlie Dark and Dreadlockalien.

Moat Community College in Leicester is working with Olivier Award nominee Donald Edwards and Charlie Dark to produce Igniting Hip Hop. An internationally-acclaimed dancer and choreographer, Donald now lives in Leicester. Charlie Dark is a leading performance poet who travels the globe experimenting with lyrics and music. The project has been led by 2Funky Arts, in partnership with The Spark.

The line-up also includes Dance4 and their International Young People’s Commission from leading Portuguese choreographer Miguel Pereira. The artists and students have been working to the brief to create a narrative through hip-hop dance. There will also be a performance from 2FunkyArts’ ILUVLYRICS youth group, featuring poetry and MCing.

Igniting Hip Hop at Curve will be an exciting adventure into the world of hip-hop dance and lyricism, and a wonderful opportunity to see the work of some of the best artists in the business. The performance begins at 19.30pm. Tickets are just £5 each -to book call Curve on 0116 242 3595.

For more information please visit www.sparkfestival.co.uk, call 0116 261 6893 or email admin@sparkfestival.co.uk

We Built This City places children in the role of architect, empowering them to construct their ideal city, and during the performance they will make buildings go up, pull them down, redesign them, extend, walk through, jump on, and reconstruct them. We Built This City is not a play… it is play. Polyglot Theatre bring their tour to Waterloo Terrace at the National Theatre for LIFT 2010.

Forget playing ‘Sim City’ at home alone, now children can realise their urban dreams in three dimensions with scores of other budding young architects in We Built This City.

Presented by one of Australia’s leading children’s theatre companies Polyglot Theatre, We Built This City invites children and families to construct a city from thousands of cardboard boxes.

Under the watchful eyes of professional building experts and accompanied by a live DJ, the only city limits here are in the mind, as participants are encouraged to let their imaginations run wild and create edifices as tall, wide and outlandish as they can. But whilst We Built This City is pure fun on one level, its interactive and collaborative nature also points out how the urban environment contains many interconnected lives, finally emphasising the impermanence of everything around us when the installation is eventually crushed flat by its creators.

Today the Royal Court Theatre has announced that it will be producing its first ever family Christmas show. The show, Get Santa! will run from December 1 2010 to January 15 2011 and will be appropriate for audiences aged seven and up. The plot follows a ten year-old girl’s mission to find the perfect family and will be directed by Anthony Neilson with music by Nick Powell.

Dominic Cooke, artistic director of the Royal Court, said: “One of the most exciting theatrical developments in recent years has been the explosion of quality work for children and families. I’m delighted that the Royal Court will be bringing its bold and contemporary sensibility to a family Christmas show this year.”

On Saturday 8 May young people from across Cambridge will Takeover The Junction. The day and evening will feature workshops in Comedy, Spoken Word with Luke Wright, DJ workshop, sound and light engineering, and visual arts. The evening features a showcase of local talent, such as drama and dance, youth bands, young DJs and a headline set from Shy FX.

This event allows The Junction to engage with young audiences in a way that they never have never before, giving young people ownership of a venue and allowing them to create a youth programme that mirrors the Junction’s own programme. Thus helping to develop audiences, nurture talent and give vital information on how to meet young people’s expectations.

Check out: www.takeoverthejunction.com for more info.

This February the critically acclaimed Imperial Ice Stars, the world’s leading theatrical ice skating company, are bringing their spectacular new production of Cinderella on Ice to the Royal Albert Hall. In a novel twist on the timeless tale, set in a Siberian town, The Imperial Ice Stars tell the story of Cinderella, a humble chorus dancer who is thrust into the spotlight as a prima ballerina and captivates the handsome Lord Mayor’s son, the most eligible bachelor in town, with her graceful performance. Despite rival attempts by her ballerina stepsisters to steal his heart, engineered with true villainy by her stepmother, the local ballet mistress, true love triumphs thanks to the magical powers of the Gypsy Fortune Teller and Cinderella’s kindly father, the town’s Watchmaker.

Cinderella on Ice is set to be one of the most ambitious challenging ice shows ever created, and has been gathering fantastic reviews during its tours of Australia, New Zealand and the UK and has travelled to Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan and South Africa as part of an extensive two year world tour.

This specially redesigned production will run for only eight performances and will be only the second time in history when the floor of the Royal Albert Hall has been frozen with ice, and the first since the John Curry Symphony on Ice featuring the Olympic gold medallist was staged 25 years ago. Performed on a specially-created stage, frozen at -15 degrees Celsius, Cinderella on Ice boasts stunning special effects including fire and rain, flying, magnificent projected scenery depicting a Siberian town square and a black and silver art deco theatre, and glorious costumes from Albina Gabueva, head designer at Moscow’s famed Stanislavsky Theatre.

This dramatic new interpretation of the classic fairytale is conceived and choreographed by the award-winning ice director Tony Mercer, together with three of the world’s most respected ice coaches: Evgeny Platov, dual Olympic gold medallist and four-time World Champion; and the 2006 & 2007 ice dancing World Champions Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski.

An exhilarating combination of theatre and sport, Cinderella on Ice breaks new ground in the world of ice dancing. Renowned for their daring on the ice and unique style of story-telling, the 25-strong cast of World, European and National Championship skaters will perform breathtaking skating feats, some never before attempted in competition or on an icy theatre stage and playing the lead role of Cinderella is Olga Sharutenko, who partnered John Barrowman in the first series of ITV’s Dancing on Ice in 2006.

Address: Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London, SW7, United Kingdom?
Website: www.royalalberthall.com
Box office: 020 7838 3100 (09:00-21:00 daily)

Hot on the heals of their great success with the Family Theatre Project, Theatro Techis in Camden are launching Youth Theatre an opportunity to give teenagers the chance of staging their own play and learning about the different aspects of a theatre production.

The production will run at the weekends beginning on the 16 January and will culminate in a final performance on 28 February.

Youth Theatre will give teenagers interested in acting, directing, playwriting, lighting, set or costume design the chance to work with industry professionals to put on their own production and learn about the varying theatre roles.

The project is completely free and if you are interested in taking part please contact Theatre Technis by 30 December.

Address: Theatro Technis, 26 Crowndale Rd, N1 1TT, London
Email: info@theatrotechnis.com
Phone : 0207 387 6617

This Christmas the Unicorn Theatre present the traditional fairytale of Cinderella but set on a boat. Cinderella and her father live on the boat Cassandra which has been turned into a retirement home for elderly magicians and Cinders has her work cut out making sure everyone is fed and looked after. The most striking feature of the production is the set, which features an enormous boat on a revolve, which turns to reveal a striking white staircase for the palace scenes.

The production has some splendid twists as Queen Felicity, superbly played by Samantha Adams, battling against a public that are rapidly loosing their love for the monarchy attempts to drum up support by marrying off the Prince; publicity stunts including the staging of an amusing ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ style hunt for the bride to be. The elderly magicians played by Adams, Julie Hewlett and Justin Butcher are lovely to watch and have a charmingly funny chemistry. Although, I wasn’t overly keen on the spiteful alternative-rock style ugly stepsisters but then, I suppose that’s the point.

This fresh telling of the old classic is brightly done but it’s a shame not all of the new angles are fully explored and we don’t get to hear more about the Prince’s back story and his arrival from the mysterious but beautiful land of the Butterfly Republic.

Address: Unicorn Theatre, 147 Tooley Street, More London, Southwark, London, SE1 2HZ
Website: www.unicorntheatre.com
Email: admin@unicorntheatre.com
Phone: 020 7645 0560

Somewhat based around Stravinsky’s 1911 ballet, Petrushka tells the story of three puppets and their controlling puppet master. The rather mischievous Petrushka, a Russian relative of our own Mr. Punch, is the pride of his masters show – a puppet who can move on his own without any strings. He attempts to escape the clutches of his master but is drawn back out of love for the graceful ballerina puppet. Like Punch, Petrushka has his ancestry in the Italian Commedia dell’arte character of Pulcinella and it is great to see the influence of Commedia in this production with a chorus of Zanni puppets who appear throughout the show to tidy up.

The puppets are gorgeous to look at and the operation is truly outstanding. The three operators Ronnie Le Drew, Mandy Travis and Rebekah Wild are dressed in black velvets allowing them to disappear so one might imagine Petrushka really is moving on his own. The blend between live action and puppet work really brings something special to this production especially with Josh Darcy’s silky voice and perfect meanness as the manipulative puppet master. The action is cleverly choreographed with Stravinksy’s score, played as a piano duet by David Nettle and Richard Markham, and the play is smartly contextualised with some haunting soundscapes and an intelligent lighting design.

Petrushka is visually splendid and like a great Russian novel guides us on emotive tale interspersed with humorous moments, a real treat for adults and children alike to watch over the Christmas period.

Address: The Little Angel Theatre, 14 Dagmar Passage, Islington, N1 2DN
Website: www.littleangeltheatre.com
Email: info@littleangeltheatre.com
Phone: 020 7226 1787