Our latest trip to ArtPlay was for ‘When Moon Dust Falls’, doctor sickness an interactive workshop run in conjunction with Victorian Opera.
Victorian Opera are writing a new opera just for children and they ran the workshop to engage children with ideas inspired by the themes of the moon, sleeping and dreaming.
Firstly the kids were asked to warm up their bodies by moving in time or with particular characteristics to music – in this case snippets of opera classics sung by professional opera singers. Lady AB was quite entranced by the singing as she’d never really encountered an operatic voice before.
Then the children were instructed to build a tower of cushions (to the sound of the Toreador Song from Carmen) before one of the singers was put to sleep.
And then the cutest thing – they were told to catch his dreams, paint his dreams on their faces and then draw his dreams on sheets of paper and show them to him.
Lady AB was able to concentrate for some of this but I think at 3 years old she was too young to follow some of the more imaginative aspects of the workshop.
When Moon Dust Falls was a truly magical experience and a rare opportunity for very young kids to participate and collaborate on an operatic work. All the children who participated in the workshops over several days were encouraged to write their name and draw their handprint on the ‘credits’ paper. So when it goes into full production we’ll be able to see Lady AB’s name up in lights!