BODHRÁN BLENDED with Brazilian capoeira – which combines dance and martial arts – the work of writer Rudyard Kipling and surrealist painter René Magritte are to feature in this year’s Baboró children’s arts festival in Galway.
The week-long celebration of dance, theatre, puppetry, film, music, art and craft marks its 15th birthday next month under the direction of Lali Morris.
Percussionists Robbie Harris and Dave McFarlane, dancers with Britain’s Sadler’s Wells and Spanish company Aracaladanza, and author Melvin Burgess have all been booked for the programme.
The festival will open on October 16th with an outdoor installation presented by the German Das Papiertheater group. It will set a street-long table in Galway’s city centre, where the menu is a questionnaire asking: “What is priceless to you?”
A fusion of film and “Bboy and break-dance” will be staged by the aforementioned British and Spanish dancers, while the Baboró team has secured the first-time festival venue of Salthill’s Seapoint ballroom for a multicultural music spectacle with Harris and McFarlane.
Tuam’s Mall theatre is also on the tour circuit, which involves shows, exhibitions and workshops in various Galway venues. The priority attached to art in a Co Galway primary school, Kilcoona, will also be marked with the first Baboró annual “Above and Beyond” award for inspiring individuals, organisations and communities.
Morris has scheduled 10 productions for “early year” audiences aged up to six years, as part of what she says is the most extensive line-up ever. Italian company La Baracca will stage three productions, including a play inspired by one of Kipling’s Just So stories.
This year’s theme is “illumination”. Irish theatre productions include the Branar Téatar Do Pháistí puppet company and Monkeyshine Theatre. More programme details are on website baboro.ie
