Education and Community Outreach Sponsor

 

During the Easter holidays, over 150 enthusiastic children (ages 4-15) participated in our 5^th annual Ballet Theatre Camp: Little Ballet Princesses at the rehearsal rooms backstage at the Grand Theatre of Hong Kong Cultural Centre from 25-28 March 2016.

During four days filled with fun and interactive workshops, students were introduced to various elements of a ballet production. Younger children (ages 4-6) learned more about Swan Lake’s story and music and engaged in basic ballet steps and movements to perform a dance from Swan Lake together, older kids (ages 7-10) learned an ensemble piece from Sleeping Beauty, and teenagers with more ballet experience performed a piece from Paquita in addition to solo variations from La Bayadere, Don Quixote, Paquita and Giselle. Special lectures on make-up and hair as well as pointe shoes were presented for the first time this year to older students.

As this year marks the 5^th anniversary of Ballet Theatre Camp, a special dance demonstration for parents was created for the last day of camp. In addition to learning the dance movements, participants also assisted in building the whimsical castle set and decorating their unique prince and princess headdresses for the demonstration. Students were very excited to perform in front of their parents, while parents could see for themselves what their children learned during the past three days. Additionally, we proudly acknowledged three loyal participants who have continuously participated in the Ballet Theatre Camp for the past 4-5 years. All students received a certificate by our Company’s dancers for their participation and completion of the camp.  

We would like to acknowledge the following professionals and our Company’s dancers for their efforts and time in sharing their knowledge and experience with the participants: Hong Kong Ballet Dancers Jin Yao, Shen Jie, Vanessa Lai, Peggy Lai, Leung Chun Long, Nicole Assaad, Sharon Leung, Tirion Law; the Company’s Wardrobe Department Director Joanne Chong, Education and Community Outreach Department Manager Vency Kwok, pianist Tony Lam, make-up artist May Chu and props and sets artist Aya Mok as well as the support from Technical Department. 

At the camp’s conclusion, students, whether they had some ballet experience or not, found that they had enriched their Easter holiday by experiencing up close a variety of ballet elements - movement, music, costume, set, make-up, story and miming. We are so pleased that they could join us this Easter and look forward to welcoming everyone back again next year!