Creative Connections’ annual tour brings talented international youth performing troupes to area elementary, middle and high schools. Here the international students, ages 12-19, meet with, perform for, and give workshops to school audiences during half or full day visits. Performances feature the youth sharing their culture through music, song, dance, and/or theatre.
Each show begins with a video taking the audience “back home” to see the schools, homes, and rehearsals of the performers.
An important component of our tour is the interaction between the performers and their American peers. The group gives “hands-on” and “feet-on” workshops, visit classrooms, shares meals, and stays in the homes of local families.
Our tours provide our student audiences with entertaining, authentic performances and workshops given by talented young performers from around the world. The “creative” connections made between audience members and performers are what makes our tours special.
Program Goals
International Young Performers’ Tour student participants will:
- Expand their awareness, understanding and appreciation of the lives of peers living in another country
- Gain a new perspective of their own culture by learning similarities and differences between their peer student-performers
- Discover the power of the performing arts to convey cultural and values
- Build their cultural literacy skills through a heightened interest in learning about other cultures around the world
Mandala Theatre
from Kathmandu, Nepal
We are delighted to introduce to the USA this superb company of young Nepali actors:
Kurup Haans and Ghungrieko Kapal – one adapted for elementary schools and the other for middle and high schools.
These compelling stories, with their universal themes of friendship and acceptance, are based on “The Ugly Duckling” and on an intriguing Nepali folk tale.
They resonate with young and old alike as the performers utilize dramatic movement, humor, expressive music, dance and vibrant costuming to weave their tales.
To learn more, please email Alan Steckler at asteckler@creativeconnections.org.
