 The annual Blue Ribbon Children’s Festival is specifically designed for fifth grade students. Celebrating its 38th year, the 2008 festival will take place April 1, 2, 3 and 4, featuring BodyVox, a progressive dance company that combines diverse dance, media and stage design to entertain audiences with breathtaking physicality and striking imagery.
The Music Center invites fifth grade teachers and their students from the greater Los Angeles area to participate. Reservations are by invitation and are accepted on a first come, first served basis. Following the performance, students assemble on the Music Center Plaza to perform a short dance incorporating material from the production. Participating schools receive curriculum materials, instructions for the student dance, background on the dance company, and classroom activities to help prepare their students for the performance. For many students, the Children's Festival will be their first live performing arts experience.
The Children's Festival is sponsored by The Blue Ribbon, a support group of the Music Center founded in 1968 by Dorothy Buffum Chandler. In 1998, The Blue Ribbon created an endowment to fund the Children's Festival in perpetuity through the generosity of its members. The chairs for the 2008 Festival are Mona Mapel and Jill Reilly.
Thanks to a donation from Blue Ribbon member Maxine Dunitz, the Music Center developed a children's book titled "A Journey Through the Music Center" that is presented to all students who attend the festival. The book introduces students to the four theatres of the Music Center and the art forms presented in each venue. It also spotlights some of the performers and behind the scenes staff who make it all happen.
The annual festival was created in 1970 and is one of California's longest continuing free arts education programs. The Children's Festival has hosted over 650,000 children since it began.
"What a wonderful day," said a teacher. "We are so thankful for the opportunity to give our kids the kind of day you provided. They were amazed at the performance, the theater, the group dance, and just at being in Los Angeles. It amazes me some of them have never been out of their neighborhood, let alone to see any type of show."
For information on how to sign up your fifth-grade class for the 2008 Children's Festival, call (213) 250-ARTS (press 4) or email ccf@musiccenter.org
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