Swallowing Clouds: March Break

YOLO! Participants of Swallowing Clouds at Palmerston Public Library, March Break 2015; Photo: Mairéad Filgate

Last month tiger princess dance projects’ collaborators took up residence at Parkdale Public Library and Palmerston Public Library for two March Break sessions of Swallowing Clouds. It was an exciting and successful week with the return to Parkdale, one brand new library, and many Swallowing Clouds alumni, along with many new participants and several visiting artists. And two birthday celebrations to boot!

Swallowing Clouds’ apprentice teacher Marie Lambin-Gagnon who has been with the program over the past year, joined us for March Break, bringing her fantastic energy and ideas with her. Below Marie recounts her first experiences with Swallowing Clouds.

A month with Swallowing Clouds:

I had the chance to be part of Swallowing Clouds as an apprentice last October. One thing I am certain of, is that if I ever have children, I will without a doubt encourage them to participate in the workshops.

I’ve been teaching children for almost 10 years now and I can definitely say that I have discovered a new method of ‘’educating’’ with Swallowing Clouds. I actually felt like I learned more from the kids than they learned from me. I learned to listen to them; to let the creativity emerge from them. Everybody on this planet has the potential to be creative, especially children. They have a lot to say and to offer our world. One of the goals of the workshop is to build something together to show the parents and close friends. In the past, I’ve been used to showing kids dance movement and making sure they understood the movement I had envisioned for them. With this program, we built a little show based on their collective interests and their own personal impulses. The performance was simply beautiful. You could tell that the whole group was having a lot of fun and that they all got the chance to bring their own voice to the piece. It was definitely less chaotic than one might expect from a piece initiated by a large group of kids.

I am very grateful to have such a beautiful program available to children in this city. I felt that every day of the program would open a door to endless possibilities.