Dearest reader,
Did you miss me? While this isn't the true Lady Whistledown, it is your favourite Creative Heritage storyteller, keeping the memories of our biggest summer show alive.
Perhaps you are busy with work, trying to remember what your children need to bring to the one million things happening in school, 3 weeks before the summer holidays. Or if you are one lucky soul, you are planning your own getaway to a more sunny, sandy and warm destination. Either way, Around The World Festival 2024 is no longer at the forefront of your thoughts and even if you attended our second show, your memories are likely faded now.
And that's why you have me here. To take you back to a day charged with extremely positive emotions, inclusion, diversity and culture.
Show 2
For our second show, we had the privilege to be joined by the Worshipful the Mayor of Sutton, Councillor Colin Stears. It has become a tradition for us to have him at the festival and we were more than excited to hear his opening speech. It is great to know that our hard work on uniting people, building a stronger community, encouraging children to develop their talents and preserving culture is noticed and appreciated.
Our hosts are back, shimmering in their golden dresses. But one of them looks very different. A whole new look, including a hair colour change! There must be a reason for this, don't you think? And as the show progresses, we get to find out more.
We start our second journey where we ended the first one - right here in England. That's all the details the hosts gave us. As they were leaving the stage, M smiled sheepishly and whispered: "I do love a mystery..."
Lights go off and all we can see are six silhouettes of young girls. Mysterious music starts playing and we hear the girls narrating "Divorced, beheaded, died...divorced, beheaded, survived!" At this point, the majority of the audience knows this is the story of King Henry VIII being told on stage, but in a much more entertaining way than a regular history lesson.
The girls did great, heating up the audience with this extravagant show opener and paved the way for the next performers to showcase their talent.
Speaking of talent, this was evident in our next act. We stayed in England for a little longer, but we time-travelled from the past, landing in the present modern Britain. What an honour to share the stage with a local rising rap and grime star Reece Colvin! Born and raised in Carshalton, Reece delivered an exceptional and very emotional performance of two of his latest pieces "Drowning in Emotions" and "Legacy". Beautiful lyrics and great bouncy beats!
No doubt, the crowd was now ready to tour the world. We buckled up for a long-haul flight to Seoul, South Korea. It was Suyoung Park, who introduced our audience to a new dance form, steadily gaining popularity in Korean culture. It is called seouljanggu and it involves playing a traditional drum, while dancing under the sound of modern or k-pop songs. Very entertaining and enjoyable performance that was for all of us.
Next on - M and L are gracing us with their presence, all dressed up in a whole new attire. That's how we know, the destination is about to change again. Here we go, now flying to the lavish land of Ukraine.
In this show, the Ukrainian School in Sutton had prepared for us a dance to a modernised Ukrainian song, boosting the spirit of everyone watching back and front of stage.
Here we have our hosts again. They say they have an important message. Everyone looks around as they are not sure what to expect.
M makes a step forward and says: "As you probably know there are many tensions around the world, arising conflicts, leading to tragedy and unnecessary suffering of innocent people. Those conflicts emerge for a variety of reasons, but we believe the cure is simple. It is unity. Love for one another. Acceptance. Realising we are all one. And we know achieving all this won’t be easy. But at Creative Heritage, we try to do that one step at a time with every event we produce. Our goal is to unite all people in all of our differences and beliefs. You are likely aware of the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Two countries who are like sisters to one another, with similar culture, language, customs, religion. Yet the lives of ordinary people from both countries have been torn apart for more than 2 years. So, we have decided to use the power of music and art to show that unity and brotherhood are achievable even in the darkest times." L moves closer to M and she gently says: "I want you to do something with me. Close your eyes and think about the time when you were a little child and you were trying to imagine what your future would look like. How did you feel? Were you scared? The song you will hear now is exactly about that. A child thinking about their future and hoping and praying that the future will be nice and bright. Exhale and listen."
And so we did. And it was magical. The two girls who represented Russia, Angel and Evelina, sang their hearts out and it was no surprise they took the Most Heartfelt Performance Award home in this show.
There are too many emotions floating in the air now. It's time for a break. The host call the interval and everyone goes to take a breath, a bite or a... minute to themselves. Everyone, except the Creative Heritage team, of course! We are all running at the same speed and making sure everything goes smoothly in the second part. Before we knew it, it was showtime again.
The audience is back at their seats, all ready for the second part of this culture world tour. But surprise, surprise - our hosts have disappeared. They tend to do that quite often, don't they? Kam kindly steps in to save the day and announces the Creative Heritage special production "Peace Please". Just like in the first show, this performance cross-presents the Jewish and Arab cultures in a song and dance mashup. It is our stance on conflicts anywhere in the world - We Are All One!
The audience is now lit. They love the energy and the expression through this performance. It is only one way forward - keep the fire burning! And we manage to do just that, moving to a whole new continent, the hot and spicy, Africa!
This time Tiana has found a little partner - Dara. They are both taking us on a dance tour from West to Southern Africa with some of the most popular afrobeat tunes and iconic dance moves that took over the world in the last decade. It was such a cheerful and explosive act, that it got the Most Entertaining Performance Award in Show 2.
Can we make this even more exciting? If anyone can do it, it is us - your devoted Creative Heritage team. But no, it is not us performing next. From the sunny savannah and equatorial rainforests, we travel to another tropical destination with lush landscapes. India.
Here we are greeted by the dancers of Lingeshwara Natyalaya - a 19-year old school for classical and other traditional Indian dance styles, founded by Hausika Murugaratham. They gave us an extremely technical and well planned display of a Bharatanatyam dance. It turned out this to be the Audience's Favourite performance in our second show.
While this was a very traditional look at Indian culture, our next performers from Monali's Dance Studio wanted to bridge tradition and modernity, showing us more of the pan-Asian culture. Colourful outfits, intricate dance moves and ultimate passion brought them the Most Authentic Performance Awards in show 2. Monali herself, is such a powerhouse, who happens to have the same drive for artistic excellence and culture work as us. We can't wait to see what collaborative paths we may cross in the future.
The audience is elated! We can see it on their faces and in their reactions. They have thoroughly enjoyed the show, even though the show isn't over yet. Here comes L, overly excited after the last performance. But... she soon realises M is not following behind. "Guys, I've lost my partner!" - she cries to the audience. A voice of reassurance calms her down and sends her backstage to look for M. That voice, of course, belongs to Kam.
Kam takes the stage once again to announce the very last performance of Around the World Festival 2024. It is now clear why M disappeared and L followed shortly after. It is time to make one final stop on our global culture journey. This is Bulgaria.
Bulgarian Folklore Choir "Maghiya" told us the story of the creation of Bulgaria through their 7-minute performance. From the uniting of Thracian, Slavic and Proto Bulgarian tribes to form the country, through its years of greatness, tragic falls under the Ottoman rule and triumphant rise from the ashes, we were finally taken to the present, where blending traditions and new trends creates beauty and hope for the future. At the end of that performance rose petals rained upon our audience and made the perfect ending of the night for many.
Of course, the voting and award ceremony took place right after the Bulgarians went off stage but you already know the results. Except that our last performers got three of the jury awards in the second show - Most Educational, Most Technical and Most Creative Performance Awards!
All trophies were presented to the winners by our guest of honour - The Mayor of Sutton, Cllr Colin Stears and to close the ATW Festival 2024, we invited on stage all of our performers. They received certificates as our token of appreciation for their hard work and dedication, a branded water bottle to remind them of this beautiful day and a handmade cookie with our logo to sweeten the experience. All of us sang Move Your Feet / D.A.N.C.E from Trolls as we waved goodbye to our incredible audience.
Dearest reader, this may be all from Around the World Festival 2024, but it is certainly not all from Creative Heritage. In fact, this author is preparing her next piece of digital society papers as we speak. There are many thrilling events and news our humble community is eager to share with you. So, ensure you never miss a scintillating blog update and follow our endeavours on social media - Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Yours truly,
A very secret Creative Heritage Scribbler
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