***COMPETITION*** Win a family ticket to award-winning Clouds at the Southbank Centre!

[Gulee]

Southbank Centre presents an award-winning Clouds, a magical family dance touring show from Spanish company Aracaladanza who come to London for a rare four day run.

It fires the imagination of children and their adults alike with its evocative sets and a surreal narrative inspired by the emotive work of artist René Magritte.

Location: Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
When: Saturday 26 Jul — Wednesday 30 Jul
Recommended age: 4+

More information can be found on Southbank Centre website

To be in with a chance of winning a family ticket to this fabulous show, all you need to do is email us on [email protected] the answer to the following question:

This show is part of Southbank Centre’s Festival run this summer between 28 June - 31 August). Which festival is it?

1. Festival of Dance
2. Festival of Food
3. Festival of Love

hint: check their website

*Terms and conditions:

This competition ends on 24th July and the winner will be drawn at random and announced on 25th July.

The prize is a family ticket (4 ppl) and valid for performances from Monday 28 Jul- Wednesday 30 Jul 2014.

I can absolutely recommend this production. If you get a chance to see anything by this company then go for it. I was a little hesitant taking my 16 month old daughter into a theatre, but as soon as the lights went out she stayed completely still and watched the whole thing. I've never seen her sit still at all, never mind 45 minutes! But she did. She particularly liked the bit when the clouds turned into sheep!

Synchronised dancing, lights, fabrics and textures, and sounds from feet tapping the floor- it really was a great production for babies. The theatre was full of older children as well some up to about aged 8 or so, and they all seemed to like it too. If anything they were impressed at the rapid costume changes, and clever choreography.

They used regular household objects like balloons, coats, flippers (yes they danced wearing flippers, it was great!), ladders and tables as props and objects to dance with. Very clever, and very fun.

Like the above poster I was a bit apprehensive. My kids are 7, 5 and 4. My 4 year old is a very active little boy! !

Their previous experiences of theatre had been pantos musicals and more interactive performances such as Bear Hunt. I wasn't sure what they would make of it.

My 4 year old amazed me. For the first 25 mins he sat and watched enthralled.
When he asked what was happening sometimes my 5 year old would answer with an insight that I didn't have, such as she told him "They're stealing the night".

After the introduction and a word scene which seemed to me like hospital patients dressed in green dancing around hospital trolleys there was a night scene with amazing use of spotlights and shadows. This seemed quite dark and scary to me. Representative of the demons you see in the dark and the shadow snatchers but all of my kids were absolutely amazed. To me this was definitely the best bit of the show.

I you that part appealled to the imagination of a mischievous 4 year old boy as after that he seemed to lose interest a bit. Although at the beginning of each scene he was curious about new peps and settings.

My girls sat quietly throughout and it was a great introduction into the possibility of telling stories without words for them. They clapped at the end of each scene and understood the symbolism.
I think this experience was great for them and opened a whole new world of imagination away from taking turns to be Ana and Ella and singing " Do you want to build a snowman"!

Also the location was great as afterwards we took a walk around southbank, rose the carousel, watched some Street performers, played in the fountain, before crossing the bridge and taking the opportunity to walk down embankment to Temple showing them Cleopatras Needle and the sights abd sounds which I hadn't really bothered to do before.

All in all a great day out and I would definitely go back again to another production! !

Some pics

After learning some feedbacks I visited this show with my 3 and 6 years old children with the expectation of special Summer treat for us all. At the begin my children seemed a little bored but within few minutes we all were really into it.

Choreography was brilliant, but the entire show was much more than just music and dancing. It is surreal and enchanting and filled with numerous objects and puppets, costumes and elements of comedy and magic. You could see the audience sitting with smile throughout the show. Both of my kids were a little scared when they saw shadows of spiders and other mysterious creatures, but learned how to make some new shadow puppets with their hands.

I couldn't believe that there were 6 performers only as they all danced in many scenes together and kept coming out to the next ones with new costumes in few seconds. Each scene was totally different from each other with wonderful music, background and theme. The dance with their own shadows in perfect sync was fascinating. The show ends with a heavy snow shower, which seems a strange thing at this time of year, but also rather refreshing to witness during a heat wave. After the show you could see many children running to the stage and playing the snow.

Overall I give 5 stars to the show and will recommend the shows of this company to others.