INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS
Workshop leaders are supported by trained Festival volunteers to ensure that your whole class enjoys a supported-learning experience. Teachers will learn from professional instruction too and be able to take these lessons back to the classroom.
Workshops are $4 if you are attending any show, otherwise $8.50. Most workshops limited to about 30 students. Workshops are at 9:30, 11:10, 12:40 (except Friday*) and are approximately 45 minutes in length. Most are in enclosed venues and all material and equipment is supplied.
DRUMMING
Participate in group sessions with ‘Voodoo Dave’ (Nanaimo) and Jordan Hanson (Victoria). Watch your students work together in a drumming circle and create music with the power of rhythm in just minutes!
TAP DANCE
Students quickly learn and fall in love with this art form. Taught from pre-school to teen levels. Instructed by Harbour Dance (Nanaimo) and Broadstreet Dance (Victoria.) It’s like karaoke with your feet! (Tap shoes supplied.)
HUMAN JAZZ
Christian Swenson helps students and teachers learn fundamentals of dance, mime, and music demonstrating spontaneity and trust while creatively engaging them in non-competitive play.
FIRST NATIONS
Renown Songhees First Nations workshop leader and educator Butch Dick and his team teach students a number of aboriginal art forms while sharing stories of Coast Salish history and culture.
PHENOMENAL PHYSICS
A revealing, hands-on look at the magic that Mr. Fish works into his hit stage act. It isn’t really magic at all, it’s only science!
CLEAN ENERGY/CLIMATE CHANGE
Facilitators from the Nanaimo Recycling Exchange’s “Down to Earth” environmental education program tackle Climate Change in this exciting and interactive workshop. Discover the causes and effects of our planet’s changing climate and learn ways that we can limit our impact on the Earth! Investigate the Greenhouse Effect and conduct experiments with a “solar oven” made from recycled materials.
BEADWERKZ
Craft your own unique bracelet and learn how to use pliers, crimping beads and beading wire. Beautiful glass and wood beads are provided in a design/build process that will interest both boys and girls. Keep the creation they make and explore a new pastime. Host, Willow runs The House of Indigo in Nanaimo and has more than 15 years beading experience. Your workshop in Victoria is led by BeadWorld in Market Square, a downtown attraction for many years. For Grades 2 and up.
IMPROV COMEDY
Students are lead by trained facilitators in a series of high impact theatre games that support an active approach to theatre arts education. We will promote physical fitness with varied group activities that introduce participants to theatrical performance training. Children will have fun learning in this workshop session that features maximum participation. Grades 3 and up.
MYSTERY INSTRUMENTS
Ideophones and Membranophones demonstrate the principles of how sound is produced and how that makes music. Chordophones, like a wash basin string bass, demonstrate pitch and timbre, while Aerophones show how the human body generates the movement of air, and the different sounds the body can make — pleasantly! Fun lessons in physics and music for the not-so scientifically or musically inclined!
THE STORYTELLER
Professional Actor and Storyteller, Kathryn Popham, reads from a popular storybook, then retells the story in her own words. Kathryn will demonstrate how to act the story so that children can learn the basic starting blocks of drama and theatrical presentation. They’ll come away understanding the process of retelling a story in their own words and learning a new reason to read.
* Tap Workshops are not available on Friday, instead there will be free interactive tap demonstrations on the BC Ferries OpenAir Stage at 9:30 am & 12:50 pm.
Drumming, First Nations, Beading, Improv Comedy and Phenomenal Physics workshops will offer a 2:15 workshop.
Free Workshops (tickets required) in Clean Energy and Mystery Instruments will be offered at 9:30 am, 11:00 am, 12:40 pm and 2:15 pm.