
Monsters in your School
Calling x4 D15 Primary School Class Groups
Dance in Your School
14 & 21 March 2025
A Little Event For The Youngest Citizens Of Blanchardstown
Thursday 19 May 2016
10am - 2.30pm
Grab your hats, coats, boats and rocket ships for an adventure that’s out of this world! Blast off in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 !
Toddler Takeover is a little event that has a huge focus on the arts for the very young.
Draíocht’s whole building will, for this one day only, transform into a big space for an adventure through story, visual arts, puppetry and dance for the very young. With a combination of book-in and free drop-in events, children are invited to explore the little spaces that big people don’t usually see.
Little characters will lurk under the chairs; footprints will amble across floors and elsewhere in the small nooks that children notice. With our theme of exploration, put on your adventure hats and get ready to travel from the earth to the stars!
Armed with your imagination and natural curiosity, explore colour, sculpture, painting and construction in our Galleries and Workshop Spaces! You can dance with Antje, explore and invent with an interactive visual arts experience from Órla and Andrew, or see and hear a puppet’s tale with Julie-Rose.
There will also be a teeny tiny takeover space dedicated solely to adventurers under 18 months.
Event: Roam Free @ Draíocht
Time: 10:00am-2:30pm
Cost: Free Event, REGISTER @ BOX OFFICE ON ARRIVAL
AGE: Activities are designed for 18 months - 4 years but younger and older siblings are welcome to try too!
Location: Roaming all over Draíocht
Event Information: These creative spaces are for free open spaces for self directed play and inventiveness. Follow the Foyer Footprints, look under the chairs, around the stairs, beneath the tables… is that a maze!?
In the Downstairs Gallery, armed with your imagination and natural curiosity, explore colour, sculpture, painting and construction.
Make your way to the Creative Toddler Room in the downstairs Workshop Room, where there will also be a teeny tiny take over space dedicated solely to adventurers under 18 months. Cones become rockets, play with paint, weave, stick, build - dress for mess!
Make your way to the First Floor Gallery and explore our maze made with cardboard boxes.
Event: Sky Rocket (max 12 children)
Times: Workshop 1: 10:15am-10:45am
Cost: €5 per child, accompanying adult free
AGE: 20 months - 4 Years
Location: Draíocht Green Room
Event Information: Join artists Órla Kelly and Andrew Carson for an interstellar journey through storytelling, painting, sculpture, and fun!
Event: Tangle (max 15 children)
Times: Workshop 1: 12:00pm-12:30pm
Workshop 2: 01:00pm-01:30pm
Cost: €5 per child, accompanying adult free
AGE: 20 months – 4 years
Location: Draíocht Studio Space
Event Information: A mix of contemporary dance, visual arts and light that explores material and how it moves, twirls, bops and sways with little arms and legs.
Join Antje, Órla and Andrew for a collaborative workshops that experiments with art to encourage your child to engage in a new way with material sound and movement.
Event: Pop up Puppet (max 15 children)
Times: Workshop 1: 10:00am-10:30am
Workshop 2: 10.50am-11.20am
Workshop 3: 02:00pm-02:30pm
Cost: €5 per child, accompanying adult free
AGE: Workshop 1: 18mths – 2 years
Workshop 2: 2-4 years
Workshop 3: 2-4 years
Location: Draíocht Studio Space
Event Information: Join Julie-Rose McCormick for a fun workshop with a mix of making and watching, using the magic of shadow and light to see puppets come to life!
Artist Information:
Órla Kelly is the co-founder and director of Early Childhood Creativity, an initiative that aims to stimulate creative thinking and activity in early years, children and their parents, and to support artists and educationalists to develop specific and creative ways of working with early years children (0-6 years). Órla is a visual artist, creative educationalist and an arts manager. She has worked with children for over fifteen years creating work in Ireland and Europe. Órla is currently working in partnership with Fingal County Council and Scoil Bhride Cailini in Blanchardstown, as artist-in-residence in Room 13.
Antje O’Toole holds a Masters in Contemporary Dance (University of Limerick) and a Masters in Education (Goethe University Frankfurt). Additionally, she has training in dance therapy from FITT, Frankfurt. In her teaching, her interest in the person as an ever-developing individual, the dance and the progressing relationship between the two comes together. At the very core, Antje wishes to provide a class where the student can experience him- or herself as a moving-dancing self, and to provide support to become a more confident and skilled mover.
Andrew Carson is a Dublin based artist, graduated from DIT with a BA Fine Art in 2010. Using a variety of media, including, paper craft, sculpture, video and sound, Andrew’s work is an exploration of social structures, systems, and methods of communication. He is interested in the use and effects of digital devices and social media as the modern ubiquitous means of contact. Andrew is primarily interested in how people interact with each other on a daily basis
Julie-Rose McCormick has been performing in puppet shows which she has designed and created for over 28 years, nationwide and abroad. She has been involved in award winning productions such Gulliver winner of best show Casablanca and Molly and Leopold Bloom Giant puppets winner of best representation of characters. She has worked with The Abbey, The Ark and The Project and in community theatre, schools and on hospital projects across Ireland. She has also facilitated many arts projects, such as The Ballymun Spark Project. Most recently, she performed the shadow show Peter and the Wolf with the UCD Symphony Orchestra classical music for children and Lassie the movie.
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