Fantastic dance company Let’s All Dance are at the Old Fire Station on Saturday 24 October with their magical, classical family ballet The Magic Word. We tracked down Orit Sutton, Artistic Director, to find out more about the company and the show.
I have always danced – mum says I danced before I walked! As a child, I performed in many productions and this continued when I became a professional actress, singer and dancer.
I set up Let’s All Dance in 2010, after I had more dance teaching work than I could do myself. I knew lots of fantastic dancers, so I decided to match up schools looking for a teacher with dancers looking for work. I then had requests for dance parties and realised that we could also create fun, high energy parties with our talented pool of dancers.
In 2013, I was looking for a ballet show to take my daughter to. She was six at the time and pretty attentive in the theatre, but I knew that a two-hour ballet with £80 tickets was pushing it a bit, so I set about creating bite-sized ballet for young audiences, with the same quality and magic of full-length productions.
Since then, we have toured the UK with three ballets and I have been told by countless parents and teachers that our shows are perfect for young children. I never tire of seeing our young enthralled audiences, and as I watch them hugging our dancers and twirling out of the theatre at the end, I know we’ve done our job!
The Magic Word tells a simple tale of friendship, sharing and kindness. With a beautiful score, two magical dancers and gorgeous costumes and set, it’s a lovely introduction to ballet and at 30 minutes, it’s the perfect length to engage young audiences. There’s also a little episode with bubbles, which goes down rather well with everyone! After every performance, children have the opportunity to meet the dancers and have their photo taken, which we print out for parents to take home and cherish the memories.
Children aged 2-9 especially love The Magic Word, but we’ve had many younger and older siblings and cousins who enjoy it immensely too. Parents and teachers also give us fantastic feedback about the show, so it really is great for everyone.
As an Artistic Director and Choreographer, I am still enchanted by the grace, beauty and strength of fantastic dancers and I adore creating shows with both children and professionals. I believe passionately that dance and, in fact, all theatre should be accessible to everyone, regardless of background or financial circumstances. We never dumb down our dance, we just present high quality, engaging productions in a fun, exciting and magical way. Our aim is to educate, inspire and entertain and we try to keep ticket prices as low as possible, so everyone can come along.
The Magic Word: Saturday 24 October, 1pm & 3pm. Tickets: £8, £7. Family ticket: £28 (for 4 people, 1 of whom must be a child). www.ticketsoxford.com or 01865 305305.