Vancouver International Children’s Festival gets set to welcome everything from high-energy Danish dance to artful Korean doodling

Among the 80 shows just announced, Italy’s Teatro Telaio sets up its glowing ARCHIPELAGO installation, while pow-wow, hip-hop, and massive puppets take the stage elsewhere

A HIGH-ENERGY DANISH dance show, a South Korean mix of theatre and doodling, and an immersive Italian installation that welcomes kids to explore a glowing group of miniature islands: they’re all part of the programming just announced for the 49th annual Vancouver International Children’s Festival.

The fest runs May 25 to 31 on Granville Island, with a mix of theatre, music, dance, circus, puppetry, storytelling, and more.

Highlights on this year’s international roster include Denmark’s Uppercut Dance Theater, whose BENCHED turns an everyday bench into the leaping-off point for breathtaking physical feats, on show at Performance Works. Elsewhere, Italy’s Teatro Telaio presents ARCHIPELAGO, a theatrical installation that creates a luminous cluster of small tents in a darkened space; it’s copresented by Boca del Lupo, the Micro Performance Series, and the Kids’ Fest. And South Korea’s Brush Theater uses drawings on a giant white board to set off an artful adventure in Doodle POP at the Waterfront Theatre; the show, a hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, is copresented with Carousel Theatre for Young People.

Visitors can also discover the wild circus antics of Quebec’s The Merry Marching Band at Performance Works, as well as energized powwow and hoop dance in Nimihitowin! at the Revue Stage, and a concert by local hip-hop, rap, and soul artist Missy D at the Granville Island Stage.

Locally created shows include Me & the Forest, a coproduction between Boca del Lupo and South Korea’s ArtstageSAN that employs massive puppets and immersive audio to allow guests to converse with the wonders of the natural world in Ron Basford Park. Glamily, meanwhile, features Peach Cobblah and other local drag talents in a family-friendly extravaganza that’s “part drag show, part lip-sync open mic, and part dressup party”, at Performance Works (produced by Zee Zee Theatre Company, in association with Tara Cheyenne Performance and Carousel Theatre for Young People). And at Théâtre la Seizième and Foolish Operations’ Baby Space Opera, the fest’s tiniest audiences, aged zero to two years, can watch dancing, twinkling stars and listen to stories under a night sky inside cozy Carousel Studio.

There’s much more, including musical guests Will and Seeka, and the acrobatics of Quebec’s Comedy Patrol.

Tickets are on sale now at ChildrensFestival.ca, and during the festival at an onsite box office between Festival House and the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island.

In all, there will be 80 shows, and each ticket includes an Activity Village wristband that gives access to more than a dozen arts activities.

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Janet Smith

Janet Smith is founding partner and editorial director of Stir. She is a Webster Award–winning arts journalist who has spent more than three decades immersed in Vancouver’s performing arts, film, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

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