The new show that lit a spark for Bradford's children

I wasn't expecting to shed a tear while watching hundreds of Bradford schoolchildren performing on stage, with professionals from some of the country's most prestigious arts institutions.But as they sang and danced about "Five hundred and thirty thousand hearts / Our brilliant city of many parts", I admit, I welled up.There's something very moving about the hopes and dreams of the youngest generation being on show, in one of the youngest cities in the UK. Nearly 30% of Bradford's inhabitants are under 20 years old.
Ten-year-old Aiza told me she has never done anything like this before. "Does it make you want to do it again?" I asked. "Yes!" she nodded, happily.Nine-year-old Zuriel said that singing with the Royal Opera was "exhilarating and exciting".
More than 2,000 Bradford children are involved in Sing Dance Leap, the first ever collaboration between Royal Ballet and Opera, Opera North and Northern Ballet, who've been working together in schools to create this one-off performance at the newly refurbished Bradford Live theatre.It's the biggest moment of mass participation created by and for young people commissioned by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.
The show is inspired by the children's own thoughts about their city. Nine-year-old Toby told me it was exciting "because some people don't even get to perform on stage in their life and we've got the opportunity to do it".He loves Bradford's landscapes - "it's just nice to walk around in the sun every day".Hidaya,10, says "it's a really diverse place, there's so many cultures and traditions around here."Nine-year-old Willow likes "the different kind of foods we have and the different places you can take walks and have fun".
For many of the children, this is their first introduction to ballet and opera.Opera North's vocal coach Marry Claire Breen has been working with some of them for months.She says that it became apparent very early in the workshops that opera didn't have much meaning to young people, so the team started to have discussions what opera was.Emphatically rejecting the claim that the art form is elitist, Marie Claire told me that the children were made aware that "opera doesn't have to just be about the stereotypical big, huge voices on big, big, stages, but that we're telling a story with their words, with their emotions, with experience".
One of the professional Royal Ballet dancers working with them, Tom Whitehead, was born and raised in Bradford. He told me he began dance classes when he was ten, "a long time ago, pre-Billy Elliot... so quite a lot of stigma still attached to it".For him, it's been a calling for many years now, but he insists "a project like this is not about discovering the next Darcey Bussell or [opera singer] Jonas Kauffman".
From my perspective, watching on, it was impossible to look at the sea of enthused, focused and increasingly confident young faces as the rehearsal progressed, without wondering what kind of spark might be lit as a consequence of taking part.We can't know for certain, but the Royal Ballet and Opera's director of learning and participation, Jillian Barker, who was also born in Bradford, told me her hopes for its legacy."I would love to be sitting in the Royal Ballet and Opera in maybe 10 years' time next to somebody who did this project when they were younger... and then maybe to look up on the stage and there may be one young person for whom this lit a fire and now they are on the stage."
The point, of course, is about widening access to the arts and inspiring creativity in every child involved. Outreach work, particularly in areas of social deprivation, is an important part of the contract between these institutions and Arts Council England which awards them public funding (in steadily decreasing amounts in recent years when it comes to Royal Ballet and Opera).
But the composer of Sing Dance Leap, Will Todd, puts it even more strongly. For him, these kinds of programmes are "the jewel in the crown" of the work of these arts bodies."In a sense, we could expect them to do great performances of Puccini or of The Nutcracker," he says. "But can they go out and inspire ordinary people to participate, to be energised, to sing and dance? To me actually that's the apex of what they can do, so it thrills me that they're here doing this."
Being on stage and participating in something of this scale is confidence-boosting. I could see the children walking just that little bit taller, after a day of rehearsing in a theatre so embedded in Bradford's rich cultural history - and they will take that confidence into other aspects of their lives.And Tom Whitehead had a message for them: "Have your ideas, dream big and don't be afraid to go for it."

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