Alight

This is the beginning of the Professional Practice Brief which is centred around the Alight Festival due to take place in Sheffield on the 3rd of March 2012 which is a celebration of Dance, Music & Visual Arts. We are due to have a Q&A with an Alight organiser later in the week which should clear up a few questions about the different events happening throughout the day at different venues. To begin I want to Google the word Alight in Sheffield and see what sort of responses I get.




Alight is part of Music Nation, a Countdown event for the London 2012 Festival, the finale of the Cultural Olympiad. The event will consist of stand-alone events during the day all over Sheffield and beyond, all culminating in an massed performance in city hall in the evening of Saturday 3rd March.






There will be various indoor daytime venues in central Sheffield including The Winter Gardens, The Hubs, The Town Hall and both the Weston Park & Graves Galleries. The daytime activities will lead into an explosion of musical exuberance in the region’s première concert venue, The City Hall.

Led by Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, 'Alight' is already engaged with over 650 potential performers and is discussing a number of outreach opportunities for schools. The opportunities especially for young people to participate in this inspiring project are growing weekly and 'Alight' is open to new projects, concerts and Cultural Olympiad inspired events to come onboard. Participants from any music, dance or visual art genre are welcome to add their talents; email the coordinator of Alight. Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus aims for 'Alight' to inspire a new generation of music, dance and visual artists within the region to excel not only in their given art, but also in their desire to participate in their community and work in true partnerships to produce a legacy of music, dance and visual arts for many years to come.

A city. Its people. Their music. On this unique day over 750 performers will join together to celebrate Sheffield’s contribution to the national BBC/LOCOG led Music Nation weekend, a countdown event for the London 2012 Festival, the finale of the Cultural Olympiad. Local musicians, singers and dancers will perform in a one-off evening spectacular created by Mark Langley that will celebrate the musical, cultural and historical events that make up our great city of Sheffield. The performance will be a fully directed show with a narrative starting from when Sheffield was first recognised as a city in 1893. Musically flying through the decades Alight: Twilight will culminate in the world premiere of Timothy Allen’s “Olympic Triptych” which has been specifically composed for the unique forces in the Oval Hall taking part in this truly once-in-a-lifetime event.

Students will work with primary school children to create a puppet show to be performed at Alight. You will work with a group of school children to make the puppets, develop a script based on the children’s cultural history and plan a performance based on the torch relay.

The Alight event is part of Music Nation a national Cultural Olympiad project. On the 3rd March Alight will take over Sheffield venues with a myriad of music, dance and visual arts.

http://www.alightmusicnation.co.uk/