Magical Honey
Mercury Theatre and on tour.
25 December 2023
4 Stars

Sanskruti Dance have created this beautiful, graceful, and fun piece, which introduces South Asian dance to children and families alike. It’s the story of
Maya who discovers she can harness her own magic through art and stories, thanks to the help of the celestial being Saraswati. Together they discover the mystical world around them. But their joy is threatened by their evil Headteacher Miss Tusra, who believes no one should enjoy art. (She gives Dahl’s Miss Trunchbull a run for her money)! Together with the audience, Maya needs to combat Miss Tusra and restore beauty to her enchanting world.

It’s a show full of high, non-threatening, audience participation, and there are some wonderful magic tricks that pleased the young audience members, and they were all fascinated throughout. We were encouraged to dance, move, create some of the creatures Maya encounters, and Miss Tusra was very scary with her harsh stare at some of the misbehaved Dads in the audience! The children were invited onto the stage to dance with the company and given activities that they could carry on with after the show.

The dance is beautiful, as is the score, together with exquisite violin playing. It confirms the work that I saw previously in their show Apple N Spice, the connection between nature, art, imagination, and creativity is underlined in a gentle, yet very effective way. It also shows that the library is not a place of punishment for some children- it’s an escape! Highly recommended.

Inspired by the stories of Ramayana and Snow White, Apple ‘N’ Spice is the magical tale of two stepmothers: one from the East and one from the West. Their stories unfold through an interactive, multicultural dance performance, presenting a charming fairytale that offers an original way for children to discover Indian storytelling.

Fantastic For Families Awards are given by Family Arts Campaign, the national Investment Principles Support Organisation for arts engagement and families, funded by Arts Council England. Now in its tenth year, the Fantastic for Families Awards is an annual programme open to UK-based cultural organisations or cultural activity organisers, providing creative opportunities, activities, or initiatives for families and older people.

The winners of the Fantastic For Families 2023 Awards will be announced on 22 November 2023.

Visit familyarts.co.uk/2023-awards to find out more about the Fantastic For Families Awards programme.

Young Maya loves to draw and read and harnesses her own magic with the help of the celestial being Saraswati. Together they explore the mystical world around them where they discover dancing peacocks, flowers appearing as if from nowhere, and the buzzing sound of imaginary bees. But behold, her foe Miss. Tusra! The evil headmonster, oops, headteacher believes that no one should enjoy art.

Maya now needs your help and a little bit of magic to combat Miss. Tusra and restore the beauty of her enchanting world. Can you help her?

Commissioned by Akademi, Cambridge Junction (Stobb’s New Ideas Award), DanceEast, Mercury Theatre, The Library Presents and Arts Council England.

Thrilled to be programmed in the Autumn season of The Library Presents on Sun, 13th Nov 2022, 2pm at The Clay Farm Centre, Trumpington, Cambridge, CB2 9FN.

Hurry and book your tickets now! This will mark our 30th show of Apple ‘N’ Spice to date!

Supported by Akademi, Arts Council England, Cambridge Junction, DanceEast, Mercury Theatre Colchester and The Library Presents, we will be sharing the work in progress to an invited audience on the following days:

• Fri, 28th Oct 2022, 2pm at DanceEast, Ipswich
• Tue, 22nd Nov 2022, 2pm at Castle School, Cambridge (private sharing for the school children only)
• Sat, 26th Nov 2022, 1pm at Ely Library

See poster for more details. For invited guests only. Sharings can be attended online on Zoom or in person.

Magical Honey, our new R&D supported by Cambridge Junction’s New Idea Award is selected for the Work in progress evening on Wed, 25th May, 2022 at 7:30pm.

More details at Cambridge Junction’s webpage.

Produced by Sanskruti Dance, this show is suitable for children and families bringing together dance, story-telling, shadow puppetry and more! There will be three showcases on the following dates:

Date & Venue: Saturday, November 13, 2021 at Arbury Church of the Good Shepherd, Mansel Way, Cambridge, CB4 2ET

Time: 3:00pm – 4:00pm

Date & Venue: Sunday, 14th Nov, 2021 at Sawston Library, 41 New Road, Sawston, Cambridge, CB22 3BP

Time: 2:00pm – 3:00pm & 4:00pm – 5:00pm

My immediate answer was ‘Yes’, they are the same! This was enough to make my daughter happy and off she went back to her Snow White story book. I realised that my daughter had just mixed two culturally distinct stories, Ramayana and Snow White, in her head and made it into one! How simple was that!!

This question from a three-year old was the beginning of Apple ‘n’ Spice.

I’ve been teaching Bharatanatyam, a south Asian classical dance form to children for more than a decade. Bharatanatyam has its roots in Indian stories and mythologies and many times I have seen students in my class not being able to relate to these stories. Cultural differences I guess…

So what if I mix stories and then try to convey it through Bharatanatyam? Would children understand that better? Would they enjoy Bharatanatyam more? My daughter’s question has surely given rise to more questions for me to explore. Apple ‘n’ Spice is the very first attempt.