Creating Carnival 2017: The Desi Carnival

This summer we will see the birth of a breathtaking new carnival performance created in partnership with Manchester Mega Mela, Cabasa Carnival Arts, The Vale, Bhangracise and funded by Arts Council England.

The project will bring together over 100 community performers, and numerous makers to share in a beautiful celebration of international Carnival arts with a spicy South Asian twist. Our procession will be led into the Mela arena by a Giant Indian Elephant puppet. We hope that you will join us too!

We invite all members of our community to Dance, Toot, Drum, Create and Make in this exciting, vibrant and unique South Asian influenced carnival project.

DRUM – Join our exciting 50 strong percussion band and learn some new grooves fusing Indian rhythms with traditional Brazilian Carnival instrumentation. We welcome applications from individuals to link with any of the 4 Samba groups who will be collaborating on this project. These include:
ORIXA BLOCO
HANDMADE SAMBA
MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF SAMBA
SAMBAFRIQ

ALL ABILITIES WELCOME. PLEASE NOTE WE HAVE VERY LIMITED PLACES AVAILABLE.

TOOT – Pick up your brass or reed instruments and enjoy learning some new lines and licks to add extra groovy vibes to our music arrangements. We have very limited places available.
DANCE – Choreographed by Adriana Rosso & Rajeev Gupta you can take part in one of our two dance troupes learning new choreography to animate our parade and wear incredible costumes. We have very limited places available in dance due to Costume restrictions but do get in touch if you’re interested in getting involved. All abilities are welcome!
CREATE – We’re thrilled to have the wonderful Mike Green building a Giant Elephant to guide us through the parade. You can enjoy time shadowing our lead artists team to help create the elephant structure or get involved with decorating.
MAKE – Emily Wood and Cabasa Carnival Arts will be designing and leading on the costumes for the musicians and dancers and running a traditional style Carnival Mas Camp. Our Mas camps will provide the opportunity to learn new skills, explore South Asian and Global textiles techniques in the creation of a brand new set of Carnival costumes and as always, there will be FREE TEA & BISCUITS.
VOLUNTEER – Our volunteers make it all possible, and we welcome all support great and small. We have a wide range of opportunities available to suit everyone so please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Several more performances have also been penciled in for later in the year that you will be invited to attend.

The pieces, routines and making techniques will be accessible for all levels and abilities and we welcome participants new and old to share in this exciting opportunity.