The Lost Little Llama

The Lost Little Llama is an original ballet, created for the 2022 AWESOME International Children’s Festival. It features a little llama, who gets lost in the bush and needs the help of a larrikin Kookaburra to get home. The more they try to figure out where they are, the more lost the become… and they encounter a number of dangerous creatures who all think that the little llama looks DELICIOUS!

There’s Mrs. Tick, who always plays a trick; Mr Fox, who fancies himself a MasterChef; and Crocodile, who thinks he is as fast on land as he is in the water. In their efforts to dodge the bush monsters, Kookaburra and Llama make discoveries about bravery, forgiveness and kindness to others.When they eventually emerge safely from the bush, both Llama and Kookaburra have made a great new – though unlikely – friend in each other, learnt a little more about themselves and understand the importance of helping each other when things get tough.

Form and Style

The ballet is performed by seven dancers: the Little Llama, Kookaburra, Mrs. Tick, Mr. Fox, Crocodile and two dancers-come-stagehands, who are characters that transform from scene to scene, manipulate the stage decor and props, and assist the action in each scene.

The work’s original story and choreography are by Andries Weidemann, it has an original score by Dr Emma Jayakumar, original design by Maeli Cherel and is performed and recorded by Perth Symphony Orchestra. The show is ideal for families and children of all ages (and perfect for children 10 and under).

To help very young audiences navigate the story – and acknowledging that some children may be new to classical movement and mime – the recording includes narration that clarifies and moves the action along.

Community Engagement

The experience has been developed to work as a 1 hour presentation that includes the show, as well as audience activities. Specifically: Pre-show, the audience is welcome to observe the dancers’ warm-up class.

At the start of the performance, everyone is invited to do an audience ‘warm-up’, in which the dancers get the children moving for about five minutes. Research indicates that increasing cardiovascular activity can assist children with improved concentration: having a physical warm-up before the show increases blood flow, resulting in more oxygen being delivered to the brain, which improves focus. The children also LOVE moving with the dancers!

AWESOME Arts have some great opportunities for community engagement that they have been successfully implemented in Armadale and Perth. These include foyer activations with local artists, classes run by choreographer Andries Weidemann at your local dance school and a “Kids Market” where children can set up stalls pre-show and make it an AWESOME day out. The team at AWESOME Arts is also keen to have a one-on-one with Presenters to discuss engagement and marketing to families and support your organisation with future planning for children’s works.

REVIEWS

“… this ballet is fun-filled, charming, and perfect for engaging an audience new to the artform.”

“The choreography showcases the talent of the young dancers but keeps it at a level that it may seem attainable to aspiring ballerinas in the audience, starry-eyed, thinking, “Maybe I could do that!”” – Seesaw Magazine

Available Marketing Collaterals

• High resolution photos of the debut season (including audience reaction shots)
• Media release
• Cast bio’s
• Hero image for programming
• Copy
• Talent can be made available for media

credits

Andries Weidemann, choreographer: Andries is a dance lecturer at WAAPA and choreographed Peter and the Wolf (2019) and The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (2020) for West Australian Ballet. He wrote the original story and created the original choreography for The Lost Little Llama (Awesome Arts, 2022).

Emma Jayakumar, composer: Emma is a Perth-based composer who has created scores for opera, ballet and chamber music. Recent major commissioned works have included the orchestral song cycle Four Lost Songs (2022) for the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, Our Little Inventor (2022) for West Australian Opera, the Lost Little Llama (2022) for Awesome Festival, Bell Birds Suite for String Quartet (2020) for the ABC recorded by the Darlington Quartet, The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (2020) for West Australian Ballet, and Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (2021) for MusicBook Stories and the City of Perth Winter Arts Festival.

Maeli Cherel, designer: Maeli graduated from a BPA in production design at WAAPA in 2018. At WAAPA she designed for a range of productions including Dance, Theatre, and Musical Theatre. Since 2018 she has worked on the set and costume design for independent productions at The Blue Room and Queen’s Park Theatre in Geraldton, as well as WA Ballet/Awesome Arts Festival, and a number of School productions including We Will Rock You and The Laramie Project.