Last week, during October half term, 30 young people from across Leeds came together to 
spend a week exploring performing arts from across the world. This was part of a week-long course called Global Mash Up for young people aged 8-18. They had the opportunity to work with artists Christella Litras, Rob Green and Ella Mesma to explore music, dance and drama. Throughout the week they created their own performance by writing original music and drama and choreographing dances.

Global Mash Up began early on Monday morning at Leeds City Academy. The young people arrived and split into groups that
 rotated throughout the day so everyone got to try out the different strands of performance. At the end of the first day they decided which strand they wanted to focus on and split into three groups: music, dance and drama. Over the rest of the week, the young people began to develop ideas based on ‘The Power of Green’ that would lead towards a final performance on the Friday.

By working hard each day and coming together to work as a team, the young people developed their initial ideas into a performance that was given to friends and family members on the Friday afternoon. It was amazing to see what they were able to achieve in such a short space of time!

We had a chat to some of the parents of children that attended the week and here is what they had to say:

“My daughter thoroughly enjoyed the week and has given her so much confidence to enjoy what she loves doing... all the staff are amazing. She has learnt a lot from coming here.”              


Thank you to all the young people involved for your time and commitment to Global Mash Up and thank you to everyone who has helped make it happen! Make sure to follow us on social media and sign-up to our newsletter (the link is at the bottom of the page) to stay up-to-date with GCF events and to make sure you don’t miss out on future Global Mash Up events.

Global Mash Up is funded by the Inner North West Community Committee and is part of Child Friendly Leeds.