LIKE so many of you, Elsie and I have been doing all manner of Halloween things this week for half term.

On Monday we went pumpkin picking for the first time (which was more fun than I expected!) yesterday we did plenty of Halloween drawings and on Tuesday we made a trip to our local arty place, the Barnsley Civic to see the perfect Halloween performance, The Witch That Couldn’t Dance.

The show was produced, choreographed and written by Elsie’s super dance teacher, the lovely Laura Maplebeck (or Miss Laura to Elsie!) who owns the dance academy Starmovers. So naturally when we were invited to pop along and see the show, I knew we’d have a wonderful time.

And boy did we!

The show was a brilliant mix of both acting and dance, centred around the character of ‘Wendy The Witch’ who’d been invited to an exciting Halloween party but was worried because she couldn’t dance.

Elsie absolutely adored the show (she’s definitely at the age now where she can appreciate a good theatre trip), particularly the dancing and I smiled often as I watched her look on in astonishment at the talent of ‘Miss Laura’ and the rest of the dance team.

At one point when a ghostly ballerina performed, she turned to me and said “Mummy, she is just brilliant!” and clearly she now hopes to be a dancer too when she is ‘a big girl’!

The story itself was really heartwarming, sending out a brilliant message to all of us in the audience, that our magic lies through being ourselves and also that anything is possible.

As a mum I honestly cannot tell you how refreshing it was to hear this being said to little impressionable people! Massive thumbs up for this from me.

The Witch That Couldn’t Dance was an incredible show, superbly acted and performed. There was comedy, there was fun, there was plenty of interaction with the audience – again, perfect for kids – and lots of lovely dancing.

It was also the perfect length of around forty minutes. Long enough to keep the kids entertained but not too long for Elsie to start getting fidgety, ratty or ‘bored’!

Huge well done to Laura and the cast for pulling off a spookily good show! If you ever get the chance to see a performance created by Outside The Box Productions / StarMovers I urge you to go.

When it comes to knowing what children (and their parents) want, this company firmly has it’s finger on the pulse.

Disclaimer – We watched the show in exchange for this review but as always, all opinions are my own. 

Images: The images used are a mixture of ones that I managed to take myself and professional images, used with kind permission from KTM Photography and Outside The Box Productions.