TYPE OF WORK
Drama and music workshops, performance, puppetry, carnival processions, video.

TARGET GROUPS
Disadvantaged children and young people in the UK and abroad.

GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
UK, Central and Eastern Europe, South Asia, East Africa.

COMPANY POLICY
Rise Phoenix is a London-based charity which, since 1994, has enabled professional artists to work with disadvantaged groups and young people in the UK and abroad, both in the formal and informal education sectors.  Established in response to the crisis in the Balkans, Rise Phoenix aims to educate, inspire and entertain young people by encouraging their participation in the arts and thus empowering them to deal with the various issues that confront them wherever they are.

Rise Phoenix has a network of artists that are suitable for ACD work and training involves working in Rise Phoenix London-based community projects and master classes.

SCALE OF PROJECTS
Number of practitioners:  2-12
Number of participants:  15-180
Preparation time:  3 days – 2 weeks
Contact time:  1 – 4 weeks

PERMANENT STAFF
Jane Riddiford, General Manager

Transformation and Changes (Serbia and Montenegro, 2001)
Collaboration with Triangle NGO to offer workshops and develop a carnival procession.

Aims: To offer skills in theatre and arts, to include local children and the wider community in Rise Phoenix’s work, working towards integration, to provide a final carnival procession, showcasing the work.

Target children:  Serb children from the Pinki sport stadium (where 300 internally displaced families were living in temporary accommodation), local Serb children from Zemun, local Roma children from Cotez, near Zemun, home to thousands of internally displaced children.

Outcomes: Rise Phoenix ran workshops each day in giant puppet and mask-making, drama/movement/theatre games, storytelling, music, play and team-building.

Initial workshops in the theatre and arts skills were followed by preparation for the final performance and procession; building giant puppets and sculptures to be carried through the streets of Zemun.  Rise Phoenix rehearsed the children as sections of a moving animated carnival procession, the children taking part as singing-dancing butterflies, dragons and fish.

For the final procession, all the children had their faces painted and were arranged into the order in which they would animate the puppets and process.  All the sculptures were illuminated and, finally, the Transformations Procession wound its way through the streets of Zenum accompanied by a local band and joined by the local community.  Many of the children were interviewed for local Serbian children’s TV.

Wonderful World
A series of creative exchanges of art, music and video to foster an understanding of global citizenship amongst young people (UK/Tanzania, 2003-08)

Young Voices
Multi-arts projects enabling participants from refugee and ethnic minority backgrounds to tell their own stories.

Fantastic Planet
Environmental arts workshops/outdoor theatre production (August 2003)