'GAZEMENT' 
Theatre Upon a StarDanceSwan

Theatre Upon a StarDanceSwan has offered children multi arts experiences through Magic Lantern Celebration and Fairy Ball for nineteen years. Due to the COVID-19 quarantine both events have been canceled this year, leaving families in our community disappointed. StarDanceSwan has developed a hands-on project that embraces the themes of both events while involving children in a safe way to connect with their creativity and Paseo. This project adheres to the guidelines prescribed by the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Magic Lantern Fairy ‘Gazement’ invites families to peer into StarDanceSwan’s studio window on twilit autumn evenings to see a collection of paper puppets made by children in our community. These miniature fanciful characters dangle from pumpkin seed embellishments while wonder grows in the children who make them. StarDanceSwan offers a different way to touch imagination.

 

Creative play begins in October when children are asked to knock on StarDanceSwan’s door. In exchange for a dazzling word, each child is given a bag. Inside, they find colorful paper, glitzy bits, ribbons, pumpkin seeds and fond faces. While at home, children spin the contents of their bag until they discover and construct an autumn fairy or enchanted creature to appear at the ‘Gazement’.

 

All of the paper creatures children make at home are called to return to StarDanceSwan when the studio is dark and mysterious. Then, Lights On! Curtains Open! StarDanceSwan’s window twinkles. The Magic Lantern Fairy 'Gazement' appears.

All of the puppets children created at home are captured in a window scene, like an open page in a storybook.

 

And the story? Each child makes up their own story while gazing into the window. Families can drive to Paseo and look into StarDanceSwan’s window to see the paper puppets without leaving their cars. Children and their parents can also walk on Paseo’s sidewalk and peer into the window fantasy.

 

On December 4, Paseo’s First Friday Walk, a ‘Gazement Ball’ shines through the window from the StarDanceSwan studio when the little and big dancers of StarDanceSwan swirl and weave the children’s creations to whisperings of Steve McLinn's Ojas Music lingering in the air. Onlookers walking the street can gaze into the window and watch. Here children see pumpkin seeds sewn round the puppets, throughout pumpkin whatnots, and on the dancers frocks. And they also see that, like pumpkin seeds become pumpkins, the seeds that our imaginations grow become possibilities which nurture our lives. ‘Gazement’ reminds onlookers of the unending wonders we find within ourselves as we express our creativity.