Words: Noelle Williamson. Photos: Emma Greenwood
Bramley Villagers’ Club was absolutely packed for the closing show on day two of Bramley Community Arts Festival 2024, and a three-hour programme packed with amateur entertainment at its best.
From three year-old youth theatre members doing a nursery rhyme medley to the 50-strong, and some of them aged 70-plus, Daytime Choir, the performers filled the stage and the dance floor.Â
Even before the show started the concert room was buzzing with chatter and full of colour because, with so many performers, almost everyone was out front.
Lisa Crawshaw’s dancers were gathered near one side of the stage, immaculately groomed and fizzing with excitement. Choir members in fruit cocktail colours filled another area. Families with buggies clustered round tables, parents soothing nerves and guarding props and headdresses.
Toddlers explored the dance floor, older kids joined their friends, mothers went visiting with newborns, the queue at the bar was chatty, and the organisers seemed to be everywhere at once, threading through the crowd, checking sound and costumes and reassuring youngsters.Â
And then, at last, the first young dancers stepped out onto the floor, poised and smiling, and the music started. We were off!Â
The show then moved onto the stage, with an athletic feline contemporary dance soloist and an elegant ballerina, followed by two happy cat burglars tap dancing to Jailhouse Rock and six very small dancers nervously holding out the hems of their tutti-frutti skirts as they faced the largest crowd they’d ever seen. And they did great! (Email l.crawshaw@ntlworld.com to find out about adult or children’s dance classes)
After the dancers, Emma Smith introduced Class Act, Bramley’s youth theatre group.
First, there were nursery rhymes, and then musical theatre with Shrek, Fiona, Pinocchio and a host of fairy tale characters, including Three Little Pigs giving it loads at their microphone.
Several of the young actors reappeared later when Bramley Players performed a medley from Joseph & the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
Out in the audience, a lot of us were grinning at one another and singing along under our breath. If this sounds like your kind of fun, go to Bramley Parish Theatre Players on Facebook to get involved in Red Riding Hood – the pantomime! Class Act is for anyone aged 3-17 and new members will be very welcome on Fridays at Trinity Methodist Church. Beginners 4.30pm-5.15pm, Juniors  5.30pm-6.30pm, Seniors 6.45pm-7.45pm.
Trinity Methodist Church is clearly the place to be for community arts in Bramley! The long-established String of Beads ladies’ choir meets there at 7.30pm-9.15pm on a Tuesday evening, while the Daytime Choir meets on a Wednesday afternoon at 2-4 pm. Both welcome new members!
String of Beads sang a beautiful programme in three-part harmony for us; my personal favourite was The Beatles’ Blackbird.
The Daytime Choir is a mixed choir which has only been in existence since April, and this was their first ever concert, but their four-part harmonies are so rich and confident that you would never know it.
Musical director Robert Sanders said: “If they enjoy themselves, they sing louder!”
Ladies and gentlemen (particularly gentlemen!) if you would enjoy singing the likes of Walking in Memphis, Fix You and Shotgun, get yourselves down to Trinity on Wednesdays, from 2pm to 4pm.
Finally, after an introduction from musical director Anita Adams, Leeds Youth Opera took to the floor with a moving extract from Children of Eden, Jr.
A chorus of 20 or more singers alternately filled the space with voices and twirling coloured ribbons, and pulled back so that we could witness Adam and Eve going out into the world, and Cain working on his brother Abel.
Leeds Youth Opera is now in its 50th year and rehearses at Interplay, on Armley Ridge Road. LYO is open to young people aged 12-25, and you can find out more at www.leedsyouthopera.org.uk.
Some background – and thoughts about the future…
The organisers, Dean Patrick, Emma Smith and Councillor Kevin Ritchie, are all members of Bramley Parish Theatre Players, which used to meet at St Margaret’s Church.
Introducing the show, Dean told the audience: “We formed a Community Interest Company last year to do lots of good things in Bramley.”
He said that, with the loss of St Margaret’s, the search is on for a suitable building to house a community arts centre so, if you hear of a possibility, please let them know.
In the meantime, and following the success of Bramley and Stanningley’s first Arts and Culture Festival, in Leeds Year of Culture 2023, the team set out to establish the first Bramley Community Arts Festival independently of Leeds City Council.
Dean expressed the hope that this will be an annual thing and go from strength to strength, and assured the audience that all donations during the festival will be carried forward into future projects in Bramley.Â
So, that was our first Bramley Community Arts Festival. We’ll have to wait another year for the next one but, between now and then, how about getting involved with one of the many groups that have been part of this brilliant weekend? It’s all right here!
- The Bandstanders with their ukuleles
- Bramley Elderly Action
- Bramley History Society
- Bramley Mermaids
- Bramley Parish Theatre Players
- Class Act youth theatre
- Daytime Choir – mixed choir
- DAZL Dance Zone
- Knitters and Hookers
- Leeds Youth Opera
- Lisa Crawshaw Theatre Dance School
- String of Beads ladies’ choir
- Tutti Concert BandÂ
- West Leeds Men’s Network for conversation, art and music.
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