Family Fun Tuesdays

Family Fun Tuesdays is a weekly summer-long children's series that provides families with opportunities to experience a variety of art forms, learn about world cultures and experience new ideas together. The series presents all forms of art from storytelling and puppetry to music and dance in the intimate atmosphere of the Sculpture Garden.

Family Fun Tuesdays takes place Tuesday mornings from 10am - 11am. Visitors should walk from the main parking lot on the south side of Diffley Road through the pedestrian tunnel to the Sculpture Garden. Signs will be posted. Please call for handicap parking options.

Admission to these programs is free. Suggested donation: $2 per person. Your donation is greatly appreciated and helps to make Family Fun Tuesdays possible. Childcare and schools groups should call for space availability and fees.

Programs will only be canceled in the event of severe weather or if the artist is unable to perform. In case of rain, events will be held under a canopy. Check back for program updates or call 651.454.9412.

2010 Family Fun Tuesdays Schedule
All programs begin at 10:00am.
Visit the Event Calendar for our full calendar of events.

Help those in need by bringing a food donation for Eagan’s 150th
Birthday food drive to any of our 2010 season events.

Jump, Sing and Explore: Discovering the Natural World
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
10:00am

Birds tweet and bees buzz. Nature sounds are musical. Join MacPhail Center for Music’s early childhood music specialists in exploring some of nature’s sounds through hands-on musical activities. Children will experience nature through songs, rhymes, movement, literature, instrument exploration and visual art. We will swim like a fish, jump like a frog, sing like a bird, explore nature sounds through instrument exploration and create!

Clowning Around with Circus Arts
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
10:00am

The circus is pure performance art, involving acrobatic skill, trust, originality and teamwork. Theater artist Perrin Boyd utilizes her Masters of Arts in Teaching and her experience as a clown with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus to encourage movement, humor, imagination and vulnerability. Learn the basics of balancing, juggling and partner acrobatics while expanding creative talents.

BOOKcrobatics: A Stuntastical Reading-fueled Program
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
10:00am

Enter the fantastic world of David the Magnificent. David LOVES books. He literally flips head-over-heels, shimmies through a chair, and balances books on his chin just to encourage kids to find the same zest for reading. David brings his love of books to life through a fanciful world of basketball stars, professional bowlers, paper dancers and superheroes. Kids and families will be captivated and delighted as David balances, juggles, dances, and performs acrobatic stunts while humorously telling his own story about his love of books.

Tales from a Trunk: Shakespearience for Children
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
10:00am

Based on some of Shakespeare’s best-loved works, and performed by professional actress Marysue Moses, “Shakespearience” is highly accessible, entertaining and educational.  The program is packed with information and insight about Shakespeare’s life and times, scene snippets, Elizabethan music, and more.  As always with Tales from a Trunk performances, sensory stimulation and audience participation are a vital part of the experience, or in this case, the “Shakespearience”.

Adults should not miss the Shakespeare Festival presenting "Troilus and Cressida" and "Hamlet" on June 25 and 26 in the Theater in the Woods.

"A Surprise for Little Grandpa" puppetry show
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
10:00am

Open Eye Figure Theatre’s popular Driveway Tour returns with a brand-new puppet show that will have both children and adults laughing together. Remember “Little Grandpa’s Big City Adventure”? Well, now it’s little Grandpa’s birthday and he thinks everyone has forgotten. Little does he know that the whole neighborhood has planned a big surprise party just for him! Come and celebrate!

Jig, Pipe and Harp: Irish Music and Dance
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
10:00am

The music of Ireland comes alive with the duo Willow Brae, accompanied by step dancers from the Twin Cities Irish Dance Academy. Andrea Stern (Celtic harp) and Laura MacKenzie (wooden flutes, whistles, concertina, bagpipes, voice) perform jigs, reels, hornpipes and airs. The dancers, wearing traditional costuming, demonstrate how Irish dance steps accompany song. Participants will learn about Irish culture, history and lore through uplifting traditional Celtic songs and dances.

A Day in the Life of a Minnesota Voyager
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
10:00am

Minnesotan history is brought to life through the folk traditions of French and French-Indian dance. Dance Revels Moving History tells the story of a French voyageur and fur trader traveling from Quebec to the Boundary Waters, who meets a French-Ojibwe (Métis) woman. Discover how the folk dance, customs and clothing of these two cultures blended to create a part of Minnesotan heritage. The audience will have the opportunity to witness and learn French and French-Indian folk dance, language, and sing a voyageur song. Volunteers will dance a historic folk dance game to live fiddle music.

Stories from the Plains: American Indian Tales and Music
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
10:00am

M. Cochise Anderson, from the Cichasaw and Choctaw Nations of Oklahoma, shares the traditional stories, music and language of Native American peoples. Known as the Circle of Life, participants engage in their own understanding of our interdependence upon each other and our environment. Cochise creates a cultural soundscape with stories accompanied by traditional flute, drum and rattle songs including, the Morning Prayer Song, Mohawk Robin Dance and Loon Song. He will also discuss the construction and function of each instrument. Learn traditional greetings in Ojibwe and Dakota, the two major nations indigenous to MN, and a participatory couples dance called the Rabbit Dance.

A Northern European Festival of Music
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
10:00am

The musical folk traditions of Northern Europe are presented by Ross Sutter through ballads, song games and performance on an array of fascinating instruments. Ross presents songs, instruments and dances from Sweden, Ireland, Scotland and Germany, and he plays an impressive array of instruments—guitar, button accordion, concertina, dulcimer, and Irish goat-skinned drum—but is best known for his singular baritone voice.

Lucky Lion and Red Ribbons: China's Moving History
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
10:00am

The CAAM Chinese Dance Theater will take families on an exciting tour through China’s rich history and cultural diversity using dance, music and other Chinese movement forms. Experience the movement and playful costuming of the Lion Dance accompanied by the lion story, and the popular Red Ribbon Dance. Children and adults will have the opportunity to learn the basics of these traditional Chinese dances.

Come and enjoy a colorful concert by CAAM Chinese Dance Theater in the Theater in the Woods on Sunday, August 8, 6:30pm.

Paper Boats: A World Traveling Folktale Feast
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
10:00am

Argentinean theater and dance artist Paulino Brener travels around the world on paper boats and brings back many folktales and languages from distant countries. Make your own paper boat and join Paulino in this entertaining, multicultural and multilingual storytelling feast!

Carribean Carnival: Music of the West Indies
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
10:00am

Become aware of the brilliant, magnificent colors of the Caribbean. At Carnival time in Trinidad, the streets of Port of Spain and other cities are permeated with the sounds of steels bands, masquerades and musicians. Cyril Paul, a native of Trinidad, West Indies, specializes in a wide variety of Caribbean music, including Calypso, Reggae, Soca and Latin. Cyril engages audiences to participate and be a part of the performance to foster inclusive and engaged communities.

Come and enjoy an evening concert with Cyril's band the Calypso Monarchs in the Theater in the Woods on Sunday, August 22, 6:30pm.

Ketzal Coatlicue: Aztec Dance and Drums
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
10:00am

Driving drum rhythms and dazzling costumes gives life to the symbols of Aztec dance. Ketzal Coatlicue Aztec Dance Troupe demonstrates how dance performance creates a connection between contemporary dancers and the elders who have preserved this expression of culture. Families will learn symbols of the Meso-American calendar, experience the rhythms of an ancient people, and begin to understand the connections between ritual and daily life.

Children's Stories from India
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
10:00am

Zaraawar Mistry performs stories he heard during his childhood in India, including humorous classics from the Panchatantra, anecdotes about Emperor Akbar and his wise counselor Birbal, and a story about the historical woman freedom fighter, the Rani of Jhansi. Greg Herriges provides live musical accompaniment on the guitar, bazouki (Greek lute), zither and shruti box (drone). Interwoven into the cultural aspects of the storytelling are a series of questions and clever riddles that encourage children to learn about geography, history, immigration, adoption and creative puzzle solving.

Family Fun Tuesdays Producing Sponsor:

New Horizon Academy

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