Speaking as a parent...

When it’s half term and I scan the pages of the ‘what’s on for children’ sections of magazines I want to know that the experiences I choose for my children will be, to be honest, worth the effort, that they will enjoy it, that they will be enriched in some way, in any way, by what they’ve seen.I want to take them away, briefly, from their constant state of being educated, of taking on information, of being told ‘this is the way it is’, ‘this is a fact’, ‘the meaning of this is...’.It’s why live performance is so brilliant for children, and it’s why I love to make it.I also know that my desire as a parent to see the delight on my children’s faces as they watch a show can lead me to pick the ones I know they already love; the shows with the characters they recognise, the one with the book we have enjoyed together, and the catch phrases we love to recite.But these are the things they already know about the world, they have the answers, they understand the journeys, they get the moral.So I think, if I can, I should also show them the things they don’t know, and give them the chance to continue to not know, to wonder, to ask and not always find an answer, because that is when their imaginations can grow. And I remind myself it’s ok for them to not like something, because that is how they can develop their tastes and how they’ll know that its good to take risks.So... take them to a dance piece about forests with no words and a scant narrative? Definitely, for all the reasons above.