Dance company creates dyslexia piece for children

Published: 10 October 2021
Reporter: Steve Orme

Biographical account: Little Murmur

A Leicester-based dance company is to collaborate with a children’s art organisation and the British Dyslexia Association to create a piece of work for children and their families.

Little Murmur is a biographical account of Aakash Odedra's trials and tribulations of seeing things differently. It will be performed by the Aakash Odedra Company which “creates boundary-pushing works of art”.

Little Murmur is the first work by the company to be created specifically for young audiences and families. The work has been commissioned by The Spark Arts for Children “to address the lack of diversity in performances for young audiences so they feel represented and reflected in the arts they experience”.

Odedra described his motivation to create Little Murmur. "I feel it's really important to be able to engage with the younger generation because they’re our future. More so with this piece because the essence of the work is about dyslexia but it says if you're different it doesn't mean it's bad—different is special, different is beautiful."

Odedra's original work Murmur 2.0 inspired the team at The Spark Arts for Children to work with the company to create something new and powerful. Its director Adel Al-Salloum said, "I saw Aakash's original Murmur and was blown away by it—and then I longed for it to be shared with children.

"In life, especially over the past 18 months, we’ve all faced challenges to overcome the odds. That's what makes Little Murmur feel so relevant and timely. At the same time, audiences will be completely mesmerised through a spectacle of dance, humour, technology and illustration."

Little Murmur will tour in 2022 to theatres as well as schools, libraries and community spaces.

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