Glitter, Tutus and Twirls at the Cloudberry Castle Ballet Book Party
We had a wonderful day at the Cloudberry Castle Ballet Book Party in Edinburgh last weekend! Dance Base on the Grassmarket was alive with glitter, tinsel and tutus on Sunday as the Discover Kelpies team and Janey Louise Jones were joined by girls in their ballet finery celebrating the launch of Cloudberry Castle: Ballerina Dreams.
Lots of creativity at the craft table
There were lots of ballet-themed activities to keep everyone busy! Janey’s guests could enjoy their very own decorated cupcake, make bright, sparkly drawings at the craft table, and even take part in a very special ballet lesson!
A lovely decorated cupcake
To top it all off, there was even a performance by ballet students from Angela Watson School of Dance, who did a lovely dance to The Waltz of the Flowers from the ballet Sleeping Beauty, and swooshed and twirled away in front of us!
The Cloudberry Castle books follows ballet-mad Katie, who dreams of being a ballerina. In the newest book, Cloudberry Castle: Ballerina Dreams, Katie is given the chance to audition for a place in New York City Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker! But can she balance her dream ballet role with helping her old friend Mallie and taking her ballet exams? Janey treated her guests to a storytime with all three books in the series, finishing with a reading from Cloudberry Castle: Ballerina Dreams.
Janey reading from all three books in her series
Well done to all our competition winners on the day! There were many beautifully decorated tutus, tiaras, nutcrackers and ballet shoes and we wished that we could have chosen all of them. And a special congratulations to the winner of the raffle who won tickets to go and see the Scottish Ballet perform the Nutcracker ballet.
The many wonderful competition entries
Posted by: Claire at Discover Kelpies
P.S — Thanks to all the lovely students from Stirling and Napier Universities who helped out on the day!
Twirls and Tiaras with Janey Louise Jones
The Scottish Youth Theatre in Glasgow was alive with glitter, tutus and ballet shoes yesterday as Janey Louise Jones, author of Princess Poppy celebrated the second book in her Cloudberry Castle series.
The fabulously girly Cloudberry Castle series follows the adventures of Katie Mackenzie, who dreams of becoming a real ballerina. In Janey’s newest book, Cloudberry Castle: Ballet School Secrets, Katie’s family has finally opened the Cloudberry School of Dance, but with dance rivals and mysterious figures, all is not plain sailing for Katie.
Hard at work designing tutus
Janey’s fans were greeted with an array of ballet-themed activities: craft competitions for designing the best ballet shoe, tutu and tiara, cupcake decoration (yum yum), storytelling from Cloudberry Castle: Ballet School Secrets and a dance lesson with real-life ballerinas (who looked amazing in their tutus and tiaras). There were some brilliantly colourful ballet drawings to be seen and the cupcakes all looked delicious (but vanished pretty quickly)!
Janey and the ballerinas giving a dance lesson
On top of the craft competitions, everyone who bought a Cloudberry Castle book were entered into a raffle. The lucky winners received tickets to see the magical Sleeping Beauty at Scottish Ballet just in time for Christmas. Sleeping Beauty is the ballet Katie and her friends perform as the Cloudberry School of Dance Christmas show, and it was therefore very exciting to have tickets for a real performance as the raffle prize.
Craft competition entries
Janey was busy signing books and chatting with her readers. She was dressed head to toe in pink, looking the part of a ballet-mad author. Which is a good thing, as she is now talking about a third Cloudberry Castle book, full of glitter and sparkles.
A snapshot before this lovely cake was eaten
Posted by: Benedicte at DiscoverKelpies
PS: For more photos from the ballet party, visit our Facebook page.