Carnival ideas please!

[sk8ergalgal]

Hi everyone! I am putting on a carnival this year for my skating club and would love some ideas suggestions. Our idea for the theme is bringing toys to life.
Any ideas on music, routines would be appreciated.
Also does anyone have any experience finding reasonably priced costumes for carnivals or do you usually just make do with what you have??
Thanks.

[sk8ergalgal]

We already have planned for a rag doll type , GI Joe and music box routine.

[celticprincess]

Here are some song/theme ideas:

'Parade of the Wooden Soldiers'
'Toyland'-I was thinking of the movie as a theme idea
Winnie the Pooh-he's a toy that comes to life...sort of
If you're feeling really brave...how about 'Barbie Girl'-Aqua
'Toy Soldiers'-Martika
I know that theres a toy scene in 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'...but you said you already had a music box idea
'Toy Story'-you can do some kind of spinoff on that..with Woody and the gang
'Send in the Clowns'

Hopefully that helped!

[Clarice]

Pinocchio
Toy Story
Look for children's CDs with music based on toys - Barbie, for instance.
Could you use toys that started as TV characters? Elmo, Dora, Thomas the Tank Engine?
There's a piece of music called "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" that could be cute.

For costumes, I often look at places that sell Halloween costumes - they're usually not too expensive. Just do a search on "costumes" and a lot of places should come up. I also sew, or look for recital costumes in dance catalogues.

[slusher]

Teddy Bear's Picnic for your little non-skating skaters. They wear their own PJ's and bring their own teddy bears and either put down their bears and show them how to skate and then skate with them, or for those kids who will not be detatched from their toy, simply skate with their bears. Doesn't really matter, the grandmas will love it.

I've been the gamut from professionally sewn costumes to ... cardboard and duct tape. That was the Dancing Presents, which were boxes from the grocery store and each girl had to wrap her own "costume".

Dolls from around the world, what better chance then to play "It's a Small World" and the skaters can have country themed costumes.

I don't know if these games are popular in the US, but table top hockey with the slots and rods? (http://tablehockeygames.com/4201c.jpg)it could be hockey players, or skaters with hockey shirts, recreating that game, someone would have to be the puck and bounce among the players who can only move in their slots. (forward and backward skating) Hockey Night in Canada theme music or Stomping Tom's hockey song.

[Kat12]

I suppose anything Nutcracker-related is too obvious?

I remember seeing a kids' dance recital once where some of the kids danced with teddy bears to that "Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear" song...you could do a toy soldier thing (benefit to that would be that it'd be good for all those kids who haven't got the hang of skating yet and just march stiffly around the ice anyway!).

[sk8ergalgal]

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions.
Definitely like the barbie girl idea and something to do with teddy bears for the beginner skaters.

[slusher]

Google the lyrics before you use Barbie Girl by Aqua. Just a suggestion from experience.

[sk8ergalgal]

I understand your concern for the lyrics of Barbie girl but barbies are a classic child's toy and if you think of the song in that respect. We are also considering editing the song so that certain inappropriate parts of the song arent there.

[CanadianAdult]

We had a massive blow out at one of my clubs because a carnival song mentioned god or jesus, can't remember what, and it wasn't a christian song either, just a lyric. An anti-religious parent was incensed. I would never ever think of that sort of thing when picking music especially if it's something that's been on the radio frequently.

[sk8ergalgal]

Okay. Well good thing to know to avoid anything biblical.

[CanadianAdult]

That was one of the most messed up shows ever. It could have used some divine intervention.

[Clarice]

http://www.purelyrics.com/index.php?lyrics=fhjpacrk

This is a link to the lyrics from "Barbie Girl". I don't see any way to cut this to make it appropriate for children to skate to. If I were you, I'd find some Barbie princess or ballerina CD and pick something off that.

What about something based on a video game of some sort? Or an arcade game - I'm imagining short lines of skaters being the "flippers" that shoot the ball from side to side. The ball could be a single skater holding/wearing a cardboard prop circle, or a traveling circle of synchro skaters.

[Mrs Redboots]

I really think that those lyrics are only inappropriate if you read inappropriateness into them - but that can be done, so maybe better to stick to a chorus or two....

[Clarice]

I think they were meant to be inappropriate, so it's more a matter of reading inappropriateness out of them! :) Really, I was thinking more of all the negative comments that were made when a US pair team used this music as an exhibition number. When it comes to shows, I generally like to stay fairly safe with the music choices!

[Isk8NYC]

I just had a Barbie conversation this weekend at the ice rink with some other parents. A psychologist friend of mine stated that her daughter would never have a Barbie doll because of the negative connotations. (Never wears undies, has a convertible and penthouse but changes jobs all the time, and Ken was whipped, lol.)

I think the lyrics were filled with double entendres, so no one is right or wrong. We have a box full of naked Barbies to prove that they really do lounge around naked.

On that matter, Radio Disney often has hit songs remastered without objectionable lyrics, so check out their compilation CDs to see if they have a version of this song. Their version of "1985" had the line "she was gonna shake her a__..." changed to "she was gonna shake IT..." Pretty seamless edit too. I know Barbie Girl was a hit on RD for a while, so they might have a version on an early "greatest hits" cd.

Or you can buy the longer dance remix version - those often include long instrumentals and edit it the way Mrs Redboots suggests - just a chorus or two.