Ordway Presents the 2013 Flint Hills International Childrens Festival

Festivals 13th Anniversary Features International Artists with Heart-Stopping, Smooth-Gliding, Laugh-Out-Loud Performances

SAINT PAUL, Minn. (May 13, 2013) Ordway Center for the Performing Arts presents its 13th annual Flint Hills International Childrens Festival from May 28-June 2, 2013. Minnesotas signature arts festival for children and familiesone of the largest of its kind in the nationfeatures artists hailing from all around the globe, telling stories about different cultures through the uniting power of the performing arts. The Flint Hills International Childrens Festival will highlight five headlining artist groups making their mark internationally through extraordinary puppetry, dance, music and theater performances.

The Festival takes place in two parts: School Days (May 28-31) and Family Weekend (June 1-2, 10 am 5 pm both days). More than 15,000 children from schools across Minnesota and Western Wisconsin participate in School Days by attending international performances, participating in interactive activities and engaging in artist residencies throughout the week.

During Family Weekend, attendees experience the same international performances the students enjoy during the weekfor only $5 a ticketin addition to free, outdoor stages filled with artists, free arts activities in the parks, international cuisine, walk-around artists and more. Festival activities fill downtown Saint Pauls Rice Park, Weyerhaeuser Auditorium in Landmark Center, Landmark Plaza, Hamm Plaza, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Lehr Theater and Lowry Lab Theater. General admission tickets to world-class international performances can be purchased ahead of time through the Ordway ticket office (651.224.4222) and online at ordway.org/festival.

The Flint Hills International Childrens Festival is one of the top childrens festivals in the world, said Jake Reint, director of public affairs at Flint Hills Resources. The festival is an opportunity for Flint Hills to be a part of something extraordinary, something unique to Minnesota, and performances that inspire young people to be creative and dream big.

It is a gift to present this Festival to our communities, says Dayna Martinez, artistic director of world music, dance and international childrens festival programming at the Ordway. These remarkable performances honor and celebrate the diversity in all of us.

Indoor International Performances

Cirque Zíva

Ordway Music Theater; Recommended for all ages

Sat., June 1 11 am & 2 pm

Sun., June 2 11:15 am & 2 pm

Champion acrobats, contortionists and jugglers combine breathtaking skill and spellbinding beauty to transform 2,000 years of Chinese tradition into an awe-inspiring display of talent and grace. Hailing from Cangzhou, Hebie Province, in the Peoples Republic of China, Cirque Zíva blends traditional Chinese folk dance with incredible acrobatic feats that leave audiences spellbound.

Wind

Lowry Lab Theater; Recommended for ages 3-7

Sat., June 1 10 am & 12 pm

Sun., June 2 12 pm & 2 pm

Italys La Società della Civetta takes audiences on a surreal journey through unexpected landscapes and situations. On stage are two windows, with a man and a woman behind each. Through a delicate game of opening and closing, they look at the world, each through their own window. Every opening is an invitation to look inside their own lives and, at the same time, discover whats happening just beyond. In a rhythmic crescendo, the impetuous breath of the wind carries them away. The windows open and close in a game of glances and chasing. When the wind calms down, they find themselves face to face. What will happen?

RumbaTap

Lehr Theater; Recommended for ages 5 and up

Sat., June 1 10 am & 12 pm

Sun., June 2 12 pm & 2 pm

Max Pollak introduces audiences to his original dance concept of RumbaTap, a melding of Afro-Cuban music and dance, American jazz, body percussion and tap dance. The RumbaTap ensemble, a multi-talented international cast of two musicians and two dancers, evokes a powerful Orquesta capturing the deep grooves and charged electricity of Afro-Latin Soul.

The Star Keeper

Weyerhaeuser Auditorium; Recommended for ages 4 and up

Sat., June 1 10:30 am & 2:30 pm

Sun., June 2 12:30 pm & 3 pm

As he lights the evening sky, Pierrot accidentally dislodges a star from above. Pretzel, an endearing little worm, comes to the fallen stars rescue. Together they set off on a series of fantastical adventures all while trying to return the star to its home. On their journey, they must climb a spiders thread, cross the dormitory of dreams, dive into the ocean depths in pursuit of a pearl fish and resist the bewitching charms of the bubble tamer. Combining puppetry, visual poetry, music and fantasy, Quebecs Théâtre de lOEil creates a unique, magical performance.

Featured Outdoor International Performance Swoon!

Outdoor performances by numerous regional cultural artists are scheduled on the free Flint Hills World Stage and Landmark Stage on Saturday and Sunday. This year, one of the featured international performing groups, Australias Sway Poles, will present free performances of its work Swoon! on Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2.

Australias Sway Poles performance of Swoon!

Sat., June 1 10:45 am, 11:45 am & 2:45 pm

Sun., June 2 11 am, 12:15 pm & 2:30 pm

Australias Sway Poles presents a 25-minute performance in which four daredevils tell a spectacular story of love, loss, joy and freedom from atop four 14 to 18-foot sway poles. Swoon! was awarded the Second Prize at the 1999 and 2000 Shizuoka Daidogei World Cup and has been performed worldwide. Swoon! is a spirited performance with spectacular image-making and seductive comedy. Accompanied by a unique and eclectic soundtrack blending classics with original music, the audience is taken on a journey of beauty, love and laughter.

Other Outdoor Specialties

Story Time Garden

One of the annual highlights of the Festival is the Story Time Garden, an urban landscape created by artists Mark Granlund and Angela Koebler from the City of Saint Pauls Parks and Recreation Department. The garden, which will be installed in Hamm Plaza, will feature a 20-foot-tall, carved tree trunk as its central focus. Award-winning wood carver Curtis Ingvoldstad carved the more than 100-year-old cottonwood tree, which was fished out of the Mississippi River at Harriet Island by forestry employees during the 2010 flood season. Ingvoldstad depicted images of Minnesota and international wildlife, along with Father Time, on the tree. During the Festival weekend, storytellers will perform in the Story Time Garden. Story Time Garden is supported by the Saint Paul Garden Club and the Historic Hamm Building.

Clear Channel Outdoor ARTwalk

The Clear Channel Outdoor ARTwalk is a unique opportunity for the Festival to highlight the visual arts achievements of young people. In the professionally curated exhibition of young artists artwork, more than 500 visual art projects from Minnesotas talented students will appear in windows of downtown Saint Paul businesses from May 4 through June 2, as a part of the Flint Hills International Childrens Festival.

Festival photos available for download at www.ordway.org/media

About Flint Hills Resources

Flint Hills Resources, LLC, through its subsidiaries, is a leading refining and chemicals company. Its subsidiaries market products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, ethanol, biodiesel, olefins, polymers and intermediate chemicals, as well as base oils and asphalt. The refining business operates refineries in Alaska (North Pole), Minnesota (Rosemount), and Texas (Corpus Christi), with a combined crude oil processing capacity of more than 800,000 barrels per day. The petrochemical business includes production facilities in Illinois, Michigan and Texas. The renewables business operates ethanol plants in Iowa, a biodiesel plant in Texas, and has made equity investments in bioenergy companies. The asphalt business produces and markets products in the Midwest and Alaska. A subsidiary owns an interest in a lubricants base oil facility in Louisiana.

Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend Refinery in Rosemount, Minn., has a crude oil processing capacity of about 320,000 barrels per day. Pine Bend employs about 900 people full-time; an additional 200-2,000 union contractors work at the refinery daily on construction projects. More information about the company is available at www.fhr.com.

About the Ordway

The Ordway is widely recognized as one of the nations leading nonprofit performing arts centers and Saint Pauls most elegant and inviting performance space. The Ordways Music Theater and McKnight stages attract diverse audiences with an array of productions showcasing the finest in American musical theater, world music, dance, and vocal performance. Education and community engagement are integral to the Ordways mission, with major initiatives including the annual Flint Hills International Childrens Festival and Ordway Education programs that serve more than 50,000 students annually. The Ordway also serves as authorizer for the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, a professionally guided academic and artistic environment that trains aspiring pre-professional performing artists. Together with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Opera and The Schubert Club, the Ordway is a member of the Arts Partnership and serves as the principal venue for their performances.

2013 Flint Hills International Childrens Festival

School Days: May 28-31

Family Weekend: June 1-2

All tickets to indoor performances: $5;

Indoor performances take place at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Lowry Lab Theater, Weyerhaeuser Auditorium in Landmark Center and Lehr Theater.

Free outdoor performances and activities: Rice Park, Landmark Plaza and Hamm Plaza between 10 am and 5 pm Saturday and Sunday, June 1 and 2.

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

345 Washington Street

Saint Paul, MN 55102

Ticket Office: 651.224.4222

www.ordway.org

www.ordway.org/festival

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