Graffiti, yoga, singing and improvisation classes will kick off a creative extravaganza as the International Youth Arts Festival arrives in town.

A week of arts workshops will bring in teachers from the likes of Lamda and the Glastonbury Festival to the streets of Kingston.
 

The classes on offer include yoga and singing by world music choir member Hannah Rose Tristram, and record-making by Glastonbury DJs Our Friends Records.

Miss Rose, a graduate from Kingston University, said: “The yoga classes will be a space for people, wherever they are at, to explore yoga, to relax, stretch, meditate, move, de-stress and learn.

“With the vocal workshops, I went with the premise that every voice is welcome, and everyone can sing, so people who sing in the shower, who think they are tone deaf and who think they are Madonna can come along.”

She will be offering a “guerrilla-style” class at the Market Place, before settling into studio 22 at the Creative Youth building.

Lamda teacher Henry Lewis, who has taught at drama schools across the UK, will be offering a workshop on improvisation.

He has encouraged all walks of life to attend.

He said: “It will be an introduction to improvisation and its basic cornerstones.

“The basic principles of improvisation are good life skills, listening to and accepting other people’s ideas.

“The principles of stage are in all sorts of other avenues of life.

"Looking at that it can be a useful doorway into lots of other creative pursuits.”

Jeremy Sachs, festival director, said: “I think there is such a diverse range of different things you can get involved with.

“There is something for everybody. If you’re a young mum with a toddler we have toddler and baby workshops, or if you are aspiring to be a professional artist there are excellent workshops."

The workshops will take place from July 6 to 20.