MAITRI 3.0 (2026)

Following successful pilots and iterations of the Maitri project from 2023 – 2025, Akademi is now ready to deliver a reimagined Maitri 3.0 to over 250 Key Stage 2 pupils in Harrow, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Camden.

The project will give pupils an access to high-quality arts engagement, cultural enrichment, and creative learning through South Asian dance and interdisciplinary arts. The programme will extend opportunities to children who have limited access to professional arts experiences.

Aims of the project

Provide pupils with a professional cultural experience by bringing Akademi’s award-winning production Plastic Drastic Fantastic into schools and removing barriers of travel, cost, and accessibility (funded separately).
Develop pupils’ creativity, confidence, and expressive skills through a 12-week artist-led, co-created South Asian dance programme inspired by the performance.
Build cross-curricular learning, linking dance with environmental themes and climate change, PSHE, storytelling, art and design.
Introduce pupils to sustainable arts practices, including set-making and craft activities using recycled or school-sourced materials.
Foster community cohesion and build stronger school communities, enabling pupils to collaborate, perform, and connect to their peers and to the wider arts ecology.
Strengthen relationships with and among schools, through Akademi’s continued partnership with previous schools and by forming connections with two new schools.
Develop and deepen skills of South Asian dance artists as community practitioners.

Akademi’s Maitri Too 2.0 workshop in a school. Photo: Kavya Iyer

Dates

September – December 2026

Dates

St. Bernadette’s Primary School
Kenmore Park Junior School
Argyle Primary
Wendell Park Academy

Artists

Dance: Manuela Benini
Dance: Jaina Modasia

Supported by

For the first time, pupils will receive a professional in-school performance delivered by Akademi artists called Plastic Drastic Fantastic. This contemporary dance theatre work for children and their families explores our complex relationship with plastics – the fantastic possibilities they offer, as well as the drastic consequences to the environment.

Following the performance, pupils will take part in a structured creative 12-week programme led by Akademi artists.

While the project retains our successful approach of weekly South Asian dance workshops, it expands into visual arts, set and prop design, sustainability practices, and creative making, offering a richer and more holistic cultural experience.

The project will culminate in a co-created performance/showcase for families and the school community, celebrating the pupils’ achievements and strengthening school cohesion. Each school shall invite parents, carers, other pupils and staff to attend the final pupils shows scheduled for 9^th and 10^th December 2026.

“Year 4 are really enjoying our dance lessons. The teachers are kind, positive and have many ideas and suggestions on how to improve the children’s routines. The teachers listen to the children’s ideas, and use these ideas to make the lessons the best that they can. The teachers also are very flexible and happy to fit the lesson timings around break times etc. The children in my class note that the teachers always have a positive attitude, always make sure that everyone is comfortable with what they are doing, give the children options and make sure that nobody is left out.”
Year 4 teacher at St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School and Nursery, harrow during MAITRi Too 2.0