Tropical Isles is a professional award-winning carnival arts organisation with creativity at its heart At our East London home in the Rose Lipman Building, we design and make costumes and create performances working with children and young people, professional designers and choreographers. Our year-round activity nurtures the artistic skills and creativity of the many artists we work with. It also provides a safe and supportive meeting place, a network of friends, and mentoring for young people from Hackney and surrounding areas. Each year we take part in major carnivals and events national and international. By celebrating festival and carnival traditions we support socially excluded and disadvantaged children and young people. A full complement of art forms that build physical literacy through dance and drama, visual literacy through costume, fashion, film, photography, and aural skills through music-making.
Our home
At our East London home we design and make costumes and create performances working with children and young people, professional designers and choreographers.
Our year-round activity nurtures the artistic skills and creativity of the many young people we work with. It also provides a safe and supportive meeting place, a network of friends, and mentoring for young people from Hackney and surrounding areas.
Carnivals
Each year we take part in major carnivals and events national and international. By celebrating festival and carnival traditions we support socially excluded and disadvantaged children and young people.
Education, classes and workshops
Through our youth mentoring scheme we offer a year long programme for individuals between 13-25, created to contribute to youth development, confidence and technical skills building, team working, as well as health and wellbeing.
A full complement of art-forms that build physical literacy through dance and drama, visual literacy through costume, fashion, film, photography, and aural skills through music making.
Carnival: A Tropical Isles Tale
‘Carnival: A Tropical Isles Tale’ is a short documentary film by Jack Flynn & Nick David following the Hackney based charity, Tropical Isles a Youth carnival Group as they prepare for Hackney Carnival 2016, the 50th anniversary of carnival’s in London. The film tells the story of the young dancers’ experiences of living in Hackney, dancing with the carnival group and the positive impact it has had on their lives.
What we do
Many of the activities that we run throughout the year are paused right now but we are finding new ways to keep doing what we do.
- Year Round Activities
- Street Dance
- Costume Making
- T-Shirt Printing
- Filming & Photography
- DJ Workshops
- Idea Generation
- Youth Mentoring
- Run your Career Sessions
- Soca Aerobics Dance
- Family Workshops
- Healthy Eating
- Design Ideas Showcases
- Exhibitions
- Film Previews
- Special Events
- Hackney Carnival
- Notting Hill Carnival
- Hackney Moves Support
- International Carnivals
- Black History Month
- Christmas Lights Hackney
Making a difference in the community
We recognise the importance of being involved with and contributing to our local community. The young people that make up Tropical Isles give back to the community in many ways, notably, engaging junior scholars and volunteering in our local hospice.
