After more than a quarter of a century as a children's entertainer, Charlotte Diamond takes pleasure in the unexpected.
Last week, while performing in Stockton, Calif., at a migrant education preschool family night, a dad jumped on stage for Dicky Dicky Dinosaur, reversed his hat, slid on his sunglasses and rapped with Diamond.
"He had the audience in the palm of his hand," she said during a phone interview at a home near San Francisco. "That, to me, is why I do what I do."
And Diamond has many opportunities throughout the year to be entertained at her own performances. On average, she conducts 150 workshops and shows annually around North America though, these days, she prefers to stay close to B.C.
"Now I'm at the stage of being a grandma and wanting to be near home," said Diamond, whose five- and two-year-old grandkids live in Pitt Meadows. "So when I go, I tend to clump events together and that makes sense from a touring point of view because it costs so much to fly and transport CDs around."
Diamond said she loves nothing more than performing before local crowds - many of whom grew up learning her famous songs such as I Am A Pizza, Four Hugs A Day and Octopus (Slippery Fish) - and she also enjoys singing in French and Spanish, too.
Diamond, a former school teacher, majored in biology and French at UBC and picked up Spanish through conversation with her Latin American friends on campus. About half of her concerts are in the romance languages, she said.
For example, last month, Diamond played a French/English concert at Dallington School in Ontario; the next week, she performed six concerts in French for the Duffering-Peel Catholic school district; and, later this month, Diamond will be part of a Spanish/English conference in Newport Beach, Calif., speaking on the topic "The Joy of Singing Leads to a Love of Language."
At that event, she'll also work with teachers to encourage them to write their own songs.
"California is finally picking up on the fact that they have this large population that speaks Spanish and they have been cutting back part of their education out of the curriculum," she said. "Now they're putting it back in because these are people that speak this language. Let's get them to feel that they have more ability within that language. Let's educate them in that language.
"Their English can only be helped by that because the more children are interested in books and reading and singing in a language, the more fluent they become in language," she said.
Still, vocals aren't the only method Diamond communicates in: She also incorporates American Sign Language. "I found that when I was switching from English to French to Spanish, sign language became the glue and I realized the more props I used and the more movement-oriented my presentation was, the more everybody joined in and the sign language really helps. It is definitely part of my show," she said.
Charlotte Diamond will appear on the Coast Capital stage at Town Centre Park on Saturday, June 9 at 4 p.m. as part of the annual Teddy Bear Picnic Festival, which runs all weekend. Read The Tri-City News' special section in today's paper (pages A23 to A28) for more information or visit www.festivalcoquitlam.ca.
