My role within DanceXchange is to co-ordinate the performance and artist development programmes, this includes performances in the Patrick Studio and Birmingham International Dance Festival as well as artistic development schemes.

My passion for dance started at the age of three when I took up ballet, shortly followed by jazz, tap, modern and eventually contemporary at the age of 18 when I started my BA Hons Contemporary Dance degree at De Montfort University in Leicester. After graduating I worked as a Freelance Dance Artist before becoming Programme Co-ordinator at Warwick Arts Centre, starting at DanceXchange in March 2017.

Jade is a professional Dancer, teacher and performer based in Birmingham. She spent 4 years of her time training and studying Dance in London at Kingston University. Her styles range from Contemporary to Jazz and Latin, but more recently has really found a love for commercial heels and now teaches every week for a Nationwide dance company alongside doing her own workshops when she finds time. She also enjoys trying different forms of performance such as Aerial hoop and pole which really test her strength.

Since Jade started teaching it has really opened her eyes to how dance helps people and makes them happy. Jade is so excited to now be a participation assistant for the Critical Mass team at DX and in her short time of being here is really enjoying seeing the positive influence the project has on people’s lives.

Jamaal has been a part of the dance community since 2010, practicing a variety of dance styles, and developing a strong technique within the hip-hop style of breaking. In 2019, Jamaal created O’Driscoll Collective to give back to the community, facilitating conversation through movement, continuing to teach and deliver performances in a variety of settings.

With passion and experience in outreach, Jamaal is currently the Participation Producer for Birmingham International Dance Festival 2020, alongside his role as a freelance artist, delivering workshops, classes, choreographing and performing in self-produced performances. Please visit ODriscollcollective.com for more information.

http://odriscollcollective.com/

Jerrel is a neurodivergent leader working in the social, cultural, education and voluntary sector specialising in theory of change, inclusion, inequality, injustice and leadership.

From a place of lived experiences, at the age of 25, he co-founded and is CEO Creative Academies Network (CAN) a multi-layered organisation that supports the development of children & young people in the Black Country to accelerate their full potential through Cultural Education, Creative Practice & Civic Leadership.

Jerrel received his Masters and Bachelor’s degree in Creative Performance, Creative Technology and Media from Chichester University. In 2014 he was awarded Young Educator of the Year (Royal Bank of Scotland and Trinity Mirror) and Princess Diana Memorial Award for recognition of his contribution towards the local community through the arts & education and overcoming adversity/bereavement of his brother and mother at the age of 16.

In 2016 Jerrel was awarded the Arts Council England Fellowship through the Clore Leadership Programme under the direction of Sue Hoyle OBE and mentorship from Andrea Stark FRSA.

Over the past few years, Jerrel has toured across Hong Kong, India, France, Malta, Spain, Dubai, Greece, Croatia, Sweden and Bulgaria to strengthen his international relationships and leadership enquiry of the experience of children and young people across the sub-sectors of Cultural Education, Creative Industries, Cultural Diversity, Community Regeneration and Creative Economy.  Jerrel is a PhD Academic Researcher working towards his publication D.I.C.E (Diversification In Cultural Education) addressing inequalities and injustices experienced by marginalised people.

Jerrel currently holds several strategic board roles; West Midlands Combined Authority Cultural Leadership Board, Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust Arts Committee, Windsor Academy Trust, Sandwell Cultural Education Partnership. Black Country Dance Hub, SIPs Education Music Hub & Arts Council England Cultural Education Leadership Programme. He is also a core member of the Strategy and Innovatory group at UK Youth and Co-Creating Change Network at Battersea Arts Centre.

https://creativeacademies.co.uk/

John Houlden is a chartered accountant and since 2007 has been a partner at Ernst & Young in Birmingham specialising in corporate finance and working with a wide range of private and public sector organisations in the Midlands. Prior to his current role, John worked in corporate development and finance at Homeserve plc in Walsall and also in the Birmingham offices of Arthur Andersen and Deloitte. Originally from Yorkshire John went to university in Nottingham and has lived and worked in Birmingham for the last 20 years and has an MBA from the University of Warwick.

Over the last 10 years John has worked with a variety of not for profit organisations, arts and dance companies (including Anurekha Ghosh in Birmingham) through Arts & Business providing strategy, business planning, accounting and financial advice and support.

I am responsible for the planning and delivery of marketing, press, publicity and information provision across all DanceXchange activity, implementing our strategic and audience development plans.  I manage the marketing team which includes our Marketing Officer and Digital Marketing Apprentice as well as coordinating freelance PR support.

I began my career in print journalism before graduating to arts marketing where I have worked consistently for over 20 years.  From pantomime to classical drama, live music to ballet, I have experience with most art forms, marketing a huge variety of work to audiences in Yorkshire, the East and West Midlands, principally on behalf of local authority funded middle-scale touring venues.  I joined DanceXchange at the beginning of the International Dance Festival Birmingham in 2014 and love working on our many projects and programmes.

I have worked in the dance sector for over 20 years in a variety of roles – as a performer, teacher, choreographer, producer, manager and programmer/curator. I joined the DanceXchange team in 2013 after finishing my Masters in Arts Policy and Management at Birkbeck College in London.

My passion and enthusiasm for dance started at my early age. My parents remember when I was about 5 years old that I tried to stage my first ballet in the living room on the music of Bedrich Smetana. I founded and for seven years led artistically a Prague based community dance company before going to study choreography at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where I gained my MA in 2006. After graduation I worked as a producer and rehearsal director for DOT504 Dance Company, the first regularly funded contemporary dance company in the Czech Republic. I was lucky enough to join the company following its great success in Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Tanzmesse.  During my time with the company I produced and managed numerous dance projects and toured internationally.  Moving to the UK in 2010 to pursue my MA at Birkbeck, I then worked for Retina Dance Company in Nottingham before joining dx as Programme Manager for Performance and Artist Development.

In this role I worked alongside the Director of Production and Programming on the development and delivery of the performance programme for the Patrick Centre’s regular seasons and International Dance Festival Birmingham 2014. I also led on the establishment of a more robust and cohesive Artist development programme. My most important personal accomplishment during this period was the start of regular professional classes in partnership with Birmingham Dance Network and the following increased number of professional development opportunities for the artists in the region.  Building on this initiative dx launched several of our current schemes such as dx Choreolab, dx Choreography Award and Artist in Residency and Dance Insights, an opportunity for artist to discuss creative process with the public.

I then moved within the organisation to the role of Executive Producer and led on the strategic development and delivery of all our Performance and Artist development programmes including the Jerwood Choreographic Research Project and curating the programme for International Dance Festival Birmingham.

In my current role of Head of Artistic Programmes I am leading on the strategy planning, development and delivery of all our Artistic programmes and working closely with the Learning and Participation team to ensure all our programmes share a common vision and work in harmony with each other. One of my main responsibilities is to lead artistically the Birmingham International Dance Festival.

In 2015 I completed The Clore Leadership short course.

Vice Chair of DanceXchange

Malcolm’s freelance work is focused on creative writing and performance projects, as well as English skills, for Birmingham schools and community venues. He has worked extensively in the English department of Bournville School and was involved for several years in literacy development at Harborne Academy.

In 2009, he set up Rowheath Drama Workshop in Birmingham, an adult group which meets on a weekly basis and with whom he has directed four Showcases, as well as Murder Mysteries!

Educated at Bristol Cathedral School, Malcolm studied drama and dance at Dartington College of Arts before qualifying as a teacher at Rolle College of Education, under the auspices of the University of Exeter.

Initially, he worked as a teacher in Berkshire, before joining the team of actors and drama teachers at the Dovecot Arts Centre in Stockton-on-Tees. He introduced contemporary dance into the centre’s programme of classes and professional performances. Malcolm was a member of Northern Arts’ music panel, with responsibility for the development of a new dance policy. He was also Radio Tees’ theatre correspondent.

In 1979 Malcolm joined West Midlands Arts as Press and Public Relations Officer, where he was responsible for media relations and publications, editing seventy issues of Arts Report, a newspaper covering the arts throughout the West Midlands. He was a regular contributor to BBC Radio Birmingham.

In 1989 Malcolm took up the post of Editorial Manager at SP Publishing Ltd, a Birmingham company producing ‘designer’ social stationery and gifts for chain and independent stores, as well as major charities. As a development, in 1995 he set up and was MD of Summer Lane Pictures Ltd, a licensing agency seeking commercial outlets for work by artists and designers. In 2001, he felt the time was right to return to teaching.

Mike is head of employment law at Shakespeare Martineau having specialised only in employment law since 1994. Mike’s clients range from very large Plc’s to small charities and from Universities to Schools, as well as senior executives. Work for his clients’ ranges from drafting of documentation, through advice on transfers (TUPE) and restructures to training of managers and staff and advocacy in the Employment Tribunals. Mike has lectured on the MSc course in occupational medicine for the Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health. He is also a regular lecturer. seminar presenter and the author of the unfair dismissal and redundancy chapters of Jordans’; Employment Law.

Mike has a wide and eclectic range of interests. His professional interests lie in the development of Employment Law, its impact on the economic development of employers and of the UK, as well as the resolution of disputes. Mike has a wide interest in the Arts, both performing and visual. He was Chair of Big Brum Theatre in Education for 10 years and a Board member and Chair of the Risk committee at Ikon Gallery for a similar period. Mike is currently chair of Birmingham Law Society Employment Law Committee. He has an involvement with literature and was a judge for the appointment of the first, third, fifth and sixth Young Poet Laureates for Birmingham (2005, 2007, 2009, and 2010). Mike is well known for his support for Warwickshire County Cricket Club, but enjoys most sports as a spectator or supporter.

Mira Balchandran Gokul had a rigorous full time training at the Kalakshetra College of Fine Arts participating in their world renowned dance dramas, festivals and lecture demonstrations. As a child she trained in Kathakali and Mohiniattam and have been exposed to a wide variety of dance and theatre forms of Kerala. These combined experiences have laid a strong foundation and appreciation of all art forms of performance and a passion to share her knowledge and experience with young people.

Mira has worked with pioneering tutors and choreographers in India and England. She is Co-Founder and CoArtistic Director of SANKALPAM, an international touring dance company that has created and toured over 14 new works and presented an annual programme of classical work with accompanying education and training programmes.

In the UK she has collaborated, as well as attended residencies, with a wide range of artists such as choreographers Luca Silvestrini, Lea Anderson, Stephanie Schober, jazz saxophonist Iain Ballamy, Yoruban Dancer Peter Badejo, lighting designer Lee Curran and Theatre Director and scholar Philip Zarrilli amongst many others. She brings to this role a wide network of contacts both in India and England, as well as a wide understanding.

In addition, Mira has worked with MDI, a leading national dance agency in Liverpool, as Youth Dance Development Officer to roll out the national programme for Children and Young People in Merseyside and as Big Dance 2012 Coordinator to lead on developing the dance programme in the North West, as part of the London Olympics Festival 2012. The flagship project brought together over 1000 participants aged 8 – 86 years from across the North West to create the largest dance performance in the country.

Mira was part of Kaleidoscope Arts, a combined-arts collective in Sefton that was nominated in 2008 and 2009 for the Cultural Champions of Merseyside award. Through a recent master’s programme from University of Manchester she has focused on the role of the dance artist in conflict situations. She has continued this research and in 2016, along with dance researcher Debbie Fionn Barr, presented work at conferences in Stockholm, Lincoln, Leeds and Oxford University. She was selected for the Dance UK mentoring programme 2015/2016. She has performed and taught extensively and has been a dance research consultant, mentor and judge on youth dance panels in India and England.

Mira was a Judge for the category finals of BBC Young Dancer 2015 and Mentor for the BBC Young Dancer 2017.