Taunton Youth Culture & Arts Festival

Artistic Collaborations

We work with many talents from the arts community to bring you Tyca. Here are some of the people we are working with.

Sasha Herriman

Sasha Herriman is a professional singer and is the Artistic Director of The Bluebirds Theatre Company.
The Bluebirds specialise in music, theatre and education.
Sasha has a background in broadcast media and performance; she has worked on screen in entertainment and news programming for broadcasters including CNN, ITV and Sky. 

Sasha Herriman

Helen Wilson

(Commissioned choreographer working with Somerset Dance Graduates)

Helen is a Bristol based dance artist who choreographs, performs, collaborates and runs projects. She is the Director of RISE Youth Dance (2008 – present), responsible for the overall artistic imprint alongside managing the company. She is extremely passionate about helping to develop emerging artists - many graduates have performed Nationally and gone on to train professionally.

Helen trained as an apprentice in a professional company led by Phoenix Dance founders. They taught her the importance of technique, creative and performance skills but also skills to be an artist, leadership, teamwork, teaching etc. Helen went on to dance with companies like RJC Dance company, Les Commandos Percu and Neshima Dance as well as project work with other companies.

Helen now includes mass movement in her life as a dancer. Helping to choreograph, deliver and direct dance for Mass movement events like Rugby league world cup, Big dance 2014/2016, Rugby Union World Cup and other local events that include big groups of dancers.

Helen is now the Dance Hub Champion for Children and young people in Bristol working closely with Creative Youth Network and Bristol Dance Futures and is also Artistic Director of the Boomsatsuma and RISE dance diploma course based in Bristol.
www.riseyouthdance.com

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Kay Crook

(Commissioned choreographer working with Bridgwater & Taunton College Students) 

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Kay Crook is a freelance dance artist and Artistic Director of Chhaya Collective, a female-led contemporary dance company working between the UK and India since 2013.
Kay has choreographed productions for Chhaya, including ‘Antara’ (Interwoven productions, Asian Arts Agency, UK), ’Falling Light’ (Kha Foundation, India), and current touring productions, ‘HYMNOS’ (duet) and ‘KHAOS’, (supported by Arts Council England, Dance in Devon and Barbican Theatre); an all female ensemble work and outreach programme promoting women’s empowerment.
Kay has hosted projects across the UK, India, Portugal, North Cyprus and Germany, in collaboration with international artists and facilitated Chhaya’s live stream project between India and UK in 2017, allowing thirty dance artists to collaborate across two continents, in partnership with Shoonya (Bangalore), Arts View Live (UK) and Exeter Phoenix.
Kay is the Founder and Director of Chhaya Youth Dance Company (representing the South West at UDance 2018) and has been Associate Lecturer for Attakkalari (Bangalore) and Artist in Residence for PERA (North Cyprus) and for 3Fall Dance Company, creating commissions 'WOLF' and 'PHOENIX'.

Kay has taught in collaboration with State of Emergency, Take Art InspirED, The Point Eastleigh, Earthfall, StopGap, Exeter Phoenix, HFC Master Series, RAD, Bridgwater College, Exeter College, Tacchi Morris, Dartington Arts and Cygnet Theatre in the UK, Tanzart-Kirschau (Germany), LAB-Arts (Portugal), In2it Festival (Norway), HIFA (Zimbabwe) and Attakkalari, Shoonya and Lshva in India.

Kay is also a member of the Heather Walrond Company, performing ‘The Rising’ nationally and internationally, touring 2015 - 2019, in collaboration with VOU Dance Company (Fiji).

www.chhayacollective.com

Simon Chalk 

(Collaborative project with Josh Hathaway composing music for Kings hall School and Centre for Young Musicians students)

Simon is Artistic Director of the Southern Sinfonia and has performed with and conducted orchestras and ensembles both throughout the UK and internationally. He was appointed as Chief Conductor of the Slovak Sinfonietta (Štátny Komorný Orchester Zilina - state chamber orchestra of Slovakia) in September 2015 and completed the three year tenure. In 2018 he took part in the Bucharest International Conducting Competition where he was awarded the 'Orchestra Special Prize', voted for by the members of the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra. And worked as guest conductor with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. Equally at home with both the classical and crossover repertoire, He has been musical director for Russell Watson's Musical Director and as a conductor with the internationally renowned classical crossover group ll Divo on three world tours. 
In addition, Simon is the co-founder of Corporate Conservatoire offering professional organisational development founded on expertise in music, leadership and management.

Simon Chalk
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Jackie Clementines 

(Workshop tutor and spoken word event organiser)

Jackie Clementines is a performance artist, workshop facilitator, youth worker, writer, activist and a clown. In his time off he is just a clown!

He says: "when I grow up I want to be an actor, playing a clown, impersonating a talented performance artisté!"

He has toured original circus, theatre, poetry and music across numerous countries, receiving some exceptional reviews along the way. He specialises in unusual interdisciplinary combinations, thought provoking narratives and uncompromising silliness!

Clementines Live Art

Clementines Live Arts is a production company directed by Jackie. They are responsible for producing all of Jackie's solo shows as well as a number of larger-scale collaborations with other artists.

Aisha Ali

( Tyca Crew tutor and singing and songwriting, arts and wellbeing tutor)

Aisha is a Vocal artist, improviser, composer, inclusion and cultural producer, workshop facilitator and artistic director of Kiota: A Collective of BIPOC creatives in Bristol. She is trained in the art of fooling and vocal improv and primarily works with the voice. 
She is passionate about decolonising arts spaces and creating more inclusive spaces for all and loves holding space for others to express themselves. 
She is a member of the company Beyond The Ridiculous and manages The Wardrobe Theatre.

Aisha Ali

Adam Grose

(Arts and Wellbeing Tutor)

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Adam Grose is a painter and printmaker whose images are grounded in research from archives, history and locality, exploring the legible and the erased, whilst seeking to capture a sense of the passage of time. He explores the handmade object, honing drawing methods and techniques to form images that resonate with a documentary sensibility.
Through layering and erasing, he explores methods of working that has evolved over many years, becoming symbolic of the fragility of information which can easily become erased and forgotten from our history.

He believes learning, art and creativity empowers and changes people's lives in-turn building stronger communities through education, whilst improving mental and physical health.

Natasha Rand

( Tyca Crew Arts Project Management Workshop Leader)

Natasha Rand is a visual artist and experienced visual arts teacher with a background in event management. As a creative tutor and community engagement producer she facilitates individual creativity and to enable the arts to impact on community. Natasha produces projects that encourage co-creation working with all generations to engage using arts as their communication tool. 
With 20 years’ experience in creative & enterprise education, is the director of Creation Generation www.creation-generation.com , working with young people, of all abilities, to secure their Arts Council Arts Award. She has also worked in community engagement collaborations in 2019/20 with Abri, SPARK, EAT festivals, Yeovil Town Council, Somerset Libraries, Take Art “Cultivate”, SSDC and Stand Against Violence. She was one of the artists in the Somerset Art Works “Somerset Reacquainted” project running family workshops at Somerset Rural Life Museum in November 2020. Natasha is also an art associate trainer for SPAEDA.
 Most recently, in her role as the engagement producer for Yeovil Art Space, she is the lead artist for the project “Together We Are Stronger” www.yeovilartspace.uk/together, an intergenerational show using podcast narratives of Somerset Care residents to inspire visual arts and creative writing workshops for all ages. 

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