Artist Advisory Group

Born and raised in Botswana, Diana Amma Gyankoma Abankwah is a Ugandan-Ghanaian solo dance artist, painter, writer, musician, and interdisciplinary artist.  She is based in Stoke-on-Trent where she relocated from Rwanda in 2022.

In 2022, she created a solo experimental ‘afro-psychedelic’ live-art performance titled Trance-fixed in Wonderland: Stranger Than Psy-Fi — performed at Stoke-on-Trent Pride, and Ensemble Festival in London, and Let’s Dance International Frontiers 2024 as artist-in-residence with Serendipity UK Institute for Black Arts and Heritage. 

Divija Melally is a trained contemporary and Indian classical dancer, graduated from Bath Spa University, with BA (Hons) Dance, dedicated to the arts, and spreading the intricate nuances of dance through performance, teaching, choreography and therapy. She has completed a 2-year diploma in Movement Arts and Mixed Media, which focused on ballet, contemporary and martial arts, from Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, India. Her creative practice revolves around exploring the amalgamation of contemporary and Indian Classical dance with text.

Ella Tighe is a Bradford based Independent Dance Maker. 

She makes contemporary dance theatre shows, often narrative led whilst investigating experimental ways of telling stories through contemporary movement, text and sound. It aims to champion undervalued forms of dance, through exposing alternative movement languages and physicality’s than that of typical contemporary dance training. 

Hardeep Sahota is a Huddersfield-based practitioner and specialist in Bhangra. He wrote the book Bhangra: Mystics, Music and Migration, which explores the origins of this folk song and dance from the Panjab in South Asia and its development into part of modern British culture in the hybrid soundscape of British Bhangra and beyond. This originated in academic research and the Heritage Lottery-funded Bhangra Renaissance project.

Bradford based, British-Bangladeshi working-class writer Kamal Kaan read Architecture at The University of Cambridge and has MA in TV Fiction Writing.

He worked as Story, Location and Script Consultant on double BAFTA nominated film Ali and Ava written and directed by Clio Barnard, Story and Development Consultant on Channel 4 drama Dance School (broadcasting 2024). His work for Radio 4 includes: Breaking Up With Bradford, Father’s Land In Mother Tongue, Bangla Bantams and 3-part series BatGirls – currently available on BBC Sounds.

Originally from Kolkata, Kavya is a dancer and project manager who works between Oxford and London. With an educational background both in International Development and Dance Studies, she brings a dynamic mix of research, practice, anthropology and global perspectives to her work. Kavya is passionate about making dance accessible to wider communities and bolstering the culture sector.

Leah Francis is a theatre maker from Leeds and has experience in directing, facilitating, performing, and writing. She trained for a degree in BA Hons Drama at Northumbria University, Newcastle. Since finishing her degree, she worked for various companies including Live Theatre Newcastle, Leeds Playhouse, Mind the Gap, and Freedom Studios. Her passion lies in creating theatre involving song, movement and spoken word that seeks to empower the community. Leah also has a desire for telling diverse women’s stories and in 2013 set up her own Theatre Company, Speak Woman Speak. More recently Leah has completed her MA in performance at Leeds Beckett University with Distinction and a Noel Witts prize for Excellence.

Maddie Morris is an artist who strives to make a difference in the world. Bold, insightful and refreshingly unique, they take traditional song in new directions to shine a light on contemporary issues.

Folk songs have always told stories, but how Maddie makes their mark is by turning this storytelling into action. Described by Jim Moray as “leading the next generation of socially conscious songwriters”, they use their work to highlight inequality, challenge viewpoints and provide an inclusive space for shared experiences.

Indian-Scottish Neil Balfour is an award-winning British Baritone and Voiceover Artist. He started musical life as a pianist, punk-rocker and conductor, graduating from Leeds College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music and the National Opera Studio, before falling in love with all-things-voice to tell stories.

A former Britten-Pears, Samling, Momentum and Concordia artist, he is the first opera singer to be booked by the Glastonbury Festival in the Astrolabe Tent and the first to beatbox in an opera at Longborough Festival Opera.