International Women’s Day 2022: Tameside’s Inspiring Women

Culture and creativity is woven into the fabric of Tameside. This is shown through historically successful women associated with Tameside, to those who make a significant impact today. This International Women’s Day (IWD) we have the opportunity to highlight and celebrate their contributions and cultural influence within the borough.

Below you can find out more about inspiring and successful women from Tameside who have made a cultural impact locally, nationally and even globally.

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Ria Meera Munshi

Ria Meera Munshi is a professional dancer who owns Ri’s Ri’s Dance Academy in Hyde. Ria has made her mark within the cultural industry locally and internationally. She is a trained Bharatanatayam (Indian Classical) dancer, celebrity choreographer, professional model, actress, presenter, speaker, business woman and entrepreneur.

Her acting portfolio boasts a lead role in the British Airways India commercial and several other lead roles including the lead role of Geeta Aulakh in ‘Nightmare in Surbia’. This programme was broadcasted on the Crime Channel, on Sky.

In 2011, Ria established a multi-award winning dance and theatre company, Ri’s Ri’s dance academy. Her dance academy, based in Hyde, has performed at various prestigious awards and corporate events. She has also worked with renowned Bollywood star Abhay Deol. Ria has even taught the Real Housewives of Cheshire how to Bollywood dance and her dancers have appeared on Channel 4’s Come Dine with Me.

Ria’s talents do not end at being a talented actor, dancer and businesswoman, she is also an experienced model. For over 10 years she has appeared in numerous magazines such as the Yorkshire Post, Pro Hair and Sleek Asian. Ria has also modelled for BBC3.

When asked why she thinks it’s important to celebrates women’s success and impact through arts and culture she said: "As a BAME female artist residing within the challenging arts and cultural sector, it's vital for me to pave a way for others in this industry, and for future generations. It would be lovely and progressive for creative, innovative and impactful women to be celebrated and championed regularly, rather than once a year, so our voices are more visible."

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Sarah England

Sarah England’s passion for the arts began at six-years-old when her mother took her to see a pantomime at a Tameside theatre.  She told her mother that she wanted to dance on stage just like the children did in the panto. When Sarah mentioned for the second time that she wanted to dance in the panto like the children, her mother sought after a local dance school. She was enrolled to take part in weekly ballet classes in a dance school in Ashton, run by Miss June Cox.

As Sarah grew up through her traditional style dance school she really found a passion for the arts. She discovered her talent for acting, having a particular talent in mimicking people’s accents. This led to her auditioning for her first full scale musical, Oliver, where she successfully auditioned for The Artful Dodger.

Her passion for theatre and dance grew stronger and led to her taking part in more musicals and exams. Following this she took part in a summer school at The Royal Academy of Dance in London and then onto Tameside College to study Set Design and Costume. Although she loved her course, after one year she left with one A-Level to purse a course at a full time dance college.

At the time no grants or funding were available for her to attend a private dance college. However, Sarah’s parent allowed her to audition for two colleges, Doreen Birds in Kent and Performers College in Essex. She was successful and was offered a place at both colleges. Sarah accepted her place at the new Performers College in Essex. This allowed her to travel around London and make new friends. She danced for eight hours a day and longer when shows came around. This schedule was very gruelling for her but amazing teachers and social life supported her.

Brian Rogers, a well-known choreographer and founder of the college, offered her a job at the end of her academic year. Sarah gladly accepted this offer and during her time as professional dancer she performed at The Dorchester, Caesars Palace, and in pantomimes and at theatres across the country. She worked with Cannon and Ball, The Baron Knights, Gerry and the Pacemakers and John Inman, amongst others. She says: “The most amazing job was on a cruise where I travelled weekly from Cyprus to Egypt and Israel.”

At 24, Sarah’s dance teacher offered to sell her dance school to her. This led Sarah to discover the sense of fulfilment that teaching children to dance and perform brought her. At the same time, Sarah met a lady who introduced her to her good friend, renowned British dancer Wayne Sleep. Wayne was looking to set up teaching workshops across the country. This led to the creation of local workshops at The Copley Centre in Stalybridge for local dance schools and children and adults to take part in a class with Wayne Sleep. Due to personal circumstances, Sarah sold the dance school in the late 90s, though she continued to help organise Wayne’s workshops across the country.

After taking a step back, fate brought Sarah back to the arts. Securing three part-time jobs, which made her a full wage, she returned to teaching and never looked back. When she taught at Tameside College, Sarah met a drama teacher who was also a writer. He always wrote her into his work, which led her to have a main part in a short film called Commandeered. This was sent to America to take part in a US TV competition called, ‘On the Lot’. This short film was seen by Carrie Fisher and Stephen Spielberg. Sarah commented that “apparently after seeing it Carrie Fisher said ‘I love English actors’. I Hope that was meant as a compliment, either way I’m taking the win.”

In 2004, she booked a room at St Paul’s Church in Stalybridge and posted a dance advert saying ‘first lesson free’. This was the beginning of The Sarah England School of Dance. A week later Sarah discovered she was pregnant with her son. But with support from an ex-student the school began to grow. The school started with only five little ballerina’s dancing on Saturday morning and has now evolved into classes running across two studios, six days a week.

Through the pandemic, the students of Sarah’s dance school kept connected through Zoom classes. These online classes totalled to a grand 1200 lessons. The student’s did tasks and challenges and even created and connected with dance schools all over the world to do a global ‘Zoom’ flash mob for International Dance Day in April 2020. This involved students from dance schools in Kuala Lumpur, Canada, US, Italy, Australia and more.

Sarah states: ‘’In the recovery from the pandemic I would love to be part of creating more opportunities for more members of the community to meet and laugh and dance.  I am really hoping that being part of the Stalybridge Cultural Consortium I’ll be able to be part of making that happen.

“There are always challenges, these things in life are not always plain sailing.  However, If I was the type of person who gives up easily, I wouldn’t have gone into the arts, I wouldn’t have put my neck on the line to audition and get knocked back repeatedly until you get the job that means you can earn a wage. I wouldn’t have started my own business with all the work, obstacles and risk that entails.

“The fact is nothing comes easily, not really. You have to have a plan of where you want to be and then work backwards to plan how to get there, no matter how long it takes. You must be prepared to get back up every time you get knocked down.’’

Sarah’s dream now include Stalybridge to have its own theatre, a community hub with shows that will bring more culture to Stalybridge. She hopes this will encourage more people to visit Stalybridge and build cultural offerings and the local economy. She also believes theatres are amazing for bringing communities together, creating a buzz and energy in a town, and driving the economy of a place because people have a meal or go for drink before or after a show.

Stalybridge has recently been named Greater Manchester’s Town of Culture for 2022. The title, which is awarded by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and comes with a £50k grant, will enable Stalybridge to build on its existing vibrant programme of cultural activity and bring further exciting opportunities for residents and visitors as well as a lasting legacy for the town.

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Sarah Hardacre

Sarah Hardacre is a visual artist and print maker, who lives, works and creates in Tameside. Sarah exhibits her work internationally. Her works are included in the collections of the British Museum, British Council and private collections including Damien Hirst’s Murderme collection and Luciano Benneton’s Imago Mundi in Italy.

Through collage and screen printing she investigates the legacy of Modernist architecture and post-war social housing. She views this legacy through the lens of documentary photography and public history archive. Interestingly, she also questions the experience of women with the urban built environment and the complex relationship between female body’s architecture and space.

Sarah also has 14 years’ experience working with public arts on large scale projects. This includes working on large scale projects such as the Irwell Sculpture Trail during its redevelopment and relaunch stage. Also working on smaller projects such as consulting on small start-up initiatives, including Make it Macclesfield CIC.

She also runs her own studio in Manchester’s Northern Quarter where she runs short courses delivering commercial screen print services in collaboration with leading North West based design and PR agencies.

Sarah has also recently joined the Global Grooves team, an artist-led carnival arts organisation based in Mossley, as a Project Manager. Sarah will be curating products for the new In Tameside website, selecting local artists and makers also based in Tameside and the surrounding areas to produce beautiful objects which showcase and celebrate the area.

Sarah feels honoured to have the opportunity to curate a collection of artworks for Tameside. She said: “Tameside has been my home for over ten years now. It’s where I live, work and create. It’s where I climb hills, mooch around the market, constantly discover new districts, diversions and distractions and where I am constantly inspired and amazed by the abundance of beauty in the borough. I love the diversity, the landscape, the heritage and most of all the cultural energy of Tameside.

“So being asked to curate a collection of artworks that celebrate Tameside felt like a real honour and an exciting opportunity to create an impact on the cultural vision of the borough. I’ve invited artists whose work I love, whose work I own in my personal art collection and whose work reflects both the built and natural ecologies of Tameside.”

The artists Sarah has chosen to contribute to the collection include Stephen Marland, Julian Bovis, and May Wild Studio. Fascinatingly, her collages focus on Droylsden’s Concord Suite. Sharing her thoughts on the Concorde Suite, Sarah comments: “I think it’s beautiful, which I know is a controversial opinion as most people will call it an eyesore! But this period of architecture, Modernist, Brutalist in nature, holds all the utopian ideals of an aspirational time that looked to a better future and for me, all those values are still tied up in the fabric of the building.”

Sarah hopes that in time people will start to look at the architecture of Tameside differently through the work curated for In Tameside.

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Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke is the CEO and Creative Director of Tameside Arts, an accessible, adaptable community arts organisation based in Denton, Tameside. Tameside Arts provide art-related experiences for children and adults, specialising in inclusion and targeted-delivery for those with disabilities and mental health challenges.

From teaching younger children, drama at the age of thirteen, Sam knew that she had a passion for helping other people and her community through the Arts.

Following on from her studies in HND Media Performance at Salford University and  BA Hons in Therapeutic Arts, Sam set up Tameside Arts Ltd in 2005 with the help of friends Johnny and Ann Barlow, who she described as ‘an inspirational couple who in their 70s continued to contribute to developing the Arts in Tameside.’

The organisation continued to expand, as Sam secured funding to establish The Chatterbox Theatre Company for adults with learning disabilities and Stage Stars drama and dance group, both of which still continue today. More recently, Sam  with the help of her team opened the CREATE Centre, an accessible community arts centre based in Denton.

Tameside Arts Ltd now work with over 250 children and adults weekly, delivering sessions including drama groups led by a trained drama therapist, theatre projects, art and craft projects, movement groups, signing and Makaton sessions, music groups working towards performances, AQA training, catering training, creative communication and sensory sessions.

Sam said: “There are many women during my life who have inspired me. From my beloved sister, who inspired me through her strength as we battled breast cancer together in 2021 (remember to check your bits ladies!), to my wonderful Mum, who was incredibly creative and active. Victoria Wood; a witty committed actor, writer and director who never fails to cheer me up when I’m feeling low!

Also, our Chair Carla Stokes and Trustee Mindy Melayal, who, in their early 70’s continue to support and play an active role in the development of the organisation. It’s so crucial to have other women to look up to in the Arts, to be able to relate to them, be inspired by them and hopefully, in turn, to inspire other young women and girls looking to pursue a career in this wonderful industry”.

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Freya Bennet-Nielsen

Freya Bennett-Nielson is a 21-year-old arts and culture producer, dance artist and assistant project manager. At a young age, Freya is already making waves in the arts and culture sector and has recently secured a lead role in producing The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant.

From a young age, Freya’s passion for arts and culture stemmed from a love for dance and performance. Through her passion for the arts and “encouragement from the talented, passionate women in the arts in my younger years”, she was inspired to take place in the Future Leaders programme from Global Grooves at the age of fifteen.

“This opened my eyes”, said Freya, “to a whole new world of possibilities in terms of my progression into becoming a professional and having a career in the sector”.

The programme spring-boarded Freya into dedicating her after school and weekend time to her involvement with Global Grooves, from supporting community lantern making workshops to performing in Carnivals across the country alongside bands and dance artists.

While completing her GCSEs in 2017, Freya was given the opportunity to lead on producing ‘Celebrate Festival’, a community Festival in Mossley which is where she “found [her] real love for event production and the process too - I felt incredibly privileged and proud to stand in front of my event team as a young woman”.

“I find myself constantly inspired by the talent and passion of my colleagues in the sector that identify as women, from artists, to those supporting an office, to those directing companies and each in between. Without the leading ladies who I had the privilege to meet and work with now, it’s a possibility that I may not have been able to picture myself too making waves and leading the way as they do, and I am striving towards now.”

Freya’s passion for her work in the arts and culture sector has provided her with “exciting opportunities to grow myself as a professional and as an artist.”

“The best part about Carnival for me is that the journey never finishes or ends, and I find this so exciting. The community is like no other. It has taken me to several countries around the world to perform and develop my artistic practice and millions of miles out of what I thought was my comfort zone”.

“Art absolutely has the power to change, be it someone’s facial expression or mood as they experience it, or to catalyse greater change in the world that we live in. I think it’s really important that we continue to showcase and talk about the impact that women have in the arts and culture sector whilst we strive towards equality”.

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