Telling All About Our Community Ambassadors
2023 February 15We’ve been working closely with two local artists, Hardeep Sahota and Madiha Ansari. They are both firmly rooted in our community. They are proud of our theatre and want to help us to serve our community better. We’re keen to support them in their careers and are committed to working with them whenever we can.
Hardeep has been working with us since 2020, when he used the theatre to film for his exhibition Bhangra Lexicon. Last year he ran a regular bhangra dance class at the theatre and this year he’s arranged for the fabulous Swarnjit Kaur to lead Giddhan and Boliyaan Classes here every Thursday. And more recently he curated the launch of Prince Reimagined, a project you’ll hear more about in the coming months.
Madiha began running young people’s engagement sessions at ours with her company LUNG back in 2021. In this the Kirklees Year of Music, she’s part of the South Asian women’s choir, Song Geet, who are seeking new members from the Kirklees community. Soon Song Geet will be visiting your neighbourhood offering free trials and inviting people to join them, ahead of a public event this summer. This March Madiha will be performing in Vitamin D.
Here's a bit more about both of our Community Ambassadors:
Hardeep Sahota
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. Through ethnographic research, oral history interviews, performances, photography, story-telling and community activity it celebrates the past contribution of all those involved in Bhangra. This ground-breaking work provides an in-depth history of the spiritualism of performance and song, and an overview of the artists involved in influencing its development, as well as contemporaries leading the way of Bhangra’s renaissance amongst the South Asian diaspora in the UK and around the world. Hardeep is an Affiliate Fellow at the University of Huddersfield, in recognition of his research and work with the local community.
Madiha Ansari
Madiha is a theatre maker and facilitator, born in Karachi and based in Dewsbury. Previously working in education, Madiha began her career in the arts in 2018 when she set up the Cultural Ecology Project, supported by Impact Hub Bradford through which she launched Culture 101, supporting global majority women in Bradford in careers in the arts. It was developed in partnership with Bradford Producing Hub. Madiha co-founded and was the youth engagement officer of the Yorkshire Adabee Forum, where she headed the first national theatre tour of Pakistan’s leading Digital content creators. In 2018 Madiha started working with LUNG on their Trojan Horse tour, leading on their participation and education programme nationally. Madiha later ran the participation work for LUNG’s Who Cares tour, which saw her run workshops in 90 schools across the UK, deliver CPD in 16 regions and host the post show q&a after every show. Madiha works closely with LUNG’s sister organisation the Who Cares Campaign. Madiha produced her first show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022 with the show Dreamliners with young company The Situationalists from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She made her Associate Director debut with Kat Rose-Martin's hit show Pick n Mix. This year she will be in the cast of nationally touring show Vitamin D written by Saher Shah. She has also recently received an Arts Council DYCP grant to develop Urdu Language Theatre.
