Hello! I’m Freya, a dance artist from Manchester.

I completed the Future Leaders programme in 2015/16 which quickly opened up an inspiring world of new experiences and possibilities, despite being only 15 at the time. I had no experience of cultural dance and was so excited to learn some new styles. No sooner had I found a new love for all things Carnival, from the intricate movement style to seeing how all of the artforms involved come together and cross over throughout the process.

On finishing Future Leaders, I dived in to as many opportunities as possible to get involved within the wider community, from trying my hand at percussion to volunteering in the arts studio, and all the way to helping to produce a local community event in 2017. I am incredibly grateful for the experiences that I have had as a result of my learning on the course, and those that are yet to come! The best part about Future Leaders and Carnival for me is that the journey never finishes or ends, and could probably go on eternally, and I find this so exciting. The community is like no other, and something that I’ve found a passion for, too. It’s taken me to several countries around the world to perform and develop my artistic practise and millions of miles out of what I thought was my comfort zone.

I now work full time for Global Grooves where I have the chance to grow myself as both an artist and professional in the arts sector. I am also an assistant project manager for two other music and dance projects working with people of all ages where I also get to share my love for dance and performing with them. Most recently, I joined the board of an arts venue as a trustee, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to share my experience so far with them and be a part of the driving force of their mission.

I was on the first cohort of the Future Leaders course in 2014. I started the course as a 16-year old high school student in Edinburgh who had a passion for drumming and teaching, which I had developed over four years in a youth-led samba drumming band I was in. I knew that the realm of community music and Carnival arts was where I wanted my future to be but had no idea how I could feasibly make it work and many of my peers in school and my community didn’t have the same amount of passion about a future in the arts as myself.

Over just four residential weekends, I was totally immersed in a new community of like-minded people from all over the UK I had never met before, with the staff and my peers during the course. Not only did I make a lot of great friends on the course, but the wider network of Global Grooves actually helped me build links in my own city. Beyond the network, I was given the opportunity and the space to develop different aspects of being a Carnival artist, from personal development, freelancing, working with other art forms as well as learning a lot of rhythms and cultures from specialised teachers.

Shortly after that course finished, I was keen to take on as many opportunities I could to work and study with the Global Grooves team and my fellow graduates. That in itself has led me to so many unexpected places, including co-teaching a percussion workshop for 70 people in Oldham, meeting Gary Lineker at a gig, performing at Notting Hill Carnival and giving a talk with my peers at a Carnival arts conference.

I’ve been involved with the other cohorts in one way or another, as a youth mentor, giving talks, and even having the opportunity to teach at a top-up weekend for alumni. It’s been so inspiring to see more and more people being brought in from all over the world and just to get to know so many people I never would have met otherwise.

Since being on this course, so much has changed and it really was a catalyst for a lot of my more long-term goals such as becoming a Musical Director of a percussion and dance group and travelling to Brazil twice to study Carnival, the second Brazil visit being when I performed in São Paulo’s official street carnival and sustaining a full-time freelance career. I can trace all of these things back to Future Leaders in one way or another and they certainly would not have happened as early as they have for me had I not been involved in the course.

I can honestly say that the Future Leaders course has changed my life.