Love to perform and learn new skills? Do you love the idea of performing as part of one of the biggest street celebrations this century? Interested in learning from internationally acclaimed Carnival artists? We’re recruiting a team of puppeteers interested in movement, dance, and Carnival to join us inside our giant Carnival Queens.
We are on the hunt for four trainee puppeteers from across Greater Manchester who will represent four selected regions: The Indian Subcontinent, Africa, The Caribbean, and Manchester! Puppeteers will have the opportunity to celebrate their heritage in the Queen’s Pageant Parade in London, animating stunning puppet pieces designed to represent the incredible diverse communities of Greater Manchester and the Commonwealth.
Global Grooves, as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant, will present a Carnival production involving up to 200 participants from Greater Manchester. Through a stunning Carnival presentation, we will celebrate Greater Manchester’s Global connections and the exchanges between our communities: a sharing of cultures, ideas, gifts and hopes for the future.
Imagine a Brazilian carnival colliding with a Whit Walk. A joyful community taking their story to the streets, soundtracked by the warmth of a brass band fused with a samba bloco. Plus a nod to Greater Manchester’s popular music traditions.
You must be able to commit to all of the following rehearsal and performance dates:
We welcome applications from all corners of our City-Region, of all backgrounds and abilities. Applicants must be aged 18+.
We welcome applications from all corners of our City-Region, of all backgrounds and abilities*.
Please fill in the application form below to express your interest.
Deadline for applications is extended to tuesday 29th March 2022 do to a website outage, and we will be in touch to confirm places from by 1st April 2022. Travel to and from London will be arranged and costs covered to and from rehearsals in Greater Manchester, costume and full training will be provided.
*Previous experience with puppeteering or performing in very large costumes is desirable but not necessary to apply. We are exploring a training route for those with no or little previous experience. The puppets are very heavy and will be worn on backpacks. You will be supported by a lead puppeteer and will hand over this piece at a selected point(s) during the parade in shifts. The parade will last approximately 2.5 hours so adequate fitness levels, strength, and mobility is essential for this particular role.
**All participants in the Pageant will be required to register to gain access to the event.
We are deep into the design phase, getting ready to spring into action this March. Take a look over the illustrated parade map below and explore the different elements of this brand new parading piece.
Since 2003, Global Grooves has studied, practised, developed, and shared inspirational Carnival arts practice from around the world throughout the UK and internationally.
We feel incredibly privileged to embrace diverse global traditions with great integrity and respect, creating projects that motivate more people to connect with the arts as a way of making positive change for both themselves and others.
The parade section, 'A Sharing of Gifts', is led by our lead Carnival Queen character ‘The Spirit of Courage’ representing HRH coming to the throne as a young woman and her courageous leadership throughout her 70 year reign. Designed by Iola Weir, the Carnival queen is played by Cheddar Gorgeous, a leading drag artist from Manchester celebrating our world famous Canal Street and the incredible diversity of our communities. Indeed, Cheddar is northern drag royalty.
Our Queen is riding her horse drawing inspiration from HRH’s beloved horse Burmese - famously HRH much preferred to ride a horse than the royal chariot. In the 1981 Trooping of the Colour, HRH was shot at 6 times. Her horse panicked, but she took gentle control of the situation with great courage, calming her horse, and was seen smiling and continuing with the parade, waving to spectators as she passed.
In our lead image our Queen and her horse are riding over the waves, the base representing the hull of a ship acknowledging her journey across the world and her journey through life as the worlds most travelled monarch.
Costume
Our Queen will be dressed in a gold costume, with a neck piece inspired by Trooping of the Colours uniform. The Carnival backpack piece is inspired by longitude and latitude lines adorned with gold globes and planets – the world and universe both as a physical and spiritual journey. Her headdress, based on a mariner's astrolabe, cradles a globe showing the unity that is achieved with the open sharing and understanding of culture and heritage. A 5-metre hand painted silk sail flag with hand woven, heritage quality silk from Murshidabad will be printed with gold, metallic ink designs inspired by maps, compasses, universe and galaxies.
Colour Scheme
Sea/Waves – blues, turquoise, gold leaf
Shell – gold, corals, bronze, golden yellows
Queen – gold dress, headdress golds, whites, blue & greens for globe
Backpack – gold
Silk – Golden yellow, buttercup yellow, mustard, gold & bronze print
Designed by Iola Weir
NANA BURUKU
African Queen & Flag Bearer
THE PUPPETS
Four female puppets representing regions in which HRH has travelled, and reflect the communities of Greater Manchester, each a Queen of our communities. They represent different stages of woman’s life, coming of age, mid life, and elder.
Designed by Tony Mason, our African Queen draws influence from the Queen's important visits to Ghana in 1961, Nigeria 1956, & The Gambia in 1961. Inspired by ‘Nana Buruku’ a revered supreme deity in West Africa and now celebrated across the world following the migration of African people to new lands. A mother goddess, Nana Buruku is an older, wiser woman - she is a calm, benevolent, grounded representative of the earth, always acting with dignity and gentility. The puppet is made using natural materials – bamboo, cane, raffia. Her beaded skirt is inspired by African percussive instruments; as she moves, the beads collide to create percussive sounds. Her bow will be batiked and hand painted using natural dyes and reflecting patterns and textiles across the African continent and in particular designs from ABC wax – textiles designed in Tameside, Greater Manchester for Ghana.
Our Dancer and Flag bearer will wear costume drawing influence from traditional African dress and reflect motifs seen in the puppet. The flag design will be inspired by African textiles patterns and prints from across the continent.
Colour Scheme
Designed by Tony Mason
PADMINI
South Asian Queen & Flag Bearer
THE PUPPETS
Four female puppets representing regions in which HRH has travelled, and reflect the communities of Greater Manchester, each a Queen of our communities. They represent different stages of woman’s life, coming of age, mid life, and elder.
Our South Asian Queen will draw influence from a woman in mid life wearing traditional dress seen in HRH’s numerous visits to the Indian sub-continent.
Her costume will be decorated in traditional embroidered fabrics from India & Pakistan and is she modelled and pays respect to the late Indian icon actress and dancer Padmini Ramachandran.
She is joined by our dance / flag bearer dressed in traditional Indian dress and Carnival costume holding a hand painted Batik flag with designs inspired by traditional textile and mehndi patterns.
Colour Scheme
Designed by Iola Weir
NAME TBC
Caribbean Queen & Flag Bearer
THE PUPPETS
Four female puppets representing regions in which HRH has travelled, and reflect the communities of Greater Manchester, each a Queen of our communities. They represent different stages of woman’s life, coming of age, mid life, and elder.
Our beautiful Caribbean queen represents the energy of our youth – a nod to HRH’s Caribbean tour of 1966. Referencing Caribbean cultures, she is inspired by the tropical and lush lands of the Caribbean, adorned with flowers native to the Caribbean and surrounded by Hummingbirds. We celebrate Peter Minshall’s first queen costume – Hummingbird.
The puppet will be dressed in clothing inspired by traditional Carnival characters from Trinidad & Tobago (Dame Lorraine) and Barbados (Mother Sally, representing fertility).
She will be joined by a dancer and flag bearer that will wear traditional Caribbean Carnival costume with colour scheme sympathetic to those reflected in the puppet (backpack costume). The flag design will take references from the Puppet and Caribbean Carnival heritage.
Colour Scheme
• Hummingbird colours, greens, deep blues, purples
• Flowers native to Caribbean, deep pink, orange, yellow
• Lush nature, shades of green Designed by Chris Anderson
Aurora
'Mad fer it' Manchester Queen & Flag Bearer
THE PUPPETS
Four female puppets representing regions in which HRH has travelled, and reflect the communities of Greater Manchester, each a Queen of our communities. They represent different stages of woman’s life, coming of age, mid life, and elder.
Representing the spirit of Manchester’s internationally renowned Club and Music scene going ‘Mad fer it’ in the Hacienda days, our Manchester Queen will nod to 80/90’s club wear, with a vibrant puppet that is able to dance and move freely to Mancunian tunes and beats.
Our dancer and flag bearer will don 90’s dance clothes featuring Danny Henry, a Manchester club and Carnival dance legend.
Colour Scheme
Bright pink, blue, purples
Designed by Iola Weir
Percussion and Brass
THE GLOBAL GROOVES BLOCO
A 150 strong Carnival band, inspired by the colours of the regalia at Trooping the Colour. Imagine a Brazilian carnival colliding with a Whit Walk. A joyful community taking their story to the streets, sound-tracked by the warmth of a brass band fused with a samba bloco. Plus a nod to Greater Manchester’s popular music traditions.
Brass
Our 50+ strong youth brass section will consist of young members from the European youth championship band Wardle Academy Brass. Playing a new musical arrangement by MD Jack Tinker, we will explore music drawing influence from Manchester’s rich popular musical heritage, international Carnival and traditional Whit Friday style brass band marches.
Performers will wear traditional brass costume with jade coloured shirts inspired by Trooping of the Colour sashes within the traditional military uniform. The scheme also highlights jade accents in the percussionists' costumes. Each performer will be ‘crowned’ in a piece inspired by traditional Indian/Pakistani parading brass band headwear, each with a feather reflecting headwear worn by the Queen during Trooping of the Colour parades.
Colour Scheme
Percussion
Featuring young musicians from the internationally renowned Future Leaders arts leadership programme joined by other players from across Greater Manchester, this Carnival percussion group will weave together a variety of international percussion styles and phrasing in new pieces of music to complement the brass arrangements and reflect the cultures of Greater Manchester. Led by musical director and Future Leaders Alumni, Emma Marsh.
The performers' costume will be created from hand dyed, batiked, and printed cotton inspired by the north-eastern Brazilian Blocos. The design is inspired by African textiles and motifs that will repeat across the Global Grooves Bloco section. Headdresses are inspired by the power of the Orixa Xangô, lord of fire, lightning, thunder, but also of music, drumming, and dance.
Colour Scheme
Costume Elements Designed by Emily Wood
Percussion Director - Emma Marsh
Melody Director - Jack Tinker
Bloco Performers - Global Grooves Future Leaders and selected players from across Greater Manchester.
Brass Ensemble - Wardle Academy Brass Band
DANCERS
THE GLOBAL GROOVES BLOCO
A 150 strong brass, percussion and dance Carnival band, Inspired by the colours of the regalia at Trooping the Colour. Imagine a Brazilian carnival colliding with a Whit Walk. A joyful community taking their story to the streets, sound-tracked by the warmth of a brass band fused with a samba bloco, and a nod to Greater Manchester’s popular music traditions.
Dancers
Our group of ten international Greater Manchester based dancers will perform Intricate, energetic dance routines choreographed by Adriana Rosso specially for the new musical arrangements. Dancers from various cultural backgrounds will have space to add their own dance flavours to this routine creating a truly international troop.
Their costume will be created to enhance movement styles and allow for big, bold choreography; a red jersey top, cut into round the neck with scrap fabrics from other costumes tied into the top with golden beads and sequins. Wide legged silk trousers – hand painted and batiked with designs from Bloco costumes and a belt made with scraps of fabric from costumes created in other sections – lightweight beads and light reflecting crystals and diamantes to be added adding movement and sparkle and referencing our African Queen puppet.
Colour Scheme
Costume Designed by Emily Wood
Choreographer - Adriana Rosso
Performers - TBC
CRINOLINE DANCERS
THE GLOBAL GROOVES BLOCO
A 150 strong brass, percussion and dance Carnival band, inspired by the colours of the regalia at Trooping the Colour. Imagine a Brazilian carnival colliding with a Whit Walk. A joyful community taking their story to the streets, sound-tracked by the warmth of a brass band fused with a samba bloco, and a nod to Greater Manchester’s popular music traditions.
Crinoline Dancers
Representing the ten districts of greater Manchester, our Jubilee Dance ambassadors will perform a new choreography in beautiful ‘Baiana style’ dresses.
The floating giant costumes will be created in hand woven, Indian Fairtrade silk from Murshidabad in West Bengal.
Ten regal style dresses will feature layers of hand dyed & batiked motifs inspired by textiles in Africa & reflect costumes worn in the percussion section.
Ten dresses will be hand painted and printed onto silk in gold metallic ink, patterns inspired by peacock feathers and Indian textiles linked to our lead Carnival Queen at the head of the parade. Inspired by Osun the west African goddess/deity representing divinity, beauty, femininity, fertility and love, and the flow of fresh sweet water from the river Osun in Nigeria of which shares her name.
Each dancer will feature a headdress inspired by crowns and headwear from around the world, including northeast Brazil, North and east Africa, and recycled saris from the Indian sub continent.
Colour Scheme
Costume Designed by Emily Wood
Choreographer - Adriana Rosso
Performers selected from each of the ten Greater Manchester districts
Silk fan backpacks
Giant 2mtrs x 4.5metre silk backpack pieces will be worn by members of our community performers from Greater Manchester. The costume will be shaped like a giant fan that wraps up on itself then unfolds to reveal beautiful batik / hand painted silk similar to a peacocks tail and Chinese fan.
Designs will reflect our African, South Asian and Caribbean Queen puppets featuring textiles practice, nature, and cultures from the respective regions. The costumes will be hand painted onto hand woven Fairtrade Indian silk from Murshidabad in West Bengal.
Colour Scheme
Costume designed by Emily Wood - Cabasa
Performers selected from three of the ten Greater Manchester districts
Community Flags
Our section of 50 x 4metre handmade silk flags will be designed and performed members of our community from Norbrook Community Centre in Wythenshawe and communities across the borough of Oldham. Supported by Manchester based Carnival artists, they will explore ideas and stories of the Monarch and their international communities and reflect these in several new stunning designs.
Performers will be in uniformed costume in black trousers and colourful hand dyed t-shirts with full Carnival face paint designs to complement their creative work.
Colour Scheme
Flags designed, made and performed by Norbrook Youth Centre and communities from the borough of Oldham.
Lead Artists: TBC
Fabrication and concept - Emily Wood - Cabasa
Pop your email address in the box here and we’ll send you updates about our work, including how to get involved. We promise we won’t inundate your inbox, but you will be able to unsubscribe at any time.
Pop your email address in the box here and we’ll send you updates about our work, including how to get involved. We promise we won’t inundate your inbox, but you will be able to unsubscribe at any time.
