Bamboozle is fortunate to work with some remarkable artists. Below are some of the people who have made significant contributions to Bamboozle’s work over the years.
Dawn Bowden
Dawn’s background is in Drama. Originally a performer, she now works mostly with children and adults with Learning Difficulties. In her work Dawn focuses on using Drama as a tool for developing social awareness, mental awareness, self-knowledge, self-respect, self-discipline and self-confidence. She loves her job!
Glenys Xavier
I trained as an actor at Nottingham College of Performing Arts. As an actor and creative practitioner my work covers multi-disciplinary arts. This has presented opportunities to meet and collaborate with artists renowned for their particular expertise: Storyteller and artist Vayu Naidu and the late Michael Macallion Theatre Director, writer Noel Greigg (Love in the 21st Century), Annie Wood (Selfish Giant) former director of Polka, and Bamboozle Theatre Company. Also performed at Edinburgh Festival in Romeo and Juliet as the Nurse.
The success of collaborating with Bamboozle for 5 years has been due to the effective use of my skills together with the fresh imaginative delivery which can mean finding weird and wonderful ways to use my voice. (Summer 07 I was the voice of a whale with sever indigestion)! Ultimately a shared vision with Christopher Davies and Sue Pyecroft and all concerned.
Built into the PMLD residencies is a physical space I dedicate to sharing massage. A stimulating sensory sensation, a chance to focus on the moment shared.
As an artist it gives me a special time with the young people/parents, a soft safe environment, this includes elements from performance preparation and relaxation techniques. A continuously evolving experience depending on the needs of each person – all with the realms of the Bamboozle experience.
Thoughts for the future: to continue to bring my measure of creativity and integrity into the Bamboozle mix.
Kate Rounding
Kate enjoys working as part of the creative team at Bamboozle and with all the young people and their families. As a professional musician and a qualified sound engineer she brings a range of creative and technical skills. Kate plays a variety of instruments and uses flutes, keyboards, percussion and a range of music technology to create pieces of music and sound-scapes. She aims to capture voices and stories and then record it all onto CD.
Kate is a sessional lecturer of sound engineering at Derby College and also works with arts organisations in Derbyshire and Leicestershire.
Through working with Bamboozle she has learnt a great deal from all the artists involved and this has helped to develop new approaches that she uses in her creative music workshops with schools.
Laura Guthrie
Graduating with a Theatre Design degree in 1988 Laura became a practising artist and designer working primarily with disabled adults and children. Her career has included performing nationally in an integrated dance company, running arts workshops, training staff and volunteers in arts facilitation and Disability Equality. Laura has worked extensively for Bamboozle since 2001 as a designer and facilitator. In addition to her arts practise Laura works as a Local Authority Arts Development Officer in a district of Derbyshire.
Michelle Reader
Michelle’s work spans the disciplines of sculpture, prop-making and design for performance. She has a BA in Fine Art (De Montfort Universtity, Leicester, 1997), and an MA in Scenography (Central St Martins, London, 2003).
As a sculptor, Michelle makes sculptures from waste materials and found objects, which are sometimes mechanical. She runs workshops for festivals, galleries or schools creating sculptures and installations from scrap materials.
Her recent creations include a mechanical bird for Garsington Opera, an interactive “Wave” portal for Strandlooper’s Silver Swimmers, a pair of wearable mechanical wings, and a 5 metre Big Ben made out of wheat.
Website: www.michellereader.co.uk
Miriam Keye
Miriam Keye is a movement artist who performs, choreographs and teaches internationally including the NottDance Festival (Nottm), Royal Opera House (London), Glastonbury Festival (Somerset), Trafalgar Square (London), Crookes Allotments (Sheffield), a disused abbatoir (Surrey), Canadian Fringe Festivals and Salamanca Market (Australia).
Projects include:
Silver Swimmers; a street arts piece that distills butoh, martial arts and meditation techniques to create hypnotic and mesmerizing imagery. www.strandlooper.org
Transglobal Duets with Anne Marie Culhane, Jo Salter and guest artists. Exhibited in Dis:locate 07 (Tokyo),a symposium examining the relationship between art, technology and locality. www.transglobalduets.myzen.co.uk
‘Peak Time at The Performance Café’; commissioned by Made in Leicester Festival and LCF this is a collaboration with Speakeasy Theatre Company with whom Miriam is associate artist.
Miriam teaches dance to professional dancers, as well as in community and educational settings. Specializing in Early Years and people with Special Needs she was dance lecturer for Loughborough College New Pathways programme. In 2005 she attended the International Study Week at Reggio Emilia, Italy, with Second Skin, Creative Partnerships Coventry. She is a resident dance artist with Bamboozle Theatre Company (Leics), a regular choreographer for the So…. Dancers and Dance Dangerous (Northampton). In December 2005 she was artist in residence at Earthdance Centre for Contact Improvisation, Massachusetts, USA.
Neyire Ashworth
After music studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, in The Netherlands and in New York, Neyire was a BBC Young Musician prize-winner and won Countess of Munster, Ian Fleming, Martin Musical Trust and Craxton Awards.
As clarinettist, her London debut was as part of the prestigious Park Lane Group’s series at the Purcell Room, South Bank. Neyire has appeared on BBC radio 3, Classic FM and at concert halls and festivals world-wide. Guest principal appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, as well as touring with Academy of St Martin in the Fields have been highlights of her orchestral work. She was also principal clarinet with the Maracaibo Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela and frequently appeared as soloist.
Neyire’s passion for theatre and story-telling has led her to work as composer, music director, actor and facilitator for the Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, A&BC Theatre Company, Bamboozle Theatre Company, The Globe, Opera Circus, and Clod Ensemble. Recent appearances as actor/musician include, “Tale That Wags the Dog” at Theatre Royal Plymouth, Lyric Hammersmith London and the Zeitgeist Festival, Los Angeles, USA, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ for Almeida Opera Festival and ‘Warhorse’ at the NT. Neyire trained as an actor at the City Literary Institute, London and has worked with theatre practitioners, David Glass, Peta Lily, Annabelle Arden and John Wright.
Stenclmusic (music by Rachel Stott) is her first instrumental theatre piece; it won awards from both the European Association for Jewish Culture and the Jewish Music Institute London. Stenclmusic premiered in London to great critical acclaim and was shown at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2007 as part of the ‘Jewish Music Institute comes to Edinburgh’ season.
Rachael Jeffery
Rachael has worked as a facilitator, actress and musician with Bamboozle since February 2003, when they discovered her during her time as an Associate Director for Royal and Derngate Theatre’s in Northampton where she ran a 200 strong youth theatre. She is now Performing Arts Co-ordinator at Northgate Special School in Northampton and also work’s as a free-lance director, choreographer and drama practitioner for varied companies and theatres over the country. Rachael is mum to three year old Joe and she plays guitar, percussion, full drum kit and keyboard, although she will attempt to play any instrument Bamboozle present her with!
Steve Banks
Steve began life as a freelance classical violinist, which included playing with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. After a spell as an economist he joined the Carnival Band (www.carnivalband.com) drumming, fiddling and singing. He first worked with Bamboozle about the same time, and from the word go brought to bear the acting talent first realised in such performances as his Robin in Batman and the Bag of Gold (a family home movie, age seven). He also drums with pedigree Celtic folk-rock four-piece, Chanter (www.chanter.org.uk). Bamboozle has been a key crucible for Steve’s song writing. Ringing the Changes, the latest album with Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band includes two of his songs. Horace the Happy Hedgehog, written for a Bamboozle residency, is seen by many as his finest work. He lives near Totnes, Devon.
