About Us

2022 is an important year for us living near Birmingham and in the West Midlands as we celebrate the Commonwealth Games coming to the city, especially being part of the Embracing Cultures programme funded through Our Creative City and Birmingham City Council https://www.birmingham2022.com/festival/creative-city

We are continuing our commitment to Climate Justice and participatory art activism through engagement with the use of the recyclable and sustainable products in our creative work on Birmingham’s Flora costume making. We will be supporting a Green Games agenda by participating with West Midlands Coalition on these matters.

Following our positive involvement with COP 26 last year, we plan further work with young people to share information, tools for engagement in parks and creative activity, so that during these troubled times, we can strengthen resilience in health and well-being. This can form part of a genuine welcome to all the visitors and athletes who will be converging on Birmingham this summer. It will generate a sense of pride in showing them our city, our parks, our diverse and dynamic cultures that make this region such a vibrant place to live and work.

We are committed to working on a small artistic and economic scale with different partners to facilitate and engage in this ‘Great Turning’ of our times as identified in the stories from Joanna Macey and Satish Kumar. Kumar writes in Soil, Soul, Society:

‘We need to shift from the old paradigm of fragmentation, dualism, disconnection and division to a new paradigm of wholeness, connectedness and relatedness. In this new paradigm the economy will be cyclical as in nature: take with gratitude, use sparingly, replenish what is taken and put back what is left over into the earth as compost – no waste, no pollution and no depletion.’

Ginnie

Ginnie has worked with professional dance companies as a practitioner (Second Stride, Extemporary Dance Theatre, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company) and within the funding system as Dance Officer (Arts Council West Midlands) and Cultural Officer (Birmingham City Council). She is now working as an independent producer to offer professional support services to artists to facilitate a step change in their careers.

Nicholas

Nicholas has worked in the social care sector for 30 years, from adult mental health and mediation to residential setting with young people and latterly as a social worker for children in care. His experiences are grounded in therapeutic management and creative group work. Nicholas is now an ICF approved Life Coach offering one to one sessions.

Working with Artists and Professional Companies:

We are delighted to be working with North Birmingham Alliance (ACE dance and music, Black Voices, Black Arts Forum and Legacy Centre of Excellence) on the project Embracing Cultures. (Website page coming).  This programme will be seen on the streets of Birmingham during the summer showcasing a colourful display of Caribbean and Birmingham flowers in a dazzling bouquet of delight from July to September. Details will be uploaded here: link tbc

We have joined with women’s sewing groups in Birchfield and Yardley and Forest School groups in Handsworth Park and Perry Hall Park to create the first carnival costume for Birmingham’s Flora which has been designed by Anna Lewis. Ginnie is the producer for this community project, designer maker Kate Morris and local artists Shiam, Eleanor (Forest Schools) and Bano (Kwateen Creative Minds) to involve community groups in the co-creation of this magnificent carnival costume. See (participatory page for images).

Moving Souls Dance will continue to work with Jai Jagat UK, Footsteps, Climate Action Network West Midlands (CANWM) and West Midlands Climate Coalition on a number of participatory projects raising awareness with young people and families about how we can make a difference to support the target of Net Zero CO2 by 2030.