Our team

Leon Patel is at the helm of Global Grooves, having committed over a decade to sharing his passion and knowledge of percussion and song from around the world.

Holly Prest is one of the UK Carnival scene’s bright shiny lights. As the lead project manager of our Future Leaders youth arts leadership programme, Holly is passionate about facilitating the discovery of young and emerging artists honing their artistic talents and realising their potential as active, inspired young individuals.

Eraldo joined us in 2004 following a series of collaborative workshops delivered by Meninos do Morumbi. Born in Brazil, Eraldo brings a cheery, grounded energy to our often hectic and exciting schedule of events!

Freya completed our Future Leaders programme in 2016 which quickly opened up an inspiring world of new experiences and possibilities. As a multi-talented young Carnival artist, she has completed extensive on-the-job percussion and dance training as co-dance-director of Juba do Leão and project manager with Jubacana.

Jane initially became involved with Global Grooves as a volunteer with one of our community projects in Oldham in the early 2000s. Jane saw an opportunity to transfer her previous professional skills in Higher Education to an exciting new environment and continue with her commitment to social action.

Ciara looks after our volunteer team at The Vale, she has recently moved into a producer role after supporting Global Grooves as an Arts Administrator since the beginning of 2022. She completed her BA in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University in 2020. During her Erasmus volunteering in 2019 she curated and exhibited her first solo show Your Place Within the City at ΦΙΞ in art, Thessaloniki. She has since volunteered for a few non-profit organisations working to support social change.

Hannah has become our new Arts Administrator following three years of freelancing after university in a range of arts projects. Her passion for radio, community engagement and Afro-Latin music led her to found community station, Steam Radio, and party series, Nossa! She is eager to use this experience to contribute to The Vale's many exciting projects.

Amelia first volunteered with Global Grooves on the Cotton Culture project, researching the social history of Vale Mill, now The Vale. She joins the team after a career in a variety of ancient (5,000 years!) and modern (est. 2002) arts and heritage venues across England. She is eager to explore everything The Vale can be for Mossley, Greater Manchester, and beyond.

Tom's passionate about the impact of music and Carnival arts on communities and has worked with Global Grooves to develop and fund creative projects across the UK and beyond.

With a background career in electronic engineering, and a lifelong musician from a music loving family, Jon has found many opportunities to contribute as well as to discover in the colourful and varied environment of carnival arts production.

Lizzie is a local visual artist, who's worked with Global Grooves for the last few years. Lizzie was a lead visual artist in the 'Creating Carnival Illuminated' project for Mossley Light festival and has been growing as an artist ever since.

Johnny Clifford was around right at the beginning of the Samba explosion in Greater Manchester. Johnny joins us out of semi retirement to develop our own diverse live music and events programme.

Meet the brilliant people we are blessed to work alongside - the ones who make it all happen.

Scott Darraugh was appointed as Global Grooves’ Chair in 2017 and has helped to steer the organisation through a period of rapid change and growth.

Rachel joined our board as a Non-Executive Director in May 2020. As a keen participant, she has followed our journey from the Northwest to The Gambia! Rachel brings a wealth of professional experience in finance, accountancy, and project leadership, along with a creative outlook to further our organisation.

Simaran is a guitarist, music producer and DJ focused on electronic music, particularly with a focus on the South Asian diaspora, as well as the LGBTQIA+ community and their impact on club music. With performances at Ministry of Sound in London as well as Manchester International Festival and the O2 Academy in Leeds, he has a variety of experiences and many of them started at The Vale!

Joe Harrison-Greaves is a musician, facilitator, project manager and consultant whose work focuses on social change through creativity and education. As a musician, and over the last 13 years, Joe has played with bands and artists from across the world, primarily on bass guitar and acoustic guitar.

Charlie is a Director on the Global Grooves Board. By day he is Walk the Plank's Executive Director and had previously worked from 2009 to 2019 as Head of Operations and Finance for Brighter Sound. In his roles, Charlie leads on finance, HR, general management, communications and company strategy with over 11 years in senior management roles. He’s a Clore Leadership Fellow and has worked in professional audio training, music event management and as a professional musician.

"I am a multi instrumentalist and producer with diverse influences and styles eg. Jazz, Afro swing, hip hop, world music.
Percussion inspired me as a young person and helped me to be in touch with my heritage, where I spent lots of time learning and shadowing my mentors and other musicians. This brought around opportunities for me to write my own percussion arrangements and teach them in different groups, and develop as a teacher/leader."

Jack is a Manchester based trumpeter and arranger. He has led on the creation of melody for our large scale performances across the UK, weaving together his many musical influences and skills to produce new work. He has facilitated the coming together of numerous local brass players and ensembles through our ongoing programmes. Jack plays predominantly with jazz and blues artists, with a busy touring schedule both across UK and Europe.

Lizzie is a local visual artist, who's worked with Global Grooves for the last few years. Lizzie was a lead visual artist in the 'Creating Carnival Illuminated' project for Mossley Light festival and has been growing as an artist ever since.

Jordan got involved with Global Grooves in 2014 as a part of our Future Leaders programme after playing in a community drumming band in Edinburgh since the age of 12. Since then he's continued his studies into world music, specialising in Brazilian carnival percussion which has taken him to Brazil on multiple occasions.

Adriana is an exceptional performer and choreographer with over 20 years’ experience in choreography, dance performance, training and teaching worldwide.

Guga is a percussionist, singer, dancer, music teacher, luthier, plastic artist, and contra master of Capoeira Angola. He is a complete artist, with a deep commitment to honouring and valuing our cultural roots.

Mikiba has played percussion with professional award winning Baterias in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for over 10 years. He has performed with premiership Samba Schools including Escola de Samba Camisa Verde e Branco, Escola de Samba Aguia de Ouro, Escola de Samba Tucuruvi and five-time champions, Mocedade Alegre.

Christian has played a key role in the development of many Global Grooves projects. As a specialist in Cuban percussion and folkloric traditions, he has worked with the company for many years providing training, advice, musical direction and the delivery of workshops and courses.

Founder/director of One Voice Music and lead masterclass facilitator for Global Grooves, Raz is an all-round percussionist specialising in the traditional drumming of Afrocuban and Afro-Brazilian music.

Mel has worked with Global Grooves since 2013 and has designed and made headdresses for the principal dancers at many festivals and events since then.

Dan is Mossley-based musician and artist. He works behind the scenes and as a performer/artist with Carnival arts organisations Global Grooves and Cabasa Carnival Arts.

Danny Henry, the legend himself! Danny is one of Manchester's most established Carnival dancers, having spent years developing the work of Manchester School of Samba. He is a highly experienced professional dancer working in schools, colleges and community centres leading dance projects, workshops, and classes. Danny is a hugely popular workshop artist with an impressive skill in getting anyone up to dance, especially when they're least expecting to!

Rowan has been working with Global Grooves since 2016. After completing her studies in Textiles at Manchester School of Art, she became a young apprentice on Global Grooves’ Future Leaders course as a visual artist.

Seby Ntege is a singer-songwriter from the Busoga region of eastern Uganda, renowned for producing some of the best multi-instrumentalists in the country and himself is a master of several folk instruments from his country including akogo thumb piano (a.k.a. kalimba), endongo lyre, adungu harp, percussion and endingidi, a one stringed fiddle.

Lauren specialises in costumes and puppets with a focus on community engagement. She grew up attending festivals such as Streets Ahead where she developed a love for outdoor arts and street theatre.

Helen joined the team in 2016 as part of Creating Carnival. She is the musical director of the project that uses Brazilian and Cuban rhythms to tell the story of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Bridget joined the Global Grooves team in 2016 as part of Creating Carnival. Having performed with Global Grooves previously, she was then offered the opportunity to choreograph the dance for The Tempest. Using traditional dance from Brazil, Cuba, and the Caribbean Islands, the story was retold in Carnival form.

Mitch is a drummer, percussionist and educator. He joined the Global Grooves team in 2017 as an associate artist for The Desi Carnival.

Gordon has been working with us for many years as a visual artist, workshop facilitator and sculptor. He brings a wealth of experience, particularly in our local community as a part time and voluntary Director of Mossley Community Arts LTD for 25 years.

Kooj Chuhan is a digital artist, filmmaker and creative producer. He artistically interweaves racial justice with climate resistance using a range of approaches including interactive media, theatrical VJ work and augmented reality combined with a critical cultural democracy practice.

Mariana Pinho is a Brazilian artist, based in London since 2004. Through the years she has been a living ambassador of Brazilian culture through her work on dance, costume, international production, and cultural tourism as the Artistic Director of Gandaia Arts and its awarded resident group Maracatudo Mafua.

Nadia has been working with Global Grooves since 2018 and is an experienced and enthusiastic dancer with a passion for all things Cuban, in particular Rumba and folkloric Afro-Cuban dances.

Since the early nineties, Iain Mellor has nurtured and furthered the musical skills of hundreds of musicians in the North West through Cabasa Carnival Arts and community outreach workshops. In 2001, Iain co-founded Bangdrum, a leading school workshops provider which aided the successful development of Global Grooves.

Dance instructor on the Edun Ara – bloco de carnaval project and other OVM and Global Grooves workshops, Marcia Magliari is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She teaches Samba, Afro-Brazilian, Frevo, Forro, Lambada, Gafieira (samba ballroom), Salsa, Merengue and a Stretch class.

At the close of 2021, we said a sad goodbye to our dear friend and teacher, Ian. We raise a glass, a drum stick and a shaky thing supported by his musical ‘threads to the top of our heads’ and say thank you, we love you. 

JP Courtney is a professional percussionist, performer, tutor and event
organiser from Ireland. He specialises in folk and carnival music from Cuba and Brazil and is considered the best
talent in his field in the UK whilst al being a reference for rhythmical information on the
modern street carnival of Rio de Janeiro.

Gabriel Lopes is a professional musician since the beginning of the 2000s. He has been teaching for over 10 years with international renoiwed 'Monobloco' preparing students for the parades in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and São Paulo.

Mauro Jorge do Nascimento, better known as Mestre Maurão, was born in the Cruzada São Sebastião, south of Rio de Janeiro.
After many years playing on Tijuca and others samba schools, in 1999 he became bateria director of Unidos da Tijuca at the invitation of Mestre Celinho, where he remained until 2001. From that moment Maurão accumulated experience working as a director in different schools, learning from the masters of the time.

Sarah is a visual artist and printmaker. Through collage and screen print she investigates the legacy of Modernist architecture and post-war social housing, viewed through the lens of documentary photography and the public history archive, while questioning the experience of women within the urban built environment and the complex relationship between female bodies, architecture, and space.

Emily is Artistic Director of Cabasa. She is responsible for the overall visual aesthetic of the project, managing our team of professional visual artists and makers.

Kate has been working as a producer and performer for Global Grooves since discovering the power of Carnival. Now pursuing her love for visual arts and making, she is a freelance artists and producer for our lead partner Cabasa and will be responsible for much of the creative makes in our studios.

Dan is Mossley-based musician and artist. He works behind the scenes and as a performer/artist with Carnival arts organisations Global Grooves and Cabasa Carnival Arts.