The cultural impact Tameside's women have made locally and internationally is being celebrated for International Women's Day.

Culture and creativity is weaved into the fabric of Tameside, shown through historically successful women associated with Tameside, to those who make a significant impact today.

This International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March, it's an opportunity to highlight and celebrate their contributions and cultural influence within the borough.

Councillor Leanne Feeley, Tameside Council’s executive member with responsibility for culture, said: “This International Women’s Day we are celebrating women in Tameside, focusing on those who have made cultural contributions through the arts.

“Women in Tameside bring invaluable experience and talent to Tameside’s arts and cultural scene. Whether this be through performing arts, creating art or curating, they have greatly contributed to the vibrant and cultural borough it is today.

“I am proud to represent arts, equality and culture in Tameside and guide the exciting and expanding cultural offers which everyone can take part in.”

Ria Meera Munshi

Ria Meera Munshi is a professional dancer who owns Ri’s Ri’s Dance Academy in Hyde. Ria has made her mark within the cultural industry locally and internationally. She is a trained Bharatanatayam (Indian Classical) dancer, celebrity choreographer, professional model, actress, presenter, speaker, business woman and entrepreneur.

Her acting portfolio boasts a lead role in the British Airways India commercial and several other lead roles including the lead role of Geeta Aulakh in ‘Nightmare in Surbia’. This programme was broadcasted on the Crime Channel, on Sky.

In 2011, Ria established a multi-award winning dance and theatre company, Ri’s Ri’s dance academy. Her dance academy, based in Hyde, has performed at various prestigious awards and corporate events. She has also worked with renowned Bollywood star Abhay Deol. Ria has even taught the Real Housewives of Cheshire how to Bollywood dance and her dancers have appeared on Channel 4’s Come Dine with Me.

Ria’s talents do not end at being a talented actor, dancer and businesswoman, she is also an experienced model. For over 10 years she has appeared in numerous magazines such as the Yorkshire Post, Pro Hair and Sleek Asian. Ria has also modelled for BBC3.

When asked why she thinks it’s important to celebrates women’s success and impact through arts and culture she said: "As a BAME female artist residing within the challenging arts and cultural sector, it's vital for me to pave a way for others in this industry, and for future generations. It would be lovely and progressive for creative, innovative and impactful women to be celebrated and championed regularly, rather than once a year, so our voices are more visible."

Sarah England

Sarah England’s passion for the arts began at six-years-old when her mother took her to see a pantomime at a Tameside theatre.  She told her mother that she wanted to dance on stage just like the children did in the panto. When Sarah mentioned for the second time that she wanted to dance in the panto like the children, her mother sought after a local dance school. She was enrolled to take part in weekly ballet classes in a dance school in Ashton, run by Miss June Cox.

As Sarah grew up through her traditional style dance school she really found a passion for the arts. She discovered her talent for acting, having a particular talent in mimicking people’s accents. This led to her auditioning for her first full scale musical, Oliver, where she successfully auditioned for The Artful Dodger.

Her passion for theatre and dance grew stronger and led to her taking part in more musicals and exams. Following this she took part in a summer school at The Royal Academy of Dance in London and then onto Tameside College to study Set Design and Costume. Although she loved her course, after one year she left with one A-Level to purse a course at a full time dance college.

At the time no grants or funding were available for her to attend a private dance college. However, Sarah’s parent allowed her to audition for two colleges, Doreen Birds in Kent and Performers College in Essex. She was successful and was offered a place at both colleges. Sarah accepted her place at the new Performers College in Essex. This allowed her to travel around London and make new friends. She danced for eight hours a day and longer when shows came around. This schedule was very gruelling for her but amazing teachers and social life supported her.

Brian Rogers, a well-known choreographer and founder of the college, offered her a job at the end of her academic year. Sarah gladly accepted this offer and during her time as professional dancer she performed at The Dorchester, Caesars Palace, and in pantomimes and at theatres across the country. She worked with Cannon and Ball, The Baron Knights, Gerry and the Pacemakers and John Inman, amongst others. She says: “The most amazing job was on a cruise where I travelled weekly from Cyprus to Egypt and Israel.”

At 24, Sarah’s dance teacher offered to sell her dance school to her. This led Sarah to discover the sense of fulfilment that teaching children to dance and perform brought her. At the same time, Sarah met a lady who introduced her to her good friend, renowned British dancer Wayne Sleep. Wayne was looking to set up teaching workshops across the country. This led to the creation of local workshops at The Copley Centre in Stalybridge for local dance schools and children and adults to take part in a class with Wayne Sleep. Due to personal circumstances, Sarah sold the dance school in the late 90s, though she continued to help organise Wayne’s workshops across the country.

After taking a step back, fate brought Sarah back to the arts. Securing three part-time jobs, which made her a full wage, she returned to teaching and never looked back. When she taught at Tameside College, Sarah met a drama teacher who was also a writer. He always wrote her into his work, which led her to have a main part in a short film called Commandeered. This was sent to America to take part in a US TV competition called, ‘On the Lot’. This short film was seen by Carrie Fisher and Stephen Spielberg. Sarah commented that “apparently after seeing it Carrie Fisher said ‘I love English actors’. I Hope that was meant as a compliment, either way I’m taking the win.”

In 2004, she booked a room at St Paul’s Church in Stalybridge and posted a dance advert saying ‘first lesson free’. This was the beginning of The Sarah England School of Dance. A week later Sarah discovered she was pregnant with her son. But with support from an ex-student the school began to grow. The school started with only five little ballerina’s dancing on Saturday morning and has now evolved into classes running across two studios, six days a week.

Through the pandemic, the students of Sarah’s dance school kept connected through Zoom classes. These online classes totalled to a grand 1200 lessons. The student’s did tasks and challenges and even created and connected with dance schools all over the world to do a global ‘Zoom’ flash mob for International Dance Day in April 2020. This involved students from dance schools in Kuala Lumpur, Canada, US, Italy, Australia and more.

Sarah’s dream now include Stalybridge to have its own theatre, a community hub with shows that will bring more culture to Stalybridge. She hopes this will encourage more people to visit Stalybridge and build cultural offerings and the local economy. She also believes theatres are amazing for bringing communities together, creating a buzz and energy in a town, and driving the economy of a place because people have a meal or go for drink before or after a show.

Sarah Hardacre

Sarah Hardacre is a visual artist and print maker, who lives, works and creates in Tameside. Sarah exhibits her work internationally. Her works are included in the collections of the British Museum, British Council and private collections including Damien Hirst’s Murderme collection and Luciano Benneton’s Imago Mundi in Italy.

Through collage and screen printing she investigates the legacy of Modernist architecture and post-war social housing. She views this legacy through the lens of documentary photography and public history archive. Interestingly, she also questions the experience of women with the urban built environment and the complex relationship between female body’s architecture and space.

Sarah also has 14 years’ experience working with public arts on large scale projects. This includes working on large scale projects such as the Irwell Sculpture Trail during its redevelopment and relaunch stage. Also working on smaller projects such as consulting on small start-up initiatives, including Make it Macclesfield CIC.

She also runs her own studio in Manchester’s Northern Quarter where she runs short courses delivering commercial screen print services in collaboration with leading North West based design and PR agencies.

Sarah has also recently joined the Global Grooves team, an artist-led carnival arts organisation based in Mossley, as a Project Manager. Sarah will be curating products for the new In Tameside website, selecting local artists and makers also based in Tameside and the surrounding areas to produce beautiful objects which showcase and celebrate the area.

Sarah feels honoured to have the opportunity to curate a collection of artworks for Tameside. She said: “Tameside has been my home for over ten years now. It’s where I live, work and create. It’s where I climb hills, mooch around the market, constantly discover new districts, diversions and distractions and where I am constantly inspired and amazed by the abundance of beauty in the borough. I love the diversity, the landscape, the heritage and most of all the cultural energy of Tameside.

“So being asked to curate a collection of artworks that celebrate Tameside felt like a real honour and an exciting opportunity to create an impact on the cultural vision of the borough. I’ve invited artists whose work I love, whose work I own in my personal art collection and whose work reflects both the built and natural ecologies of Tameside.”

The artists Sarah has chosen to contribute to the collection include Stephen Marland, Julian Bovis, and May Wild Studio. Fascinatingly, her collages focus on Droylsden’s Concord Suite. Sharing her thoughts on the Concorde Suite, Sarah comments: “I think it’s beautiful, which I know is a controversial opinion as most people will call it an eyesore! But this period of architecture, Modernist, Brutalist in nature, holds all the utopian ideals of an aspirational time that looked to a better future and for me, all those values are still tied up in the fabric of the building.”

Sarah hopes that in time people will start to look at the architecture of Tameside differently through the work curated for In Tameside.

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