Sharing joy through movements- my journey from the streets of Mumbai to community spaces in Leeds.

I am Minoti Parikh, a classical Indian Dancer and a creative producer, developing creative wellbeing programmes that help reduce social isolation and increase public participation in diverse arts.

Born and raised in India and now based in Leeds, I am passionate about building equitable, healthy and inclusive cultures and communities and often introduce arts as a way to improve diversity, increase overall wellbeing and leadership skills within organisations and communities. I have worked with individuals and community groups across West Yorkshire to enable better access to diverse cultural art forms like Indian classical dance with the aim to increase public engagement with creative arts while building the overall mental health of participants.

I have over 20 years of global experience in designing and delivering creative programmes. I work with a diverse range of communities, charity staff members and volunteers to help improve the overall resilience of communities. Some of the organisations I have worked with are- Mesmac, Leeds Older people’s forum, Touchstone, Neighbourhood networks, Carers Leeds, Solace, NHS etc. I help bring people together to have fun, be creative and build confidence, improve wellbeing and build a sense of community, all this while introducing participants to the versatile Indian classical dance form- Bharatnatyam.

Along with being an Artist, I am the Founder of TPL Experiences, a creative consultancy business for good, based in West Yorkshire that supports organisations and communities to build thriving and inclusive cultures. I am a Trainer, Speaker, NED and Master of Ceremonies and have an international experience of facilitating more than 1600 events, creative projects, wellbeing and training programs in over 25 countries. Through my Consultancy, I deliver Strategy development and training programs focusing on improving the resilience, culture and wellbeing of organisations and communities across the UK.

Through my artistic practice, I have recently co-produced an Arts project called Creative Voices, co-created by older adults from the LGBTQ plus community in Leeds and me. This project was delivered by Yorkshire Mesmac and initially funded by the National Lottery funding. Creative Voices has been born out of a need to use creativity to express ourselves, our lives, find our voices, build friendships and take care of our own mental wellbeing.

The project’s main purpose was to build the confidence and overall health of all the members. It was also our ambition to build a community of like minded individuals who come together to overcome social exclusion barriers while introducing creative arts as a way of feeling uplifted and empowered. We have been meeting for the past one year now. As part of this community group’s ambitions, we all worked towards a sharing event .The event saw members showcasing their creativity through a series of short acts. Please see below a small snippet of the work that was shared.

Due to the success of this group and most importantly, due to the impact this project has created on the lives of the members, we have now decided to work towards continuing this group and over the Creativity and Wellbeing week, we will be starting to work towards another short movement and spoken word performance as the members found the experience of working towards something as a group, very rewarding.

We hope to start collaborating, creating, moving and spreading the joy (Again!) during the Creativity and Wellbeing week and hope that this will be a restart of our journey, as a creative collective.

We are always interested in inviting new members to join our group so if you are based in and around Leeds and identify as an elderly LGBTQ + individual then I would love to hear from you. Please get in touch with me at- minoti@tplexperiences.com.

Equally, I am always keen on collaborating and finding new partners to work with so please drop me a line if you would like to be involved.

And lastly, if you are business for good and looking to build greater impact in your local communities, please give me a shout!

Happy Creativity and Wellbeing week to you! 🙂

Thanks so much,

Minoti