Meet Our Team

Biographies of CoActive Leaders ​

Jody Gabriel 
Main Roles within CoActive:
Leading CoActive Sessions, usually in a collaborative way with the other Artists.
Specialising in Visual Art, Sculpture, and Filmmaking.
Taking the lead on much of the administration for example - Support Information, Risk Assessment, Registers, Petty Cash, Organising Stock.
Previous Experience and Training:
BA(Hons) Fine Art
Post Graduate Certificate in non-compulsory Education and Training.
Worked as a Support Worker and Manager, giving support to people with learning disabilities in their own homes for many years.
Co-founder of first Self-Advocacy Group in Wakefield for people with Learning Disabilities.
Worked continually with CoActive for over 10 years
Contact:
jody@coactive.org.uk
07954 391043
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Mel Neale 
Mel  is a founding artist of CoActive, Which means she’s been around for ages.
She studied Dance and physical Theatre at BretTon Hall university and later went on to study a Post grad in Youth, Community, and informal education at Huddersfield University.
She has worked with many different diverse groups of people in community arts, Youth work and community education across West Yorkshire, but for the last 15 years CoActive has been her main focus.
She is passionate about arts being for everyone and also excellence in art coming from any person.  Developing deep creative community is close to Mel’s heart. This makes working with CoActive a great fit, we foster deep belonging and create together.
Her  job in CoActive is as an artist focusing on dance and expressive movement and her other role is to help look to the future of CoActive (the crazy ideas person / artistic director)

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ALI ROBINSON-ROWE - COACTIVE DEVELOPMENT WORKER
ALI FIRST WORKED WITH COACTIVE AS AN ARTIST IN 2015 AND 2016, WORKING WITH MEMBERS TO PRODUCE SCULPTURES, PROPS AND IMAGES FOR A PRODUCTION OF A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM.  SHE CAME BACK IN 2018 AS A VISUAL ARTIST AND DEVELOPMENT WORKER, AND NOW FOCUSES HER TIME ON WRITING FUNDING APPLICATIONS AND DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS AND SYSTEMS TO HELP KEEP COACTIVE A STRONG AND HEALTHY ORGANISATION. 
WHEN SHE'S NOT WORKING WITH COACTIVE SHE WORKS AT AN ART GALLERY AS A DEVELOPMENT MANAGER AND SPENDS TIME WITH HER FAMILY.  HER FAVOURITE THINGS TO DO ARE WALKING AND SPENDING TIME IN NATURE AND MAKING THINGS, LIKE BAKING CAKES AND CRAFTING CARDS. ​

SOPHIE MEI LAN
DANCE, MOVEMENT AND SOCIAL MEDIA COACH.
SOPHIE LOVES SHARING DANCE, ONLINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA SKILLS AND ENCOURAGING EVERYONE TO GET ACTIVE AND MOVING FOR THEIR MIND AND BODY. 
SHE LOVES TEACHING BELLYDANCE FUSION, FEEL GOOD FITNESS AND SHARING HER PASSION FOR ALL THINGS DIGITAL.  
SOPHIE TRAINED IN DANCE AND DRAMA AS A YOUNGSTER AND THEN DISCOVERED BELLY DANCING AT A LOCAL COMMUNITY GROUP AGED 14 AND SHE HAS BEEN LEARNING AND SHARING THE ART FORM EVER SINCE. 
SHE IS ALSO A QUALIFIED BROADCAST JOURNALIST AND VLOGGER (ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO QUALIFICATION FOR YOUTUBE YET SO SHE STUDIED A BA HONS PHILOSOPHY AND ITALIAN WITH SOCIAL SCIENCES AT UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER BEFORE QUALIFYING AS A BROADCAST JOURNALIST).
​SOPHIE TRULY STARTED HER CAREER IN THE MEDIA THROUGH HER LOVE OF DANCING IN DIFFERENT COMMUNITY SETTINGS WHICH INSPIRED HER TO START A HUMAN RIGHTS MAGAZINE (AKA AN ONLINE BLOG) WHICH LED TO HER WINNING AWARDS AND WORKING FOR CHANNEL 4 NEWS, ITV NEWS AND BBC NEWS. SHE HAS A PASSION FOR SHARING UNTOLD STORIES AND MAKING DOCUMENTARIES SHINING THE LIGHT ON A RANGE OF HEALTH ISSUES. 
SOPHIE LOVES BEING PART OF THE COACTIVE TEAM WHERE YOU’LL FIND HER CO-LEADING DANCE AND MOVEMENT SESSIONS AS WELL AS SOCIAL MEDIA COACHING.
 

Rebecca Simpson
Rebecca is an experienced facilitator, having graduated with a Theatre Acting Degree from Bretton Hall.   Rebecca is also the Creative Director of Stride Theatre who have a strong reputation for supporting community groups as well as enabling those with social, physical and mental health needs to communicate effectively in order to explore, lobby and raise awareness.  Rebecca's role within CoActive is predominately to support the weekly movement session which she loves as it encourages exercises, collaboration and expression. 

Gemma Whelan
Drama practitioner for coactive for 7 years.
Trained as an actor and found a niche marrying both performance and community theatre together. 
Based in West Yorkshire and has Worked as an actor, writer, director and practitioner for over 20 years.
I have delivered creative projectS near and far, working internationally and locally.