Performing Arts Staff Profiles
People are at the heart of everything we do at UCEN Manchester. We believe that your success is intrinsically linked to the support you receive both academically and personally.
Our staff are experts in their field and hold a varied range of professional and industry experience. Their support and dedication ensure you are guided, supported and encouraged to learn and achieve within your chosen subject.
Explore staff profiles for our Performing Arts team below.
In her early career, Kerry was a jobbing actor and toured extensively throughout the UK and the USA. She spent four years in Japan where she started a theatre company in which she acted, directed and was producer, and also enjoyed a spell as a TV presenter in Japan.
Kerry has taught at UCEN Manchester, The Manchester College and also privately since 2006. She was working freelance as an actor alongside her role within UCEN Manchester until 2016 when she formed Out of Kilter Theatre producing and directing original work. The company undertook a tour of North West in 2019 and will be taking a show to the Edinburgh Festival in 2021.
She said: “I love acting, I love exploring texts with actors, examining human behaviours and developing characters who are fully rounded, layered and intricate. I absolutely love picking apart a new piece and putting it back together to create a show which crosses genres and is experimental whilst still being grounded in truth. I love watching actors work in any medium, theatre, film or TV. It is exhilarating to truly be taken on a journey with an actor and live their characters’ lives through them.”
Lucy is a professional actor who has worked for over a decade primarily in theatre, from small scale touring to international tours. She has acted from a young age, has worked as a singer and has directed plays, musicals and Shakespeare productions while in education.
Lucy has been teaching for fourteen years after gaining a First-Class Honours degree in Drama, Film and Television with English Literature from the University of Leeds, a PGCE post compulsory and a PGCert Shakespeare & Theatre from Birmingham’s University’s Shakespeare Institute in Stratford.
Lucy said: “My favourite thing is watching people transform themselves, build in confidence, break through personal barriers and challenge each other and their audiences. The power of live theatre to provoke, excite and inspire still excites me, as does the enduring power and beauty of Shakespeare’s text and stories.”
Outside of work, Lucy is obsessed with her cockapoo Pinter and loves spending time climbing mountains in the Lake District with her husband. She also loves reading and enjoys fiction and psychology books.
Ina started dancing professionally aged 16 with a small company called Akerusia Danza who toured Naples and southern Italy.
For many years, she danced with the Giovane Balletto Mediterraneo, a dance company directed by Mauro De Candia (director of the dance company Theater Osnabruck), and with the Korper company for different projects including ‘Welcome on board’, a show directed and choreographed by Francesco Nappa for the Napoli Teatro Festival.
Ina co-founded Matrafisc Dance Company in 2016 with fellow co-artistic director Antonello Apicella and toured the UK, Italy, Holland, Mexico and America with several dance works. In 2017, she danced in a film dance project with the CompagnieThor – Thierry Smits in Belgium.
Ina’s academic achievements include graduating in dance in 2005. She studied at the Scuola del Balletto di Toscana in Florence while at the same time gaining a BA (Hons) in Sport Science at the Parthenope University of Naples. In 2013, Ina graduated in contemporary dance from the National Academy of Dance in Rome.
She said: “Choreography is definitely my greatest passion, I love the creative process in all its different forms.
“I am also passionate about yoga, running, music and reading. I love going to visit museums especially those dedicated to painting.”