Episode 9 - Rachel Waite - From performance to purpose: music, movement, and community.

In this episode of Warren Telling Tales – A Hub For Creators, host Warren Adams speaks with Rachel Waite from Holistic Harmonies. Rachel shares her journey of determination, tenacity, and a will to succeed, from studying contemporary dance and performing professionally, to building a new vocation centred on wellbeing, creativity, and connection.

Rachel talks about her background in performance—touring Italy with Fame the Musical, working with choreographer Darshan Singh Bhuller, appearing with Caburlesque on Britain’s Got Talent (semi-finals), and even working as a body double/stand-in for Ginny Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Parts 1 & 2)—before moving into roles working with children and families, and eventually finding her calling through baby massage and music-led family support.

She also explains how she trained as a Singing Mamas Choir Leader and created Holistic Harmonies, a Community Interest Company delivering arts-for-wellbeing sessions, singing groups, singing programmes, intergenerational work, and community projects across Liverpool. If you’re feeling stuck, Rachel’s story is a reminder that it’s never too late to pursue your dreams.

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Music by Pixabay

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, hello everyone. Today we have Rachel Waite on the podcast, a supremely talented person. Uh she's a singer, a songwriter, a dancer. She has her own company, Holistic Harmonies. Um, you've been incredibly busy, Rachel, since I last saw you, which we worked out was about 13 years ago, which is incredible. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:33

I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, yeah. Um I can there's been a million and a million things that have happened since I last saw you. So yeah, there's um there's a lot to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Lots to talk about, yeah, absolutely. So for those that don't know uh Rachel and myself and how we know each other, um, we went to university together at Middlesex University. Woo! Big shout out to those guys. Um, and we we were you were doing dance, um, and I was doing drama, and we sort of did some performing arts bits here and there as well. Um how was that time for you in uh in university?

SPEAKER_01 1:13

I I loved uni, I absolutely loved it. I couldn't wait to I'm from Liverpool and uh I couldn't wait to leave Liverpool. I felt like um I just I was like Oliver, I was like, I just want to go and seek my fortune in the New York City. And um I was wanting to move to London when I was 16, and then my mum said to me, I think uh maybe you should do some A levels and get some proper qualifications first before going to London. So I did do that, and I'm glad I did because I had a great time at six form and at six form as well. But as soon as I could get down to London, I was there, and I absolutely loved uni. Um, I think the biggest thing, aside from obviously all the training that we had with the most amazing teachers from all over the place, um, was the freedom. Like uh had an experience, the freedom to go anywhere you want to go. London was just a hive of activity. Um, you could go to a theater show or a gig or you know, some really obscure improv night in Hackney, any night of the week that you wanted to. Um, and there was just people from all over the world and all different backgrounds at uni, and it really um helped me to expand my own um like view of the world. Um, and yeah, just learn so much more about life. That's what for me, that's that's as much as what uni's for as the actual course is just life experience.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

For sure, for sure. I would I would echo that. For me, it was a massive eye-opener. I mean, I came from a a small town called Winchester, and then I was at the age of 18 thrown into uh into the big London, the big smoke, big city life. And uh although having said that, our our campus was for those that have not been to Trent Park campus, it's an incredible place, and uh it's sort of far removed from the city, and you're close to the countryside and nature and trees, and it's it's beautiful out there. Um but as you said, it was so easy to get into town if you wanted to, at 25 minutes on the on the underground, and you were there amongst all the amongst all the action. Um good, good. So you so it was an enjoyable time for you. Did you have any any um any challenges during that time at university, any things that you had to sort of adapt to or overcome, living you know, away from family or you know, uh completely different cultures, meeting people from from sort of all over the world, really. I mean, we had friends from here, there and everywhere, didn't we? So, how how was that for you?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah, it was it was a big challenge actually coming from um a place in Liverpool where it was a really safe place, the the little part that I was from. Um, I grew up um in quite a strong Catholic family. So that was a big, big influence for me. And being in Liverpool was still kind of like old school, even though it's very multicultural and it always has been, it's still it was still quite segregated. So when I was a kid, it was basically just like a Catholic or a Protestant, and you just go to whichever school is nearby. Um, and that was my experience. Everyone I knew, even if they didn't go to church, they'd already been to one, they knew what one was. So can you imagine going to London and like meeting some friends in my halls of residence who were just like, oh, what do you do inside a church? And um, what's Liverpool like? And yeah, um, oh, where I come from, we eat this. And food was a big one for me. It was like I was just used to um meeting two veg guys. I'm an ordener. That's what I was used to. So being in halls of residence and other people cooking like weird and wonderful things. Yeah, and I I was living with um lots of American Exchange students at my halls of residence, and they were doing things like sonic arts, and I'd never really been exposed to um like really, you know, I suppose more thoughtful um art forms. I was like, I want to do musical theater, I am gonna be on the West End. That was my dream when I was 18, and I think uni really challenged me actually and opened me up. Um, I was really glad for the experience of actually doing an academic degree because I had wanted to go and just do high kicks and pirouettes for three years. And actually, I'm really glad that I didn't. I didn't get into any of the mainstream theater schools. Um, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

I remember you being quite studious, Rachel. Like that's my my my distant memory. I mean, you were great at all the performing stuff, but I remember you were very focused as well. Whereas myself, on the other hand, I I was similar. I just wanted to do the shows and uh and you know, do do all the fancy bits, and then the the writing and the reading and the studying part for me, I found a massive struggle. But um, and I also got wrote like because we kind of I don't know if it was the same for you, but you would often get hauled into other people's productions, particularly towards the end of university. You I found myself doing like my own work, then trying to study, read books, learn, you know, different techniques, as well as being in like 400 different shows, like appearing randomly. Was that the same for you as well?

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I can't relate to other people who say, Oh, uni was such a DOS. I only had six hours contact time a week, you know, people who did law or thing and they were really left to their own devices and they had to just do loads of studying at home.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

I think for us, well, I remember most of the time we were in seven days a week, and that was through choice. Um, but you know, most semesters we we'd be doing a choreography piece. So we'd be doing our own choreography piece, and then you know, six or seven other people would say, Will you be in my choreography? Will you be in mine? So before you know it, you're right. You know, you're doing your core, your core lessons throughout the day. And we always had, you know, our set dance classes throughout the day that we had to do as part of our technique. And then we'd stay till nine o'clock at night, Monday to Friday, until they threw us out rehearsing. And we'd be in every Saturday and Sunday. I don't know how we did it because we still partied hard as well, didn't we?

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Right, right, right, right. We did, we did. Yep, yep. Um, but but so yeah, because I feel like the dance course was actually you had more to do than than we did. I feel like the dancers were on a on another level of and I remember coming to watch a lot of the shows. I really enjoyed watching the shows, and I had you know a lot of friends that were uh performing as dancers as well, and and it was enjoyable to watch it. But I feel like you guys definitely had to work much harder than than we did. But um, anyway, so so but pretty prior to to university, were you always um in this world, the per the performing arts creative world? What is was that always a dream for you, or did that come later in life, or how how how did that work?

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Oh no, always. I started dance classes when I was about five years old, and you know, there's some pushy mums who are like, my child will be a star. I I was like, please, mum, please, please, please let me go to dance classes. And so there was a little community center around the corner, and I did tap and ballet and modern and disco dancing and all that. Um, and then it was when I got to um sixth form, like late, late high school, early sixth form, um, I joined an Andram theatre company and they were so good. Like I'd I'd say a large handful of them now, um, you know, are working on the West End and um which is quite unusual, I think, for for an amateur dramatic society.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um yeah, um and so lots of them are doing professional West End, did you say? West End.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Carl Carlo did uh he got a big part in Scylla, the musical, obviously they're looking for Scousers, and then um yeah, one ended up uh we did Jesus Christ Superstar in our theatre company.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

And the guy who played Jesus actually made it to uh the the cast, the touring cast, and then the London cast of Jesus Christ Superstar, and then went on to Blood Brothers and you know what was the name of this company that you were in? It was called Knowsley Music Theatre. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Wow, there we go.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Yeah, and it was just it was run by the council. Um, yeah, we went to the Millennium Dome in the year 2000 and we had a musical written for us about Nosley, so we performed that. Um yeah, it was a really, really amazing experience. And um we had you know some choreographers from Lipper who who helped come and do the the routines for us. So it was really, really high quality, and um it, you know, it felt like an acceptable and normal thing to then apply for theatre school because quite a few other people had done that as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

You mentioned Lippa there. Can you um can you explain to everyone what that actually stands for for those that may not be familiar?

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Yeah, so Lippa is Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts, and it was set up by Sir Paul McCartney. Um it's actually in his old school, so it was the art school that he went to um as a boy. Um, and he and yeah, he set up this performing arts school, which actually I live like one minute walk away now. So it's come full circle. Um, but yeah, there's a lot of people from Sweden and Norway, Scandinavia who comes who come to Lippa.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

They're everywhere, they're everywhere. They're everywhere. I remember there was a fair few at uni, I think, as well. Uh including Camilla, who is now back in Norway, uh in Bergen, a good good friend of ours. Um, anyway, so good. So after after university, how what happened then? What how was the transition for you out of uni and into into the real world? It's a completely different, uh completely different life. Because I feel like we were in a bubble when we were at university. It was great and it was a lot of fun.

unknown 10:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

And I feel like we were living the dream, if you will. Uh, mine is not really having a lot of a lot of money at the time, but but outside of that, it was a lot of fun. But then leaving there and then being like, okay, now I've got to actually think about where I'm gonna live. I've got to rent somewhere, I've got to get money, I've got to buy food, I've got to do all these things and travel here, there, and everywhere. I found that a little bit of a shock to the system at first. But how was it for you?

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Well, I basically said, I'm not ready for that, and I didn't do it.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Okay, there we go. There we go. Tell us more, tell us more.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Basically, I was hiding for another year. Okay, I I went to the I so I did get my dream of going to a theatre school. So I went to do a professional um a postgrad uh diploma in professional performance at Millennium Dance, which is kind of an offshoot of London Studio Centre. So some of the teachers from London Studio Centre set up Millennium Dance. And one of the reasons why I chose that that theatre school is because at uni, um, what I didn't realise at the time at Middlesex is that we we had been so lucky to do some very specific dance techniques. Um, a couple of them were uh Martha Graham Technique.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

And Merce Cunningham. So Cunningham Technique.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Can you tell us what they are very briefly for those that aren't in the dance world?

SPEAKER_01 12:14

I'm vaguely familiar with it, but so Martha Graham was this awesome woman in New York, and she was the she was what people call the pioneer of modern dance. So before people like Martha Graham, there'd only really been Isadora Duncan before Martha Graham. And so Martha Graham was working around the time of the Second World War in the in the late 20s, early 30s. And um before then, all that all that was accessible with dance was ballet. And ballet is very rigid and um prescriptive, and um I suppose what she would think was non- non-emotional. And so Martha Graham created this technique which um was basically all about emotions and the breath and feeling uh the body.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

I remember this now from you.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yeah, it was very powerful because her hair philosophy is very athletic as well. So every muscle in your body had to be doing something while you were dancing. So even whereas the ballet arm's like this, her arm was like this. So it was like every single muscle had to be working. And so Martha, she she only died in um I think it was um the late 90s. She was really old and she was dancing right up until her like in her 80s. Um and one of her properties was Merce Cunningham. Uh, but Merce Cunningham, really interestingly, so Martha was all about the emotion. Merce was like, I'm done with this emotion. So all his movement was about the the body in space and time. So it's just all about lines.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

But still very athletic. And I didn't realize that a middlesex, uh, that was one of the only places in the world that they were we were allowed to do pure Graham-based and uh pure Graham and pure Cunningham um technique. In other places in the world, they teach Graham-based technique and Graham-based at Cunningham-based. So only in New York, where you know the actual schools are, um are they allowed, or if people come and do workshops and things. So I didn't realise how privileged we were to um experience three years of those techniques and Millennium Dance Theatre School. Um, all they had a teacher called Kenneth Tharp, who was um one of the original members of London's uh contemporary dance school at the place in London. And he he worked with one of our teachers at Middlesex, um, who was the Graham teacher. And so I still got to do Graham technique and Cunningham technique as well as musical theatre and jazz.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

For those that can't see this, that are listening, Rachel was demonstrating a nice bit of jazz hands action for us all there. Um, good, good, good. So you were there for a year at Millennium Dance, and then what happened? What happened after that?

SPEAKER_01 15:00

So Millennium Dance it very much was a breeding ground for the West End.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

And because we because we did contemporary as well, people went off to do things like Matthew Bourne um and and more like contemporary dance roots as well. So that's one reason why I loved it. We also did acting and singing as well, so really improved my vocal technique and um and acting as well during that time. But they also prepared us for audition. So we used to have to do audition technique and get our repertoire ready. You know, you'd have to get um you'd have to get a pre-1920s musical theatre song and then a modern song, and you'd have to get a song and a different accent, and you'd have to get your bank of monologues ready, you had to get your headshots ready. And um, and then I was so fortunate that the the theatre school had an agency. Um, and we all had to audition the whole year. I can't remember how many people were in the year, but um, you know, a handful of us got into this, into the agency. So I left theatre school with an agent, which I just felt I was over the moon. I felt so lucky to have that.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Yeah, it's amazing. And um, okay, so but so you you left the school, you had an agent. What what did what what did you do then? Did you start jumping into auditions or um, yeah, what was the next step?

SPEAKER_01 16:15

I've after getting over the panic and fear of then being in the real wide world. Yeah, right, right. Yeah, thinking, oh, because I had taken it would cost 10 grand to do 10,000 pounds to do this one-year course. And I'd taken out a loan, and I was like, how am I gonna pay this loan back? And I've got to audition and get jobs as well. Um, so at the time I was working like weekends, um, doing music, teaching music to babies and children at a place called Jimbury in um in Notting Hill. Um and auditioning. I was on that circuit with my you know, headshots and door-to-door-to-door auditions. And finally, um, it was only three months after leaving theatre school that I auditioned for a theatre company called Erasmus Theatre and got a part in fame.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Oh, very nice.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

It was the Italian tour. So um, by by November 2006, I was whisked off to Italy for three weeks' rehearsal and then toured Italy for three months after that. Um, doing doing a musical. It was quite incredible.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

You didn't have to do it in Italian, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:26

No, no, no, no, no. That that that would that would have been quite ironically the the the audiences used to laugh because fame spelled F-A-M-E, fame in Italian means hungry. Ah so it'll be like fame, fame. But um, actually, I suppose it it means hunger for fame as well.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Ah, there we go. Clever. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah, but it was really interesting actually doing that tour because it's everything that I'd always wanted to do. I thought, oh my god, I have made it. This is my first job out of theater school. I've made it.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Yeah. Um to get. That's a great gig to get for your first one out traveling around Italy, and sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Italy, if I was at that time, if someone had said to me which country would you like to visit, Italy would have been the number one. So it really was a dream come true. Um, and I was um pirouetting and high kicking across the stage.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

And you've got it, you've got it.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

It was like being a pop star, actually. People were chasing us down the street, kids were chasing us down the street for autographs, and we were having to be bundled back into the tour bus. Um, it was a real eye-opener. Um, all the and and as amazing as the actual performances were, it it was an eye-opener into what it's like to be on tour as well.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

And can you tell us any exciting stories about life on the road, life being in tour on tour in Italy? Well, I think the within reason, nothing too exclusive.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Oh, there was lots of drama.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Lots of drama, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

When when you're in one tour bus and you're basically at the you know at the mercy of the tour of the tour manager, you don't know where you are, you've all got to stick together. Yeah, um, you're you're just a bunch of you know, people all stuck together 24 hours a day. It is it's really intense, really intense. And you know, we were probably at the we were probably all aged between 19 years old and 22. And I was 22, and I was like, I am so much older and maturer than you 19-year-olds. Um so it it was it was actually a real challenge, and it it it as amazing as the experience was, it made me realize um that that the actual performance part of a job is minuscule compared to if you're on tour, that's your life. You know, it's different if you know if you're on the West End and you're in London, you can go home and have a bit of a separate life, but touring, wow. Quite often we'd wake up and we'd have to say to the tour manager, where are we? Where are we in Italy? And we'd have to look at a map. And then, you know, even now when I look back at the photos, I'm like, well, I can remember that day, but I don't know where that is. Because we just can't, I just felt like we were constantly driving and then constantly doing you know, dress rehearsals and constantly performing, and it was a real um exercise in stamina.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

I'm hoping the tour manager knew the answer to where are we?

unknown 20:21

I know.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Thank God he did. He did, he did know, he did know. That's good. Good. That would have been rather concerning otherwise. All right, so you were touring around Italy, and how long were you out there for, did you say?

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Three months. So I got back. Yeah, I got back in um, I think it was February 2007.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Yeah, back to London. I found it really interesting because um what I noticed about people in this performance industry is they're really strong and resilient and hard-faced a lot of the time, and they can just go from one thing to the next to the next to the next. And I managed it for a few years, but it was always so hard because coming back from Italy, I'm unemployed again. I'm back to earning zero again. I've just like had like my mind blown in Italy every you know, for three months. And um, you know, I was get back to auditioning again. Um, I did I did get a couple of jobs actually. Um, I got a job doing the Northwest tour of Midsummer Night's Dream, which I ended up turning down, probably one of the biggest regrets of my life. Yeah, why did you turn it down? Because in Italy I'd been being paid so well. Like I just had I earned so much money while I was in Italy. Um, that that was amazing to I had you know couldn't afford a few months to live off when I got back. This job in Liverpool, it was actually in in set in uh based in Liverpool during the Northwest tour. They were only offering at that time, this 2007, 190 pounds a week.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

And even my agent was like, Well, by the time you've given me 15% and they're not paying for digs. And you've got to pay for travel. She's like, you're gonna have nothing left. So she's like, I don't blame you if you turn it down. And I actually thought, well, I've just got back to London. I had a boyfriend at the time, I didn't seen him for a while. And I just thought, yeah, I'm gonna stay in London for a little bit. I was like, I now I realize looking back, is like really you should just grab all of those opportunities and just trust that you'll be able to pay your way and things will sort themselves out. But I I feel like for all a lot of those years, I was a worrier. I was like, how am I gonna pay the bills? I need to make sure I can pay pay everything and look after myself. And it that was a real struggle for me managing.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

I think that's an artist struggle generally, isn't it? It's like, do you take the job or do you try and find a way to make sure that you've got rent? And it is a gamble. If you had taken it, it would have been a huge gamble.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

But I'm sure you've been through it yourself. Where's been days there was days when um you know I'd have an audition booked in, but I hadn't had any work that week, and then I used to do lots of promotional work, and you know, a day's work would come in on the same day as the audition. I'm like, oh my god, I could earn 150 quid, or I could go to this audition and get a big job. What shall I do? And yeah, you know, quite often I turned the auditions down because I just needed to earn the money. And for me, like having that balance, my heart was just at my throat most of the time. It's like, oh, what am I gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Yeah, I always slightly envy people that uh that that had money coming from somewhere and they didn't have to worry about such things and they could just focus on doing the audition or doing the job because it is it is super hard, it's it is a it's a challenge, it's always a juggle in that sense. But um well, there we go. So um you you also became a baby massage instructor. Can you tell us how you got into that journey? Because I know you were doing music for for for babies and you were you're working with with young children, you've done a lot of work with young children. Um, but how did the baby massage thing come out? Is that something you've always wanted to do, or did it just an opportunity just uh just arose and you went and you grabbed it? Or yeah, tell us tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Oh, I'd never heard of it before. Um, but while I was auditioning, I'd started being a nanny. Now there's lots of families in London who looking for nannies and lots of performers who uh were doing things like that, um, just bits of childcare. And it was a great job because you know, a few families that I was in touch with would just say, um, tell us when you're free, I could just do with a few hours help. Um so I could fit it around auditions really well. So I'd spent a few years by then um, you know, helping other helping families to bring up their children, and I've always loved babies and and kids. I think when um when the performing uh I mean I was I performed a lot of of various things, but I think when I got to about 27 years old, I just thought this this is not good anymore. The dream had turned into a nightmare, and I just felt like I was constantly on the hustle and chasing. And I just thought, I've got to I've got to stop this. I was getting really disillusioned. Um, I actually, from the age of 27 to 29, did not sing a note.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

I was like, if no one's gonna pay me to do it or I'm not gonna get the jobs that I want, I am out. I'm not doing this anymore. So I went back to college and I um studied child development and I got a qualification, um, which meant that I could work in the NHS. So I completely changed. I felt like a completely different person. And I went to work as a health visitor assistant in Fulham in London, did that for a while. I volunteered at a special needs school called the Bridge School in Holloway and did music therapy with them, which was absolutely fascinating, such an eye-opener there. And then I got a job on a neonatal unit in East London in Homerton Hospital. So that was looking after premature babies. And when I looked at the job spec, I was like, this is my perfect job. Basically, get to look after babies all day. Um yeah, so uh, but it was uh like out of the frying pan into the fire doing shift work, and I'd never done shift work before. So, you know, really suddenly after three days training, bear in mind a nurse gets three years. I was a family support worker, I had three days training for this job, and I was doing a like basically everything that a nurse does except giving medication. Um, was yeah, so I was in a room with with a nurse, so there'd be six babies, three on one side, three on the other, and one of the staff members would look after three babies for one shift, and I'd have three to look after. Um and wow, what a different world, what a different world. Uh you know, this was 2011 to 2012. Um, yeah, all of a sudden I was wearing scrubs. I was wearing scrubs every day, I was doing night shifts, I was looking after babies who were born at some of some of them born at 23 weeks uh um gestation and um looking after babies. Uh so I was using helping with feeding tubes and taking blood tests and plotting graphs of bilirubin levels and um supporting, you know, um it was such an eye-opener to me to um why again talking about um moving to London and you know coming across people from different backgrounds in in Hackney in London, you meet people from every race, every colour, every creed, you know, every possible country in the world was like a melting pot. So I it was it was such a a wealth of experience there.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

And I presume you learn you learnt an awful lot on the job. You just had to so just through experience, just throwing yourself into it. And uh and I did you have some sort of uh mentor around you or someone that was overseeing what you were doing, or or did you really just have to you know grab the ball by the horns as it, you know? I think that's the saying, and uh and just uh go for it.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Oh yeah, I won't talk too much about it because um it was a difficult experience, and um having come from this artistic background where we're you know, and I'm a very, very, very emotional person. Like I'll just cry at the drop of a hat. And I'm you know, I'm a very um empathetic person as well. So if I see someone upset, I'll want to look after them. And um I found the neonatal unit um in this particular one. I know it's not the same everywhere, but it it didn't work with my personality at all. I kept being told off regularly for um being too soft and um letting the letting the staff uh letting their parents see my emotions and um I just felt very, very unprepared and I had I didn't really have any mentors and I had three days training and all of a sudden they're like, here's this baby, this baby's this big. Um can you put a tube down this baby's nose?

SPEAKER_00 29:12

That is that is a life experience right there, Rachel. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

I just think you know, uh I think you know, all of these things sometimes when I was at at that those points, I was like, How have I ended up here? I've got a degree in dance, and now I've got scrubs on and I'm doing blood tests on these tiny babies. You know, and I was working with you know, with um drug addicts a lot of the time, you know, they ended up women women who got pregnant and then ended up having babies early, and that was a really um humbling experience, and and actually um a lot of those experiences of uh working with um people who've had really traumatic lives, um it really tested my ethics and a lot of questions that um hadn't really crossed my mind because I've just had this really nice life, uh grown up in a really, you know, in a nice place with a nice family. Um it really made me question um what I want to do. I was wiser to what it was like for other people in the world. And actually, I met an occupational therapist in the in the hospital, and she was a baby massage instructor. Um, and she just said to me, Um, you'd be so good at this, and you'd be able to do it on your own terms, and you'd be able to be freelance and you can build your own business and you can you know connect with these parents heart to heart, which is what you're not you're not being allowed to do in on the ward. Sounds like a match made in heaven, that yeah, it was it was that was the that was the start of everything that's that's come since yeah doing the baby massage training.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

Wow, so so you went through a quite challenging experience, but then came out the other side of that, and then you got this link with with the baby massage uh job, which sounds like yeah, all the things you mentioned, it seems like it would go together very nicely. Um, and then and so now you're the founder of Holistic Harmonies. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Holistic harmonies. And when did that come about? When did that start? What was the inspiration for for that? And what is it? Tell us what it is as well. That would be good.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

What is holistic harmonies? Um well, now as of August 2020, Holistic Harmonies is now a community interest company. A CIC. It's called a CIC. Um, so that's basically it means that all the work that I do is of interest to the community.

unknown 31:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

So it's kind of like a step down from a charity to get a bit more freedom. Um, being a community interest company, charities have a lot of um policies and procedures and um guidelines to adhere to, but for me, it they're just it's an acknowledgement from the government that what I'm doing is of interest to the community. Um so it it started probably three years ago. Um and by that time, so that was like 2017. Um, I had gone back to nannying. Um, I'd um quit all the NHS stuff. I ended up working as a therapy assistant for a pediatric obesity team in Hackney as well for a while.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

And um you've been a busy lady in the last 13 years, Rachel, since I saw you.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

And then all the way through, I'm like, what is this for? How have I ended up doing this? How have I ended up doing this? And then um I realized that uh, you know, I think I sat down one day and I thought, right, so I started singing my passion, my true passion in my heart is singing and dancing. That's what makes me feel alive. And also at the times when I've felt down and sad and upset and confused and happy and joyful, it's always singing and dancing that helps. Um and then also I've got these skills now in working with families. I really have honed this um skill that I've got in being able to work with women particularly and babies and support women in that postnatal um period of time as well. Um and you know, and I've got this experience within the NHS, so I understand how the NHS works as well. Um so I was like, wow, I've got all these experiences now. How can I put all these together and and create an offering? Um so um I thought, right, I've got baby massage, I've taught music to so much in for so many companies now, I'll just take all the best bits and create my own curriculum. So a music and movement sessions. Um loved dancing, and I'd started doing a dance um class, I suppose, called Five Rhythms, which um is about embodying movement, which I've very much come full circle to from from being at uni and have uh, you know, or doing classes where everything is has to be this way and that way. Yeah, embodied movement is um basically going inwards and just saying, well, how do I want to move? How does my body move?

SPEAKER_00 34:14

So you you are running these classes, just to be clear.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

I've gone to some, I'd gone to some of those classes and gone to some, okay. I've gone to some, yeah. And I just felt so awakened because I always struggled with my body. That you know, I don't have a typical dancer's body, which is why I always struggled because my you know, my legs don't go as high as uh, you know, a leggy uh neither do mine, Rachel.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Neither do mine.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

So um, yeah, so I was just like, oh, it just feels so liberating to move how I want to move. And actually that ties into baby massage as well, in that we're using movement of the baby's body to help the baby open up their bodies as well. So it really is a holistic experience of movement from birth for me, right up until you know the day we pass away. And um, I wanted holistic harmonies to be holistic harmonies as an umbrella name for you know baby massage for music and movement. And then I came across an advert on Facebook that said, Would you like to be a choir leader? And initially I was like, um, no. Now talking about creativity, I've always struggled with the word creativity connected to me. For me, I've always thought, now I'm a leader. If it was acting, I was just like, just give me a script. I don't want to do improvisation, just tell me what to do, tell me where to stand, tell me what to say. As same as a dancer, just tell me where to stand, tell me what to do, and I'll do it. But as soon as I started discovering, um, oh God, this can all come from me. Um, and I suppose just age as well, you just get wiser and you just stop caring as much about what other people think. I just started letting all these things out and started creating my own things. Then this creativity started to come. And so when this advert came up, do you want to be a choir leader? I was like, I'm not sure because you know, I don't really, I don't play piano very well and I, you know, I don't really understand tenor and bass very easily. But then I read further down, it was like, this is a community choir for women, and we use singing to empower and support and uplift and and you know, nourish and help women to grow and feel connected as a community. And I was just like, oh, that's it. That's it. I was like, oh my god, it the the penny dropped. I was like, all these years, all I want is to use singing and dancing to help people, and and I want to help people, it's all it's always what I've wanted to do. And the NHS was, you know, I was drawn to that, but I couldn't help people in the way that I wanted to, in a creative way. So now I can use my creativity and use my skills in music and movement and singing to you know help support the mental health of other people. And and I I really feel like it's in these last three years I've found my vocation. I've you know, this this will be what I'm doing for the rest of my life now.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

Amazing. So cool. So if people want to find out more about Holistic Harmonies and Rachel and uh everything you've been up to, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Well, I've got a website, www.helistic harmonies.com.

SPEAKER_03 37:35

Very good.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Uh, and Instagram's Holistic Harmonies, Facebook Holistic Harmonies Liverpool. Um, and Twitter is HH with Rachel.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

HH with Rachel.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

Got it. There you go, guys. Plenty of options there. I'm gonna put down all of the links uh in the description for before we let you go, Rachel. It's super interesting to listen to your journey and everything that you've done and how you've overcome various challenges and and you've you've come out the other side of it. And you seem to be, you know, really enjoying what you're doing at the moment, which is which is nice to see and hear. Um what uh we're gonna play a game very shortly, but um during 2020, did you face uh with with COVID, did you face any challenges there that you had to to overcome? We because I presume you were doing holistic harmonies at this point. So how how what impact did that have on on you and and and the company? So if you overcome it, how did you overcome it?

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Well, thank God for Zoom, basically.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Right. I think everyone's saying the same there. Good old Zoom.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

It's it it's I find it quite extraordinary what's happened in the last year for me and for other creative people, actually. Um in March last year, everything I was doing was face-to-face. I would never have thought to use Zoom for anything creative. Um, and as soon as the lockdown hit March 23rd last year, um, me and as well as the other singing mamas. So I'm on the I'm on the National Board of Singing Mamas team as well. So we were thinking, what can we do? We've got all of our choir members um who are going to be left and we we need to support them. How can we stay connected as a choir community? Um, so literally within 48 hours over that weekend of the lockdown being announced, we thought, right, well, what we'll do is three times a week, we'll have uh a singing session and we'll invite a different choir leader from uh somewhere in the world to come and share a song. So I became the host. Um, and and in March last year, I was like, yeah, okay, I'll do it. You know, I'll I'll be the host, thinking it'll just be for our choir community. Within those first three months of lockdown, we'd reached 100,000 people.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

100,000 people had been tuning in to our song line. We had choir leaders from Australia and Norway and you know, joining us um to to teach songs, and I shared a few of mine as well. And so that that got the ball rolling, and actually get this. This is the the best thing, I think, to come from this is that um I've been being paid by the NHS to sing during um it's come full circle again. So I've I've been doing Zoom sessions, so singing for well-being sessions through um in Liverpool, we've got Merzikare, then the NHS um department, and they've been paying me to sing and help people feel better.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

That's so cool. So, how how do people, if if other people wanted to join that and listen, listen in or take part, how would they go about doing that?

SPEAKER_01 40:49

I would love for people to take part, and obviously on Zoom, the world's oyster, so people can join from anywhere in the world. So I've got I've got new choir sessions starting um at the end of February, and you can book on my website, um, Halisticharmonies.com. But I'd urge people to go and have a look at Singing Mama's Choir as well. Um, Singing Mama's Choir website and Facebook page because um our choir sessions are still going on. They're called Song Line, um, and they're just little short bursts of song. Um, and and we have got a really lovely family community on there now. So if anyone feels like they want a bit of uplift, uh bit of joyful singing and some some lyrics to you know make them just feel feel better and more open in their hearts, then um the more the merrier.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

Awesome. And Rachel has an awesome singing voice. I've had the pleasure of listening to it in the past. Um, can you tell us about the the the the two songs that you that you're gonna show and uh and what they're about and what inspired them? You wrote them, I presume.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

Yeah, interestingly again, 2020 has been the most creative time of my life. Yeah, and I I think it's because I live on my own, so I have spent a lot of time on my own. And actually, what I've what I've noticed is our lives are so busy. My life is so busy generally, um, that there's no space um for ideas to come through.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

Um, and so actually being on my own in this time, these songs have just oh, that's cool. They've just bubbled up. Um and so the first one is a little video that I've made, and it's a song called The More I Love. And I actually wrote this. Um I'd been with my choir ladies, my choir members, and I was um coming back home from seeing them, and my heart just felt so full. I was like, oh my god, I mean, these last few years have been really hard. Um, the reason why I've ended up moving back to Liverpool is because I've I've um separated with my husband as well. So I've been going through a divorce these last two years as well, and um a lot of soul searching, an awful lot of like, I thought I was a wife, I thought I was gonna be a mother, and now I'm not either of those things. Who am I? What am I gonna do with myself? And I've found this incredible community of people in Liverpool. Liverpool is such a supportive, loving place to be. And um, so this song, The More I Love, um, it's basically me and how I've grown, and because of these women, and I just wanted to give it back to these women. So I've been teaching this song during my choir sessions for my community um recently.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

The more I know I love the more I love to give the more feel The more I know with my feet on the ground as it's starting to show The more I love The more I live I love The more I love to give The more I feel The more I low with my feet on the ground I'll just try to show The more I love The more I love The more I love to give the more I feel The more I love you I'll just try to show The more I love the more I live I find a flow The more I love to give the more I feel the more I know with my feet on the ground the path is starting to show Oh oh oh yeah So that's one song and then the other one I think you've got is All or Something which is a song that I wrote So this is this is a typical well it will be a typical lockdown story in many many years to come but my sister lives in Bristol in the UK and my sister got married in December and um you know we thought we might be able to go we were waiting and waiting for the news of lockdown are we gonna be able to go and be there and so we could watch our sister um getting married it didn't happen so my sister and her now husband it was the two of them just the two of them on their own and so me and my brother we just thought what can we do what can we give we'd love to be there in the room with them somehow um and so we wrote this song for them um and they played it um just after the ceremony and they had a little dance so that was their first dance was to this song that me and my brother had written it was the twenty first night and there were passing clouds so many faces in the crowd you turned around and saw each other from West Back to Bronte the plants will go round around the skateboards you go and got to know each other Woo remember the clean clean waters into quest bay oh memories of such special days all four colors of the precious land starry nights and golden sand woo it's now always easy to be each other so that steady little something means so much more and where do we heal where do we need as long as you're together it'll be all of something all of something family flory new bag heart strings pull this way and that new job new places to roll my my how these two birds have flown round the world and side by side there is your home woo plant in your seeds lay in your roots live a life along the tracks keep your minds moving again the road the only passing class remember that the sun always waves it's always pee church so that's dirty little something where the week where the win you together it'll be all the something where the wear the wheat you together it'll be all the something it'll be all the something it'll be nice nice nice uh let's jump to our game before we before we let you go Rachel uh it's would you rather five questions five questions don't give it too much thought the first thing that pops into your head are you ready to roll I am good good good all right number one would you rather live at the top of a tall New York City apartment building or at the top of a mountain uh New York City apartment building number two would you rather have to sew all your clothes or grow your own food grow my own food number three would you rather hear the good news or the bad news first always the bad news first number four would you rather travel uh to the US and see the sites in a motorhome or by plane definitely motorhome number five and this is the last one would you rather be able to take back anything you say or hear every conversation around you I would definitely have to take back ever take back everything I say yeah okay we don't need to go into that one we won't go we won't we won't dive into that just now um all right good Rachel before I let you go uh do you have any final thoughts for our audience out there you've had such an inspiring uh journey uh to this point and I'm sure it's only gonna get uh it's only gonna get better with all your wonderful projects and work that you've got going on uh any uplifting and inspiring things for our listeners out there it can be approaches to life dealing with negative and positive change all that sort of thing I think the the thing that springs to mind for me is a big shout out to all of the creatives um over the last year.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

I mean obviously everyone has um had really challenging experiences um well obviously I'm still friends with a lot of um the creative community and people that we went to uni with and um it's been really tough there's lots of people who've lost jobs and um had to completely change their lives and um for me a couple of phrases come up and the over the last year the one for me is where there's a will there's a way we will get through it and I just think we've we've really demonstrated how resilient we are and how adaptable we are as as artists, as um business owners um and we've been able to to stay connected.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

It's incredible to see how people are just tweaking everything making changes and uh wow okay good I like it I like it Rachel very nice. Thank you so much for today um I hope you've enjoyed it and it's been absolutely awesome having you on the uh on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 54:29

It's been eight to see you again it's you know it's br it's bringing back a flood of memories Lauren of us doing guys and dolls crying on me now Rachel I'm such a sentimental person but they were they were such brilliant times weren't they Warren like doing we did guys and dolls together and other musicals it was such fun and carefree times when I look back yeah yeah yeah good stuff all right thank you so much for today Rachel and uh I look forward to speaking to you soon thanks then bye bye since we spent since the news really hit be right now been so low and you rock bottom there's no place to go so I climb and I climb and now I'm feeling so high I know the next year to come next year I know the next year to come next year now the next year to come will be a bood on could be enough in my stance pick my stuff off the ground and I feel in my bones right from my head to my toe I know the next cheat to come and I know the next T to come I know the next T to come will be a good one for me about this crazy life I look ahead I don't make my mood with every roll of the dice play the game go ahead nothing ever stays the same I know the next tear to come I know the next tea to come and know the next tear to come will be a good one for me