Liz Balmford, performer, coach and trainer

ELIZABETH Anna Balmford (née Dickinson) passed away peacefully at her home in Twyford on February 4, aged 54.

Liz was born on April 4, 1968 at home in the village of Ramsden Heath in Essex, the third child of Malcolm and Mary Dickinson.

The family moved to Henley when Liz was four years old and she attended Valley Road Primary School, Gillotts School (1979–1984) and King James’s College (1984–1986).

She showed great promise as a singer and dancer from a very early age and took classes at the Jeannine Greville School of Dance.

At the age of 15, she was cast as Ado Annie in the school production of Oklahoma!

At the same time, she and her mother joined Henley Operatic and Dramatic Society. This marked the start of a lifelong love of musical theatre.

After her A-levels, Liz completed her modern dance and tap-dancing qualifications.

She then travelled to California to visit friends and take a few flying lessons before moving to Leicester to sample university life, which she quickly decided was not for her.

Throughout the Nineties, she worked in various sales and marketing roles while taking every opportunity to be on stage in her spare time.

Liz went on to sing, act and dance in many HAODS productions over the years, including West Side Story and A Chorus Line.

She choreographed several of the shows and later tried her hand at directing too. She met her husband Tim on the set of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera The Mikado in 1991 and the couple married six years later. She was part of the EJ Dancers cabaret troupe, which performed at events and shows in and around Henley, and the singing trio Eastwick.

She was also in two Black Widows theatre productions, Kiss of the Spider Woman in High Wycombe and Cabaret at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead.

In 2001, Liz was cast in the lead role of Polly Baker in the HAODS musical Crazy for You and her performance earned her much critical acclaim.

She then spent a year studying for her postgraduate diploma in musical theatre at Guildford School of Acting and began to perform professionally. With three other singers, Liz formed Lend Us a Tenor, a four-part a cappella harmony act which was later renamed Vocalarity.

The group developed musical comedy shows such as Judge Me, Spin the Wheel and Life in the Middle Class Lane.

They performed at the Kenton Theatre, Henley Festival and various fringe theatre venues in and around London as well as at private and corporate events across the UK and abroad.

In 2002, Liz started her own business, Sing Speak Be. She provided singing lessons and public speaking training and regularly gave her students the opportunity to practise performing in front of an audience.

She also taught at StageWorks performing arts school for several years. During this period, Liz discovered that she had a natural talent for teaching and in 2007 she became a life coach.

She devoted the rest of her career to helping people identify their unique gifts, turn their dreams into reality and reach their full potential, both at work and in their personal lives.

In 2015, she joined the team at Ginger Leadership Communications and worked as a coach and public speaking trainer until the end of her life.

She taught powerful communication techniques and helped people to face their fears, find their voice and become more confident and comfortable with themselves.

She was particularly passionate about empowering women in the workplace.

Liz was a deeply empathetic and perceptive person and an excellent listener who had mastered the art of being fully present.

She was always fun to be around, energetic and inspiring, a straight-talker with a quick wit and a wonderful sense of humour.

Liz will be greatly missed by all those who knew and loved her.

She was preceded in death by her father Malcolm and is survived by her mother Mary, husband Tim, brothers Steve and Jamie, nieces Charlotte, Sophie and Holly, nephew Jake and Sophie’s three children, Ruby, Henry and Charlie.

The funeral service will be held at Reading Crematorium on Tuesday, March 7 at 1.45pm. Please wear colourful clothes. No flowers but donations can be made in Liz’s memory to the Sue Ryder charity at elizabethbalmford.muchloved.com