Lea Anderson Artist Encounters UK

Artist Encounters is a professional development talk with a guest artist, focusing on cultivating practical skills, sharing knowledge and asking questions that resonate.   

For Dance Umbrella Festival 2024, Artist Encounters was led by choreographer Lea Anderson, celebrating the 40th anniversary of her company The Cholmondeleys with the publication of two new books focusing on her work. Using these as a jumping off point, Lea, alongside author Mary Kate Connolly, offer a window into a unique choreographic world. 

In addition to revealing Lea’s unusual modes of collaboration with some of the UK’s leading creatives, they explore the ways in which her works live on today via their rich archive of costumes and performance ephemera. From the earliest Cholmondeleys days of dancing in Doc Martens on beer-strewn gig platforms, to the rigour of sleek chorus lines for the theatre stage, and the precision of performed gallery exhibitions, Lea Anderson and her dancers have forged a unique path.

Glimpses of a vast notebook collection, short films, archival images and costume objects will allow for an intimate look at her way of working, and the legacy of her companies. This encounter will also unpick the ways in which collaborations between artist and scholar can ignite new after-lives for archival remnants and sustain both legacy and ongoing artistic practice.