Lea Anderson The Featherstonehaughs Draw on the Sketchbooks of Egon Schiele UK

Many years ago, when leafing through the books in the Arnolfini bookshop, choreographer Lea Anderson discovered the work of Austrian expressionist painter, Egon Schiele. Lea was taken by the possibility of seeing Schiele’s framing of the repeated figures in the reproduction of his sketchbooks, as a system for writing dance. What resulted from this intrigue was a full misconstruction of dances, imagining Schiele as a choreographer whose dances had been lost. 

Originally created in 1998 as a live work, it was remade as a film in 2010 in collaboration with Deborah May of Kinoki and with new music by Steve Blake and Will Saunders. The film has never been publicly aired and will be a world premiere for Dance Umbrella 2024.

Lea Anderson is a celebrated dance choreographer, filmmaker and artistic director. Her iconic dance company The Cholmondeleys is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and its brother company, The Featherstonehaughs is not far behind. Lea makes groundbreaking theatre work and films, was awarded an MBE in 2002 and was given an honorary doctorate of arts from Dartington College of Arts in 2006. 

Lea Anderson as Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden by Otto Dix. Photo by Margaret Williams. Costume by Sandy Powell.

Lea Anderson is an independent artistic director, filmmaker and choreographer, based in North Devon. She co-founded The Cholmondeleys dance company in 1984 and The Featherstonehaughs in 1988, creating over 87 works. Lea has collaborated on hundreds of projects. She received an MBE in 2002 for services to dance and an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Dartington College in 2006. In 2014, she became a Regents Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of The Cholmondeleys.