Lea Anderson

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Lea Anderson MBE is a British choreographer and artistic director. She co-founded The Cholmondeleys and The Featherstonehaughs dance companies with Teresa Barker and Gaynor Coward, at which she has choreographed over 100 works.

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She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2002 Birthday Honours. [1]

Key collaborators include:

Anderson's style has been described as " ...this most accessible of choreographers (feeds) not on the esoteric and obscure, but on the readily available debris of media culture." [2] The works she has choreographed have been described as "Political without being dogmatic, irreverent but not lightweight..." [3]

Career

Anderson graduated from the Laban Centre, prior to that she attended St. Martins College of Art and Design as a visual arts student, but decided eventually to focus on dance. [4]

Works made for The Cholmondeleys include: Flesh And Blood (1989/1997), Cold Sweat (1990), Walky Talky (1992), Metalcholica (1994), Car (1995/96)

Works made for The Featherstonehaughs include: The Show (1990), The Featherstonehaughs’ Big Feature (1991), The Featherstonehaughs Immaculate Conception (1992), The Bends (1994), The Featherstonehaughs Go Las Vegas (1995), The Featherstonehaughs Draw On The Sketchbooks Of Egon Schiele (1997) (2010), Edits (2010)

Work made with The Cholmondeleys and The Featherstonehaughs include: Russian Roulette (2008), Yippeee!!! (2006), Double Take (2004), 1 1/2 – The Club Shows (2002), 3 (2001), The Cholmondeleys, The Featherstonehaughs And The Victims Of Death In Smithereens (1999), Out On The Windy Beach (1998), Precious (1993), Birthday (1992), Flag (1988).

Anderson disbanded the Cholmondeleys and Featherstonehaughs companies in 2011 but continues to choreograph including Ladies and Gentlemen (2015) [5] and Los amores de Venus y Marte (2018). [6]

As of 2023 Anderson has started to reconstruct earlier Cholmondeleys work. [7]

References

  1. "No. 56595". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 2002. pp. 1–27.
  2. Lea Anderson - Breaking the Boundaries of High Art by Sheri Dodds Archived 2007-11-15 at the Wayback Machine Dancing Times, Ltd.. Retrieved 2007-12-10
  3. Dance without the boring bits by Keith Watson The Guardian. 11 September 1999 "Top of the shake-up were DV8 and the Cholmondeleys. Political without being dogmatic, irreverent but not light, this was dance shot through with pop sensibilities."
  4. Lea Anderson Q&A with Tanja Mangalanayagam
  5. Roy, Sanjoy (2015-10-05). "Lea Anderson: Ladies and Gentlemen review – a surreal music-hall gem". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2025-08-20.
  6. "LEA ANDERSON ESTRENA CON DANZA CONTEMPORÁNEA DE CUBA - Cubaescena". cubaescena.cult.cu. Retrieved 2025-08-20.
  7. Journal, Dance Art (2023-05-15). "Choreographer Lea Anderson on dance and other fabulous things". dance art journal. Retrieved 2025-08-20.