Transform

Last week Transform hosted Eve Stainton @evestainton for a week-long residency at @stageatleeds as part of the artist’s New Dimensions seed commission. These photos are from a day of early research Eve spent with @garyclarkeco , @blackhaine and @martinobrienart . Through the residency, Eve has been developing a new performance exploring working-class masculinities, manual labour and community building. Formed in 2023, New Dimensions supports artists to take the next step in their careers and create ambitious new work of scale designed to tour nationally and internationally. The New Dimensions partners are @attenboroughctr , @batterseaartscentre , @tmsomewhere , @glasgowtramway and us @transform_leeds .

It's (somehow!) been 6 months since we shared Transform 25 with you! Behind the scenes preparations for our 2027 festival are already well underway. 🤝 We're supporting the development of new work through partnership and collaboration 🎟️ Searching out thrilling international performance to present in Leeds 💻 And fundraising to make Transform 2027 a reality In the meantime, swipe to revisit some glorious moments from last year's edition ➡️ 📸 Toussaint To Move, Free 📸 MEXA, The Last Supper 📸 Samir Kennedy & Sean Murray, IT’S GOT LEGS!!!!!!! 📸 Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera, Magic Maids 📸 Audiences after Toussaint To Move, Free 📸 Basel Zaraa, Dear Laila 📸 JMA Photography

📢 Deadline approaching 📢 We're looking for an organised and diligent Finance & Administration Manager to join our team. ⬇️ Role info ⬇️ 💻 Finance & Administration Manager 🗓️ Part-time, 3 days a week 📍 Hybrid role. 1-2 office-based days per week in Leeds 🧾 Salary £36,000 per annum, pro-rata 📆 Deadline: Mon 20 Apr, midday Head to our website for the full job pack and details on how to apply. 🔗 Find out more and apply now: /opportunities/finance-administration-manager/

📢 A reminder that we're currently recruiting! 📢 We're looking for an organised and diligent Finance & Administration Manager to join our team. Role info ⬇️ 💻 Finance & Administration Manager 🗓️ Part-time, 3 days a week 📍 Hybrid role. 1-2 office-based days per week in Leeds 🧾 Salary £36,000 per annum, pro-rata We’re looking for a capable, personable and experienced professional working in finance or administration who thrives on supporting organisations to run smoothly and efficiently. Proactive and rigorous, you’ll be familiar with developing and leading effective administrative and financial systems. ℹ️ About us ℹ️ Transform is a biennial festival of powerful international performance, based right here in Leeds. Every two years, we assemble artists from across the globe to present thrilling theatre, dance and performance to diverse audiences in their thousands across the city. 📆 Deadline: Mon 20 Apr, midday Find out more and apply now – link in bio 🔗

Congratulations to theatre maker, composer, and video artist Jaha Koo, who's been awarded the International Ibsen Award 2026. In 2022, we presented Koo's 'The History of Korean-Western Theatre' as part of our extended 21-22 festival. Koo has been awarded the International Ibsen Award for 'his innovative and deeply human theatre.' Ingrid Lorentzen, chair of the jury for the International Ibsen Award and artistic director of the Norwegian National Ballet, said: 'The theatre he creates is quiet, yet deeply political. It cuts through ideological noise and speaks directly to our shared human experience.' Beautiful words – congratulations again @jaha_koo 🎉

📢 We're hiring! 📢 💻 Finance & Administration Manager 🗓️ Part-time, 3 days a week 📍 Hybrid role. 1-2 office-based days per week in Leeds 🧾 Salary £36,000 per annum, pro-rata Transform is seeking an organised and diligent Finance & Administration Manager to join our team. We’re looking for a capable, personable and experienced professional working in finance or administration who thrives on supporting organisations to run smoothly and efficiently. Proactive and rigorous, you’ll be familiar with developing and leading effective administrative and financial systems. ℹ️ About us ℹ️ Transform is a biennial festival of powerful international performance, based right here in Leeds. Every two years, we assemble artists from across the globe to present thrilling theatre, dance and performance to diverse audiences in their thousands across the city. 📆 Deadline: Mon 20 Apr 2026 Find out more and apply now – link in bio 🔗

Transform is seeking an organised and diligent Finance & Administration Manager to join our team. 📆 Deadline: Mon 20 Apr 2026 💥 Transform is a biennial festival of powerful international performance, based right here in Leeds. Every two years, we assemble artists from across the globe to present thrilling theatre, dance and performance to diverse audiences in their thousands across the city. We’re looking for a capable, personable and experienced professional working in finance or administration who thrives on supporting organisations to run smoothly and efficiently. Organised, proactive and rigorous, you’ll be familiar with developing and leading effective administrative and financial systems. You’ll have an interest in contemporary arts and understand the value of Transform’s work. Find out more and apply now – link in bio 🔗

🛞 We’re excited to announce that Eve Stainton is the recipient of a New Dimensions seed commission! Eve @evestainton will be developing a new performance exploring working-class masculinities, manual labour and community building. The development begins with residencies exploring the physical labour of bricklaying as choreography, working towards a group performance hinging on building and dismantling of a brick wall.  New Dimensions is a partnership between @attenboroughctr @batterseaartscentre @tmsomewhere @glasgowtramway @transform_leeds – formed in 2023 to support artists to take the next step in their careers and create ambitious new work of scale designed to tour nationally and internationally.  This seed commission allows Eve to take the initial steps towards making a large-scale work, through a 5-week residency and support.  The first residency will take place in Glasgow on 16-20 February at Studio Somewhere, with further development planned across 2026. ::: Image credit: Eve Stainton, The Joystick and The Reins, 2025. Courtesy Transform. Photo: JMA Photography

From our friends @yorkshiredancepictures ! 📢 Are you a dance artist making work in the North of England? Yorkshire Dance are seeking dance artists based in the North for two new commissions. 📌 The Dance in the North network are piloting a brand new £12,500 co-commission 📆 Deadline: Mon 2 Mar, 10am 📌 Dance Partner Projects offers a £3,000 commission 📆 Deadline: Mon 16 Mar, 10am 🔗 Find out more at the link in @yorkshiredancepictures bio!

I drove all night thinking about you In Basel, I wanted to meet people who could tell me something about borders. As an outsider looking into a city on the edge of France and Germany, governed by Switzerland’s ‘magic formula’ of consensus democracy and cycles of referenda, I wondered how any of this shaped how people live together or negotiate each other. I met cross-border commuters (grenzgänger/innen) who told me about the songs they listen to on the way home from work. I had a conversation about mandatory conscription with a seventeen year-old about to turn eighteen, spent time with two generations of ferrymen who told me about a life on the Rhine and met organisations supporting sex workers navigating the city’s streets. I waited 42 minutes on hold to the media enquiries department at pharmaceutical company Roche and on the 43rd minute a voice said ‘thank you for this invitation to be interviewed, but the answer is no’. From my studio window @kasernebasel , every night I looked upon this neon on the roof of an apartment block by @ado_comenius - made by bringing together two song titles (I Drove All Night by Celine Dion and Thinking About You by Whitney Houston). In collaboration with Ado and Comenius, and informed by all the people I had met in this place, I staged a performance response on the rooftop behind the neon at dusk in Basel. A kind of linguistic game, two strangers meet on the rooftop - a border between the street and the sky - and complete each other’s sentences. Given a series of prompts developed from the conversations I’d had with people in the city, each person takes turns to begin and to end, call and respond - two voices speaking as one. Opinions, statements, dreams or fears coalesce and contradict - and different perspectives find a new structure. Fun to make something quickly, play with what I had access to and meet new people. Images by @guillaumemusset Supported by @kasernebasel @transform_leeds with additional support by @creativescots

As 2025 draws to a close we're looking back at Transform 25 💥❤️ This edition of our biennial festival brought together artists from the UK and across the globe for an exhilarating five days of performance. 🌍 With nine sold out shows and audiences in their thousands, we assembled people from Leeds and beyond to experience everything from subversive theatre to mesmerising dance; outdoor installations to a Doomsday Disco. But don’t just take our word for it… Head to our Journal to hear what audiences and press had to say about Transform 25 (alongside some beautiful photos by JMA Photography). 🔗 Link in bio 📸 Samir Kennedy & Sean Murray, IT’S GOT LEGS!!!!!!! 📸 Tiran Willemse, blackmilk 📸 Eve Stainton, The Joystick and The Reins 📸 Audiences after Toussaint To Move, Free 📸 Amrita Hepi with Mish Grigor, Rinse 📸 performance, possession + automation, Surrender 📸 MEXA, The Last Supper All photos JMA Photography @jma.photo

@transform_leeds 25 may be over, but we’re still thinking about the festival that shook the city last month 👏 We’ve rounded up our Transform coverage… read all via oir bio link! 🗣️TRANSFORM FESTIVAL’S AMY LETMAN ON WHAT LEEDS NEEDS IN 2025  Transform’s Creative Director @amyletman chats to @will_baldwinpask about why the city is still the perfect home for bold international work. 🎷AHAMEFULE J. OLUO DAZZLES AT TRANSFORM 25 @ahamefule ’s solo show blended stand-up, jazz and live looping to create a dreamlike space of laughter and reflection. Reviewed by @xx_millie_lac_xx 🪩RINSE: AMRITA HEPI CONFRONTS POWER, IDENTITY AND VIOLENCE THROUGH DANCE  @amrita_moves ’ Rinse stunned audiences with a visceral fusion of dance, storytelling and political power… ending on a breathtaking final image that left the room silent. Review by @hannahprince.art Link to all the articles in the bio!