Tiran Willemse, blackmilk
Samir Kennedy & Sean Murray, IT’S GOT LEGS!!!!!!!
Spanning theatre, dance, installation, an intimate audio experience, and a co-created outdoor video installation, Transform 25 assembled genre-defying artists from across the globe to present extraordinary contemporary performance in Leeds.
In her four-star review for The Guardian, Lyndsey Winship highlighted that Transform is a festival for ‘artists with something to say and intriguing ways of saying it’.
Our tenth year as an independent performance festival, we were delighted by our best-ever ticket sales, with nine sold out shows and audiences in their thousands.
Alongside the programme, we hosted artist-led workshops and lectures, industry events and communal moments, from a Happy Hour to our final night party, Doomsday Disco.
At Transform 25 we heard from our audiences how vital they feel the festival is – to the city and to themselves. Thought provoking and inspiring; moving and challenging; our 2025 festival presented world class contemporary performance in Leeds in a way that was affordable, accessible and welcoming.
‘Staggering performance. Thank you to Transform and the artist for making it happen, and for bringing world class affordable performance to Leeds’
‘…this festival is an amazing reason to visit the city. It allows me to see performances I wouldn’t see anywhere else in the UK’
‘Everything I have attended so far has been amazing! …It’s amazing to have festivals like this to see all the artists in Leeds come together daily for a week! I wish this was a yearly festival!’
– Audience feedback
Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera, Magic Maids
Toussaint To Move, Free
MEXA, The Last Supper
MEXA, The Last Supper
'[I haven't been] to a performance festival that has such an active and engaged local audience.'
‐ Audience member
Ahamefule J. Oluo, The Things Around Us
'Emotional, heartening, galvanising'
‐ Audience member
performance, possession + automation, Surrender
Dan Daw Creative Projects, EXXY. Photo: Hugo Glendinning
Katja Heitmann, PERPETUUM
'always thoughtful, inspiring and exciting'
‐ Yorkshire Post
Also for 2025, our Young Curators created an installation alongside their co-selected show Dear Laila; and launched an initiative – Talk Transform – to connect audiences and generate conversation.
Thank you to our truly brilliant cohort of Young Curators for 2024-25: Harrison Green; Zak Gurnah; Lauren Kara; Bertie Katz; Madina Latipova; Ashif Reza; Saba Siddiqui; Bernice Waweru and Morgan Young.
We also collaborated with performance, possession + automation on Surrender, for a day of performance at Slung Low’s The Warehouse in Holbeck with: Åbäke; Gillian Dyson; Tara Fatehi; Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera; Samir Kennedy and Sean Murray; Samra Mayanja and Kathy Gray; POPPERFACE and Richard Pye; Imogen Reeve & Co.; Sonia Sandhu; Nicola Singh; Eve Stainton and Florence Peake.
Beyond the many artists that made Transform 25 happen, we were honoured to work with a range of Leeds’ most iconic venues – from Leeds Kirkgate Market, to Leeds Playhouse, to Howard Assembly Room.
For the full list of artists, partners and supporters that came together to make Transform 25 a reality, please see below.
Images: JMA Photography
Partners
- Carriageworks Theatre
- Howard Assembly Room
- Leeds Playhouse
- Leeds School of Arts; Leeds Beckett University
- Leeds Kirkgate Market
- Light Night
- stage@leeds, University of Leeds
- Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre
- Testbed
- The Warehouse in Holbeck
- Yorkshire Dance
Artists
- Amrita Hepi with Mish Grigor
- Ahamefule J. Oluo
- Basel Zaraa
- Bakani Pick-Up
- Dan Daw Creative Projects
- Eisa Jocson & Venuri Perera
- Eve Stainton
- Ira Brand
- Katja Heitmann
- MEXA
- Samir Kennedy & Sean Murray
- Tiran Willemse
- Toussaint to Move
