Anima Dance is a community dance company promoting access to dance across Leicester and Leicestershire.

Founded in 2000 by Edinburgh Festival Fringe First winner choreographer Sue Rosenbloom Anima Dance provides training and performance opportunities for people wishing to dance, either to continue to nurture their pleasure in dance, or as returning learners or as beginners.

Anima Dance was incorporated in June 2002 as a not-for-profit company, limited by guarantee. Currently it has 6 board members, and the Chair is Maya Biswas.

Core activity

The company’s core activity is its three weekly groups.
Two of these are performance groups for experienced dancers – Anima Dance Company and AD2. Members are recruited each year through audition and trains together over a year to create a new piece of challenging, accessible contemporary dance which is performed in the summer.

The current companies are made up of over 30 local people aged between 16 and 44. Members come from all over the Leicester and from all walks of life and cultural backgrounds. Some have little dance experience but great natural ability, others have had many years experience in their youth and are relishing the opportunity of continuing to train and perform.

The third group – Open Door Dance – is an open access contemporary dance class for anyone over 16 wishing to develop new skills or wanting to brush up their technique as a returning learner.

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Anima Dance has created three productions since 2000 which were performed at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre. Two of these also toured to venues in the County.

Absolute Beginners (2000) - a trip through Soho in the 1950’s, based on Colin McInnes novel
Funked Up...Let Down (2002) - a dance exploration of Funk music from early jazz/blues to Jamiroquai
Talking to the Taxman about Poetry (2003) - inspired by the music and lyrics of Billy Bragg

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Outreach and Education

We are beginning to develop long and short term projects in schools and community settings to open up access to dance for children, young people and families across a range of communities.

This includes a dance project with the Community Health Team in West Humberstone, and widening participation projects with 2 Leicester primary schools.

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Biographies