Transform Festival’s Amy Letman on what Leeds needs in 2025 – Interview

Amrita Hepi with Mish Grigor, Rinse. Credit: Zan Wimberley

“Why is it that it’s only once we’re about to lose something, that we try to save it?”

Creative Director and founder Amy Letman is speaking to TSOTA ahead of Transform 25, recalling a conversation with programmed artist Amrita Hepi. For Amy, the question is not only the inspiration for Hepi’s work, but something that “speaks to a lot of the programme.”

“There’s themes of goodbyes, memory, displacement… but it’s also about resilience and finding different ways to make a path ahead.”

It’s October, in a year ending with an odd number. Amy and her team are back, bringing their biennial festival to the city for its sixth installment. Started in 2011 from Leeds Playhouse, before becoming an independent event in 2015, Transform has evolved into ‘the UK’s leading festival for international performance’. It firmly roots itself in Leeds, spreading across venues and city sites for one week every two years. The city has waited patiently for Transform 25 – the 18 events happening between 21-25 October are almost all sold-out.

Unpicking this year’s programme, Amy observes that “there’s quite a few one person shows. Many of these explore individual power and experience.” For example, Rinse by dancer Amrita Hepi, or jazz-meets-stand-up in The Things Around Us by Ahamefule J. Oluo. “These juxtapose more ensemble pieces looking at collective endeavours.” Such as Free, an immersive Reggae dance show by Leeds’ Toussaint To Move, or PERPETUUM by Katja Heitmann, which projects the movement of Leeds residents on a large scale.

Toussaint To Move, Free. Credit: Solomon Charles Kelly

As always, the line-up offers a socially conscious patchwork of global perspectives. Whether it’s exploring Palestinian displacement in the installation Dear Laila, the complex pressures of a Queer, disabled artist in Dan Daw’s EXXY, or migrant women’s labour in Magic Maids.

Transform builds a community “edition to edition,” with a personal approach that has informed parts of this year’s lineup. “Mexa is a good example,” explains Amy. “I met them in Brazil at the start of the pandemic, then worked with them over four years ahead of PUMPITOPERA in 23. Now, they’re touring the world, and it felt important to bring them back to the city for The Last Supper.” Similarly, after Hepi’s involvement in the show Oh Deer! two years ago, Amy says, “We met her and thought she was amazing, and she spoke about her solo show. And we knew immediately we had to bring her to Transform 25 – it was the first show we programmed.”

MEXA, The Last Supper, Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2024. Credit: Werner Strouven

In Leeds, Amrita’s question of what we try to save only when it’s about to be lost resonates acutely. For Amy, the period following the high of the Year of Culture, which coincided with the last festival, was complex, with venue closures and funding challenges dampening the mood at times. 

“LEEDS 2023 was amazing but there’s been a bit of a comedown since,” Amy observes. “There were loads of opportunities for us that year. But it’s a bit of a relief, now something that big isn’t hanging over everything. I think there’s more space for us as a sector to now go, ‘right, what do we want Leeds to be’ without that pressure.”

With the loss of venues that supported experimental culture, Amy clarifies Transform’s immediate purpose: creating space for artists and experiences that just “aren’t existing in the city right now.” The festival needs to be a “breath of energy, and it needs to be a battery charger for our sector.”

For their closing party event, Doomsday Disco, Transform teams up with local queer night The Pleasuredome Must Be Built (TPMBB). “We had a conversation with Michael Upson [founder of Love Muscle, who run TPMBB] and even shared with him the quote from Amrita,” Amy says. “And with TPMBB, they’re responding to the fact there’s no home for that community in the city.” TPMBB throw parties regularly in Leeds, with funds going towards the opening of a permanent queer event space. Through Doomsday Disco, Transform “can help be part of supporting that wider scene.”

The Pleasuredome Must Be Built. Credit: Imo Dunkley

Amy knows both Leeds and the international arts scene well, and is well-placed to see what the city lacks and where it could do more.

“There’s a need for more long-term space for performance makers,” she stresses. “I don’t mean more buildings or more organisations, but something that bridges resources to create a consistent infrastructure.” Amy would love to see “more epic, genre-defying, wild encounters happening regularly,” and “artistic experiences coming together with hospitality” to build audiences, as is done so well in other cities.

But she still has no doubts that Leeds is the right place for their festival: “We don’t have the infrastructure that you have in Manchester for contemporary programming, but that creates an opportunity for us. And it’s the right size for festivals. It’s got an audience hungry enough for something like this.”

Given its impact, could Transform and its team become more than a biennial? “Transform will exist as long as it’s needed,” says Amy. “As soon as you start to think that this is something that should exist, you get complacent. But right now it’s clear that Transform has a role – I’m looking forward to after this one, when we can think about how that role will evolve, and what Transform needs to be in the future.”

As with every festival, Transform 25 promises to show the breadth of human performance: bodies and movement taking unexpected shapes, emotions and tones ranging from serene to extreme. By giving space to voices and experiences less often seen in Leeds, telling stories from around the world, Transform will once again present performance as a vehicle for expression, for protest, for understanding, and, ultimately, as a resilient act of imagination in a city determined to forge its path ahead.

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Thanks to Amy for chatting with TSOTA! The full Transform 25 programme is on their website. See how Transform has evolved through our past coverage, including Will’s 2023 review of Mexa and Jack’s 2019 podcast chat with Amy.