Transform festival: Rinse and Blackmilk review – a double shot of engrossing dance

Stage@leeds/Stanley & Audrey Burton theatre, Leeds
Amrita Hepi measures words and movement as she talks through her artistic journey and Tiran Willemse takes Moon River in a new direction

Transform festival’s director Amy Letman tells her opening night crowd that this is the most challenging financial environment she’s worked in. Yet there’s a bounty of edgy, independent festivals this autumn: Glasgow’s Take Me Somewhere, Nottingham’s Nottdance, the Southbank Centre’s Kunsty series and Transform itself, a week of international dance and performance that on its first night had small venues packed with a buzzing crowd.

These two solo shows set a tone for artists with something to say and intriguing ways of saying it; starkly different in style, both pieces are interested in questions of identity and cultural expectation.

Transform festival runs until 25 October at various venues in Leeds