Groove Together: Family Dance and Movement
Fri 9 Jan – Fri 10 Apr 2026
10.00am
Drama Space
Let’s play, move and groove together!
Anna Sanderson
Anna Sanderson is a British-Ukrainian theatre director, choreographer and musician, particularly interested in using multi-modal art forms to facilitate education and community building projects.
Recently graduating with a BA in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, her theatre projects and academic research have focused on cultural heritage, historical memory and giving voice to marginalised communities in Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine.
Anna will be developing Stempenyu, an early 20th century Yiddish play by Sholem Aleichem about the romance between Stempenyu, “the Jewish Paganini”, and Rachel, the Shtetl girl. Based loosely on the life of the real klezmer violinist Iosif Druker, the story later inspired Chagall’s paintings and the musical Fiddler on the Roof, yet remained unperformed to English-speaking audiences until Anna co-directed its first English production in 2025 (ADC Theatre, Cambridge) using Alexander Kahn’s new translation. Through a surrealist collage of Yiddish storytelling, comedy, klezmer music and dance, Stempenyu explores how imagination can connect us to diasporic roots.
Anna Sanderson is the recipient of this year’s Young Artist Residency. This residency is also supported in collaboration with Tsitsit Fringe Festival.
Find Anna online:
Instagram: @stempenyu.theatre
Anna Sanderson introduces her project
