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Bex Anson (1983) is a Glasgow-based director and performer working across expanded choreography and site-responsive performance. Her practice explores the relationships between bodies, objects, environments and social systems, transforming everyday civic spaces into sites of collective encounter.
Since 2015, she has worked closely with producer Feral across the development and touring of participatory and large-scale outdoor performance projects.
Working in playgrounds, back lanes, rooftops, city wastelands and under motorways, her work moves between the social, the surreal and the unruly, engaging with urban ecologies and questions of place, belonging and public life.
Her projects have included large-scale spectacle for music festivals and community parades, a contemporary dance performance beneath the M77 motorway, and the creation of a temporary sculpture park within a Glasgow wasteland. Much of her work takes place outside traditional theatre contexts, touring extensively across Scotland to town centres, housing estates and suburban communities.
Anson collaborates with both professional and non-professional performers to create bold, playful and visually charged works shaped by collective expression and the transformative joy of making together.
Current
Bex Anson is currently Artist in Residence with Shettleston Housing Association, developing HOMING — a year-long participatory movement project culminating in a site-specific performance in 2027.
She is also Artist in Residence on the BA Community Arts programme at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (2026), leading workshops and collaborative research towards The Ballad of Govanhill Baths, a new large-scale outdoor performance premiering 7 August 2026.
Her participatory dance poem FLOCK premieres at Merchant City Festival on 24–25 July 2026. Alongside this, she delivers weekly expressive movement workshops through Active Schools Glasgow, runs a weekly drama club with Govanhill Baths, and recently completed a six-school tour of STRUT Kids, a dance lab and performance project for primary schools.
Past Projects & Collaborations
From 2015–2026, Anson was co-director of MHz alongside video and lighting designer Dav Bernard, creating large-scale scenographic performances combining choreography, experimental circus and digital arts, including VOID, RUINS, STRUT, KID_X and CROWD_CTRL.
From 2010–2015, she was Performance Director of Bassline Circus, creating big-top performances for festivals across the UK and Europe. Between 2008–2014, she co-founded 85A Collective, co-creating more than 25 immersive performances, and from 2006–2010 co-curated LOWSALT, a Glasgow-based site-responsive artist-run gallery.
Selected Presentations & Awards
Her work has been presented at Tramway, Greenwich + Docklands International Festival, Spraoi International Street Arts Festival (Ireland), Present Futures (Curated by Collette Sadler), Dance International Glasgow, Birmingham International Dance Festival, Manipulate Festival, Take Me Somewhere, Festival de Silenzio (Milan), Supermarket Artist-Run Art Fair (Sweden), Submerge Digital Arts Festival (Bristol), DanceLive (Aberdeen), Bristol Pride, Fusion Festival (Berlin), Brighton Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe and Boomtown Fair.
Awards, residencies and commissions include the Made in Scotland Award (2017, 2019), Total Theatre Award for Dance (2017), NoFit State / Old Vic Circus Artist Residency (2018), LAB at Circus Cirkör, Sweden (2018), Jerwood Micro Bursary (2018), Transmission / Jacksons Lane Residency (2020), Creative Fund / Puppet Animation Scotland (2020), Stomping Ground Commission (2022), Four Nations Outdoor Arts Bursary (2023), alongside support from Creative Scotland, PRS Foundation and the British Council.
Training
Anson trained in Visual Art at Glasgow School of Art before continuing her development in physical theatre, dramaturgy and participatory practice. Her training includes work with Philippe Gaulier, Mick Barnfather, Hilary Westlake, Agnes Limbos, Lou Cope, John and Sue Fox, Itay Yatuv (ContaKids) and Ned Glasier, amongst others.
She has also toured internationally as a stage manager with The Tiger Lillies and worked as company assistant for Circolombia.