Brenda Edwards MBE

Brenda Edwards is a Brixton-born independent artist, teacher, consultant and producer.  Her artistic professional career spans over three decades as a professional dancer and choreographer.  She has been nominated twice for the Cosmopolitan Women of the Year Awards, for her outstanding achievements in dance.

Edwards worked as an Associate Producer through the Arts Council of England’s Artistic Leadership Programme.  She was a consultant on Innervision in Swindon and the Assistant Creative Producer of Cultureshock, the Commonwealth Games 2002 arts programme for the North West.  In 2001, Edwards established HIP Dance Festival, recognising the talents of UK talented Black artists.

Edwards has a diverse background in the arts and her qualities as an active performer and producer helps to maximise her vision of the arts.  She has worked with London Contemporary Dance Theatre under the directorship of Robert Cohan, English National Ballet as a soloist under the Artistic Directorship of Peter Schaufuss where she became one of a few women to dance the leading role in Maurice Bejart’s Bolero.   Historically, she became the first Black woman to work in a British ballet company when she joined London Festival Ballet (which later became English National Ballet).  Edwards has also worked with Martha Graham Dance Company, New York as a soloist and she worked with Hungarian-born dancer Eszter Salamon.  Edwards made her West End debut in John Caird’s Children of Eden, choreographed by Matthew Bourne.

Edwards currently works with WEST10ARTS and worked with DJ Papa Face on Dub London: Bassline of a City (2021) at the Museum of London, which was awarded an AHI Award in the Untold Stories Category.  This partnership with the newly rebranded London Museum continues with the commissioning of a new installation which will launch in autumn 2026.

No stranger to the East Midlands, Edwards is a Graduate in Dance Theory at De Montfort University in Leicester.  Edwards has supported Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage for many years as an independent consultant for Signatures and the Black British Dance Platform.

Edwards was awarded the MBE in the New Year’s Honours list 2005, for services to dance.