Known as trailblazers on the Scottish and International performance scene, Charlotte Mclean, Jack Anderson and Malin Lewis debut their piece not for glory at the Fringe, before performing at London’s leading contemporary dance festival Dance Umbrella. To coincide with the premieres in Edinburgh and London, not for glory will tour Scotland across 2026 and 2027.
If you reviewed your own show, how would you describe it?
Jack Anderson: Wild, obsessive, defiant, tender. Exploding out of tradition like the feeling of euphoria in the back of your throat.
Tell me a little more about your show and what audiences can expect?
Jack Anderson: not for glory is a high energy collision of Highland and Irish dancing with live piping – but perhaps not as you imagine it. The show harnesses the precision and energy of these forms, not to impress or to win but to communicate something powerful about vulnerability and belonging. All three of us have quite complex feelings about the traditions we grew up with, and working with that tension connects us to each other and to the audience in a very honest way.
Can you talk about some of the creative team involved?
Charlotte Mclean: The show has been created by a small team over the last three years. Jack Anderson, Malin Lewis and I have co-created and perform in the show. Helen McIntosh is the creative producer and the brains behind a lot of wonderful dance theatre work in Scotland. Emma Jones has created a beautiful lighting design, as well as working as production manager. And Cleo Rose McCabe has designed the individual tartan themed costumes. The team has been a dream and we’ve been lucky to slowly create, reflect and trial the show along the way.
Where do you draw inspiration from for your work, both in terms of creation and performance?
Jack Anderson: Being a dancer, I work from the body first and foremost. The things that interest me, and the ways I approach working on them, all come from a starting point of physical information – from doing, more than thinking.
Why is this an important story to tell?
Jack Anderson: It feels like there are so many young people who develop astonishing levels of skill in traditional Scottish or Irish dance and music, but aren’t necessarily encouraged to see a broad range of possibilities for themselves in terms of how and where and why they might use those skills. Similarly, audiences aren’t always shown the diversity that exists within these art forms beyond an idealised or mainstream image of ‘traditional’ culture. We hope that not for glory will make a space for people to see themselves as a welcome part of a thrilling, meaningful, porous cultural conversation, and to imagine new traditions.
Do you tend to take inspiration from events happening in the world around you in terms of your work? Do you think artists have a responsibility to respond to what’s happening?
Jack Anderson: The audience will respond to each show in relation to what’s happening in their lives at that moment, personally and globally, so that relationship is always going to be there whether or not you’re making direct comments on events. I think by trying to make the show very honest, by aiming for questions rather than answers, we hope that the audience will feel connected to other people and maybe that will help them to respond to the times we’re living in.
Looking at this production, how would you say it links to previous work personally and thematically?
Malin Lewis: This feels like the coming together of a lifetime of interests, practices and collaboration. not for glory sifts through our earliest memories of playing and dancing, thinking about the journeys that shaped us. This is a piece of work about our very earliest processes and what we imagine them becoming.
What would you like audiences to take away from seeing you/this production at the Fringe?
Charlotte Mclean: If there’s anything I’d like audiences to take away from the show it’s to question tradition with bravery and boldness. Whether you’ve grown up performing or participating in a specific cultural custom or tradition, I hope everyone is able to be themselves and find creativity within. As I believe nothing should stay the same, everything transforms.
Malin Lewis: That our art forms are for everyone! Growing up it might not initially feel like it, but if you search in the right places there are like minded people out there who will flourish with you! That’s what not for glory has taught me.
What do you do to relax in August?
Charlotte Mclean: To relax in August, I love booking a massage from Valeska Andrews. She is a brilliant masseuse living in the Grassmarket and has helped me through every fringe I’ve performed in so far. I highly recommend it! I also love a cheeky fish and chips on arrival to Edinburgh to open the festival for myself.
Jack Anderson: I like to take a breather from the Fringe at the Victoria swimming pool in Leith, or with a slow dander around Topping & Company Booksellers.
Malin Lewis: Go swimming in the sea down at Portobello and get ice cream!
Have you got your eye on any other shows that are part of the programme?
Jack Anderson: Mostly I just wait until I get there to see what I can absorb from paper programmes, posters and the word on the street… but I am buzzing to see Nelly Kelly’s Transmission, and have also heard really good things about Bog Witch by Bryony Kimmings.
Why are arts festivals such as the Fringe so important for international exchange?
Malin Lewis: Even when you think you’ve seen it all, you stumble across some new magic and it reshapes your perspective and what you consider possible.
not for glory, Assembly @ Dance Base, until 23 Aug (not 17), 7.45pm