Lea Ved (1991, USA) is an independent choreographer and performer based in the Netherlands.  Her choreographic work developed alongside a rich dance career — in reflection, deviation, and inquiry; her creations are seeped between the detail of form and a cultivated improvisational practice.  Her more notable works as a choreographer have been produced by Göteborgsoperans Danskompani, Nederlands Dans Theater, Korzo Theater, Heavy Hitters Breakdance Crew, and CaDance Festival. She will join Korzo Theater as a resident choreographer starting in 2025.

For her work 'darling we're nowhere but here' (Korzo, 2020), she won the Club Guy & Roni Partner Award during the 2021 Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition, and was also invited to the 2022 Sentidos Choreographic Competition. She was part of the Piket prize nomination and win for the Heavy Hitters breakdance crew for her collaborative work, Common Enemy, as part of the CaDance Festival in The Hague (2023) and has been selected twice, from both the Royal Swedish Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater, to create for Göteborgsoperans Danskompani's choreographic exchange (2018 & 2021).

After graduating from The Juilliard School in 2013, Lea began her career in Montreal, Canada dancing internationally with Victor Quijada/RUBBERBANDance Group and falling in love with breakdance practice and street dance culture.  In 2016 she joined the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm where she performed Mats Ek's role of Julia in Julia & Romeo.  She then joined Nederlands Dans Theater for five seasons, creating new work with Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter, and Marina Mascarell — most influentially among others — and meanwhile sharing workshops, pursuing creative exchange, and developing as a creator.  Now as an independent artist, Lea has been a guest artist with Kidd Pivot and Out Innerspace Dance Theater.

Lea has taught and shared a number of creative research workshops, including at The Juilliard School, Gibney Dance, b12, Out Innerspace, No)One. Art House, Motion Lab, and Nederlands Dans Theater, among others.  She has worked closely with Victor Quijada, teaching the RUBBERBANDance Method and assisting with directing and staging repertory at Springboard Danse Montreal, USC Kaufman School of Dance, North Carolina School of the Arts, and Domaine Forget.