Local Faces
all the right moves
By Cara Cummings
Leanne Pero has spent her life tackling social issues in south London, from youth exclusion to BAME experiences of cancer. The multi awardwinning entrepreneur and unsung hero shares her story of dance, devastating diagnoses - and that time she punched through a window to save a community show... 8 URBAN FOX
eanne Pero is not someone to Google if you’re feeling like an underachiever. The Peckham powerhouse set up her iconic Movement Factory youth dance company at just fifteen; has created pioneering work for Nike, Kelly Holmes, Rio Ferdinand and the Houses of Parliament and won every award going for her community-focused entrepreneurial prowess. She’s also a stage-3 cancer survivor; the founder of Black Women Rising, a charity for BAME patients battling the disease; an author, a mentor, and the CEO of Pineapple Dance Studios’ first charity, Pineapple Community. It’s no wonder she struggles with her job title. “I actually don’t know what to say,” she laughs. “Call me a boob-checking, community advocate cancer warrior... I just don’t know any more!”
It’s a typically self-effacing summary from the unassuming entrepreneur, whose sunny warmth stems from a love of movement - “my mum says I was always jumping around; no one could keep up” - and a passion for giving back. “I’m here to serve the community with a safe space and a friendly smile,” she says simply, “because it can help people create positive lives for themselves. How do I know? Because I’m the biggest example.” Leanne’s extraordinary story has several dark chapters. She hasn’t just triumphed over adversities she’s turned them into something positive, since childhood. “I was sexually abused from the age of ten to 13 by a trusted family friend,” she explains. “When I came out about it, it caused a lot of distress; I wasn’t really believed. Dance saved me. I was offered no mental health support, so dance was my mental health support. “I really wanted to create a safe space for other young women who were going through things like
myself. That was my ethos - and twenty years later, it’s still the ethos. “We’re living in a time when mental health problems are off the Richter scale,” she continues. “Young people are suffering. They’re expected to do well at school, be a certain size, look a certain way. They’re being bullied, cyber-bullied, trolled; there’s a lot making young people not feel good about themselves. The arts give them a couple of hours a week to focus on something positive, where they can achieve.” Leanne has gone to incredible lengths for her proteges. She once punched through a window after getting locked out of her rehearsal space hours before a massive show. “All of our costumes were in there, everything,” she says. “There was no way I was letting that show be a disaster.” She’s still got the scar on her right hand. After fifteen years of running her business through good times and bad, life was on the up for Leanne. She had just turned 30,
