Gary Clarke
Artistic Director
Artistic Director Gary Clarke is an inaugural Honorary Fellow at The Northern School of Contemporary Dance who, over the last 20+ years has received great appreciation for his work as a Choreographer, Director, Performer, Mentor, Teacher and Facilitator. He has worked with some of the worlds most prolific dance companies and choreographers and has developed a growing reputation for creating his own extraordinary dance work of various sizes and scales which has received both critical and audience acclaim.
His work has toured extensively both nationally and internationally to a variety of prestigious venues and festivals including Sadlers Wells, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Royal Opera House, The Queen Elizabeth Hall and The Barbican.
Gary has created notable works for other companies and organisations including: Public Acts for The National Theatre, Opera North’s touring productions Hansel and Gretel, Street Scene and The Seven Deadly Sins, The Troth for Akademi, which premiered at the Jaipur Literature Festival before touring extensively throughout India and the UK picking up a Herald Angel Award and The Summerhall Lustrum Award for its run at The Edinburgh Festival, This Is An Island for Sky Arts Art 50 Project, Compound for Leeds Dance Partnership Launch, Into The Light for Hull City of Culture 2017 & LGBT 50, Beethoven for Anjali Dance Company and Petroglyph for Dance4’s Changing Perceptions Project. Gary was commissioned to choreograph a number of large scale productions to commemorate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games including: Overworlds & Underworlds in collaboration with The Quay Brothers, Games Time produced by DEDA, HOME for Birmingham International Dance Festival, The Opening Ceremony for the arrival of The Olympic Torch in Leeds, Just 30 to celebrate 30 years of Yorkshire Dance and The Yorkshire Flock for Big Dance. In the same year he was selected by Dance4 in Nottingham to take part in European in Motion facilitated by Jonathan Burrows and Gerald Nestler as part of Brut Imagetanz Festival in Vienna.
Other commissioned work includes: Phoenix Dance Theatre, StopGAP Dance Company, Ludus Dance Company, Mimbre Circus Company, Dance Limerick, Surrey Dance Collective, Ascendance REP, Taciturn Dance Company, The Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Trinity LABAN, Scottish School of Contemporary Dance, MAP Dance, 12 Degrees North Dance Company, Newcastle University, York St John School of Arts, Edge Hill University, Bedford University, The UK’s Centre for Advanced Training Scheme’s (CAT), Homotopia, The Pink Fringe Brighton, Space2, Edge FWD, Brick Box, Hannah Ringham, David Hoyle, Splinters Youth Dance at Dance East, County Youth Dance Company at The Talisen Arts Centre, South Yorkshire Youth Dance Company, Rutherford Youth Dance and Ludus Youth Dance Company.
Gary has also been a Movement Director for theatre companies including Brighton’s People Theatre, Shooting Fish Theatre Company, Inky Cloak Theatre and Bent Architect Theatre Company.
In 2004 Gary Clarke became Artist in Residence at The Northern School of Contemporary Dance and received the Artist Development Award from Danceworks UK which was presented to him by iconic British choreographer Michael Clark. In 2009 he became an Associate Artist at Yorkshire Dance under the LIFT programme and was honoured with The Gary Clarke Dance Award from the Department of Creative Media and Entertainment Industries. 1998 he was the first recipient of The Brian Glover Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performing Arts and Dance and in 2011 was invited by Royal Command to Buckingham Palace to meet Her Majesty The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh Prince Phillip to acknowledge his outstanding contribution to the arts. Throughout his career, Gary has been mentored by renowned choreographers Javier De Frutos, Wendy Houstoun and the late Nigel Charnock.
As a performer Gary has worked with dance companies and choreographers of international standing including Lea Anderson’s The Cholmondeleys & The Featherstonehaughs, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Lloyd Newson’s DV8 Physical Theatre, Liv Lorent’s balletLORENT, Candoco Dance Company / Jerome Bel, Bock & Vincenzi, Retina Dance Company, Nigel Charnock + Company, Frauke Redquart and David Rosenberg, Fuel Theatre, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Maresa Von Stockert & Tilted Productions, Sadlers Wells & Young Vic Productions, TC Howard, Compagnie Felix Ruckert, Polar Produce Productions, Future Cinema and ACE Dance & Music.
He has also worked as a movement specialist on a number of large scale feature films including World War Z, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Mummy. He is also featured in Maximo Parks hit music video single Brain Cells.
Gary’s extensive performance experience spans the areas of dance, theatre, film and live art.
Gary has a wealth of experience in delivering both education and outreach work and has led projects in collaboration with Greenwich Dance Agency (GDA), The Place, BBC 3 / Phoenix Dance Theatre, The South Bank Centre, Tate Modern, The Royal Festival Hall and West Yorkshire Playhouse. In 2013 and 2018 he was the Artistic Director on the Dance4’s Dance for Camera Summer Intensive where he collaborated with film maker Josh Hawkins.
Gary is currently a board member at The Northern School of Contemporary Dance and is The Vice President of Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band.
Annabel Dunbar
Independent Producer
Annabel has over 25 years’ experience as a senior arts professional, having worked for touring companies and artists, major producing and receiving theatres as well as co-founding and running Danceworks UK for 17 years – a unique organisation with a national and international reputation for commissioning, producing and presenting high quality dance seasons, on all scales. She was also an original member of both the Dance Touring Partnership and Dance Consortium, representing Sheffield Theatres, whilst leading Danceworks UK.
Since 2012, Annabel has worked on a freelance basis as an Independent Producer primarily with Gary Clarke including producing the award-winning COAL and managing its successful tour (2016 -18 to 29 venues | 54 shows), as well as most recently producing Wasteland (sequel to COAL) and the forthcoming premiere & tour 2019 into 2020. Other producing work, with independent artists include; Wendy Houstoun’s award winning solos – 50 Acts and Pact with Pointlessness; New Art Club’s Hercules; Charles Linehan’s, A Quarter plus Green and The Shadow Drone Project, Theo Clinkard’s This Bright Field as well as early development of a new work with Lea Anderson, Artopsy for 2020. Across this period Annabel has also worked for both Dance Touring Partnership (Project Consultant) and Dance4 (Associate Producer) around mid-scale producing, touring and audience development.
Lou Cope
Dramaturg
Lou Cope is a dance & theatre dramaturg and facilitator who has worked across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East. As well as working with artists, Lou works as a dramaturg to organisations, is Dramaturg in Residence at South East Dance and has recently set up The Centre of Applied Dramaturgy (CoAD).
Current or recent artistic collaborations include: Gary Clarke on COAL(UK Theatre & Critics Choice awards); Aakash Odedra on the Amnesty International Freedom of Speech & ACTA Award-winning #JeSuis, and his forthcoming Samsara; Block 9; Akademi & Gary Clarke – The Troth– winner of Herald Angel and Lustrum Awards; Mele Broome – VOID – winner of Total Theatre Award for Dance; English National Ballet; Birmingham Royal Ballet; Rachel Mars and nat tarrab on the Samuel Beckett Prize winning Roller; Norrdans; Jose Agudo, Stopgap, Rhiannon Faith, & Hagit Yakira.
Past work includes working as dramaturg to: Phoenix Dance Theatre; Scottish Dance Theatre; les ballets c de la b (BE); Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (BE) and Damien Jalet(BE/FR).
Ryan Dawson Laight
Costume and Set Design
Ryan is a set and costume designer working in dance and theatre. His dance credits include Botis Seva: BLKDOG, Olivier Award winner for Best New Dance 2019 (Sadler’s Wells), NYDC: MADHEAD under direction of Botis Seva (Sadler’s Wells), Boy Blue: Black Whyte Gray, Olivier Award Nominated 2018, Gary Clark Company: Wasteland, Coal (winner of the UK Theatre Award for Achievement in Dance), DeNada Dance Theatre: Toro, Mariposa, Ham and Passion, Drew McOnie: Drunk (Leicester Curve/Bridewell Theatre) and Good Morning Midnight (Jermyn Street Theatre), Geniusfor Anjali, New Ways Of Living for Pink Fringe Brighton, Je Suis (Lillian Baylis Studio/Sadler’s Wells) for Aakash Odedra Company, Ruffle (Rambert Dance at The Lowry) for Carlos Pons Guerra, Hear Hear (Sadler’s Wells) for Deaf Men Dancing.
For theatre he has worked with Chichester Festival Theatre: Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Christmas Carol and Grimm Tales, Creation Theatre: Peter Pan, Brave New World, Swallows & Amazons, Dracula, A Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland, Hamlet, Macbeth, As You Like It, Henry IV, King Lear and Treasure Island, Le Gateau Chocolat: Duckie (Royal Festival Hall), Icons (Edinburgh Festival), Black(Unity Theatre Liverpool/Soho Theatre) and Le Gateau Chocolat (Menier Chocolate Factory), Union Theatre: HMS Pinafore (national tour), Chess, Blondel and The Mikado(national tour), the Brit School: Landmines (OvalHouse), Sticky and Infinite Joy(Southwark Playhouse) and Chip Shop The Musical for Octagon Theatre Bolton, Ice Cream Opera for the Freedom Arts Studio.
Charles Webber
Lighting & Video Design and Rave Soundtrack
Charles Webber is an electronic artist who has worked in experimental performance for the past 30 years, working across the disciplines of electronic music, moving image and lighting design. He has designed and worked extensively both nationally and internationally alongside artists such as the pioneering puppeteers Faulty Optic, live artists Pacitti Company, dancer Wendy Houstoun and most recently Forced Entertainment.
Charles’ collaboration with Gary stretches back over a decade from his early works through to both of his most recent multi-award winning shows, The Troth, commissioned by Akademi, and COAL,for which Charles was nominated for the prestigious Knight of Illumination award for lighting in the dance category.
With his own company operaNCV Charles has created many works for live and studio electronics and voice, often incorporating video and graphic scores as integral elements to performance. He has composed three electronic chamber operas to date, Four White Walls, The Glass Hotel and Room of Worlds. Most recently, in collaboration with Eve Libertine and Penny Rimbaud (CRASS), saw the release of the experimental vocal work Kernschmelze II to high critical acclaim on the Coldspring record label.
Steven Roberts
Musical Director
Steven Roberts is Conductor and Musical Director of Altrincham Choral Society, Chesterfield Philharmonic Choir and Honley Male Voice Choir. He has also worked with a number of orchestras, bands and ensembles. He is honorary Vice Presidentof Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band.
He has worked in concert with Jose Carreras, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Lesley Garrett, Blake, Russell Watson and with a host of West End and Broadway performers.
He is in demand as a choral specialist, but studied piano, brass and voice and has a keen interest and understanding of musical theatre. He has led choral days and workshops every year since 1993 and continues to inspire singers throughout the country and abroad.
He has conducted at many prestigious venues, including the Royal Albert Hall, London and in many sacred settings including St. Paul’s Cathedral, London and St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. He became a Life Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society in November 2013; he is also honorary Life Member of both the Chesterfield Philharmonic Choir and Altrincham Choral Society.
He is an adjudicator member of the British and International Federation of Festivals andproud to be a member of The Lords Taverners and a patron of the charity EnRich.
Daniel Thomas
Soundscape Design
Daniel Thomas is an experimental noise artist based in Leeds. Daniel has performed and recorded as a solo artist over the past two decades and is also a member of Hagman, TST and Big Unit, whilst running the labels Sheepscar Light Industrial and Cherry Row Recordings. His work with Gary Clarke includes the soundscape for COAL, Klub 23 for Flight Effect Dance Company / York St John University and the Leeds 2012 Olympic Torch project.
Lewey Hellewell
Text Developer
Lewey trained at The Electric Theatre Studios in Barnsley and The Arden School of Theatre in Manchester under Wyllie Longmore.
He has enjoyed a wide range of roles in productions ranging from Shakespeare: As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost to modern classics and new writing: Equus, Fear of Fanny, Moonshed, Watermark.
He has collaborated with Gary for many years on early works such as 9to5 for Homotopia & Horsemeat to more recent productions; Genius & COAL and is delighted to be part of the creative team behind Wasteland.
Alistair Goldsmith
Company Associate
Alistair is a London based dance artist having trained at London Contemporary Dance School. During his training he took part in an exchange at State University of New York: Purchase College and once graduated Alistair went on to become an apprentice dancer with National Dance Company Wales.
For Gary Clarke Company: Coal, Wasteland, Two Men and a Michael, The Troth (for Akademi South Asian Dance)
Other credits include: Punchdrunk (The Burnt City, The Third Day: Autumn, The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable), Léa Tirabasso (Starving Dingoes, The Ephemeral Life of an Octopus and TOYS), James Cousins Company (Within Her Eyes), Secret Cinema (Back To The Future), Emma Martin Dance (Dancehall), Lynne Page, Aletta Collins.
Film Credits include Romeo and Juliet dir. Simon Godwin for The National Theatre, The Mummy dir. Alex Kurtzman, Mary Queen of Scots dir. Josie Rourke, The Crown S5, Midwich Cuckoos, The Third Day: Summer,
Music Video Credits: Pet Shop Boys Monkey Business, Olafur Arnalds Zero