Creatives

Artistic Direction
Artistic Director Gary Clarke is currently regarded as one of the UK’s leading independent dance artists who has received great appreciation for his work as a Choreographer, Director, Performer, Mentor, Teacher and Facilitator. He has developed a growing reputation for creating extraordinary dance work of various sizes and scales which has received praise from critics, audiences, producers, national dance agencies and venues in the UK and abroad.

Gary has developed a wealth of choreographic experience in creating site-specific works (in pubs, clubs, graveyards and galleries) as well as full-length productions for stage. His work is renowned for its thought provoking nature; its visually striking imagery and idiosyncratic style.

Since 2003, Gary Clarke Company has received regular support and funding from Arts Council England and numerous National Dance Agencies and venues to create an impressive body of work which has received both critical and audience acclaim and has toured extensively both nationally and internationally.

Independent Producer
Annabel has over 20 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 touring (2016 -18), alongside the early development of Wasteland – a sequel to COAL, planned to premiere & tour from 2019. 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 as well as Theo Clinkard’s This Bright Field. Across this period Annabel has also worked strategically for both Dance Touring Partnership (Project Consultant) and Dance4 (Associate Producer) around mid-scale producing, touring and audience development.

Dramaturgy
Lou Cope is a performance dramaturg who has been collaborating with Gary Clarke for three years now. Lou works with performance makers in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Ireland, Greece, Sweden, Malta, Scotland and the UK, and is currently Dramaturg in Residence for South East Dance.

Current or recent projects include collaborations with Tim Casson, StopGap Dance, Catherine Young, Botis Seva, Chris Dugrenier, Jose Agudo, Reckless Sleepers, Rob Clarke, Rosie Heafford, Scottish Dance Theatre, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Brighton People’s Theatre, Hannah Ringham, Helder Seabra & Hagit Yakira.

Past work includes working as dramaturg to: Koen Augustijnen & les ballets c de la b; Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet on the double Olivier Award, and Benois Prize for Dance, winning ‘Babel (words)’ designed by Antony Gormley; and Cherkaoui and Gormley’s ‘Sutra’.

Costume and Set Design
Ryan is a designer for performance. He has previously worked with Gary Clarke on ‘New Ways of Living’, and other dance credits include: ‘Ham and Passion’ for DeNada Dance Theatre; ‘Here Comes Trouble’ for Keira Martin; ‘Ruffle’ in association with Rambert Dance for choreographer Carlos Pons Guerra; ‘Hear Hear’ for Mark Smith’s Deaf Men Dancing; ‘Good Morning Midnight’ for Drew McOnie at the Jermyn Street Theatre and ‘Drunk’ for the same choreographer at the Bridewell Theatre and National Tour; ‘Starting Line’ in association with Candoco Dance Company. Other credits include ‘A Christmas Carol’ for the Chichester Festival Theatre, ‘HMS Pinafore’ at the Union Theatre; ‘Henry V’ at Oxford Castle; ‘Chess’ at the Union Theatre; ‘IN DRAG’ at the Purcell Rooms/Southbank Centre; Le Gateau Chocolat at the Menier Chocolate Factory; ‘HMS Pinafore’ for the Union Theatre’s national tour; ‘BLACK’ at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool and the Soho Theatre in London; ‘Not the End of the World’ for Youth Music Theatre UK at the Edinburgh Festival.

Ryan’s Website can be found at www.ryandawsonlaight.co.uk

Lighting Design

Charles Webber is an electronic artist who has worked in experimental performance for the past 25 years, working across the disciplines of electro-acoustic music, moving image and lighting design.

He has designed and worked extensively both nationally and internationally alongside artists such as Faulty Optic, Fevered Sleep, Pacitti Company, Wendy Houstoun and Lone Twin. His own eclectic back catalogue includes works such as the video work Sunayani (Sonic Arts Network), the live tape work Concrète Jungle (Henry Moore Institute), Four White Walls (Opera North) a chamber opera for 5 voices and The Glass Hotel (BAC) for multiple voices, electronics and refracted light.

Recently, as artistic director of operaNCV, he has specialised in creating works incorporating electronic music, moving image and voice including Parkour with mezzo-soprano Loré Lixenberg. Charles is currently collaborating with vocalist/librettist Eve Libertine (Crass) on several projects including Listen, Little Man! for live electronics, voice and video which premiered at Wiels Centre d’Art Contemporain, Brussels and the opera Room of Worlds for electronics, video and voices which premiered at The Horse Hospital, London in 2014.

Musical Director
Steven Roberts is a Conductor and Musical Director. Although primarily a choral conductor he has conducted the Manchester Philharmonic, Derbyshire Sinfonia, the National Festival Orchestra, the Yorkshire Wind Orchestra, Black Dyke Band, Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band, the Fairey Band and a variety of other bands and ensembles.

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 and voice specialist, but studied piano, brass and voice. He has lead choral days and workshops every year since 1993 and continues to inspire singers throughout the country and abroad.

He has conducted at the Royal Albert Hall, London and in some of in this country’s most prestigious concert venues. He has also conducted 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 proud to be a member of The Lords Taverners and a patron of the charity EnRich.

Thatcher Voiceover
Steve’s career began on the West End stage, namely Pudsey West End Working Men’s Club stage in Leeds in 1978. Life took a different step in 1984 when he became a founding member of the Spitting Image team, providing voices for The Queen Mum, Roy Hattersley, Margaret Thatcher and David Attenborough among others. Steve continues to be real people today in such plays as Cissie and Ada as Roy Barraclough/Cissie (The Lowry), Dead Sheep as Thatcher (Park theatre) and In The Life (St James Theatre) as Kenneth Williams, Sir John Gielgud, Lord Montgomery and Mary Whitehouse, in a stage show celebrating the language of Polari. Steve is also a popular Dame in panto.

Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveNallon

Composer
Kit Bodenham is a University of Westminster commercial music graduate from South Shropshire. Now working as a freelance producer and engineer, Kit has been playing music from a young age and is an experienced live performer, including TV performances (BBC).

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 Cans, whilst running the labels Sheepscar Light Industrial and Cherry Row Recordings. His work with Gary Clarke includes the original soundscape for COAL, Klub 23 for Flight Effect Dance Company / York St John University and the Leeds 2012 Olympic Torch project. Daniel Thomas will again collaborate with Gary, providing a new soundscape to accompany and contrast with COAL’s brass band.