News

Gary Clarke Company is looking for a new Chair

Following a hugely successful opening programme as an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO), Gary Clarke Company is now seeking a new Chair of Trustees — a unique opportunity to lead a dynamic dance theatre company rooted in South Yorkshire and operating regionally and nationally.

This is an exciting time to lead the organisation through its next phase of development, delivery and growth as the company embarks on a period of strategic planning toward a new 3-year business plan (2027/28 – 2029/30). The company aims to deepen its presence in South Yorkshire and maximise its national profile in the cultural industries through a high quality programme of impactful dance theatre and arts engagement.

Read more about the position in Chair recruitment pack.

Photo Joe Armitage

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Dancing Coalfields

Great news! Our Dancing Coalfields project, first piloted in 2024 at Outwood Academy in Shafton, has now launched with Horizon Community College in Barnsley.  Dancing Coalfields is a powerful dance in education project that connects young people with dance and arts provision and the oral histories and coal mining heritage of their community

Now in its second week, the students are enjoying workshops in dance, music, art, photography and oracy. And we’re delighted that former DETENTION dancer Mayowa Ogunnaike is leading the sessions.   

Last week the students went on a trip to the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Coal Mining Museum for England in Wakefield, where they talked to former coalminers. It was a fantastic day and what the young people learnt and experienced will be used during the course of their work with Gary Clarke Company.   

Dancing Coalfields is funded by Barnsley Council’s Great Childhood Ambition fund.  

Collide Dance Company

This week Gary starts working with Northern School of Contemporary Dance’s group for male dancers Collide Dance Company.   

Established in 2018 as Yorkshire’s first boys’ dance takeover, Collide was formed in 2025 to encourage more boys and young men to dance professionally.   

Gary will be working with the group during September and October, culminating in a short piece to be performed in schools and public platforms across the country in late 2026 and into 2027 (keep an eye on our site for updates on where you can see it). 

Gary says of the project: “I wanted to use COAL as a stimulus for the new work. It felt appropriate – a dance work that explores the closure of the coal mines and the impact it had on the largely male miners, as a starting point for male representation in dance.”

Gary with dancers from Collide

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Nourish

Nourish is Gary Clarke Company’s rolling programme of creative development to refresh ideas, and to practise, to inspire, feed and drive future work including the next touring shows.  

This month Gary went to Brighton to spend time with Lou Cope , dramaturg for COAL, WASTELAND and DETENTION. Gary and Lou had wide ranging discussions and debates around artistic practice, engagement and purpose. Over two days they worked from Marlborough Productions’ great space at the Old Courthouse, exploring and reimagining ideas for the company’s future productions.

Lou Cope (Photo Rosie Powell)

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Nourish

Nourish is a rolling programme of creative development to refresh ideas, and practise, to inspire, feed and drive future new works including the next touring shows. 

Last month, Gary and  Annabel travelled to Paris to see Ultima Vez’s ‘What the body does not remember’, a seminal work created in 1987 by Wim Vandekeybus 

“Nourish it certainly did, both then and now. I have a long and important personal history presenting, collaborating, being artistically inspired as well as challenged and provoked by works by Wim and Ulitma Vez, so when I saw this opportunity I simply could not let it go! The work still holds up incredibly nearly 40 years on – a highly physical journey of risk and instinct, clever theatrical touches set at a relentless pace with choreographic and musical overload – Gary and I as part of the 2000 audience were up on our feet wanting more” 

Annabel Dunbar (Executive Producer, Co-Founder and Joint CEO)

Photo Danny Willems

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Company Mentoring

Gary Clarke recently mentored choreographer Anthony Lo-Giudice as part of the Tees Valley Combined Authority’s (TVCA) ASPire Programme 

‘The time with Gary has been an incredibly valuable springboard for me to get the cogs into motion for the next stages of my development. I feel energised, informed, and inspired’. Anthony Lo-Giudice 

Anthony has just received some Organisational Development funds from Arts Council England to continue this mentorship programme over the next 12 months.  

Find out more about Gary Clarke Company’s Mentoring services.

Anthony Lo-Guidice

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