The 2024-2027 edition of iCoDaCo aims to improve the landscape and opportunities for contemporary dance artists, producers, presenters, communities and audiences across Europe and beyond, whilst minimising the impact that dance has on global resources. Jones the Dance joins the project in collaboration with the partners which is supported by funding from Arts Council of Wales. The project is led by Swedish Dance Company ilDance and funded by Creative Europe.
The project brings together contemporary dance artists from Wales with the other collectives from Georgia, Hungary, Sweden, Spain, amongst others. We will work simultaneously, working locally but connecting digitally, through 15 research residencies. Our research together will forge new knowledge, methodologies and practices that will lead to the creation of the open-source digital platform for dance. Its aim is to enhance and evolve sustainability, accessibility and innovation within the field of dance, whilst being a resource to strengthen the contribution that dance makes to other sectors such as academia, and health and well-being, and other sections of society. It will be launched globally in 2027, alongside 10 new works for public presentations across Europe, several of which will be available to Wales’ audiences in 2027 in a festival of dance and innovation.
Beyond the artistic collaboration, the project offers a broad and multilayered support system for the artists, including mentorship, assistance, guidance, learning opportunities and advice. Furthermore, the project structure includes an 'encompassing collective' of four artist-researchers: Israel Aloni, Lee Brummer, Sebastian Matthias and Mila Pavicevic. They will witness the knowledge production and creation processes and reflect upon the wide-ranging perspectives that transcend a specific geographical location or a particular collective.
Follow our socials for updates and progress of the project or click here to catch up with the Wales Collective Blog.
Jones the Dance’s participation in iCoDaCo 2024/27 is funded (until 2026) by:
Scroll down to find out more about the Wales Collective 2024 - 2027 and head over the iCoDaCo.com to read more about the collectives.
The Wales Collective 2024 to 2027
Anna Seymour is an Australian born Deaf dance artist, actress, and producer based in London.
Anna trained in contemporary dance at Deakin University in Melbourne and has worked with different choreographers and companies as well as creating her own work. Anna began her acting career in Melbourne with Deafferent Theatre and ABC TV comedy series Get Krack!n.
Anna moved to London in 2020 to dance with Candoco Dance Company, an international dance company of disabled and non-disabled dancers. Dancing in a revival of Trisha Brown’s Set and Reset at Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York and winning a Bessie Award for Outstanding Revival is an immense career highlight.
Anna appeared in a BSL version of The Vagina Monologues with Deafinitely Theatre at the Hackney Empire, and performed the lead in The Promise, a Deafinitely Theatre / Lyric Hammersmith / Birmingham Rep / co-production. Anna just recently played a supporting actress role in a thriller feature film RETREAT, directed by Ted Evans.
Anna has been touring her work, SPIN, an interactive dance rave performance event and Mini SPIN targeted for Deaf/HOH/CODA children and their families, guided by three Deaf hosts and a DJ in Germany, the UK and Australia.
Anna is also a keen hiker, an aspiring martial arts fighter (and dreams of being a stuntwoman someday!) and is fluent in Australian Sign Language and British Sign Language as well as English.
Jo Fong lives in Wales and her creative work reflects the need in these times for people to come together. Her artistic practice is an evolving, collaborative approach which puts ideas around belonging or forming community in the forefront.
Jo has been dancing, performing and making for 35 years, beginning her career with Rosas, Rambert and DV8 Physical Theatre. Some memorable moments include Wallflower with Quarantine Theatre, Movement Direction for Le Vin Herbe with Welsh National Opera, dancing in and contributing to the re-staging of Nigel Charnock’s Lunatic for National Dance Company Wales and creating English with National Theatre Wales. Jo regularly facilitates for community arts open studio events and workshops throughout the UK and further a field.
Recent performances and events; Ways of Being Together, Neither Here Nor There, To Tell You the Truth, Our Land! What Will People Need? Nettles: How to Disagree? and The Sun’s Come Out created in collaboration with artist Sonia Hughes. A Brief History of Difference with Das Clarks, Marathon of Intimacies with artist Anushiye Yarnell, Jo contributed to Luke Hereford’s drag performance Grandmother’s Closet at the Wales Millennium Centre and she is currently touring The Rest of Our Lives created with clown and circus director George Orange.
And initiating the epic How Shall We begin Again? which was created and performed by 50 people in a 16 hour performance on the Donald Gordon Stage at WMC in February 2023. Wales' artists, facilitators, actors, directors, writers, circus folk and people at the very beginning of forming relationship with their bodies took to the stage. How Shall We Begin Again? holds a space between portraiture, protest and something like a prayer. On its simplest level it’s about how we reconnect with ourselves, our bodies and each other.
Since initiating Ways of Being Together, the practise has evolved into an artist-led community, creating space and time to reconnect, repair, replenish and explore performance making and co-creation. The annual convergence is layered, centring learning, support, co-mentoring and actioning change.
Gwyn has worked in dance for over 25 years as a choreographer, performer, producer, teacher and dramaturg across the UK and internationally. Originally from Montgomery, Mid Wales, he’s passionate about bringing dance to unexpected places and making it accessible to everyone.
His works for Jones the Dance (formerly Gwyn Emberton Dance) include My People, Shadow of a Quiet Society and Raft, which toured across Wales and the UK, and Y Dewis (2024), an immersive dance film and live experience that toured rural and coastal towns.
As part of Light, Ladd and Emberton, Gwyn has co-created and performed Caitlin, Owain Glyndŵr Silent Disco and Climate Chaos. He also teaches and works regularly with Skånes Dansteater in Sweden, where he created Indigo Flamingo with and for Malmö’s LGBTQIA+ community and produces Europe Beyond Access.
Earlier in his career, Gwyn danced with Scottish Dance Theatre, Matthew Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures, Inbal Pinto and was a founding member of Akram Khan Company. A collaborator with iCoDaCo since 2014, he continues to lead international projects connecting Wales, Sweden and beyond.
Photo: Åsa Sjöström
Deborah Light is an experienced dance artist, choreographer and movement director working collaboratively across dance, theatre, film and site based practice. She creates work independently and as co-director of Light/Ladd/Emberton regularly performs for others, movement directs for theatre and lectures in movement at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Deborah uses her expertise to support other artists and the freelance arts sector in Wales through mentoring and strategic roles. She is based in Cardiff and has 3 young children.
An anti patriarchal perspective runs through Deborah’s creative practice, providing the foundation for work that is both bold and intimate. She invests in the moving body as a site for personal and collective knowledge and transformation. For her dancing is a site for deep research, pleasure and change.
Deborah joins the collective from September 2025, in Cardiff.
Photo: Noel Dacey
Angharad is a dance artist from Rhos on Sea, North Wales, regularly working as a performer, choreographer and facilitator across North Wales. She can often be found in Europe and occasionally in Brazil developing her skills in choreography, performance and teaching.
Angharad is interested in how dance connects us as communities and how dance can allow us to find places and spaces of belonging. Her experience of intercultural performance making has a great influence on all her work. She is interested in our connections to the landscapes of our lives, both physical and cultural.
Angharad was awarded her Doctorate of Philosophy in Dance in 2023 for her thesis titled Navigating Landscapes of Longing and Belonging: Dialogues of Capoeira and Welsh Folk Dance in Intercultural Performance Making.
Angharad joins the collective from October 2025 in Llandudno.
iCoDaCo history
iCoDaCo began as a biennial international collaboration project, created by Swedish dance company ilDance, which JtD (formerly as Gwyn Emberton Dance) has been a partner company since 2014.
Togther we have co-created and collaborated on three previous projects which have taken place in Sweden, Wales, Hungary, Poland, Hong Kong, England and Scotland, with artists and organisations from around the world. The project has supported artists and creatives from each of the countries and has been shared with contemporary dance with communities around the world.
Jones the Dance will be the UK partner of iCoDaCo 2024-27, with our participation funded by Arts Council of Wales and Wales Arts International.
For more information head over to the iCoDaCo website here.
